Journey to Midgaard

Journey to Midgaard

This project was realized for my mid term exam in my 2nd term (5th month in the school) in PIXL VISN. The requirements were to finish a minimum 5 second animation featuring a predetermined character rig complete with a modeled and textured scene. Only the vegetation (including rocks) could be used from outside sources.
We were given one week to accomplish the task.

Furthermore, this was my first time using the Unreal Engine as I wanted to try it out for some time and this opportunity seemed like the perfect fit.

I will roughly document the making of this project to illustrate my working process, what I learned and what I take from this experience.

Software used:

- Unreal Engine 5 -> setting up the shots and rendering
- Maya -> hard surface modeling and turntable rendering
- Blender -> hard/soft surface modeling
- Substance Painter -> texturing
- xNormal -> texture baking
- Nuke -> compositing
- Davinci Resolve -> video cutting
- zBrush -> soft surface modeling
- Quixel Bridge (Megascans) -> secondary assets

                                                                                      Main Inspiration

Project Plan and Inspiration

When I heard about the requirements of the exam I decided to try out the Unreal Engine for the first time.
I knew, I wanted to create a massive outside scene with no limitations on the polycount or particle effects since the engine could handle that in the given time.

After browsing Pinterest for inspiration I found the picture above by Ling Xiang. I knew that I would base my scene closely on this reference and started blocking out the main shot.

I know that a little more planning ahead would've helped me realize the project to its full potential, however I wanted to see how far I can push myself by making crucial decisions along the way instead of before starting.
This is when I remembered the League of Legends cinematic "The Call", specifically a short 3-shot sequence of a character climbing a mountain. This then became my reference point for the short animation and setting of my scene, although it is rather visible that my focus was lying on the main shot.

Asset Creation

Since the first to shots function as an introduction and buildup to the character and story, I planned on not using any selfmade assets for these shots and concentrate on the main shot for all the asset creation.

The main assets I wanted to create were:

- The chain bridge
- An axe
- The ruins in the background

I started out by modeling a 3-way arch for the ruins in Maya which I then refined and weathered in zBrush. Afterwards, I baked the details from the highpoly model onto a normal and ambient occlusion map via xNormal. Then I textured the model in Substance Painter and transfered that onto the lowpoly model.
While this process was very insightful and incredible fun, I realized that I would lose too much time trying to create a whole set of ruins with this method.
Therefore, I decided to cut corners on the models that would be barely visible anyways and concentrated on the bridge and the weapon the primary character is holding.
For the axe, I used a similar process. However, I challenged myself to get back into Blender as I have not used it in the 5 months that I have been stuying at PIXL VISN.

Setting up the Scene

A week prior to the exam, I watched a a tutorial for the Unreal Engine 5 in order to get a first look at the program.
That did only marginally help with the overwhelming feeling of using the engine for the first time. Getting used to the Unreal Engine was by far the biggest challenge of the project and there were multiple moments where I caught myself wondering how much simpler it would be to realize the project in another program.
However, with every day I got closer to my original vision of the project and overcoming all the small problems along the way made it an overall rewarding experience.

The character required for the project ended up being quite tricky to integrate into the Unreal Engine as well as animating it in the first place. That is why I decided to let it take a backseat in the shot and concentrate on the Thor rig I found on Agora, as we were allowed to use additional rigs.

Luckily the Thor rig came with a dedicated export group in Maya which made it rather easy to adjust existing animations. The Wraith rig on the other hand needed to be cleaned up and exported as an alembic which was rather time consuming.

The following 2 screenshots from withing the engine show the first 2 shots from a side view to demonstrate how I build a small second set to combine the shots without much additional effort. The second screenshot shows the ruins in a closer look with the wraith. I tried to balance its size with the lack of detail in animation in the finished shot.

Finally, the chains were created using a MASH object in Maya which follows a curve. Throughout the project I continually brought my project between Maya and the Unreal Engine to check measurements or create accurate positions for the animation and assets. 

All the post-processing effects were done in the engine itself or added in nuke such as minor color grading.
While I realized the potential of the Unreal Engine to do lots of the cinematic work for me, my lack of time and knowledge led me to cutting several corners in my production.

Final Thoughts

However the compromises, I can still say that I am proud of my first project in the Unreal Engine. Especially considering the time limit and the fact that I started this education less than half a year ago. I've already come a long way but my motivation to create more is fueled.
Without the constant feedback and motivation of my peers this project could've not been realized, I am deeply greatful of the people I get to work with.

I learned a lot in a short period and it proves again that my motivation to achive my own set goals pushes me to unknown heights.
I do not know yet on what I will focus my education on in the future but I cannot wait for it.

Thank you for giving it the time and reading my entry to this challenge, I greatly appreciate it.