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Animation & VFX University Module
Charlotte Dupont
Job title
The task was simple, create a short 1-2 minute clip showcase using lighting, Niagara systems, animation and others feature in Unreal Engine.
This was my first attempt in Unreal Engine 5 and its cinematics, so I started by using the knowledge I had gained from Unity and starting there. I first drew my ideas for the sequence on my sketch book to get a rough idea for panning. I knew I wanted a continues shot of a veteran’s flash back from a fantasy war. I also used this project as an excuse to use Unreals Metahuman facial animation using the Live Link capture.
I needed my character to walk into the run, place the record player on and sit down to smoke a cigar. I’d heard of this software called DeepMotion which takes raw camera footage and produces a skeletal mesh. Basically, a motion capture suit without the suit. So, I tried using it. It was very easy to use and gave a great template however required lots of touch up especially for the movement of the feet and hands. So with lots of keyframe overlayered on top the end result looks fairly convincing.
For this scene I also used the smoke trail as my selected Niagara particle effect. I did this by creating a stream of transparent particles that floated upwards and twisted through some stylised noise. After a few tweaks I managed to get the flow and sway of the smoke just right.
In the next scene the camera pans to a picture of the man with what seam to be soldiers, notice the huge destroyed mech in the background, the camera then pans to the man starring at his war medals. It then slowly pans into his eyes and transitions into an active warzone. For this environment I build an entire suburban steampunk city, with functioning traffic intersections and a busy, active feeling centre.
Now this scene had been in my head for a while now, I had seen these mech models online years ago and always imaged a scene of them shooting down a steampunk city. So it only made sense to use them in this project. You can also see the custom explosions in front and behind the mechs. The mechs weapon muzzle flash was also a custom made cascade system that used rigid bodies for the bullet casing and shot a bullet that made a impact spark.
The last shots contained a soldier getting on the roof of a car and using a flame thrower, these animations were from mixamo and blended together with a custom sway as he sprays the flame. Another Mech can also be seen behind him. The camera then pans to the final shot, a large Mech coming out of the smoke. For this, I just layered several smoke particles and made the mech slowly emerge through them, creating the illusion of depth. Over all I absolutely loved creating this project and would love to do more on it!!
My end marks for this module was 92%
