Creating a Charged Energy Beam in Unreal Engine | The Gnomon Workshop

Designed for intermediate Unreal Engine and real-time VFX artists, this workshop demonstrates how to build a production-ready cinematic visual effects shot centered on a charged energy beam using Niagara and Sequencer. Taught by real-time VFX artist Raúl Ruiz, the course approaches visual effects as part of a complete presentation shot—covering planning, animation support, shot setup, implementation, and final polish to ensure the work reads clearly on screen.

The workflow begins with ideation and shot planning using visual references, storyboards, and anchor frames to define timing beats and visual intent. You will build a short custom support animation in Cascadeur, establish shot context in Unreal Engine Sequencer through camera, composition, and lighting decisions, and lock in scale and rhythm using simple timing proxies. The core of the workshop focuses on building the energy beam in Niagara across three practical phases: charge-up, beam launch, and blast/dispersal. Along the way, you will craft supporting materials and textures, expose practical controls, and learn the math behind masks, falloffs, breakup, and noise shaping.

The curriculum includes the following lessons:

• Lesson 01: Introduction & Shot Goals — Breakdown of the final shot target, the three main effect phases, deliverables, and overall scope.
• Lesson 02: Ideation & Shot Planning — Gathering visual references to establish the shot language and define early timing beats.
• Lesson 03: Creating Support Animation — Building custom motion blockouts in Cascadeur to reinforce pose energy and timing.
• Lesson 04: Sequencer Shot Setup — Importing custom animations and setting up cameras, composition, and scene lighting inside Sequencer.
• Lesson 05: Timing Proxies — Using placeholder geometry and anchor frames to lock spacing, composition, and pacing before assembling particle systems.
• Lesson 06: Charge-Up in Niagara — Constructing the charge-up effect phase along with materials, math-driven masks, falloffs, and noise shaping.
• Lesson 07: Beam & Launch — Developing beam shape, breakup, parameterization, and material-driven motion language for the launch phase.
• Lesson 08: Blast & Polish — Building the final blast and dispersal systems to unify all phases into a presentation-ready shot.
• Lesson 09: Rendering & Lighting — Exporting the final cinematic from Sequencer and executing a subtle post-processing polish pass in After Effects.
• Lesson 10: Bonus: Creating Variations — Reusing established Niagara assets to quickly create new effect variations for gameplay and testing.

By completing this workshop, artists learn how to plan, construct, and art-direct complete real-time VFX shots from start to finish rather than assembling isolated elements. Software tools used during the workshop include Unreal Engine, After Effects, Krita, and Cascadeur. Downloadable project files are included, featuring the full Unreal Engine project, Niagara systems, materials, animation assets, EmberGen flipbooks, textures, and scene setups.