Real-Time Sword Swipe VFX

This powerful tool is designed to be a solution to all your Sword-Swipey VFX needs; whether it be stylized slashes in Blender or exported to a game engine of choice.

Key Features:

- No Keyframes Required: Animate effortlessly without the need for keyframes.
- Easy Shader Components: Pre-configured shaders that are simple to use and customize.
- Texture Flexibility: Switch out textures with ease to match your project's aesthetic.
- One-Click UV Editing: Quickly check and edit UVs with a single click.
- Built-In Impact Effect: Create dynamic impact effects that can face the camera or be edited in local space.
- Customizable Slash: Edit and customize the slash geometry without ever entering Edit mode.
- Multiple Shape Variants: Pick a main curve type between Arc, Bezier, and Spiral.
- Mesh Distortion: Built-in non-destructive mesh distortion.
- Geometry Resolution and Material: Easily view and adjust geometry resolution and Material Overrides.
- Exportable Mesh: Apply settings and save your Slash as an exportable mesh for use in other projects.

But why?

- Time-Saving: Eliminate the need for tedious keyframing and manual adjustments.
- Real-Time: Asset is inexpensive and great for extremely rapid production.
- User-Friendly: Intuitive controls and easy-to-use parameters.
- Versatile: Multiple shape variants and customizable options ensure you can achieve the exact look you want.
- High-Quality Results: Built-in effects and shaders deliver professional-grade visuals.

Portfolio

Download Includes:1x .blend file containing:
- 1x SwordMaster Asset
- 3x Demo Materials
- 4x Packed Textures
1x .zip file containing:
- 4x Textures (3x Slash, 1x Seamless Pattern)

Features and Usage:

UVs:

- Check UVs: Toggles a UV Checkerboard Material. Press play to see the movement of the X and Y axes.
- Swizzle UVs: Swaps the X and Y axes.
- Enable Preview + Gizmo: Enables a small panel to view the UV tile as set up.

Animation:

- Enable Animation: Enables the lifetime system and passes a 0-1 age attribute into the shader system.
- Enable Mesh Culling: Deletes the mesh geometry when outside of the lifetime range.

Impact:

- Delay: Delay the Impact spawn from the starting point set in the Animation tab.
- Camera-Facing: Aligns the impact-plane to the camera. Avoid rotating the asset outside of the options as this will break the vector.
- Enable Impact Gizmo: When not Camera-Facing use this Gizmo to position the Impact.

Curve Parameters:

- Slash Type: Switch between Arc, Bezier and Spiral Curve Types.
- Edit Curve/Spiral/Transform: Enable viewport Gizmos to edit the Curve shape and position.
- Resolution/Profile: Sets the amount of individual points along the Spline and Profile respectively.
- Invert Curve: Inverts the point indices along the spline.

Curve Profile Parameters:

- Profile Type: Switch between a Straight and an Arc Curve profile.
- Arc Sweep Angle: When Profile is set to Arc, this determines how full the profile arc will be up to 360 degrees.
- Tilt/Radius Uniform: Will affect each attribute uniformly along the spline.
- Tilt/Radius Proportional: Will affect each attribute proportionally along the spline.
- Invert Spline: Switches the direction and influence of the proportional parameters.

Custom Geometry [Advanced]:

- Custom Object Inputs: Override the Curve and Profile with custom geometry.

Distortion:

- Scale: Amount of Distortion.
- Noise Scale/Frequency/Anisotropy: Parameters of the Distortion Texture in Local Space.
- Orientation: The facing Vector of the Noise Texture, currently aligned to rotate about the local Z-axis.
- XYZ Distortion: Mask out a specific Axis for distortion influence.

Swipe/Spiral/Transform Overrides:

- XYZ/Parameters: Directly input precise position and variable data. Affects Transformation Gizmos.

Export:

- Check Wireframe: Will replace the entire Asset with a wireframe version of itself. 
- Clear Materials: Will remove all active materials including the UV Checker.

Custom Shader Creation tips and functionality:

Shader Attribute:

- Add 'Animation_NamedAttributes' in the shader to expose important parameters.
- Coaster_Age will output a 0-1 value based on the set age of the VFX System.
- Plug Coaster_Age into a Float Curve Node to fine-tune timing along the normalized lifespan.

Erosion:

- Keep painted textures between pure black and pure white, use a saturated Color Mix node to subtract pure white from the texture. This will erode the values progressively.