Unreal Sample
Hi Morphic Films crew!
Thank you for your interest in my work. Here is an Unreal sample as requested by Myron with a little explanation of what I did.
Please note that Epic is still processing the project submissions and has not yet released any news regarding the results of the Bootcamp yet, so I kindly request that you do not share this page or the video link below in any social media channels or other public facing online services until Epic authorizes us to do so.
Thank you for your time and I hope you find this interesting.
Tank
Unreal Animation Bootcamp 2023
Theme: Resolution
The project was split in 4 sections:
01_The crossing of the threshold, 02_Obstacles, 03_Revelation, 04_Resolution
In this clip 20 second clip I tackle Resolution, the ending of the story, based on this prompt:
"Finally, our character gets rid of the gem, putting an end to the cycle of pursuit and relinquishing their intention to possess the power of the artifact. They ultimately escape."
Final Delivery: Video Specifications:
The project was split in 4 sections:
01_The crossing of the threshold, 02_Obstacles, 03_Revelation, 04_Resolution
In this clip 20 second clip I tackle Resolution, the ending of the story, based on this prompt:
"Finally, our character gets rid of the gem, putting an end to the cycle of pursuit and relinquishing their intention to possess the power of the artifact. They ultimately escape."
Final Delivery: Video Specifications:
- Duration: 15-30 seconds
- Resolution: 1920x1080
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (Other ratios allowed, but applying letterbox)
- Format: mp4 H264 10-16 mb/sec
- Start and End frames must match the following images:
Process
The process was first the idea and storyboard based on the prompt. Then finding the 3D assets to build out the world and creating the Metahuman character and her costume. Most of the assets are from Unreal's Quixel photogrammetry assets, except for the water and the background landscape created directly inside of Unreal.
Once that was done I set up all the camera shots using Unreal's Level Sequencer Editor and proceeded to animate the body using the Metahuman Control Rig, as well as the props. Then I acted out the character's expressions and used Epic's Live Link Face app to capture them, using the Take manager. To blend it in better with the body, I used additive layers of hand keyframed animation. The layered system is very powerful in Unreal and allows smooth blending between prerecorded captures and the keyframed Control Rig.
Finally I added lights and VFX such as fog, lightning bolts, particles and a custom "world changing effect" by modifying a disintegration shader made with Niagara FX, and adding it to an animated box that moves and reveals the restored world.
In order to make this work, I first used a Scene Capture Cube to create an HDRI Cube Map from the lightworld, rendered it and projected it into the inside of a sphere that surrounds the character as shown in the images below. So I first created a level with only the bright world elements, captured it and imported it into the dark world.
In order to make this work, I first used a Scene Capture Cube to create an HDRI Cube Map from the lightworld, rendered it and projected it into the inside of a sphere that surrounds the character as shown in the images below. So I first created a level with only the bright world elements, captured it and imported it into the dark world.
Here are some snapshots of the Blueprint and the shader used for the world dissolve change effect. I did not build these from scratch, but instead I modified an asset based on a tutorial for a fire dissolve effect and adjusted it to fit the look and narrative of my scene.
And finally, probably one of the most valuable areas of the course was learning about the Unreal render settings, which needed to be modified to play well with the Metahuman hair simulations and to make sure that most of the typical game settings get turned off, as rendering a cinematic will usually require much higher quality settings than those used in games.
After exporting the movie as an EXR sequence, I imported it all into DaVinci resolve and added the sound effects, music and a little additional brightness. In this exercise I did not export any layers for compositing, as I wanted to do it all in engine.