Challenge: Add some magic to your scene
Exercise
·
Beginner
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+60XP
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30 mins
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Unity Technologies

VFX have the power to add intrigue, mystery, and whimsy to your environments. In this tutorial, you will attempt to add a sense of magic to your scene with fireflies, shooting stars, or some other effect of your choice.
By the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to demonstrate your new skills in particles and visual effects.
1. Overview
Now that you have a pretty good understanding of how Particle Systems are made, you are ready to create one entirely on your own.
On a digital project, VFX artists are usually given creative license as they bring their effects to life. In this challenge, your goal is to introduce a bit of whimsical magic into your scene using a Particle System.
2. Determine a creative direction
Your task is to introduce a feeling of magic into the scene. As a VFX artist, you might have some creative freedom in how you make that happen.
Think of magical or whimsical environments you’ve seen in games or movies. What made those feel magical?
For inspiration, watch this trailer for Ori and the Blind Forest, a game made with Unity that is full of these types of magical, surreal scenes.
Ori and the Blind Forest Trailer
From this example above, you might be inspired to create magical fireflies or shooting stars in your scene.
3. Create some magical particles
With your creative direction in mind, add a new magical Particle System into the scene. You could add fireflies, shooting stars, or some other whimsical element to the scene.
By the end, your scene might look something like this:
You should expect to spend at least 30 minutes on this challenge.
4. Challenge criteria
To successfully complete this challenge, your magical particles should:
- Make your scene feel more magical.
- Include some element of randomness (direction, lifetime, spawn rate, etc).
- Change color over time (opacity or hue).
5. Next steps
Congratulations! You have completed the learning required for Core VFX.
You have the core skills and knowledge for one of the primary creative domains within the Unity Engine.
Now you’re ready to apply these skills in other projects! We can’t wait to see what you make next.
6. Submit your work
After you’ve fulfilled the requirements, please submit and share your project! Before you do though, make sure you’ve thoroughly tested it — or even better, ask a friend or family member to test it too.
Follow these instructions to submit your project:
1. Take a screenshot or screen recording of your project.
2. Add a submission title and description. Make sure to include the video recording. If you have additional details to share about your process or the project that you have created, you can share them in the description too.
3. Set who can view your submission:
- Public: Anyone who views this tutorial.
- Private: Just you.
4. Select Save and preview submission.
5. Check your submission preview and then complete the CAPTCHA test and select Submit and continue.
We highly recommend that you comment on at least one other creator's submission. Did they successfully complete the challenge? What do you like about the project? What would be a cool new feature they might consider adding?
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Submission Gallery
Paisaje con efectos visuales
Hemos metido lluvia, un tornado de humo y rayos para dar más realismo a la escena
magic fire
fire adds cool look
VFX Magic, Fire flies, and Particle emissions
Added magic scenes like fireflies, particle emissions, etc.
Add some magic to your scene
added magic scenes like fireflies, shooting stars to the scene.
VFX Magic
Added vfx of snow and fire crackling
Fire flies
Fireflies in the scene
Glowing Fireflies: A Mystical VFX Scene
My Fireflies VFX scene adds a touch of enchantment with glowing, floating particles that mimic the natural movement of fireflies. Using Unity’s particle system, I crafted a mesmerizing effect to enhance the magical atmosphere of the environment.
Unity VFX
Its okay. Don't know why I decided to have the magical element be green stuff floating around.