Was experimenting with materials and ended up creating an Energy Field material capable of dissolving / generating, changing colors and shifting speed and direction of the hexagon pattern inside the zone.
Was able to achieve this through Sequencer, Material Parameter Collection Tracks for full customization and a ton of Material Nodes.
This took me about 5 hours
Here is what it looks like:
I imagine this being used similar to how a storm shield functions in STW. Could be a great way to capture zones when connected via verse and devices.
Here is my process. Below is everything I used to create the effect.
When creating the material I wanted to have as much customisation as possible. I could have added even more customisation however, for what I was trying to achieve, it made sense to limit it to these parameters.
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PrimaryColor is the color that is most prominent throughout the material. This is what creates shades the material blue in most parts.
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SecondaryColor is what controls some of the accents to the color. This is to add a bit of variation the hex pattern if you want to achieve multiple colors.
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ShieldStrength is what makes the material emissive in some instances. For example, when the Energy field “confirms” it’s state. I use this parameter to add a glow effect to the material.
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DissolveAmount is what I use to adjust the dissolve effect that can be seen when the energy field is generating. This can be altered through the sequencer.
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HoloSpinSpeed (X/Y) this is what I connect to a panner node to adjust which direction the hex material is spinning. 1 = Clockwise, -1 = Counterclockwise. You get the idea. I can adjust this in both X and Y directions.
This is the hexagon section along with a few Fresnel nodes to create an outline around the material. This effect also has depth detection for when the sphere collides with the ground. Just creates a fade and a subtle outline along the ground.
This is the Dissolve effect. Fairly simple. By using a noise texture, we can create a mask, apply contrast and alter how much the mask is affected to create the dissolve effect. Then we apply color and send it on it’s way.
This is the Parameters I’m calling through the Material Parameter Collection. I then reference this from with the level sequencer to adjust the effects on the fly.
Another way the Material Parameter Collection can be used is a toggle system for materials. As a simple example, I use this material to turn a sphere from it’s “Off” state to it’s On State. This is done through a If statement to determine it’s state as a Boolean in a way.
Less than 1 = Off.
1 or More = On.
Lastly, I added all the Material Parameter functions to sequencer. Built the animation and then ran it through a main sequencer with different animation states.
Hope this helped somebody lol. Feel free to message me if you had any questions!
