Category: Project_2

This week I have completed two scenes: a desert scene and an iceberg scene.
The iceberg scene is a bit more complicated, but the good thing is that I found a seawater asset that is very realistic, I just need to import the seawater into my scene and add some large ice blocks, and some small ice blocks next to it, I used a plant brush to paint it, and the lighting is an HDR map for the base lighting. I also added a directional light source.
Since I couldn’t find a suitable asset for the iceberg, I used 4 ice blocks to put it together and it still looks good.

The desert scene is relatively simple, I used Worldcreater to create the terrain, and then imported it into Unreal Engine to create the texture maps.

Next week I will be setting up the lighting for the desert scene and importing the previously made whale animation into the scene to start testing the renders.

I’ve completed two scenes so far, so this week I started looking at how to import my animations made in Maya into Unreal Engine 4. The two software systems have different skeletal systems, so it was a little difficult to get into Unreal Engine 4.
The first thing I tried was to export the animation in abc format in Maya and found that although I had no problem importing the animation in this format, the abc format uses material spheres by default and I couldn’t reassign the material to my imported character. So I tried using the exported fbx format. But I still encountered two problems
1: The animation imported by the Unreal 4 engine is walking in place, with no displacement.
2: The material needs to be completely redistributed.
My solution: Problem 2 was easier to solve, I just needed to spend some more time rebuilding and specifying the mapping. Problem 1 I recreated the displacement animation in Unreal Engine 4. The animations in Unreal Engine 4 are more complex and cumbersome than in Maya and I had to position myself very carefully to avoid displacement errors.

I also found some iceberg and sea assets this week and plan to finish two scenes next week: one for the desert and one for the iceberg at sea, keep up the good work!

With the experience of the previous forest scenes, this scene is relatively well built.
The scene is still in the forest, but from a different angle, I chose a flat view and to differentiate it from the previous scene I planned to add some fog effects. The method I used was to create a flat surface, then create a dynamic material and apply the exr smoke sequence to create a dynamic smoke effect. I also adjusted the lighting colours to increase the concentration of air fog in the scene to make it look like it was in a misty forest.

This works pretty well, and next week I’ll be working on how to import the animations I made in Maya into Unreal Engine 4.

This week I finished the forest scene. I built the scene using the terrain I tested last week, this time I added some trees and stones that I had downloaded from Bridge and added some lighting and air fog effects to make the scene more realistic.

Based on the reference I found earlier, I planned this to be an overhead shot, so I just needed to get the trees in the right place.

So far it’s working fine, except that the LOD is losing its surface so badly that some of the leaves are turning into a surface piece, which I’ll try to fix next week.

This week I started to prepare my first scene – the forest scene. I planned to start with about 4 scenes for my short film and I chose the forest scene to test it out, I chose a ratio of 2.4:1 to give it a good cinematic feel. I started with a collection of tree assets and the terrain materials were created using HD maps downloaded from Bridge.

The test results were good and it didn’t take too long to build and render. However, I still think the lighting could be improved and the forest is still not dynamic enough. One of the biggest issues is file size and scene optimisation, which are some of the main issues I need to address next week.

This week I’ve continued to look for references, mainly focusing on learning Unreal Engine 4. I’ve found Unreal Engine 4 to be an excellent piece of software for asset integration. It can render very high-quality graphics very quickly.
This week I found some basic tutorials on Unreal Engine 4 on YouTube and started learning the basics of Unreal Engine 4. For example, how to import materials, how to set up lighting, etc. Once I’m familiar with the basics, I’ll look at the techniques needed for each shot.

My shots may cover forest layouts, terrain layouts, textures, lighting and some simple effects such as dust or smoke. I learned how to make fake smoke in Unreal Engine using exr sequences and custom textures. With a combination of fake smoke and UE’s built-in height fog, I can easily create the atmosphere I want.

Storyline

This week I have been revising and finalising an outline for the story. Combining the theories from last week’s research, I came up with the story of “Happy Excursion”: Many, many years ago, when Zhuang Zhou was drunk, he dreamed that he was a butterfly flying in a sea of sand. He saw a Peng, a giant bird in ancient Chinese legends flying in the sky, and then he kept flying ahead. He saw a hut in the distance that looked like his own house. He went up to it and saw that it was his own drunken Self. Suddenly he turned into a Kun and swam in the sea of sand. When he dived, he found that he had come to a big forest. Then he slowly swam through the forest. He discovered his hut in the woods again, and he was still drunk. So he swam upstream and burst out of the sea, only to find an iceberg several times his size. At that moment, Zhuang Zhou woke up from his dream. In short of saying Zhuang Zhou was drunk and dreamt that he was swimming in the world of the id, the Ego and the Superego as different creatures.

