Get to know destruction FX in Unreal Engine

How Chaos and Niagara work hand-in-hand to blow stuff up

Readers of befores & afters would certainly have seen and read here about some of the big-budget destruction in the latest film and television projects.

That kind of FX simulation is now available inside Epic Games’ Unreal Engine via its Chaos physics system. The in-engine fracturing available within Chaos can also be integrated with the modular particle FX editor Niagara in Unreal Engine to add in complex effects elements like smoke, dust, and debris to your destruction scene.

This new video from Unreal Engine explains how the high-performance physics and destruction side of Chaos works, and how you can get started adding destruction FX straight into your project.

To learn more about destruction in Unreal Engine and try out Chaos and Niagara, Epic has a bunch of resources available:

1. Unreal Engine 4 in-depth documentation on Chaos and Niagara.

2. This in-depth walk-through video on the fundamentals of Chaos with Jack Oakman and Wes Bunn, who showcase specific features including the creation of ‘Geometry Collections’ and working with ‘Fields’ – both important aspects of the Unreal Engine physics and destruction pipeline.

3. The location to download the latest version of Unreal Engine to get started using Chaos and Niagara.

And don’t forget to take a look at all the videos in this special Unreal Engine series, which so far have covered virtual production, Datasmith and real-time ray tracing.

Sponsored by Unreal Engine:
This is a sponsored article and part of the befores & afters VFX Insight series. If you’d like to promote your VFX/animation/CG tech or service, you can find out more about the VFX Insight series right here.