Please go FULL SCREEN! Me little effort is in glorious 2K.
I upload to this site something like three times a year, only – so I’m fixing to think I can be forgiven for getting a bit wordy here for once.
This video was made within Unreal Engine 5 which is primarily a gaming engine. It’s a lot of folks’ thing, but I have less than zero interest in gaming. I’ve been aware of UE5 for quite a while, but even if it could be used for film making – and I wasn’t sure at the time – I really didn’t want another 3D software learning curve given it’s taken me years to only do basic stuff in the Blender 3D program.
But first of all I had to find out the cost. Some 3D programs, like MAYA for example, are serious money. There you go – MAYA is, as of this, £1,968. No, not for life – that’s for a YEAR. So, the first thing I had to check was that UE5 wasn’t crazy money and holy shitballs, turns out it’s entirely free. My word, man alive and chuck in a Yikes! too. Blender, by the way, is also entirely free. That's magnificent.
Here’s that word ‘but’ again: But is it a useful tool for video makers? Can I import footage and render scenes? The other must of course was animation. Can I easily animate with keyframes? The go-to site for all the answers was YouTube of course. A yes to all of the above – flaming excellent and decision made – I’m going to use it for the next project. I suspect I’m doing a good job here of mixing tenses.
I install it and right away I get a message which basically said: ‘Your PC is an underpowered piece of crap — so expect extremely poor performance.’ That did it. Within a couple of days I had a new tower ordered which is somewhat more powerful than the last. Problem cured.
One of the things that appealed to me the most with Unreal Engine was/is the drag and drop aspect – but more specifically, how any mesh (model) added reacts to any light in the scene. Even wildly unqualified me knows there are three essentials when it comes to VFX realism. They are lighting, lighting and lighting. So, I can introduce a model to the scene and it will automatically react to the lighting? Whoa – awesome. There was still some jumping through hoops of course – naturally and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The car’s windscreen wasn’t reflecting light and that simply had to be fixed. Check this box, uncheck that, enter this amount in this field, select this drop down from the menu, change so and so to so and so etc. This had better work… Yes, result! Took me days to find the solution but got there. Got loads of little anecdotes like that – but to avoid your eyes glazing over…
Why do I make these frivolous little things? Put it this way – I’d rather empty the Atlantic ocean with a ladle than make a boy meets girl thing. I’d sooner clean every square inch of the Eiffel Tower with a toothbrush than make some ‘socially aware’ bore-fest. No, I want to blow shit up and fly spacecraft! Shoot things. You’re more likely to see a murmuration of Dodo birds than see me make a thing about unrequited love. Oh, please. I’d rather clean the Sydney Harbour Bridge with my tongue than… okay, the picture you get.
Where did I get the Japanese 'block', the car and train etc? Simple. Unreal Engine has a Marketplace. Search for what you want, pay for it and import it into your project.
It is very true to say I’m a little bit fixated with visual effects.
Don't forget - this video is the very first thing I've done with Unreal Engine. So cut me some slack for that reason if this effort is lacking in any way.
Oh, don’t do what I did. I knocked the camera over and it meant the end of my £400 lens. I didn't even realise the tripod was falling over until I heard the thud. Luckily it wasn’t the £1,000 prime lens and extremely lucky the camera body was undamaged. The kit lens is very dead though.
For folk wondering about music copyright. I belong to a site which provides copyright free music. Simple as that. No copyright strikes coming my way - and I don't even have to credit the composer. I'd be more than happy to do that - but no information is given in that regard.
For the Geeks: Software used: Unreal Engine 5.0 & 5.1, Blender, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder. Anamorphic Cinema Camera UE5 add-on.
Hardware: SONY A7C, RØDE lavalier, ZOOM Hn1 digi-recorder. 2 x NEEWER LED lighting panels, 2 x FOSITAN soft boxes, Green Screen by LUXBURG, 21 bulb LED light with barn doors.
Aspect Ratio / Resolution: 2.35:1 @ 2K (2048 x 871).
Have seen this thing – probably on Instagram where editors post a screen grab of an entire timeline – for example, Game of Thrones. Well, I can do that! Here’s the editing timeline of me little movie.
