My Work...

I’ve been hard at work the last 5 years over at NetherRealm Studios on the Mortal Kombat and Injustice franchises. I do a lot of environmental, damage, destruction, transition, character and cinematic fx. I got the gory honor of doing the vast majority of the fatalities on MKX which was colorful to say the least. I have also started in on a new adventure learning Houdini and expanding my fluid sim and destruction skill sets.

I break my work down in to the following sub-categories.

Ingame fx: Sprite based particle systems for the most part. I have used a few different systems over the years, but cascade in one form or another for the majority of my work.  Other tasks would include the creation of texture maps, texture pages, materials and meshes.

Fluid Dynamic Simulations: Using high end 3d programs like Maya, Realflow or Houdini to simulate fluid fx like smoke, fire, explosions and liquids like blood or water. The final product is usually converted to a sprite based particle system that can run realtime. In recent years a few new tricks have come along that are helping bridge the gap between pre-rendered and runtime fx (Flow Maps/Vel Flow Maps/Vert Animation/Vector Fields/WPO).

Destruction: The prepping, processing and implementation of breakable objects or cinematic destruction assets (geometry). While it sounds simple there are a lot of nuances to setting up a good believable breakable object...there is an art to it! The addition of particle systems can add another layer of depth and details to breakables and destruction sequences.

Cinema: I really like doing fx work for cinemas. It’s where you get to have the most control and creativity and can add a little extra love you usually can’t afford. The layering and blending of tracks and dynamically driven parameters really allow you to dial in the look and timing of your fx.