This was a personal experiment from about a year ago. I'm not a 3D artist, but I'd been interested in dabbling for some time, so I took an 8-week beginners course in Unreal Engine. This project was the end result.
To achieve this, I had to quickly teach myself a number of other other software packages, including Blender, Substance Painter and Marvelous Designer. Prior to this, the only thing I'd done was that donut tutorial for Blender.
Dunes and columns were made from scratch in Blender. The statue was a kit bash of a Daz3D asset. Columns and statue were textured in Substance Painter. Desert texture was from Megascans. The woman was made in Character Creator, but her close up was done with MetaHumans. Her outfit was made from scratch and animated in Marvelous Designer; textured in Substance Painter. I did go to film school ages ago, so I knew a little bit about camera and lighting. I also knew enough After Effects to do some nice touch-ups in post.
I wouldn't consider myself competent in any of those 3D software packages. I was barely a beginner, hacking my way through iffy Youtube tutorials. The trick for me was getting things just good enough to work at that specific angle, in that specific framing with that specific lighting. The trick was taking a bunch of shoddy assets and figuring out a way to create a synergy between them; making it all work together to look better than the sum of it's parts. Smoke and mirrors. But that's filmmaking right?
I'm not a 3D artist, so I could only approach it as the kind of artist I am. I wasn't creating a 3D piece, I was creating a visual composition. I was thinking in terms of formal, spatial and tonal relationships. I was writing a poem. Each camera move was a verse. Each cut marked the rhythm. Every shot had to rhyme. It all had to mean something. That was my focus more than anything else.
It's been about a year. I'm sadly not much better at any of this. It just takes so much time to practice and learn. I'm hoping I do get the time in the near future. Or maybe I find work in the 3D world that has a use for what I do well.
Was featured at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival panel on virtual production.
The temporary soundtrack I'm using is a clip from Recuerdos de Luna by Nathan Youngblood & Soriah.
The temporary soundtrack I'm using is a clip from Recuerdos de Luna by Nathan Youngblood & Soriah.
Link below for CGPro Unreal for Filmmakers Level 1 course.