More Geek stuff!:
I upload to this site something like three times a year, only – so I’m fixing to think I can be forgiven for getting a bit wordy here for once.
This video was made within Unreal Engine 5 which is primarily a gaming engine. It’s a lot of folks’ thing, but I have less than zero interest in gaming. I’ve been aware of UE5 for quite a while, but even if it could be used for film making – and I wasn’t sure at the time – I really didn’t want another 3D software learning curve given it’s taken me years to only do basic stuff in the Blender 3D program.
But first of all I had to find out the cost. Some 3D programs, like MAYA for example, are serious money. There you go – MAYA is, as of this, £1,968. No, not for life – that’s for a YEAR. So, the first thing I had to check was that UE5 wasn’t crazy money and holy shitballs, turns out it’s entirely free. My word, man alive and chuck in a Yikes! too. Blender, by the way, is also entirely free. That's magnificent.
Here’s that word ‘but’ again: But is it a useful tool for video makers? Can I import footage and render scenes? The other must of course was animation. Can I easily animate with keyframes? The go-to site for all the answers was YouTube of course. A yes to all of the above – flaming excellent and decision made – I’m going to use it for the next project. I suspect I’m doing a good job here of mixing tenses.
I install it and right away I get a message which basically said: ‘Your PC is an underpowered piece of crap — so expect extremely poor performance.’ That did it. Within a couple of days I had a new tower ordered which is somewhat more powerful than the last. Problem cured.
One of the things that appealed to me the most with Unreal Engine was/is the drag and drop aspect – but more specifically, how any mesh (model) added reacts to any light in the scene. Even wildly unqualified me knows there are three essentials when it comes to VFX realism. They are lighting, lighting and lighting. So, I can introduce a model to the scene and it will automatically react to the lighting? Whoa – awesome. There was still some jumping through hoops of course – naturally and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The car’s windscreen wasn’t reflecting light and that simply had to be fixed. Check this box, uncheck that, enter this amount in this field, select this drop down from the menu, change so and so to so and so etc. This had better work… Yes, result! Took me days to find the solution but got there. Got loads of little anecdotes like that – but to avoid your eyes glazing over…
Why do I make these frivolous little things? Put it this way – I’d rather empty the Atlantic ocean with a ladle than make a boy meets girl thing. I’d sooner clean every square inch of the Eiffel Tower with a toothbrush than make some ‘socially aware’ bore-fest. No, I want to blow shit up and fly spacecraft! Shoot things. You’re more likely to see a murmuration of Dodo birds than see me make a thing about unrequited love. Oh, please. I’d rather clean the Sydney Harbour Bridge with my tongue than… okay, the picture you get.
Where did I get the Japanese 'block', the car and train etc? Simple. Unreal Engine has a Marketplace. Search for what you want, pay for it and import it into your project.
It is very true to say I’m a little bit fixated with visual effects.
Don't forget - this video is the very first thing I've done with Unreal Engine. So cut me some slack for that reason if this effort is lacking in any way.
Oh, don’t do what I did. I knocked the camera over and it meant the end of my £400 lens. I didn't even realise the tripod was falling over until I heard the thud. Luckily it wasn’t the £1,000 prime lens and extremely lucky the camera body was undamaged. The kit lens is very dead though.
For folk wondering about music copyright. I belong to a site which provides copyright free music. Simple as that. No copyright strikes coming my way - and I don't even have to credit the composer. I'd be more than happy to do that - but no information is given in that regard.
For the Geeks: Software used: Unreal Engine 5.0 & 5.1, Blender, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Encoder. Anamorphic Cinema Camera UE5 add-on.
Hardware: SONY A7C, RØDE lavalier, ZOOM Hn1 digi-recorder. 2 x NEEWER LED lighting panels, 2 x FOSITAN soft boxes, Green Screen by LUXBURG, 21 bulb LED light with barn doors.
Aspect Ratio / Resolution: 2.35:1 @ 2K (2048 x 871).
Have seen this thing – probably on Instagram where editors post a screen grab of an entire timeline – for example, Game of Thrones. Well, I can do that! Here’s the editing timeline of me little movie.
More Geek stuff!:
