cinematic sequence - Darkness

Unreal engine cinematic sequence production

Role & Contribution

Sole Creator (Director, Environment Artist, VFX/Lighting, Editor, Sound Designer): Conceptualized, directed, and executed the entire short film.

Goal & Challenge

The goal was to produce a high-fidelity digital short film that leveraged a variety of 3D lighting, post-process effects, and custom VFX to create a singular, intense atmosphere. The challenge was demonstrating a mastery of the complete real-time production pipeline from initial concept sketch to final polished sound mix as a solo artist.

Process & Creative Strategy

This project demonstrates proficiency across the full spectrum of real-time production, with a focus on using technical tools to drive mood and narrative. The entire look was built around low-key, high-contrast lighting to enhance the feeling of isolation and darkness. Volumetric fog was heavily utilized to generate depth and an ethereal quality, specifically using light sources to cut through the haze. Custom particle effects were created with Niagara to serve as the magical/energy elements, which were then art-directed and tracked using Unreal Engine's Sequencer. The camera and character movement curves were custom-animated to control the pacing and dramatic emphasis of key moments. Multiple layers of audio was mixed to build a complex, layered soundscape that was synchronized with the cinematic cuts and light cues.

These drawings were some key shots that came to mind when I was in the ideating process.

I had a pretty clear idea of what I needed to make for the environment so whiteboxing wasn't necessary.

Capturing motion via LiveLink Face App is fun but you had to have a device that has a TrueDepth camera. But with the recent updates to Unreal Engine, you now just need any camera for the Metahuman Animator workflow.

Niagara is a really fun tool to play around with. You can create all sorts of digital effects with this tool and it works in conjunction with the Unreal Engine materials system.

With sequencer, you can set up cameras, animate your shots along a timeline. It's like a video editing software but inside a game engine. You can even put sequences inside of sequences and edit the master sequence right in the engine, if your scenes are optimized enough for your hardware.

My experiences with physical lights, cameras, lenses and camera rigs that are often used on film shoots really come in handy whenever I set up a shot in 3D.

Discovering, recording, combining, layering sound effects and ambience tracks to create a certain soundscape is one of the most fun and rewarding experiences when working on an edit.

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