Until Dawn Remake - Wendigo Vision VFX

I had the privilege of working on the Wendigo Vision effect for Until Dawn Remake.
The concept behind this effect is that the parts of characters that move faster (those with higher velocity) adopt a more cyan/shiny appearance, while the more static areas take on a red/black hue. This effect was visually stunning in the original game, but unfortunately, it had to be recreated from scratch for the remake. I worked diligently to replicate it as closely as possible to the original while adhering to the Art Direction's guidelines.

Initially, I explored using Vertex Animation Textures (VAT) generated in Houdini, utilising a colour texture to encode the normalised velocity magnitude. While this approach produced stable and promising results, it had two significant drawbacks:

- Time-intensive implementation: Applying the technique to each sequence was time-consuming, and time was a critical factor.
- Animation dependencies: The animations had to be in their final state, as any changes required regenerating the VAT assets. This posed a potential risk of discrepancies if an animation was updated without corresponding updates to the effect.

Given these challenges, we decided to pursue a more flexible real-time approach.

The final solution involved leveraging the highest LOD (lowest-resolution mesh) of each character. These meshes were reconstructed using particles, with the skeletal meshes hidden. The particles replicated the shape and animation of the original skeletal mesh. Velocity data for each particle was then mapped to a gradient, assigning colours based on velocity magnitude. Crucially, this method allowed real-time adjustments to parameters such as minimum and maximum velocity thresholds, contrast, and colours, which provided a significant advantage.

To enhance the effect further, we added post-processing elements such as bloom, lens flare, vignette, blur, and a red tint.

I want to extend my gratitude to the FX Chamber team (especially Callan De Keijzer, Jack G. and Nic Chambers) for their invaluable support and feedback throughout this process—I truly enjoyed working with them. I would also like to thank the entire Ballistic Moon team, especially Lee Brown (Technical Director), whose leadership and support were instrumental.

If you are interested in learning more about reconstructing meshes using particles, I highly recommend Asher Zhu's tutorials—they are excellent resources.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a59oH7e60k&t=603s