#assessment 1a

[nickgcgtoolkit]

This week we looked at introducing character and character animation into unreal engine. To begin this week i had a lot of trouble trying to get the ARTv1 from the epic-games market place to work. I looked around to see what could be causing the issue with it but had no luck, i was especially confused as i was following along with the video tutorials. though today(monday 14th) i realised that i had been putting the usersetup.py in the wrong script fold. i had been putting it in the location on the drive maya is installed on rather than the my documents file path. once i had fixed this error of mine i set to work on understanding how to use ARTv1 in maya and moving between maya and unreal.

though from this weeks task i realised that all the models that are used by the art tool are rather basic they still have massive potential for use in general animation and in unreal. Like with the only needing to create one skelton/mesh and then applying multiple animation to the same skeleton and the same the other way.

I think that using the ART tool early on in the production process is best for a pipeline as it allows animators to work with a base model and start build an animation backlog that can be altered later if need be. but it also allows animators to see how the character and animation will interact with the world that they create.

Time breakdown

Troubleshooting - 7-8 hours

working-3-4 hours

experimenting- 1-2 hours

as stated at the start spent alot of time trying to make the art tool work. but looking to spend more time playing around with the tool.

[nickgcgtoolkit]

Render Passes

Here I have the different render pass I created using unreal. 

First up is the combining of the three render passes. though I wasn’t quite able to get the banner/AE object to work I plan on looking into it more to see where I went wrong as it would be something that id like to play with more. 

secondly is the render pass containing the base colour render

third is the depth render of the scene, I feel like this is where I was having troubles when I moved into After Effects, I intend to look at the depth rendering to see where I was going wrong.

and lastly, i have the final render which I’m really happy with.

[nickgcgtoolkit]

Reflection

Before starting this project/assignment, my knowledge was limited when it came to working in unreal engine. I had only imported and created a scene using models outside of unreal. though with having completed the majority of the grey boxing for the scene I was very satisfied with the result that I was able to produce whilst still learning and adjusting to the building in unreal.

I found the process of grey boxing fun, you are able to achieve good results in a lot less time than traditional modelling. which is nice for creating a rough layout of a scene or environment, but I also enjoy the simple appeal of grey boxing and its style. I like the fact that you could grey box a scene and test out camera movements with ease, unlike other 3D programs where the task can be long and tiring. 

Through some trial and error at the beginning of the project, I found that getting the scale set up right at the start makes life easier in the long run. I did this by creating a cylinder that was the average height of a person (170cm) to then compare to the structures that I was creating.

The render time using unreal is great I had no trouble rendering out the final images sequence in 10-20 seconds which made seeing results or changes in the final version good. But also real times’ ability to always run smooth and not get caught up in frame drops really is nice compared to sometimes in other 3D packages. 

Break down of the week

5-6 hours build and adjusting to Unreal

2-3 hours looking at Epic games out on sequencer and various other videos.

1-2 hours reflecting on the process and what I had done for the week and looking at what I would like to have done by the end of next week.