A commonly used visual effects (VFX) technique is rendering Texture and Materials to 2D camera-facing planes, which are called sprites. In the following tutorial, you will set up a Niagara Emitter to work with sprites. When you place the Niagara System containing the Niagara Emitter into a Level, you will see the effect displayed in that Level.
Prerequisite Steps:
This how-to uses the M_smoke_subUV Material, which can be found with the Starter Content. If you have not done so already, make sure that this Material or the Starter Content has been added to your project.
Project Setup
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First, make a new folder in the Content Browser to hold the assets for your effect. Make sure you are at the top level (Content), then right-click in the Content Browser and select New Folder. Name your folder something like SpriteEffect.
If you are going to create multiple Niagara effects in your project, you might want to create a folder called NiagaraFX (or something similar), and then create a sub-folder for your sprite effect.
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Before you can create this effect, you need to make or locate a material to use for the sprites in our emitter. For this example, you will use a material from the Starter Content. It is possible to pull in this material without locating it or moving it anywhere, but in some cases you might want to make a copy of the original and put that either in the folder for your effect, or in a separate Materials folder you have previously created. To do so, follow these steps:
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m_smokein the search bar of the Content Browser. You should see the M_smoke_subuv material in your search results. - To put a copy of it in another folder, just click and drag that material to the desired folder, and in the popup menu select either Move Here or Copy Here. Moving it will delete the original material in its previous location, and move it to the new location. Copying it will create a copy in the new location, while leaving the original in its original location.
- If you want to create your own material for the sprite, see our Introduction to Materials page, as well as other pages in the Materials section of our documentation.
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Create the System and Emitter
Next you will create a Niagara system, and inside it an emitter. The system is a container within which you can put one or more emitters. The emitter is the source of new particles that are generated.
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First, create a Niagara System by right-clicking in the Content Browser, and from the displayed menu select FX > Niagara System. The Niagara System wizard displays.
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Select New system from selected emitters. Then click Next.
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Under Template, select Simple Sprite Burst. Click the Plus sign icon (+) to add the emitter to the list of emitters to add to the system. Then click Finish.
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Name the new system SmokeSystem. Double-click to open it in the Niagara Editor.
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The emitter instance in your new system has the default name of SimpleSpriteBurst. You can rename it, however. Click the name of the emitter instance in the System Overview, and the field will become editable. Name the emitter FX_Smoke.
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Change Renderer Settings
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In this guide, you will go through the Emitter module groups as they appear in the stack. However, until you set your material in the Renderer you won't see anything in your preview or in your Level. So first, in the System Overview select the Sprite Renderer to open it in the Selection panel.
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This is where you select the material for our effect. Since the material is a SubUV material, you need to tell the renderer how many images are in the image grid. Set the following properties to the following values.
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Property Name Value Material M_smoke_subUV Sub Image Size X: 8.0, Y: 8.0 Sub UV Blending Enabled Checked -
Drag the SmokeSystem into your Level.
When you make a particle effect, it is always a good idea to drag your system into your Level. This gives you a chance to see every change and edit in context. Any changes you make to the system automatically propagate to the instance of the system in your Level.
Edit the Emitter Update Group Settings
First you will edit the modules in the Emitter Update group. These are behaviors that apply to the emitter, and that update each frame.
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In the System Overview, click the Emitter Update group to open it in the Selection panel.
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You want to create a constant column of smoke, not a burst of smoke. Click the Trashcan icon to delete the Spawn Burst Instantaneous module.
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Add the Spawn Rate module to the Emitter Update group by clicking the Plus sign icon (+) and selecting Spawning > Spawn Rate.
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In the Spawn Rate module, set the Spawn Rate to 50. This will give us a good-sized puffy shape made of smoke. This is a good start to your effect.
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For now, while you are building the effect, you want to set the simulation to run on an infinite loop. This gives you more time to evaluate how the settings are affecting the effect. In the Emitter State module, click the dropdown for Life Cycle Mode and select Self. Then click the dropdown for Loop Behavior, and select Infinite.
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Particle Spawn Group Settings
Next, you will edit the modules in the Particle Spawn group. These are behaviors that apply to particles when they first spawn.
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In the System Overview, click the Particle Spawn group to open it in the Selection panel.
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Expand the Initialize Particle module. This module collects several related parameters together in one module, minimizing clutter in your stack. Under Point Attributes, locate the Lifetime parameter.
