Project2

Showreel

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WEEK01: INSPIRATION AND THEME SETTING

WEEK02: RESEARCH AND REFERENCE

WEEK03: CHARACTER DESIGN

WEEK04: DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM OF CHARACTER CLOTHES

WEEK05: SCENE 1

WEEK06: SCENE 2

WEEK07: CHARACTER ANIMATION

WEEK08: STORYBOARD AND SHOT SETTINGS

WEEK09: COMPOSITING AND RENDERING

WEEK10: SUBMISSION POST: PROJECT 2

Reflections

During this project, I learned a lot.

There are also many problems. For example, the cloth simulation of clothes is difficult to handle. Finally I had to change to shorts.

I also learned a lot of new things. Such as CC3 and iClone. There is also the real-time link technology of iClone and UE4. They taught me new ways to do an animation. Faster and more convenient than the traditional animation production process.

In the end, I learned a lot from this project. I hope I can continue to explore, learn more ways to solve problems, and make better works.

This week I blended and rendered the character with the scene.

First I used Live Link to link iClone with UE4 in real time. This makes it easier for me to adjust characters and scenes. Although this crashed my computer many times…

With some shot changes, it feels really good. The picture is real.

UE4 rendering is fast. When you set character movements and scenes, it’s like a real filming location.

I set up different cameras and shot a lot of video footage for me to edit my videos.

Then I imported the Premier video clip (the source file was deleted due to insufficient capacity and forgot to take a screenshot(ಥ﹏ಥ))

I added some footsteps. Added the sound of the forest, which contains the sound of the wind blowing leaves and the sound of birds. Also added the sound inside the cave, with some water flowing. Finally added the soundtrack to finish my work.

At this point all my work is done!

I made characters and scenes. Next I want to design my camera movement trajectory and character movement trajectory.

I have learned a lot from the lens design and character movements of some film and television works.

Here is a simple storyboard I drew.

Different color lines represent different things.

I put characters in the scene for shot testing.

I learned a little more about camera control in UE4. The video can be enriched by controlling the focal length and aperture.

Here is an example.

By using keyframes, you can achieve blur-to-clear effects.

Next week I’ll be blending character animation with the scene.

This week I will be animating characters.

It mainly includes some simple walking and squatting movements. And some expressions.

First I will import the model into maya for rigging.

According to the reference, I set up a walk action.

Then import them into ICLONE. good results.

Next week I’ll be doing storyboards and shot settings.

I did the woods scene last week. This week I will be doing a wonderland in a cave scene.

First I made a small cave out of stones.

I found some assets online and built a secret room with them.

Then I added a lot of plants, as well as gears in the assets. Lights were also added.

Add water to the pool.

Next I will make raindrops and dynamic water.

I used the emitter to make the water drop on the ground.

Then make some more changes.

This is the final show.

I’ll be doing the first scene this week. It’s a forest scene.

According to my reference. I found a lot of related tutorials online. I found that for the forest to highlight its mystery, there must be fog. If it is a sunny forest, it also needs a lot of fog to achieve the Tyndall effect. I wanted to make the forest not need too much sunlight, but to bring out a dark and mysterious feeling. This is also creating a contrast to my second scene.

First, I created a mountain terrain and attached materials using the tools that come with UE4.

After that I made some textures for the plants and put them on the terrain.

Put in some natural light, the effect is like this.

Now my woods are not mysterious enough. So I wanted to add some fog to enrich my scene.

The effect is not very good. Add another ExponentialHeightFog.

Now I am satisfied with the effect.

Next I will make the second scene.

This week I continued to address the issue of clothes.

Since CC3’s clothes are not compatible with DAZ, I chose another clothes.

First, I adjusted the textures of the clothes one by one.

Clothes look more textured now.

Next I’ll deal with the weight of the clothes.

Solved the problem with clothes. I imported the character model into ICLONE for testing.

I used ICLONE’s action assets for testing.

Next I will use the Unreal Live Link plugin to link the ICLONE and UE4 in real time.

The effect is very good. Next I will create some actions in maya and import them into ICLONE for the characters to use.

But I have to create the scene first. Because they are time consuming.

This week I designed my character model. I created a female character using DAZ.

According to my reference. I want to create an Asian face. Through DAZ, I can change the face and body of the model at will, and set her to my liking.

I downloaded a lot of assets online to dress up my model. Such as adding eye shadow, changing eye color and so on.

You can also adjust the figure of the model (I personally like to be thinner)

I adjusted the model’s face again and added makeup and hair.

I have adjusted for a long time about the model’s face. Because I want her to be closer to a real human.

Added costumes to the characters.

For the clothes part, I did not choose to do it myself but downloaded assets from the Internet. Because I don’t know anything about clothing.

But I found some problems. Cloth simulations are hard to do in DAZ. Clothes are penetrated by the body. It only applies to images to add weight to clothes. And put it in the action, the clothes will still wear the mold. Even if I import UE4 to do cloth simulation it doesn’t solve the problem.

I spent a long time working on the weights of clothes and found it difficult to solve. I’ve looked up a lot online, maybe importing the model into CC3 and adding the clothes will solve this problem. I’ll continue working on the model next week.

This week I found a lot of references to character and scenes.

Character Reference

This is the reference model of the character.

I wanted to model a character myself, so I looked for different styles of character models.

About clothing style. I have two thoughts.

• Chinese style

• Modern style

I will try two different clothing styles. Finally, decide which one to use according to the needs of the scene.

Scene Reference

Here are some references about my scene.

I will use UE4 to create these scenes.

At the beginning of the project I want to do part of the final project. But after thinking about it, I don’t want to spoil the integrity and continuity of final project. So for this project I am going to do a different theme. But the style is consistent with the final project. Think of this project as a preview.

What follows is the source of inspiration and project settings for this project.

Inspiration

The inspiration for this project is the ancient Chinese prose “Peach Blossom Spring”. (Translation may be wrong. Its Chinese is 《桃花源记》)

The Story of the Peach Blossom Spring is one of the representative works of Yuanming Tao, a writer of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. This article uses the clue of the whereabouts of the fishermen in Wuling to connect the reality and the ideal realm. Through the description of the peaceful, happy, free and equal life in Peach Blossom Garden, it expresses the author’s ideal of pursuing a better life and his dissatisfaction with the real life at that time.

Reference video

Theme Setting

In this project, I mainly wanted to show that the protagonist found a mysterious cave in the deep forest. Just like in “Peach Blossom Land”, the protagonist found a fairyland in the crevice of the mountain in a peach blossom forest.

For this project I want to create a female character myself. Use UE4 to build scenes of dense forests and mysterious caves.