-> 2024 01-11 Jan.

Final Render

BG music editing

I use Adobe Premiere to edit background sound effects.

All music is from Artlist.io which I paid for previous projects and I just utilized them again. Instead of inserting the music soundtrack directly, I edited some parts of the music to make the motion follow the right tempo.

Well, I think I need sound effects to add more intriguing sounds behind some key motions, but I didn’t have much time to deal with it. I just try my best to edit the soundtrack and make sure it is on the right tempo and consistent with the movement of the objects in the scenes.

Transition

Transition – a book closing

At the end of the story, I designed a book closing-up as a transition. It was so satisfying that the result was so good. I used a green cube as a counterpart, which would be an alternative to the previous scene. To remove the green background, I used After Effects (Keylight) effects to help me remove it.

The video above is the scenes I renderer in UE5 and then I put it to After Effects to do post-production.

So, in order to create a shadow reflecting on the book, I put some columns just right in front of the direction of sunlight. It is so cool that the audience won’t know there are columns beside it. From the top view, the result rendered of the scene looks like it is in the forest.

To keep the consistency of the art style of the storyboard, I reused the objects shown in previous scenes, and I chose the cute star as a symbol of the whole story to express the beauty of reading. Of course, the pencil, which is shown at the start of the film, will be shown again at the end of the story.

I chose the poppy flower for the ending because it is a symbol of the memorial. ( I also like the red color of poppies. )

-> 2024 01-09 Jan.

Beginning Scene 1

For the part of the transformation into a chair, I used C4D to build this scene due to timeline issues as C4D could adjust the animation more intuitively.

I used Maxon Octain render and used HDRIs for the lighting. In this part, I think the challenge for me is to control the animation timing, which I just needed to test several times and render many times to do an experiment.

I love this composition so much because it has a surreal atmosphere with space and planets around the main character. At the beginning of the story, the feeling of the birth of a new character in the airspace is quite a mystery and also beautifully integrated. ( I LOVE IT!! )

For the animation of the transformation of the chair:

In the beginning, I designed a simple movement like basic shapes to form a chair. I found out the results were very boring without background elements, so I added a ball and geometric shapes as decorations like stars in the galleries. I also attempted to rotate the stars to help enhance the dynamic of the transformation of the main character in the center.

I created the Iceland scene unexpectedly and I made it at the end of my UE workflow. Initially, I didn’t plan to build this scene. After I created a previs animated video to test what the whole film would be like, it seemed it lacked some plots to the film and I also wanted to add animation of the chair into the ending part. Therefore, I composed this chapter to make the chair float and turn around while touching the ground.

-> 2024 08 Jan.

Rigging the chair and animate

So, the most challenging part is to rig the chair! I learned basic rigging from an online course, and I just tried my best to rig it and adjust the weight of the chair because it would affect the body mesh when the chair is moving.

Before animating the chair, I planned the movement first which I referred to as the video of a dog running. I observe how their legs will move when they walk and run.

Chair animation planning

Testing rigging.

I used C4D to rig the chair. During the process of rigging, there are many problems popping up; the mesh will destroyed how and the weight of the body is hard to measure because it is not human.

As for the rig of legs, I chose not to rig so many joints as I wanted to keep the chair looking like a wooden creature with wooden legs that cannot be bent while walking.

It is so cool to see the back of the chair bent which plays the key to bringing the chair to life.

After animating the chair, I encountered many problems like the mesh crashing and the chair not moving naturally. Just test and observe reference videos online to keep improving.

In the beginning, I didn’t plan to do so much complex animation in the UE project, but it is good to give it a try to import animation in UE.

From the advice of many classmates, it is good to use Blender or MAYA for animation and import them to UE because it will reduce many incapable format issues.

-> 2023 04-16 Dec.

Composition in UE5

For editing the scenes, I render it to After Effects to add post-production.

The video above is a test demo before I finish all scenes in UE5 because I want to know the previs of animation and what the feeling will the film will be like.

-> 2023 03 Dec.

Add Fog in UE5

• Tisk volumetric fog
• cast ray traced shadows disabled
• indirect lighting intensity ( Light )
• volumetric scattering intensity increase
• experiential height fog component increase
• extinction scale allows us to control how tense the fog is

Screenshots for testing different perspectives of composition.

I really like the rendering and post-processing in Unreal Engine since it is so powerful and fast to render high-resolution images.

I think I will keep exploring them ot create scenes in the latter projects. All I need to conquer the difficulty of merging MAYA or C4D animation to UE. To do animation, is not so intuitive for UE5. So far, the workflow is time-consuming due to separating animation and background composition.

-> 2023 25 Nov.

Rendering for fun

This is a scene I created in UE5 for the Remembrance Day. The poppy flowers are from Quixel Bridge in UE5 which I just found out accidentally. Therefore, I built up a scene and made a camera to move in slowly to create a peaceful and aesthetic atmosphere.

The interesting part is there are squished apples as a floating island in the scenes and I really like this surreal visual.

-> 2023 23 Nov.

Process of animation

Page Turing Tutorial Youtube Link

I learn how to animate a page turning in C4D and export alembic format to UE. I bumped into many issues, like how to bake animation in C4D could be very problematic if using any effectors or mesh. With the help from Natalia, I succeed in importing the animation to UE5.

For good management, the advice from Natalia :

• Make animation in UE5
• For materials, make them in 3D substance painter and import them to UE. In this way, we can draw our own textures or patterns easily.

Test Post Process:

Some shots I like:

I enjoy adding foliage to landscapes in UE5 since it can add beauty and art style to the comp quickly.

For composition, the coloring also is important for shaping a good-looking result. I always love the vibrant color style with high contrast. However, to maintain the consistency of the whole scene and keep it clean, I limit the maximum color in every scene to 5 colors.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5