SHADER/VFX GRAPH - RESEARCH

Today I decided to start looking into the shader graph and VFX graph for Unity. To start, I wanted to decide on one to use for the game. After looking on YouTube, I could not find many videos on creating the effect using either, but I kept on looking for more videos. After searching for a while, I found a YouTube channel called Gabriel Aguiar Prod, where he creates effects for games in Unity and other engines. I was looking for a while on his channel and I found one video going over a basic tutorial of the shader graph system. While Unity's shader system is very advanced, it has a ton of tools. However he did not go over how to create any effect in specific, so it was not too helpful. From watching, I have learned a good amount of how the tools work, and it is an available option. The video is also old, so many aspects have changed since, as Unity keeps it updated. This means if I used this video as a reference when creating the effect, it could prove unhelpful due to be out of date information. 

After searching some more, I found a video on creating a VFX explosion in both the VFX graph and the Shader graph. I decided to follow this video, although the effect is not exactly what I'm looking for. It is slightly cartoony and simple, but there are not many other choices available. After looking over the video, both methods achieved a similar effect and both systems work similarly. Seen as both work similarly and achieve the same effect, I decided to go with the VFX graph. The reason I decided on this is that I have never used it before and think it would be a good tool to learn. This tool is much newer in the space and will likely see more advancements over the shader graph. This to me means it may be a valuable skill to learn now in case it goes on to be the main tool for this type of work. 

For this, he starts by creating a new VFX graph using the unity package of the same name. He changes the VFX to a burst so it only appears once. To this, he makes it random using a node, as he will do for most values. He creates it so it bursts into a sphere shape and changes some values. He changes some of the variables to create the current component to make it look more accurate. Furthermore, he names this to keep it tracked and begins on each part. He follows the same process to create each part including the sparks, smoke, flash, and more.