Lucie Travaux 

Slash VFX

I was able to make this VFX as part of a test, based on a reference the studio gave me. It took me between 3 and 4 days to make it entirely. I was able to benefit from the advice and feedback from the studio team, as well as from former classmates, which allowed me to have a better final result, thanks to them!
I made this FX on Unity with Shader Graph and VFX Graph. Textures and alpha were made in Photoshop and the character and its animation come from Mixamo.
The concept reference at the end was made by Maxime BONIN.

Beam VFX

Here is a Beam VFX that I was able to make in 3 days as part of a test. After their feedback, I improved the overall timing to have more impact and dynamism. This FX was made on Unity without VFX graph and using Substance Designer for alpha textures and noise. I made smoke alpha with ZBrush.

Celestrail (Graduation Project)

Here you can see my personal contribution to my graduation project, Celestrail, a VR 3D game developed on Unity.

The experience is available in virtual reality on Oculus Quest, you can download it here: https://isart-digital.itch.io/celestrail
For our artistic direction, we have chosen 3D levels with minimalist architecture inspired by Brutalism. A dreamlike atmosphere with celestial aesthetics. Floating but highly comprehensible gameplay elements for virtual reality.

I was mainly in charge of creating the shaders and the majority of the VFX and creating all the materials for the game, but also did some blocking research and created the hands modeling, texturing, and skinning. I also worked on editing the trailer.
I was able to be a finalist for Rookie of the Year 2021 in the Immersive Media category and our project was Highly Commended for Game of the Year in the same category.

Shoot your astral arrow to overcome the fascinating challenges of a mysterious celestial world. In a calm and timeless place, thinking and concentration will be the keys to victory. 

Celestrail - Blocking / Modelling

I first worked on blocking tests for the levels of the game. I was also in charge of the integration of 3D elements and FX of the HUB for level selection.

I did the modeling, texturing, and skinning of the hands from the basic hand provided by Occulus and from my colleague, Florent BOSTON's concept. Then I took care of setting the hands posing on the bow of our game.

After that, we divided up the work more specifically, and I was then in charge of creating all the materials for the game as well as creating the shaders and the majority of the VFX.

Celestrail - VFX / Shader 

I worked on the target destruction animation, as well as the VFX that goes with it.
You can see the first concept for target explosion, which was modified according to the Artistic Direction.
 

I also took care of the shader to make the targets blink in order to attract the players' eyes and the shader for the link between connected targets.
 

So that players can feel the power they are putting into their shot, I made a shader of a gauge that fills up as they string the bow. The FX that is triggered when the bow is at full power was not done by me but by another fellow artist, Karen CHAUVIN.
 

For the feature of the attachment designed by my colleague, Alvyne SEBALJ, I took care of the destruction animation and the VFX that goes with it.
I also made the shaders for the flow that goes inside the attachment sticks.
 

For the switch feature, I made a small shader that scrolls like a shard of light to make players want to push it to activate it. The basic impact VFX was done by a fellow programmer and then I tweaked it to make it look better and more consistent.
 

I started by creating a bird VFX from a flipbook created by Florent BOSTON, our concept artist. They were originally meant to fly in the background of the levels but were finally used for the energy balls that release birds at the end of each level and at the end cinematic.
I made the orange halo with the little particles spinning around for the phase just before, waiting to be hit.
I also reused the switch shader to put inside numbers of energy balls.
 

Then I worked on trails made for the energy VFX. The orientation of the trails was done by code with curves, by a programmer I collaborated with.
 

I also made a shader to fill the constellation lines in an elegant way. It was used in the HUB and in the credit.

I created a trail to appear behind moving objects but it was cut because the trail did not render well with the windows while most moving objects are actually windows
 

I tried to create a smoke VFX for the steles that come out and go into the ground of the tutorial level that is VR friendly since it is the biggest challenge of this project to constantly make beautiful VFX but not too heavy. So I choose to make a shader with a texture that scrolls on the distorted UV of a rounded shape.
 

I was in charge of creating a VFX for a Gravity point feature that deviates the arrow's trajectory when it passed by. This feature was however cut but the visual could be reused for the end cinematic!
For the small cinematic at the end of the game, I worked with a programmer. I took care of all the graphic integration and animations. I reused a lot of existing elements and VFX, except the flash VFX that I did especially for this cinematic.

Celestrail - Materials

For the materials, I made a master shader allowing me to combine a base like stone or concrete and different shapes on top. This allows for greater diversity with fewer textures. 
So as I said before, I made the two main materials which are stone and concrete, but also a kind of marble or reflective stone and a gold material to highlight the shapes of the decor.

For this project, we were 13:
Producer: Corentin TREHIOU,
Game Designers: Théo CRITON, Jules PEREZ, Lucas TORSELLI,
Composer & Sound Designer: Josselin TANGE,
Gameplay Programmers: Alexandre BERTHAULT, Jérémy PEREIRA, Emy SASSIER, Soren SZABO,
Game Artist 2D / Concept artist: Florent BOSTON
3D Game Artist: Karen CHAUVIN, Alvyne SEBALJ, Lucie TRAVAUX