Tales of the Shire - Water VFX
The waterfalls are contained within flexible prefabs which change dynamically when scaled and moved by environment artists. Object scale drove components like noise tiling and particle emission.
The splash effects used in Fishing were created in collaboration with UX to communicate various aspects of fishing, and would adapt in size and intensity depending on player input. (Pictured: @cozy.games in the Hobbit Day showcase)
We chose to contrast opaque effects with transparent water to achieve the stylised painterly look used throughout the game. Using natural aspects of the environment to communicate game mechanics was key.
Tales of the Shire - Water VFX
I was responsible for the majority of the VFX in Tales of the Shire - here you can see the various water effects I produced. As you can imagine, the village of Bywater is surrounded by a lot of water!
These opaque effects are used in the waterfalls and fishing game and are largely shader-based, supplemented by secondary particle effects.
The transparent water surface shader was made by Simon Baker and James Brown - many thanks to both of them for their support and guidance!