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The Darkest Age - Unreal Engine Animations
Приєднався 31 сер 2011
I am delving deep into Unreal Engine 5 and the Metahuman animation pipeline. I am a cinematographer by trade, looking to create short films and other types of content using this incredible software. Watch this channel for various animation tests, short films, and BTS content on my processes.
How to Create the ULTIMATE Previz with Polycam, Metahumans, and Move.AI in Unreal Engine 5
Join our Discord! discord.gg/thedarkestage
What if I told you the future of filmmaking isn't just about what happens on set, but what happens inside a video game engine first?
Recently, my production company took on a challenging project: a short film about Alzheimer's Disease that required complex camera movements, intricate dance sequences, and seamless transitions between memories. But instead of creating a traditional shot list or storyboard, I tried something different. I decided to shoot the entire film... before I shot the actual film.
Using Unreal Engine, performance capture, and a lidar scan of our location, I created a complete digital version of our story. Crazy? Maybe. Overkill? I thought so too. But what happened next completely changed how I think about filmmaking.
This video is not a promotion. The short film was created in collaboration between my production company, Northwoods Revolution, and Morgan Middleton's produciton company, Morgancity. The other film shown in the video, Erlkönig, was also a collaboration with them, and can be seen here: ua-cam.com/video/b6sOfSKFXOs/v-deo.htmlsi=YAdiMJCPIftKQWbb
Business inquiries: www.northwoodsrevolution.com/contact
What if I told you the future of filmmaking isn't just about what happens on set, but what happens inside a video game engine first?
Recently, my production company took on a challenging project: a short film about Alzheimer's Disease that required complex camera movements, intricate dance sequences, and seamless transitions between memories. But instead of creating a traditional shot list or storyboard, I tried something different. I decided to shoot the entire film... before I shot the actual film.
Using Unreal Engine, performance capture, and a lidar scan of our location, I created a complete digital version of our story. Crazy? Maybe. Overkill? I thought so too. But what happened next completely changed how I think about filmmaking.
This video is not a promotion. The short film was created in collaboration between my production company, Northwoods Revolution, and Morgan Middleton's produciton company, Morgancity. The other film shown in the video, Erlkönig, was also a collaboration with them, and can be seen here: ua-cam.com/video/b6sOfSKFXOs/v-deo.htmlsi=YAdiMJCPIftKQWbb
Business inquiries: www.northwoodsrevolution.com/contact
Переглядів: 7 155
Відео
How I made this AAA battle scene in Unreal Engine 5
Переглядів 16 тис.Місяць тому
This is a high-level breakdown of a battle scene created in Unreal Engine 5. The scene depicts the battle between the Spanish Armada and the English Navy, in the year 1588. The Spanish were confident of victory going in, but Sir Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth I were able to defeat them in one of the greatest naval battles in history. I used Metahumans as the characters, and created the perfo...
Cinematic Motion Capture with Move One and Metahuman Animator - Unreal Engine 5.4 Beginner Tutorial
Переглядів 31 тис.2 місяці тому
Metahuman Animator has made AAA facial animation easy and cheap to create, but motion capture suits are still too expensive for many. However, there do exist some low-cost, easy-to-use full-body motion capture solutions, such as AI-based Move One. This is a detailed tutorial showing every step to creating a cinematic scene with Metahumans in Unreal Engine 5 using Move One and Metahuman Animator...
Move.AI and Unreal Engine 5 Metahuman Short Film - GIGANTIC JOE
Переглядів 12 тис.2 місяці тому
0:00-3:40 Short Film 3:41-5:03 Behind the Scenes This is another test of our AI-based motion capture pipeline, featuring Move.AI for the body motion capture, and Metahuman Animator for the face animations. This film features two custom Metahumans, which were converted using the Metapipe conversion pipeline. The sasquatch/gorilla dude has a custom groom, with nearly 500k fully simulated individu...
How I Use Move.AI and Metahumans to Achieve AAA Character Animation in Unreal Engine 5
Переглядів 28 тис.3 місяці тому
This is a breakdown and behind the scenes look at how we created a short scene testing out Metahuman Animator on a non-human creature, that has been converted to the Metahuman rig using Metapipe. We captured both performances at the same time. The motion capture is done using six GoPro 10's and Move.AI, and the facial animation is captured using an iPhone 13 and 15 mounted on a Rokoko headrig a...
