Last week I animated the footage of some scenes I had made, I just had to edit them together.

I chose Nirvana’s famos song ‘Something in the way’ as the background music. Because the guitar sound is very suitable for this British scene.

Summary

I used a new workflow for this experimental project, including the look development in Maya’s asstes making section, which was also my first attempt. I think this attempt is only 80% successful, because some parts of the production did not go as I expected. For example, I didn’t know at first that Arnold materials couldn’t be used in Unreal Engine, and all the material spheres I made at the beginning were gone, which led me to do the material process again in Unreal Engine. In addition, I also made a mistake, Maya’s Group information also can not be well inside the UE, in the UE inside the system directly I set up in Maya to distinguish the group into a model, so I can not adjust these models individually, which also caused some trouble for the later production. Because I don’t have enough time to test Maya and Unreal Engine’s live plug-in, this plug-in can connect the two software in real time, I can do animation inside maya at the same time, and UE on the other side will update my animation in real time, with this step my new workflow is complete. But no matter what, I am still satisfied with the overall effect, for the quality of real-time rendering is also better than I expected, the previously mentioned real-time animation connecting plug-in I will go to use in FMP and see what will happen then.

Blog Link

WEEK1: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/14/week1-story-setting-inspiration-technique-challenge/

WEEK2: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/14/week2-reference/

WEEK3: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/15/week3-assets-collection-look-development/

WEEK4: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/15/week4-character-in-daz-export-to-maya-workflow/

WKKE5: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/18/week5-layout-basic-light-in-maya/

WEEK6: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/18/week6-create-reference-complete-scene-in-maya-export-usd-file/

WEEL7: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/18/week7-import-usd-file-into-unreal-engine-make-unreal-shader/

WEEK8: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/18/week8-building-light-decals-shader/

WEEK9: https://zhenzhongliang.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2022/06/18/week9-cubemap-sequence/

I was going to start animating the camera directly this week, but when I had the camera at some specific angles, I didn’t put any models inside the store by the station, which looked very abrupt, so I had to make cubemap for those places first.

Cubemap is a very simple principle, and is often used in game production to save resources; Cubemap expands the HDR map into six sides: top, bottom, left, right, top, and bottom, and then places the maps in different locations in the correct box. The Unreal Engine has its own specifications for how different parts of the map should be applied, so I looked up the article in the Unreal documentation here: Creating Cubemaps | Unreal Engine Documentation.

Things become more easier when I found this guide. So I searched a interior HDR map which looks like in a restaurant or a lounge. And I also searched the github there is a website I can upload my HDR map it could directly divide into 6 parts by order. https://jaxry.github.io/panorama-to-cubemap/

Then I just follow the guide in Unreal Engine, put these different image by the right order in PS. One thing need to be mentioned, when this kind of cubemap be exported out of PS, you must have a Nvida texture Tools plug-in. The only way to ensure that the output format channel bits are displayed correctly in Unreal Engine is to use this plugin. And change the format into 32bits/Channel, 8.8.8.8 ARGB 32 bpp, unsigned.

Drag the cubemap into Unreal Engine and create a shader for that. There is a node in the Unreal Engine’s material system specifically for this kind of cubemap, because you will get an error if you connect the cubemap directly to basecolor or emisiive. Search the node ‘InteriorCubemap’ and link the UVW to cubemap’s UVs, it could be appeared correctly. And I also add another two-digit parameter node to the ‘InteriorCubemap’ node’s tiling to contraol how much size of this cubemap in assets.

About the sequence animation, cause I spent most of time of learn the new work flow so I could only shot some scene animation. I chose several angles about the human and did some simple movement. Also I added some rain effect by blueprint, these rain effects nicely enhance the sense of atmosphere.

This week I will foucus on the lighting, and add more details on the scene.

Unreal Engine is different from Maya in that it has a pre-defined physical sky sphere that completely simulates reality and can change day and night by adjusting the sun’s height, etc. So I drag a BP_Sky_Sphere into the scene, and turn down the sun height into -5, that’s a pretty nice deep night sky for my work. Further more I can also adjust the stars brightness, and I wanna keep them a little in the sky cause the mist I mentioned before could cover most of them. And I also add a little horizon falloff cause the skyball has some bright color in the border.

The next step is to add a directional light as the moon light, I also keep the low key of intensity about 0.05 lux. And choose a gray-toned blue-violet for the light color. And drap exponential height fog into the scene. The fog system is also great, but this time I just want to have some volume fog. So I turn off other option just keep the volume fog on. Until then I alreay done 70% light effect.

So I started creating artificial light sources. I first chose to put a point light source on all the lanters, and then adjusted the light color and scattering range, which was great. One of the most exciting things about working in Unreal Engine is being able to see the results in real time, and I must admit that at some point it motivated me to keep working on it. Then I went on to create some spotlights, some in front of stores some at the front of trains, and increased their volume fog impact values, and I enjoyed seeing this Tyndall effect lighting.

