Scarlet Bloom
UE5 Niagara VFX, 2024
Heavily inspired by Malenia’s effect in Elden Ring, I crafted this flower blossom effect in UE5 using Niagara. The effect aims to capture the precise moment the flower blooms, accompanied by the waves of small flowers.
Role
Software
VFX Artist, 3D Artist
Unreal Niagara, Maya, Photoshop
Video
Inspiration
I am deeply inspired by Elden Ring’s Malenia Scarlet Corrupt VFX to create this flower-blooming effect. This VFX features rotating petals and small flower waves radiating outward as the blossom unfolds. Before working on the VFX, I developed the concept design, gathering references from the game and various blossom VFX tutorials to guide my work.
VFX Concept Design
References
Flower Blossom
Shape of the Flower
I created the flower shape in Niagara by converting the UV position into a normalized index. This allowed me to precisely control the petal count, interval, and rotation according to my desired outcome. I applied the same logic to adjust the petal shape as well.
Petal Dynamic
To create the petal's bending effect during blossoming, I primarily used the World Position Offset(WPO) node, which allows for precise control over both the bend intensity and offset.
For animating the petals' dissolution in and out, I implemented a UV-based animation technique, utilizing a curve within Niagara to manage the effect.
Flower Animation
World Position Offset (Control Bending)
Dissolve In and Out Nodes
Flower Shape Control
Flower Niagara Node
Small Flower Wave
Flower Emissive
To achieve a glowing ripple effect, I used a gradient map and multiplied it by the World position. Then, I enhanced the glowing of the small flower effect by multiplying it with an emissive color, making them stand out.
Flower Wave
The small flowers will sway in response to the shock wave. To create this effect, I used the World Position Offset (WPO) node, causing the flowers to wave towards the emitter's center.
World Position Offset (Control the Wave)
Small Flower Wave Animation
Small Flower Model
Flower Rippling Emissive Effect
Puddle
Ripples
When the flower blooms and the small flowers appear, a puddle texture forms beneath them. To create the ripple effect, I used the Vector to Radial Value and Sine nodes to generate the ripple shape, and then applied Bump offset to animate the wave motion of the ripples.
Ripple Material Nodes
Puddle Animation