Earth's Wrath starts with a warning on the ground, raises a cage of rock, then builds toward a massive final impact. Kuzey Can shares how he made the VFX in Niagara.
Kuzey Can drew on the earthbending in
Avatar: The Last Airbender for
Earth's Wrath. He wanted the rocks to feel as though someone was pulling and directing them. He designed the effect as an area-control ability with a warning, a cage and
three damage stages that grow in intensity.
First, a muddy patch appears on the ground. Kuzey made it from a flattened cone mesh particle, with noise in its material giving the edges an uneven fade. The ground shakes, small debris flickers and dust rises. An outline and earthbending symbol then flash over the area.
Kuzey imagines the warning slowing characters inside it, making it harder to escape before the cage rises.
For the cage, he quickly scales a mesh upward around the perimeter. It matches the muddy patch's rotation so the two line up. A burst of dust, debris and sparks adds weight to the rise. An animated indicator shows that anyone caught inside would be briefly stunned.
The first damage stage sends up rounded rocks one at a time. Each fires a Location Event as it rises, spawning debris, dust and sparks at its base. Another emitter leaves a dust trail as the rock moves.
The rock pauses, shakes and pulls back slightly before Niagara's Point Attraction Force drives it down. When it reaches the ground, a Death Event triggers the impact: broken pieces, more dust and sparks, and a mark where it lands.
The second stage adds sharp rocks in groups. They rise and begin to orbit the center, but at first that shift made them snap to new positions. Shape Location and Rotate Around Point were using different placement data. Kuzey fixed it by generating the random values once and passing them to both modules.
The rocks then slow their orbit, turn their pointed sides inward and strike together. The hits land around the outer ring, leaving the center relatively safe.
Finally, one enormous rock rises more slowly and shakes harder before crashing down. The hit sends out the largest burst of debris, dust and sparks, plus a shockwave.
Once it lands, the cage sinks and the muddy patch fades. Kuzey reuses some of the smaller dust and debris from the opening as the effect settles.