Story outline

Reference

Technique Challenge

For this film I planned to use a completely new process: Maya combined with Unreal Engine 4. Nowadays Unreal Engine 4 is very powerful and can produce very good graphics and very fast rendering. So I decided to use Maya to create various assets and then import them into Unreal Engine 4 for integration. This is a great way to increase productivity. But Unreal Engine 4 is new to me, so it will take me some time to learn it. Also, the import of Maya assets into Unreal Engine 4 is a key issue.
The film will also involve some special effects, such as sand effects, so I may also use Houdini to create some particle effects. This will be a bit of a challenge for me too.

I have finally finished project 2. I have learnt a lot from this project and have enjoyed the workflow of Maya and Unreal Engine as it has really improved efficiency.

This is an experimental version of the FMP project and I am concentrating more on the whole workflow. This project is more of a Demoreel than a core story for now, and it can be considered as technical preparation and testing for my last major project.

For my Final Major Project, I wanted to make a short film with a philosophical theme. The main idea of this film is to tell the story of Zhuang Zhou’s sleepwalking. It is different from other short story films. The film might be based on some Chinese and Western philosophical concepts or ideas.

In order to have a more beautiful picture, this short film may have some visual effects such as sand, snow, etc. To create a special ambience. I will then spend time working on the production of the scenes, enriching them and making them more beautiful. I will be working on this in early July.

My main software will be Maya, but I will also try to learn Houdini, which can produce a lot of very realistic effects. At the end of this project, I completed several scenes, lighting and test renderings. These techniques will also be used in my FMP project.

During the production of this project, I encountered some problems and realised the limitations of my hardware. As a result, I found out what areas I need to focus on next and what kind of hardware I need to prepare for my FMP. I also got some feedback from my classmates, which helped me a lot. All these reflections have been very valuable and useful.

Next month I will start preparing for my FMP project. These reflections will also help me to prepare scripts and storyboards and to control the time budget and speed of the process.

Blog Link:

Week01_Inspiration & Reference

Week02_Storyline & Reference & Technique Challenge

Week03_Preparing for Unreal Engine 4

Week04_Assets Collection & Create a terrain in UE4

Week05_Create a Forest Scene

Week06_Create Mountain Scene & Lighting Test

Week7_Maya Animation to UE4

Week08_Creating Iceberg and desert Scene

Week09_Rendering Test

This week I finished lighting the desert scene and imported the whale animation into the scene for a test render.
I added two fog effects to the desert scene to make it look more realistic, one is atmospheric fog and the other is height fog, the height fog can be achieved depending on the distance of the scene. The effect is very good. I adjusted its colour to make the scene look more like it was in the middle of a hot desert.

Next, I did some rendering tests. Unlike Maya, Unreal Engine 4 renders need to add transitions and then add the camera to the sequence, and the camera animation needs to be made in the sequence, which is a bit tricky compared to Maya. However, the advantage of Unreal Engine 4 is its rendering speed, as it renders almost as soon as it is played, which is very fast.

inspiration

I started with the idea of making an animated short film with a strong narrative story, but then I felt that with only four months to make FMP and the fact that it would be difficult for me to make a very high-quality narrative short film on my own, as I had to consider the story, the characters, the events and the music, more importantly, it would be difficult to tell a good story within a minute or two. Overall, I decided to make a surrealistic animated short film, not only with refined graphics but also with a strong philosophical concept. After a series of research, I decided to make a story about Zhuang Zhou, who was one of the greatest thinkers and philosophers of ancient China. One of his philosophical stories is about one day he dreamt that he had turned into a butterfly, and when he woke up, he wondered: did I dream of the butterfly or did the butterfly dream of me. He believes that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between dreams and reality and that dreams can sometimes give us a sense of reality, while reality can also give us a sense of being in a dream. This reminds me that our universe is made up of countless planets, with small planets revolving around big ones, a structure very similar to the molecules, so is it possible that we are just a tinny part of God? To put it another angle, are we the gods of others? In the follow-up study, I found that I could possibly combine Zhuang Zhou’s theory with Freud’s theory of personality, the id represents the most basic unit of our world – the molecule, the ego represents our original world, and the superego refers to the world of God which is composed by our world.

Reference