Water Slash: Finding the Flow | Stylized VFX Setup in Unity

Before the first shader, there’s flow.
Build the foundation of a stylized water slash in Unity — from reference to full animated scene.

Every effect begins long before the first particle appears — with rhythm, movement, and flow.
In this episode, I’ll show how I build the foundation for a new stylized Water Slash effect:
from gathering references to setting up the animation, sword, and stage inside Unity.

This is the first step of the process — where motion turns into energy.
We’ll start from an idea, collect inspiration, organize it in Pinterest and Miro,
then move into Unity to prepare our clean working scene, import Mixamo animation, attach a sword model,
create a Timeline, set up cameras and post-process — and finally record everything with Unity Recorder.

If you’d like to follow the full creation process week by week, subscribe — new videos every Saturday.

🕒 Timestamps
0:00 ✨ Overview
0:20 🎥 On-Camera Intro — The Beginning of Flow
0:42 🖼️ Finding References (Pinterest & Miro)
2:05 ⚔️ Looking for Assets (Mixamo & Sword Model)
3:25 🌍 Creating a Clean Scene (folders, ground, materials)
4:52 ⏱️ Timeline Setup (Playable Director & Animation Tracks)
6:08 🗡️ Attaching the Sword to the Rig
7:13 🎨 Adjusting Materials & Lighting
7:36 🎥 Camera Setup (three angles, align to view)
8:13 🎬 Post-Processing & Depth of Field
8:37 💾 Unity Recorder Setup (folders, Game View, active camera)
9:30 🎬 Final Scene Setup — Sword, Camera & Post-Process
9:42 🌅 Preview in Environment (Test Scene Example)
10:12 💫 Wrap-Up — What’s Next

🧰 Resources & Assets used in this episode
• Pinterest reference board: https://www.pinterest.com/marynalanov...
• Mixamo Sword Animation: https://www.mixamo.com/#/?page=1&quer...
• Sword model “Sting” (Free3D): https://free3d.com/3d-model/sting-swo...
💡 You can also find great alternatives on the Unity Asset Store or other 3D libraries — the workflow will stay the same.

🌊 Next Episode
➡️ Water Slash: Sculpting the Flow — creating the slash mesh and shaping the rhythm of water.

📍 Follow my journey
🔗 YouTube —    / @marina_vfx  
💼 LinkedIn —   / marina-lanova  
🎨 ArtStation — https://www.artstation.com/marina_vfx
🐦 X (Twitter) — https://x.com/MarinaVFX
🌐 Real-Time VFX Forum — https://realtimevfx.com/t/marina-vfx-...

#VFX #Unity #StylizedVFX #GameDev #VisualEffects #RealTimeVFX #MarinaVFX #FXEssentials #WaterSlash