The lighting effect is basically complete, in order to enrich the whole scene I also did some decal materials, these materials are like Maya’s transparent mapping, I used this material to do some wall graffiti and warning lines on the ground.

This week I will import the USD file into Unreal Engine, and if the process goes well I can even try to make some shots.

In UE5 if you wanna import USD file make sure turn on the USD importer and USD multi-user synchronization in plug-in manager, if not you can not find any places import USD.

After that you could find USD stage in the virtual prodution under the window button. Jump into it you could export the USD file. On the left side there are the groups and assets information, on the right side there is a attribute editor. You could directly move or do other things on this stage, all the changes will rewrite the USD file, basically this is a live update of the file. If you want to change to other 3D software such as MAYA, 3D Max, etc. will not have any impact, all changes will be updated, this technical process can be used in almost all major 3D software. Especially for large scene files, this is very convenient, to my project for example, Maya source files are about 500MB, if you use the USD cache process is only 35MB.

I now successfully export in my Unreal Engine project content, next make sure everthing is fine you could swich all the assets in Unreal assets cause now all of them it’s still cache file. After swich your are free to do anything such as lighting, this is tricky Unreal Engine can’t iidentify Maya’s light and Arnold material. So there is a huge work I need to solve, I need to create one more time about the material and rebuild the whole light enviroment.

Fortunately the Unreal Engine’s material system works very well, I can create a material sphere to be a ‘mother material’ and then create material instances from the ‘mother material’ to act as ‘child materials’, which is called a very good explanation of the logic. This way I only need to calculate the desired effect in ‘mother material’ and build all the nodes I need, in ‘child materials’ I only need to replace the map and adjust the parameters in the preview window, all the ‘child materials’ do not need to link nodes or calculate again.

Here I use the ‘mother material’ and ‘child materials’ created for the building as examples to explain in detail how to use them. Firstly I create a basic material for the building and rename it as ‘M_building’. Then double click and jump into material icons like the hyperlink in Maya. Drag all the needed maps of one of the models into the window, and link them in right position. Here I also add some nodes, I want to have a place to control the normal map’s intensity so I link the RGP out in a multiply node and add another single-digit material expression constants and link in B in multiply node. So that I could control the normal map’s intensity by change the number in the single-digit material expression constants. Same way to control the UV. And don’t forget to convert all nodes to constants and change their names to the ones you want, otherwise they won’t be visible in ‘child materials’. Everything set up just save it. The ‘mother material’ is already done.

Then create a material instances by the ‘mother material’ and rename it as ‘MI_XXX’, the difference name is just to identify which are material instances. Double click in it the window is different. You could see all the nodes I added is in the right hand side by some form of attributes reconciliation, all I need is just turn on which attribute I want to make some changes. Also the maps must be replaced to what you need for single modle.

Anyway by this method, I quickly redid all the materials and added some new nodes to better control them. Next week I will rebuild the whole lighting system and maybe I will add more prop lights because it is very easy and fast to calculate these light effects inside Unreal Engine and I can do more stuff in this scene.

I’ve done layout work last week, so this week I need to reference asstes I’ve done the look development before into the scene and continuely add more details in it. Finally I will export the whole scene as a USD file to Unreal Engine.

Referencing into scene is simple just click the button ‘Create Reference’ which under the File button. And choose which file you want to reference. So I quickly did this step and put all assets I need in it. And drap them into different places.

Even though I dragged in some full assets, the scene looks pretty simple right now and I need to add more details. First of all I found a brick street material from Quiexl Bridge and cause the story happened in a cloudy deep night enviroment so I wanna the ground surface have some small puddles. So I send this material into Quiexl Mixer to add a water plane and edit the reflection and the height.

Finally I import the power line pole in the top and back of the station, and choose a hdr map to control the whole scene’s brightness.

For the USD file, it can now only be exported in Maya via Maya 2022 and above. One thing need to notice that you must change the subdivision method into Catmull-Clark and trun on the Color and UV Sets.

I already have all the models I need, so this week I will build the layout and create a basic light set for this scene.

Firstly I drag a normal basic human model which from the Maya content browser into the scene as a size reference system, so that I could confirm which size is the most suitable for the character. Next I creat a plane as the ground horizon, and add 2 box as the station platform. Then add another box to represent the train and put it between the two platform.

Next step is create the building distributed on both sides of the station platform it could be some shops or waiting room. And I also wanna to make some power poles and grids on the top of the rail. As my observation there are many stations that are equipped with similar facilities, perhaps antennas or signal lights and so on. Besides it could bring more tension to the picture of the train entering the station.

I particularly like the misty weather at night, this is my deepest impression of the British weather. So I firstly turn on the volume in Arnold, and add some area lights to brighten from the back of the scene to the character and imitate the natural light. And I also make the color temperature more cold cause it’s deep night. Then add another area light in the opposite direction to imitate the humanmade light source from the station. And I set the color temperature more warm close to orange and yellow. I wanna this light is the main light so that I could have a bright warm color in the front and cold color from the back it would have a very good effect of contrast between warm and cold colors. Furthermore I turn off the volume of main light, cause it will bring more depth like the train break through the fog to the train station.

