In 2080, the civilization of the earth is no longer prosperous. With the economic depression and competition for resources, mankind is gradually heading towards self-destruction. In the most helpless situation, humans are facing the invasion of high-tech extraterrestrial beings, and these mysterious invaders are hiding in every corner, leaving humans with nowhere to escape. Faced with such a desperate situation, the only chance is to find a way to escape. From the laboratory to the forest, and the snow field, even if there is only a slight chance, people can only withstand the pressure and break through the ambush.
In this step, I focused on the lighting settings and fog effects. Since the lights and tones of the three scenes were different, I had to integrate them effectively. In addition to adjusting in Unreal Engine 5, I also made color corrections and adjustments in After Effect. Subtitles and soundtrack.
For the special effects of snow falling on snowy mountains, I used UE5’s Ultra Dynamic Sky plug-in. This way, I don’t need to synthesize it for compositing. I can adjust the parameters of the snow in UE5 when creating the scene to make it looks more realistic.
The following is the difference between before and after I did the colour grading in after effect. I finally decided to use cold colours as the main colour of the project.
The pictures below are my work window and the font I designed.
The first stage is setting up the scenes. I plan to create three different environments in the film, including indoor and natural landscapes. Because of the plot, it will be from indoor to outdoor. The first scene is a laboratory. I hope to create a mysterious atmosphere and give the audience a sense of oppression. The second scene is a forest. I want to make a burning forest, so I use some assets to help me create more quickly. The last one is a snow field, which represents the protagonist’s successful escape from the laboratory. This is also the first time I have made this type of environment.
I completed the modelling of the corridor scene in C4D and did the textures in Substance 3D Painter. I think that doing the textures by myself can better present the result I want, and can also train my skills.
For the forest scene, I focused on fog settings and lighting to achieve a more realistic effect. The water was the first time I did it in UE5.
For the snow assets, I used the Quixel Bridge model and adjusted the material in UE5. In addition to the texture of the material, I also used nodes to make the rocks look like snow.
I found many examples on websites such as Behance and Pinterest. I personally have collected many works of concept artists, so I have always wanted to make a concept short film, such as the two works below.
At the end of last semester, I started to learn Unreal Engine 5 independently, because today’s trend is to use real-time rendering extensively, which is also a trend in the industry. I mainly focus on scene construction and lighting, and hope to showcase my skills in this area through this project.
The following are the examples I used for reference. I think their lighting and details are well done, and the composition is also a decisive point.
After completing the scene in Unreal Engine, I divided the cameras into three shots and exported them to After Effect for editing. In UE, I set up such as camera movement and depth of field to make the picture more cinematic. I used 2.43: 1 for the part of the picture size. To present a more cinematic effect, I use different focal lengths of the lens according to the distance lens, medium shot and close shot so that the audience can see the whole picture more clearly while including the details of the scene.
In AE, I mainly do editing and colour correction. The scene made in UE looks flat. I wanted the picture to look more layered, so I used the Curve tool to adjust the contrast between the front and back. In real scenes, there is often fog in the distance of the ground, so I blurred the horizon of the mountain and sky to make it more realistic. Then I also adjusted the overall tone because I wanted to present the cold feeling of the project. I chose a blue tone to make the environment bluer and more consistent overall.
For the music part, I used symphony-like sound effects, paired with the quilt and the spectacular snow scene, to make the audience feel more involved. In addition to this personal project, I am considering adding this scene to my graduation production.
Next, I began to think about how to combine assets with the existing terrain. The points to be considered included the objects’ composition, size, and rationality. I used the rock of Quixel Bridge, the iceberg model downloaded from the Internet. What I want to do is in the polar ice field, so the frozen glaciers are formed by the mountains in the distant view, and the real scene, there are often huge rocks around the snow mountains.
Because the rocks are not covered with snow, to blend into the scene, I use the nodes in the blueprint to cover the stones with snow material. This is the most difficult part of the production process because of the nodes. The concept is relatively complicated, and I need to understand the concept and try many times to achieve the best effect I want. Then I use Foliage to generate freshly made stones on the terrain.
The pictures below is the final scene I made, with more details than the previous version
The first part of this project is scene set-up. In the initial stage, I found some materials and assets that might be used in Quixel Bridge. It contains many materials, including snow, snow-covered rocks, and snow with footprints. The assets are also quite rich, including snow-covered rock walls and icebergs.
Then I mixed different materials into a Blend Material to draw different textures on the terrain. This is a very practical tool for Unreal Engine. In a Blend Material, different materials can be drawn through different channels.
In the process, I watched many tutorials. In addition to using Unreal Engine more familiarly, I referred to other people’s works to arrange the existing assets into a more cinematic scene.
In the first stage I painted the base material which consisted of the frozen lake, rocks covered with snow, and the the snow.
Since I mostly did architectural and interior scenes in the past, I decided to build a natural environment this time. I have always liked cinematic scenes like Blade Runner 2049, which can greatly impact the audience visually. This time I plan to make a snow scene because I have found a lot of example works, and the snow field is a type that I have not tried. I like the snow mountain map in the Battlefield 5 game because it can make me very fascinated when playing. I use Unreal Engine because it is a powerful and versatile game development engine that can be used for creating realistic and immersive environments, among many other things. In addition to realistic assets, it also renders real-time, so you can directly see the effect of the current production, and the rendering speed is faster than other rendering engines.
I hope to use Unreal Engine to create a realistic environment for this personal project. Since college, I have been studying 3D for more than 5 years. I have actually made it from modelling, texturing, lighting, rendering and other processes. Then I discovered that the part I’m most interested in is texturing and lighting, especially making natural landscapes or interior scenes.