Move.AI and Unreal Engine 5 Metahuman Cinematic - HACKER
Переглядів 17 тис.3 місяці тому
This is a short scene testing out Metahuman Animator on a non-human creature, that has been converted to the Metahuman rig using Metapipe. The motion capture is done using six GoPro 10's and Move.AI, and the facial animation is captured using an iPhone 13 and the Rokoko headrig, then processed in Unreal Engine using Metahuman Animator. The woman's voice is converted using ElevenLabs speech to s...
Orc vs. Knight CGI Swordfight - UE5
Переглядів 6 тис.3 місяці тому
Kill or be killed is the daily life of an orc. This film is the follow-up to my last film, ENCOUNTER, and is a piece in the ongoing saga of life from an orc's perspective. A deadly sword fight between an orc and a nameless knight. The motion capture was done using Move.AI and the facial animation is all done using Metahuman Animator. The orcs were purchased from Polyphoria, and the character ri...
Move.AI Unreal Engine 5.4 Motion Capture Short Film Using Custom Orc Metahumans - ENCOUNTER
Переглядів 17 тис.4 місяці тому
I was inspired by several asset packs found on the Unreal Engine marketplace, namely the Nanite Mangrove Forest from Meka Art and Modular Orcs from Polyphoria. The motion capture, or mocap, was done using Move.AI and the facial animation is all Metahuman Animator. Animation needed a bit of smoothing, but looks good enough. Could this be the beginning of an epic, untold Orc Story? Subscribe to f...
Braveheart Speech in Unreal Engine 5
Переглядів 4 тис.4 місяці тому
This is a test of the Metahuman animation pipeline. I used six GoPro 10's at 4k 60fps to capture the body, and a homemade headrig and iPhone for the face capture, then processed with Metahuman Animator. The speech is from Braveheart, obviously, and I have had it memorized since 7th grade. The Metahuman clothing is from the Medieval Armor asset pack from Polyphoria. I like the aesthetic, and wil...
Great stuff! I’m so pumped to get to work. This is so inspiring. I’m binging your videos today!!
This is awesome, thank you so much! Can’t wait to try this out.
We’ll never know what his real voice sounds like
This was great. I'm a filmmaker who has been dabbling in game dev to tell stories, so this is really useful.
I feel uncomfortable to watch this tutorial for free
7:15 that poor lady, she has really good skin why you had to do her like that
Whats version of your iphone 13? Standart, pro or pro max?
Just standard
Hi Charlie, I'm attending film school right now and this video is so valuable. I feel the workflows they are teaching are "old school" and this can save so much time. Its worth the time and effort for the actors to give their best performance because I'm a very visual person. I will definitely watch more of your videos.
I want to make my second movie ising this. Incredible amazing fantastic brilliant
This is so inspiring! I love your channel!
This was a great tutorial, thanks!
Hey! Thanks very much for this, really appreciate it! I have one important question: does it matter whether you have an Iphone 13 Pro or a 16 Pro for Livelink facial mocap or for Move One body mocap? I`m interested in terms of significant or relevant quality improvements in terms of capture? I`m really debating whether to invest in an Iphone 16 Pro due to better cameras or would a 13 Pro do the job just fine? Thanks!
I do not know if there is a difference, that is a good question. I used an iPhone 13 and it seems to do pretty well. I am just guessing, but I imagine the quality improvements would be small, if any. It's still 30 fps, and I don't think the resolution of the camera makes too much of a difference. There might be a difference in depth sensor resolution, but I am not sure.
Please don't give up, I could see your videos are always top-notch quality but it is not getting enough views does feel unfair. Your tutorials of motion tracking are like a new light for smaller groups that are trying to make something nice with a small budget like mine. I do not know how to express this correctly, but please keep up the beautiful work! And always thank you.
Thanks so much! I'm not too worried about it, the views will come eventually haha. We'd love to see what you are making, consider posting in our Discord in the community showcase!
Charlie you ROCK! I'm working on an Animated Film and we're in early stages. Would you happen to know a space or site, where animators who are proficient in Unreal are in a community? Im looking to collaborate/ commission a few short film projects. I'm wearing TONS of hats, and don't have the bandwidth to also be the animator. Any advice?