For the character I’d like to create it in DAZ cause it’s efficient and I could have a basic joint group so that I can have a character with skeletal binding information in a short time.

First of all I decide to use Genesis8.1 as my basic DAZ model. Then I would add other props on it, for example the hats and the dressing. Adjust the position to the right place besides you could also add another face controls in it.

Then export the human with rigging infromation, just remember one thing make sure click some settings like Merge Clothing into Figure Skeleton and Collapse UV Tiles. This is the right setting for DAZ to Maya.

Turn to Maya I now have a nice topology human model with rigging, then I create several shader for him and link the maps to right place. For the skin I wanna to imitate the skin’s scattering effect so I made another SSS texture for the scater chanel.

Finally again in look development process. I added the color set again which I used last week for scene assets. I didn’t make too many changes this time, and it worked well in every way. I just turned down the Alpha Gain of the Rounghness map of the eyes a bit to make them look a little more hydrated.

This week I’ll mainly collect several assets for example the buildings behind the station, the lanterns in the station etc. Of course I will model the train cause it’s a very important prop in my scene.

Firstly I searched some old European residential dwellings, and I searched for traditional British architectural styles the Neoclassical architecture. Cause the limitation of the time I need to handle another project. So I download some these building assests with textures.

This is a collection of packages, all I need to do is pick some of them that I think suit for my scene. And set it as a group and freeze transformation for better control. I picked 3 of them in totall that’s enough. Then I go to the individal model to do look development.

In this step I just need to have a basic skydemolight. And then I will give each part a separate material and adjust the material according to my needs. For example the roof was originally a light gray, but I didn’t think it resembled many of the roof colors I’ve seen in the UK, so I adjusted the color offset in the base color to make it a little more reddish overall. Look development is this kind of things handle the assets separately so that they are under the same set of color management. You can also create a color version and two material balls next to each other that are smooth and not smooth. The purpose of this is that your assets are under the same set of material system, so that you don’t have too many problems appearing in the rendering later. Especially in the production of large scenes, you often need a very large number of asset files imported, but they are produced when some in different lighting conditions so the need to adjust the back of the very large number of places, this can be a good way to avoid this problem.

I used the same method to make materials for other items, as well as model trains, and they look very good with this color system.

Follow by the story brief this week I mainly find some references on Artstation, these images would lead the whole visual effect and art design.

The very first thing for searching these references is that confirm the basic scene enviroment. So I quickly think about some key words about all the elements I want in the railway station. I searched some station’s images which happened in night and have mid fog weather which is quit good. Besides I prefer to have some crowded and tall building in the behind area, cause the rich usually live in a big house and not nearly the railway station, it will lend credibility to my narrative.

And I also find the character’s reference especial the pose of smoking, cause this pose would lead the audience to this man’s story which happened in his trip before. So I searche this and find Mads Mikkelsen’s pose is a really good reference for me. Besides I wanna this man’s action keep low key and it would make the man more mature and looks reliable.

Finally I also search some images about the train. Cause it happend in the early of 20th, the train could be like steam train.

Inspiration

Last christmas me and friends hang out when we pass through the Waterloo station, I noticed some people take a travel bag and smoke outside. I quickly thought about this kind of person they are usually drifting outside and do not return home for many years. They might want to return to their hometown after many years to visit the people and things they know. But things are often not as they should be, and he will return home to find that everything he knew is gone. So I wanted to create a story like this to tell people to cherish the present moment.

Another important fact for this tiny story cause I was born in Chongqing near three gorges, the government was planning to build the Three Gorges Dam in the 1990s, so they had to move all the people out of the area. Many people have since left this land and gone thousands of miles away never to return. Many people want to come back and visit again when they find that their hometown is gone and their neighbors are scattered across the country. These things happened all around where I grew up, and I watched them happen. So that’s another reason why I wanted to go for this inspiration. By the way Jia Zhangke made a film about this thing in this area Still Life (2006) he provided a more complete story about this.

Story Setting

Cause I now stay in the UK, so I wanna this story happened in this country. And recently I’m really into the Peaky Blinder so I probably make the character like Tommy Shelby or others in this series. Besides it could happened in the old times maybe the early of 20th centry. And the location should take place near the train station in the village area, these places are low income, most people are willing to run outside to earn a living, which is more in line with the setting of the story.

So I have a story brief: One Christmas in the early 1900s, a man with a suitcase was waiting for a train at a country train station. The train was coming in, and the man was smoking and looking off into the distance, recalling the stories he had been telling along the way.

Technique Challenge

This time I notice a new work flow that could merge Maya prodution method with Unreal Engine the USD work flow. USD file can save all the scene as a cache people could swich to every 3D software such like 3D MAX and C4D and of course Unreal Engine, and all the changes will be updated by this file so there is no worry about different software’s limitation. I would follow the Epic offcial guidline video to make this story by the way test the new USD work flow, I believe it will be more efficient so I can use in my FMP!