Real time animation with the use of Unreal Engine has a say in your decision of choosing a 3D animation studio for your new animation series’ production. As we are in the middle of an era seeing exciting advancements in technology. Real time production and now it’s real time virtual production time. It is changing the way we tell stories.
Unreal Engine – The powerful tool behind real time, virtual production
This relatively new process in filmmaking has actually been evolving for some time now. With advances in real time development platforms like Unreal Engine and with modern graphics processing technology with the latest in GPU architecture, we are able to tell stories in a much more organic and creative manner.
Let’s say, you are in Europe. And your 3D animation production partner or studio is in Vietnam. How could a partnership based on remote working be possible when both of you are not in the same continent and time zone? The answer then must be you’d better choose the studio capable of real time animation using Unreal engine.
Why we say so? Seeing is believing. Just watch behind the scene video below to see how Unreal Engine help real time virtual production.
Virtual Production Launch Promo
A film set utilizing virtual production with Unreal Engine is able to take advantage of advanced interaction. New levels of realistic lighting scenarios, machine learning, artificial intelligence and real-time visual effects.
All of this allows for real actors with live-action feeds to mix with CG elements directly on stage in the midst of production. This allows for live, real-time decision-making on set.
Behind the scene – Real time Virtual Production using Unreal Engine
So what exactly is virtual production? Well, virtual production is the process of creating digital worlds that starts at the inception of the film and ends with real-time visual effects. All of this is centered around real-time interaction on stage. This enables production crews to see their scenes unfold as they’re composed and captured on set.
Therefore, in summary, virtual production is where the physical and digital worlds meet. The traditional moviemaking process, locks in people and ideas early on. Whereas virtual production allows for early interaction of all major components into a more immersive practice that brings the art and visual effects process into the heart of the action.
By combining real world actors with CG props and environments live from Unreal Engine. It is possible to achieve final shots live on set. This is possible by using led walls to display an Unreal Engine scene, or a digital green-screen for real time in engine compositing. Significantly accelerating overall production times, this enables real-world actors and props to receive interactive lighting and reflections from the CG environment. And in some cases, eliminates post-production workflows.
As the cameras moved, the Unreal Engine camera moves with it in the 3d world, producing realistic parallax through the lens. This is possible by utilizing live link technology, which lets you connect a stream of real-time data to unreal engine, including cameras lights and other production roles. Changes can be made in Unreal Engine live on set, enabling scenes to be edited in ways that would traditionally be extremely difficult, time-consuming or downright impossible. Changing positions of props for a particular camera angle or shot, for example, involves interactively picking it up and moving it.
Animation production studio could take advantage of some of the most-used function in Unreal Engine to aid content creators in remote working. These most-used function are known as engine’s multi-user collaboration tools, the nDisplay and live compositing systems.
Remote multi-user virtual production using Unreal Engine
In time of lockdown and quarantine due to Covid 19 pandemic, the real time production now has been even replaced by the term real time virtual production. This term means to co-create and produce CG films or videos in virtual engine. Real time virtual production has become the new-normal way of filmmaking in time of Covid 19 pandemic.
So what exactly is remote multi-user virtual production?
Remote Virtual Production with Unreal Engine | Spotlight
That’s how remote multi-user virtual production was done. Excitingly, this is a set-up that in fact being followed right now by big and well known studios including Netflix to collaboratively previsualize content by their WFH artists.
The idea of virtual production was that you could have multiple machines that load the same scene across the network. So if you move one object on every single machine, it will feel as if the sequence happens simultaneously in Unreal Engine.
Scouting digital environments for shot placement is possible using virtual reality to explore and review scenes. With the use of VR tools including intuitive navigation and a virtual viewfinder, filmmakers can determine scene blocking and compose shots by taking screen grabs of the scene. This also allows for a very realistic, collaborative approach to filmmakers, by immersing them into the story they’re trying to tell. VR Scouting can also be used in conjunction with multi-user editing for powerful collaborative creative sessions. This is possible via a rest style remote control api that controls Unreal engine.
Conclusion
Unreal Engine provides the technology for creators to take full advantage of the latest, in cutting-edge real time virtual production. The power of the virtual production toolset and Unreal Engine is clear. With the best real time virtual production tools made available, large film or television productions or even smaller independent content creators can now create whatever in their mind. The sky is the limit!
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Animost – Vietnam 3D Animation Studio
hello@animost.com
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Consolidated by Animost in collaboration with Branding Simple
Reference Sources:
- Animation World Network: https://www.awn.com/
- Cartoon Brew – Technology: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/tech
- Befores & Afters – Visual effects and animation journalist: https://beforesandafters.com/