Thank you! The best place I can think of would be the Unreal Engine 5 facebook group or subreddit. But honestly I'm not sure. Consider joining our Discord and asking there in the general chat :)
I’m trying to replicate your diy helmet and I can’t find the vertical elbow piece between the phone mount and the long helmet rod?
a.co/d/7Y4qkRv Apparently I had the wrong link in the description
I can't even begin to explain how I have enjoyed ever bit of this tutorial, actually one of the best unreal metahuman tutorials I have ever had the pleasure of watch, everything is detailed out so perfectly that you have my upper most respect, I was afraid of unreal engine but just this tutorial made it possible for me to download and start my ventures, thank you so much Sir for this and I promise you that once am done with my project I will tag you.
This is excellent! Thank you for a great video!👍
I really don't like this Iphone gatekeeping.
I know! I think I'll do a tutorial using the new audio to animation tool, see how far I can get it without an iphone
Hi bro can you make a video on how to make a zack d films video
I think this is great. And if I could build this into my future budgets as a filmmaker, I will.
Thank you for sharing. It's the future of movie making.
How much does your move pro setup cost? Also any tips to reach out to the team? I've been emailing them for a while but haven't been getting a response
Move.AI costs $7k per year for the license, which allows me to capture up to two people at the same time
Sir if I may ask at 28:57 you deleted the Metahuman control rig for body AND at 1:21:32 it appears again when you are smoothing out jitters, how does it come again
Right click on the body in the Sequencer and select Bake to Control Rig
@NorthwoodsInteractive thank you for your kind response
Really interesting previs process, but I guess I will redirect the question you asked back to you 😅 do *you* think it was worth it? 25 hours of previz work sounds like a lot, but if you are spending 100-200 hours making the actual film, then I think it's actually worth it. I guess it would work well for large-budget and longer films, but curious what you think of doing this for shorter or indie films?
Totally fair point, and my answer is the it is totally worth it because I really like to elevate short films as much as possible, regardless of the budget. Basically, a short film should be a labor of love in at least some aspect. Otherwise, what is the point?
Amazing stuff! Kee them coming, please!
love the process/technique, being searching for a work flow on how to execute a short film/project....i like the process , i just wish i know how to create my own animations....the whole scanning process and using unreal engine is key, to show it to the actors so they know almost exactly what to do, is amazing....
I do have a tutorial on this channel showing a full workflow for using metahumans: ua-cam.com/video/Fp3P0tSnY-Y/v-deo.htmlsi=ZiLl5X5Mi9zk6o14
@@NorthwoodsInteractive wow this 2 hour tutorial is mind blowing, thank you so much broddy....
I have had somewhat similar thoughts regarding filmmaking on a budget. How Unreal could, with good use and preparation, become a tool that will allow indie filmmakers to think outside the box and not find themselves so constrained. I especially find it interesting to do a scan and be able to plan a shoot in advance, for those situations where you only have a limited amount of time to film on location - either because of the lighting needed, or because of a need to minimize an impact on the everyday lives of the people that live or use the locations for their day to day things. Very interesting!
Yeah I forgot to mention in the video, but we were able to get about 50 shots in a 12 hour day for this shoot, only possible by having the confidence and precision of a previz like this
What a giant waste of resources.
How so? I itemize the amount of time it took at the end of the video. It's not too outrageous compared to normal pre-pro timelines
This was a gem. Really appreciate that you shared this wonderful info in such a detailed presentation. Much Thanks!
@NorthwoodsInteractive So your Sequencer timeline is 24 fps, the body mocap is at 60 fps and the facial mocap is at 30 fps. Does it matter that we have different fps that don't match?
It's a great question, but I haven't seen any problem so far
The title sounds like you invented pre - production industry. Man, it doesn't change anything. There are people and companies that specializing in previzuailzation for last 30 years. Nice that you sharing what you are doing, but the title is anoying clickbait.
I know what you mean, obviously previz has been done forever. But I have not seen much, if any, previz done in UE5 using full performance capture with metahumans, and a lidar scan of the location. Lots of stiff mannequins or rough animations, but nothing that makes me feel like the movie has been shot and edited to a point that it really represents what the final film could look like.
@@NorthwoodsInteractive Plenty of them, actually! I don’t understand when teams don’t do this. A great example is War Horse(2011) by Spielberg. It was a movie previously made in previs, but there weren’t a lot of VFX shots besides the horse. Definitely worth checking out companies like The Third Floor. Cheers!
What a hater…😂
@@natewoods5225It's not hate; I appreciate what he's doing. This is just a discussion about the previz industry. Feel free to add anything valuable if you'd like.