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The Lifetime parameter determines how long particles will display before they disappear. You want a little randomness in the Lifetime parameter, to better simulate real smoke. Click the dropdown arrow next to Lifetime and select Dynamic Inputs > Random Range Float. This adds Minimum and Maximum fields.
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Set the Lifetime Minimum and Maximum to the following values.
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Property Name Value Minimum 2.0 Maximum 3.0 -
You are going to adjust the size of the sprite particles, to continue making the smoke effect more realistic. The original bundle of particles is rather small, so you are now going to increase the size and add another dynamic input to add randomness. Click the dropdown arrow next to Value, and type random in the search bar. Select Random Range Float. This adds Minimum and Maximum fields to the Value. Set the values as shown below.
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Set the Minimum and Maximum values for Sprite Size as shown below.
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Property Name Value Minimum 75.0 Maximum 200.0 - So now you have a larger mass of smoke. Your result is getting closer to looking real. Now you are going to add some rotation, to add more variation to the particles' shape. Additionally, you will add randomness to the rotation to increase the variation. Set the dropdown next to Sprite Rotation Mode to Direct Normalized Angle (0-1). This means the rotation angle is calculated as a number between 0 and 1 instead of degrees.
- Now click the dropdown arrow next to Sprite Rotation Angle, and select Dynamic Inputs > Random Range Float. This adds Minimum and Maximum fields to the Normalized Angle. The particles will rotate a random number of degrees when they spawn.
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Set the Minimum and Maximum values as shown below.
Property Name Value Minimum 0.25 Maximum 0.5 -
So now you have a fairly good size cloud of smoke, but it is just spinning in place. You want the smoke particles to start moving as soon as they spawn. So now you will add some initial velocity. Add the Add Velocity module to the Particle Spawn group by clicking the Plus sign (+) icon and selecting Velocity > Add Velocity.
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Click the dropdown arrow next to Velocity and select Dynamic Inputs > Random Range Vector. This adds Minimum and Maximum fields to the Velocity. Again, the slight randomness adds variation and naturalness to the effect.
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Set the Velocity Minimum and Maximum values as shown below.
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Property Name Value Minimum X: 0, Y: 0, Z: 50 Maximum X: 1, Y: 1, Z: 200 -
Sphere location controls the shape and origin of where sprites spawn. By adding a Sphere Location module, you can have the sprites spawn in a sphere shape and you can set a radius to determine the size. Add the Sphere Location module to the Particle Spawn section by clicking the Plus sign (+) icon and selecting Location > Sphere Location.
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Sphere location controls the shape and origin of where sprites spawn. By adding the Sphere Location module you can have the sprites spawn in a sphere shape, and you can set the size of the sphere shape by indicating a radius. Set the Sphere Radius to 64. Make sure the Sphere Distribution is set to Random.
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The sprite material that we are using for this smoke effect uses a sprite sheet, which has multiple images that are designed to be strung together and animated. When you do not account for this, your renderer will only use the first sprite on the sheet. You can add a SubUV Animation module to solve this problem. Click the Plus sign (+) icon for Particle Spawn and select Sub UV > SubUV Animation.
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In the Sub UV Animation module, click the dropdown for SubUV Animation Mode and select Linear. For Number of Frames type 64. The sprite sheet has an 8x8 grid of images, so the total number of images is 64.
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Particle Update Group Settings
Now you will edit the modules in the Particle Update group. These behaviors apply to particles, and update each frame.
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In the System Overview, click the Particle Update group to open it in the Selection panel.
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The velocity you added in Particle Spawn gave our particles some movement when they initially spawn. Now you want to add movement over time, and you want the smoke to rise. Now you will add movement over time, and make the smoke rise. Add the Acceleration Force module by clicking the Plus sign (+) icon for Particle Update and selecting Forces > Acceleration Force.
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Because Niagara adds new modules to the bottom of the group's stack, you will get an error stating "The module has unmet dependencies." That is because the Acceleration Force module was placed after the Solve Forces and Velocity module. Click the Fix Issue button to move the module.
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Leave the X and Y values set to 0, and the Z value to 500. This will give the smoke significant upward movement over time. You can adjust this setting, or even remove this module, depending on the type of smoke effect you want to create.
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If you want to be able to reuse the smoke emitter in your system, you can save it as a separate asset. Click the Gear icon to open the Emitter Settings menu, and select Create Assset From This. The result is an independent Niagara Emitter asset.
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Then click the Save button to apply and save the changes.
End Result
Congratulations! You have created a simple smoke effect using sprites.