An Artist Centric Particle Editor for Real-Time FX Visualization
By: William Reynard Jr.
Supervisor: Gary Brubaker
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred March 23, 2007
Thesis / Project completed: March 21, 2007

Particle systems are used extensively in video games to provide user feedback and for general visual enhancement. The effects are commonly used to represent volumetric effects such as smoke or fire as well as effects with no real-world counterpart, such as spell effects. The application developed for this project is a tool designed to promote the rapid development of particle effects. It is designed to be familiar to users of 3D modeling packages such as Discreet’s 3D Studio Max, and provides visual interactive controls for effect editing. Discussed herein are the issues encountered during the development of the tool and the usability results gathered from student artists.

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