Honestly I can’t even begin to image how kind someone has to be to share their process like this for others to see and learn from and for free too, and in such a digestible way. You’re a natural and thank you for all you’ve shared. I’ve been using what you’ve thought and I saw an impressive clips on Reddit and they directly sited you for what they learned. Well done and keep up the great work
Thanks so much, I'm really glad this was helpful! It's really fun sharing these processes. What was the subreddit you saw my stuff cited?
I couldn't agree more and the timing of this video couldn't have been any better. I'm currently working on my first feature-length film and this video will be a huge help and a guiding force. Please continue to share more such videos as a lot of filmmakers like me could learn from them. I'm curious to know if you've used a Mac setup or Windows for post-production.
Saves money for the most part.. Not exactly time.. As you'd spend time making the detailed previz
True, it does not necessarily save time in pre pro, although I am getting faster at setting up projects like this. It does save time on set, which is generally the most expensive part for indies.
@NorthwoodsInteractive yeah.. True.. Why I said it saves money. Cause with indie projects, time equals money. But it's a great approach I must say..
Super inspiring stuff! :) Thanks for your in-depth workflow! :)
movie ai sync livelink with head iphone capture in unreal timeline ??
The iPhone is using metahuman animator. I didn't do anything with livlink. Move.Ai also is not live, the animations are processes in the cloud, then imported to UE and retargeted
It's truly great. Thank you so much for sharing!
I've done few previz projects in Maya to UE pipeline and had to start learning the engine on my own seeing how powerful it is. Really hope it becomes norm for previz. Great video!
Yeah the real-time global illumination is game-changing, and Metahumans a re fun to work with once you figure out all the kinks
Amazing work process, this process will be way more usefull for budget Film makers. Congratulations and make more useful contents like this ❤
You had me at " ... Shocking, I tell you."
Great process tutorial! I vote for me of these videos on this topic. I use Polycam when I scouts and location surveys. I’m an Assistant Art Director. I love seeing more use case scenarios for all of these programs. Now I’m going to watch the rest of your videos. Thanks for these!
Thanks so much, I am glad you found it helpful!
THIS IS SO COOL> KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
Thank you!
Hi, this looks really nice, I'm here after watching your 2 hour or so tutorial on Crazyman in full. Really easy to follow/understand. I was wondering where did you find the KingKong character and did you animate the face using MetaHuman Animator also? I assumed MetaHuman was (as the name suggests) only for MetaHuman facial animations?
Thanks, really glad you found the tutorial helpful. The sasquatch guy in Gigantic Joe was a character on the Unreal Engine marketplace. It had blendshapes and was setup for LiveLink animations, but it was not a Metahuman. I bought the asset, then sent it to a character artist to convert to a custom Metahuman, so I could use Metahuman Animator with it. Same with the pig guy, and the orcs in my other videos
This is amazing, thank you! First one I have found that covers everything from start to finish for this topic and in perfect detail.
You should consider higher focal length for a more cinematic looking film.
Wow I definitely need more than one thumb up! What I great session, really well explained and always on point! Thanks for sharing your workflow!
This has helped me so much I can't express how much. You are professional, precise and thorough. I can't believe you only have 3.54k subs.
Hey, how do you not have a million subscribers? Unbelievable! Do you think that it would be possible to combine this workflow with Stretchsense gloves to get a better result with the hands? Thank you in advance!
Hey thanks! I am definitely interested in exploring this, and will look into it.
Hey Charlie, I randomly came across this as I've been tinkering with Blender & UE5 for a while trying to figure out a workflow. Absolutely blown away by your experience, thoroughness and attention to detail. Thanks for this! Definitely looking forward to more tutorials of this kind (if you plan on doing that) because as a complete rookie there are many more basic things I'd love to learn about, even something simple as animating along paths and keyframing, project structures or just render strategy since I suspect when it comes to a narrative there isn't linear animating & rendering. Anyway, just wanted to say, I'm extremely impressed and grateful at giving us rookies a bit of an insight into a UE5 workflow!
Hey, thanks so much. I've seen your videos, and your kind of content was the inspiration for this video. I really love your stuff! Please consider stopping by the discord, I'd love to chat more: discord.gg/thedarkestage Definitely planning on more tutorials in the future, covering some simpler animation stuff as well as workflow.
I just saw the mocap helmets, sorry for my earlier post lol
What face helmet are you using? Any recommendations?
Rokoko Headrig!