In my VFX piece I have used multiple different vfx techniques/shots that all accumulate into my final piece.
The first of these is my particles and particle systems involved.
Firstly, I created a static mesh laser with a cylinder which i subdivided and smoothed to make it stretch a bit and look less like a static cylinder and more like one that has motion blur enabled and is moving considerably fast.
I made this work as a laser because I gave made it spawn at a certain point, for example the ship cannons and then once I make it spawn and fire, so to speak, it will continue on in its trajectory.
Below is an example of this laser.
Lighting
A further example of my vfx usage is lighting.
Throughout all of my animation, there will be a constant sky that helps light up the whole environment in both shots, the first being within the atmosphere, a few miles up, the second being on the ground in a garden looking at the battle.
In addition to this I may have 3-point lighting with different colours depending on what is being shown, this will most likely be in the initial shot of the spaceships fighting each other, this can give subtle hints to the viewer about who may be good, and who may be bad.
The lighting will also cast shadows, these will mostly be seen during the ground shot, where the trees will produce shadows, same with the walls/ fences inside of the garden.
Compositing/Editing
A final example of me using vfx within this piece is when I will eventually get to layering everything together via composition when I begin editing the final piece.
For example, in one of my previous blog posts, I mentioned that if my particle systems bogged down my PC too much, then I would render explosions separately and then layer them on top of the spaceships when they explode. This is related to composition as in the Blender compositor tab I can use nodes to add layers to a base layer, for example the main animation.
I can also use this for multiple other ideas that I may come across when producing the final piece, such as a cloud/fog card which I can place somewhere in the scene, so that when I render that alone, then i can add that on top of whichever layer I want and then it will appear as if fog is in the scene.