Discussion: The Intrepid Informer: Issue #5

We've been sharing pretty exciting information with you about upcoming content through the previous issues of the Intrepid Informer and while this is definitely a great platform for that type of communication, we also wanted to be able to introduce you to members of the Paragon Team whom you wouldn't have heard a great deal about but who have nonetheless contributed in great lengths to making City of Heroes what it is today.

Without further ado, we have the pleasure of introducing you to Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha who has been working her magic in the game for a couple of years already by creating all sorts of striking visual effects for powers, auras, environment props and more!

Introduction
by Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha

Hello, fellow CoHers!

My name is Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha and I've been working with Paragon's VFX department for just over two years. I've had the pleasure of meeting many of you at previous Meet & Greets, and of course, hero-ing with you anonymously on the streets of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, so I'm very excited to start up a more direct line of communication with you on the forums!

For me, getting into VFX was a sort of happy accident. I'd known since high school that I wanted to pursue an artistic career, but I'd always thought it'd be as a concept artist. I enrolled in an animation and illustration BFA program and spent many sleepless nights drawing and animating. It wasn't until my final year, though, that I attempted my first FX test. And then I never looked back! I spent my senior year traditionally and digitally animating smoke columns, fires, Molotov cocktails, explosions and splashes, and fell in love with the unique challenges effects animation presents. I managed to get my first gig with a game studio up in San Francisco. A couple years later, I applied to Paragon Studios looking for an easier commute, without ever imagining how attached I'd become to the City of Heroes project. Within a couple weeks, I was a CoH addict, and have been logging on almost nightly since. It's incredibly fulfilling to work on a project I'm passionate about, and exciting to be involved with the developers and community supporting it!

Ruined Ouroboros was one of my first opportunities to go nuts with environment and atmospheric effects. I had a lot of fun with this; telling a VFX artist to "make this look like the Apocalypse" is like telling four-year-old Timmy he can eat all the sugar he wants.


The fun part of being a VFX artist on City of Heroes is that I never know what task will be thrown at me next. One day I might be creating plumes of hellfire, only to move on to gently swirling fireflies the next hour. Some of my recent work has included effects for Demon Summoning, Kinetic Melee and Electric Control. (Those fire whip effects took me forever, but I'm still happy with the way they came out!) You've also seen tons of my work in the Booster Packs, mostly in the form of auras and costume change emotes. It's a super creative and demanding role that requires all our VFX artists' brains to be nonstop idea machines! To keep fresh ideas coming, I play a ton of video games and annoy my gamer friends by studying all the pretty effects while they're getting ganked. Nothing beats old-school, though, so I also reference a lot of traditional animation, ranging from Looney Toons to the glory days of Disney. Those masterworks remind me just how green my skills really are, and how much I still have to learn.

As a VFX artist, I work closely with the animation department to create new powers and costume change emotes. "Energy Morph" and the other Mutant Pack emotes were a result of quite a few brainstorming sessions with Colin Brown, one of the character animators. Oh, and that's my fountain in the back. Hi, fountain!

But the VFX team still can't think of everything, and that's where player's ideas have been especially valuable. The player feedback in David Nakayama's All Things Art threads has been phenomenal, and has already contributed to the creation of many auras that otherwise may have never seen the light of day. Several of the auras in the Origins Pack, like Leaves and Atomic, were snatched from that thread. And most recently, the Animal Pack's Breath aura was realized as a direct result from a player's suggestion at last year's San Francisco Meet and Greet. Obviously, a hundred (or more!) heads are better than one! So very soon, I'll be dropping into the forums as Tunnel Rat to pick your brains on a number of things, like how to best expand our effects-based customization options, and how the effects can breathe more life into the worlds we all play in.

The Atomic Aura owes its existence to an excellent suggestion for an electron-themed aura in one of Noble Savage's art threads. It's probably my favorite in the last batch of auras, and I feel absolutely giddy when I see people using it in-game.

That's one reason why I'm so thrilled to "meet" you all, finally, on the official forums. I'm eager to hear what you think the VFX department should work on. We are always looking for ways to improve the effects in City of Heroes, and to introduce new ones that will blow your minds! We have a fantastic game and a fantastic community, and I want progress in CoH's effects to be the most epic team effort ever!

Keetsie "Tunnel Rat" Braz da Cunha
VFX Artist

Let me tell you then, that my reaction upon seeing Ouroboros trashed was "OH HELL YEAH!", Energy Morph is my favorite transformation (tied with VanguardSigil), and my main uses the Atomic aura. So yeah, I'm a fan.

Are you also the one responsible for the neat gold shimmery effect in the Mender Ramiel arc conclusion? If so, I love that effect - now make it possible to duplicate in demoediting!

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Welcome to the forums - although you don't seem as easily startled as the in-game Tunnel Rat

Nice to meet another red face - and one that'll be on the forums some. Be active. We don't bite (often.) >.>

See my Guides and Tutorials

Nice work! The first time I saw the ruined Ouroboros, my jaw dropped at the coolness... what better way to show that some $^&% went down. That map is always so much fun to go back to.

Nice to find out who is behind the Tunnel Rat name.

Glad you finally got a redname to post with.

Awesome, now that seems like a fun job. Welcome aboard Keetsie

Welcome, Tunnel Rat! I enjoy your work! Energy Morph is the ccemote I use the most.

I like your work. Now tell them to put more of your emotes and stuff into new issues and not more packs.

Two quick questions. One, I have NEVER heard the name Keetsie in my life! Where are you from? And two, if you really wanna animate something, how about a water powerset? (hee hee hee) JK, that might start a war here. I'd say welcome, but you been here 2 years already.

Welcome to the forums Tunnel Rat. I'm a fan of both your work and your ingame character.

Also:

Welcome! I'm a fan of your work. Devastated Ouroboros stunned me when I first visited it.

Hi guys! Thanks for all the nice comments, I feel very welcome here! Can’t wait to start some more in-depth FX dialogue with you next week. I’ll be shamelessly stealing Noble Savage’s “All Things Art” thread idea and making a new one for FX-based requests.

To answer Le Blanc’s question, my parents claim that my name is Romanian, though I have no Romanian heritage (that I know of). I suspect it is a misspelling or reimagining of the original name. Tends to be a good conversation starter, though.

EDIT: My smiley broke.

FPARN!

Your in-game character is awesome, by the way!

Hmmm...
'Fountain Spray' as a water Blast, well you have the basic vfx.

Waits for UM Weather FX to be announced, well you have the puddles and water drops from the Praetorian Underground, Cloudy Sky with animated lightning strikes from the Ruined Ouroboros...

ohh.. yesss... Weather in City of Heroes. Rotating at will....

To see my vampire on a ledge with a gargoyle in teh rain with lightning in the back!

hahaha...

Welcome, dont let us scare you away!

Hello and welcome