Animations is not something hard to create, it needs a lot of work, but there’s a difference between hard and a lot of work. Just like characters/models. Particles or visual effects (i dont know tje difference) i have no idea how it is made, neither the time you need to finish them. To finish one set of animations (a good set, with… 60- 80 animations) you can take from 2 days to 10-15, it is an average time. To make a complete character (with over 50 animations + rig + textures + etc) it takes an average 1 week or 2 (protofactor, a creator of this kind of content takes this time to create one of his assets), but visual effects… It is something i dont have ANY idea of how its made neither the time. Everytime when i ask this question people say “it depends”, ok, it depends, but you have an average, or no? Everyone that knows how to creates particles, please answer :o. Have a nice day, all of you, hope you are fine!
I don’t do vfx for a living yet, but I’ll throw in my 2 cents as a lay person.
Some effects I could do quickly and can be done well inside a couple hours: magic circles, spaceship engine thrusters, floating health/mana/coin pickups + sparks or some flash on pickup.
Other effects would take me longer maybe a day or way more (depends on the scale of the game too): most attack vfx because you gotta do both the attack itself, then the impact effect, then the character attacking needs animation, and the hit character needs some animation, and you’d have to change the hit characters health…
I think all the effects here would average 4 or 5 hours each: Hovl: Sketch #16 WIP - Real Time VFX My first VFX! (Feedback Encouraged!) - Real Time VFX
I think these would take a day each: Ninjin: Sketch #12 WIP - Real Time VFX Lightning vfx WIP - Real Time VFX
these are couple effects i think would take 2-5 days: MR_Pol: Shetch #16 - Real Time VFX SlothTom: Sketch #16 WIP - Real Time VFX
the effects in this reel are currently above my ability but would probably take a week each not because the effect are terribly complex but because he’s polished them soo much to make the look ridiculously nice, VFX by cokey - Real Time VFX
Also, any effect that an artist has done before he could probably do again in a fraction of the time so the more common the effect the less time it’s likely to take. For example, I’ve already made sparks that bounce off walls based off calculating the reflection vector. Originally it took a couple hours, now it will take however long copying and pasting takes. That’s an effect that could be used in any game with a gun.
When you say “would take”, you mean YOU would take this time (1 day, 5 hours etc…) or the effect creator took this time?
If you mean -you-: Taking this time for someone that is not so much experienced is a nice shot, so it is not so hard
If you mean the creator of effect (Cokey of example): Ok, this is a little bit hard, probably particles are the hardest part of a game/content creation (Animations, characters, blueprints, environment, sound fx, particles/effects)