NOVA - A Transformation Story & UE5 Cinematic

Inspiration, Concept, Reference and Storyboard

In 2023, I was invited to participate in the Epic Games Animation Fellowship. During a three week intensive, the goal was to learn the animation tools in Unreal while teaming up with other fellows to create an exquisite corpse sequence of shots, where one shot seamlessly blends to the next.  Each team member had a maximum of 15 seconds and was restricted to a single camera with no cuts in the edit (a oner). 

Earlier in the year, a seed was planted as I sandboxed with JangaFX's Embergen and started to become familiar with Unreal Engine's Niagara VFX systems.  I was having way too much fun.  That interest was coupled with the development of a teenaged girl character named Nubia, who is part of an IP named "Neo and Nubia" that I am working on with friends.  Nubia is outgoing, interesting and highly intelligent.  And that reminded me of my incredibly beautiful daughters.  Hence, my 15 second shot began to imbue all of the above.

The concept was simple: the transformation of a human character into a super being or creature.... but with all of the inspiration mentioned added to the mix.

Both the Hulk and Johnny Blaze came to mind when envisioning fantastic transformations.  I regularly utilize Shotdeck.com to pull reference for composition, color and style.  I was able to piece together a storyboard with shots from each movie reference to create a blueprint.

Image credits: "Ghost Rider", Columbia Pictures Marvel and "The Incredible Hulk: Edit", Axis Studios and Universal Studios

Rokoko Motion Capture (Body and Hands)

Motion capture was a lightning fast way to create the animation data needed.  I was actually happy with my very first take for the body and hands!  Nonetheless, I had a decent amount of clean up to do with additive animation layers and adjustments inside of Unreal.  Rokoko (Smartsuit Pro I and Smartgloves) is an excellent tool for getting you to 80% of where you need to be. 

Metahuman Animator Face Capture

Metahuman Animator is excellent for face capture.  The entire workflow is easy to step through.  Since my Rokoko suit captured neck and head movements, the same was disabled for processing the face performance in Animator.  I created additive animations to correct and further push the facial performance in Unreal's sequencer.

Previz and Camera Layout

One of the requirements of this shot was no cuts: a oner.  The restriction forced me to be creative with how to reveal what was happening to NOVA, building and creating anticipation towards an explosive ending.

My initial reference and storyboard really helped with my shot composition. It was a great guide for perspectives that seemed to work well with NOVA's movements as she transformed.

I maintained a focal length of 40mm for the duration of the shot, with the exception of the 1st second, where I started at 250mm for the closeup on the eye before zooming to 40mm.  40mm proved to be flexible for both closeups as well as wide shots.  I also maintained an aperture of f2.8 for a shallow depth of field which really helped to give focus to NOVA, especially during her closeups.  While the push and pull of the camera helped the shot to be dynamic, it also required riding the focus to keep NOVA sharp and the center of attention.

Metahuman Design

Metahumans are extremely versatile.  They are easy to create and are ready to be animated with high production value.  The one challenge is they can look a bit too realistic, especially for environments that approach stylization.  

One of my goals was to achieve a slightly painterly look with NOVA.  I wanted the shot to have a comic book-esque feel to it, but still maintain a high level of detail.  In order to achieve this, I reduced the roughness (shine) of NOVA's skin to flatten her a bit.  I pushed this further in engine by increasing both the source radius and soft source radius of each point light used in the scene to flatten her a bit more.  The materials created for the Downtown Alley environment (created by Emran Arts) had the desired painterly look I was searching for, so I primarily needed to focus on NOVA to match the scene.

Lighting and VFX

Lighting is one of the most enjoyable aspects of creating compelling and engaging images. My photography background allowed me to easily transition into engine to take full advantage of all of the exposure tools that the cinema camera actor has to offer.  But lighting is what makes it all come together.

I opted to use point lights in this shot to provide some  additional ambient lighting within the alley environment.  Often times, I'll use a rect or spot light to light my scenes, but I didn't want the directionality features that those actors provide.  The omnidirectionality of the point light served well to light both NOVA and the environment surrounding her with just enough falloff to make it feel more natural.  I used a 3-light setup with some additional side lights to accentuate the visual glowing effects on NOVA's arms.

All VFX were created in-engine using Niagara particle and volumetric effects.  This includes the floating emissive particle effects, the skeletal mesh driven glowing effect (particle), the 3D gas explosion behind NOVA (volumetric), the ground dust and swell when NOVA lifts into the air (volumetric), the whirlwind of debris that are constantly circling (particle) and the sparks that are emitting from NOVA's hands (particle).  Aside from the native flexibility and integration with other systems in-engine,  my favorite aspect of the Niagara is it's light emissive capabilities.  For example, the glow on NOVA's arms and hands were able to light here face when she was in the bent over position.

Editor Views

The following show the Unreal editor with sequencer, the animation graph editor for NOVA and the Niagara graph editor for the gas explosion.

Viewing Modes

Unreal Marketplace Environment - Downtown Alley - Emran Arts

I found the perfect environment for NOVA's transformation.  It is a highly detailed environment with a painterly feel.  The materials created for the included assets had just the right touch of roughness to come back from the edge of hyper-realism and felt like stepping into the page of a comic book.

Alternate Camera Angles

Sound Design and Final Edit

Sound design was a collaborative effort between myself and my partner in music, The Thumpmonks (Brian Gocher).  I was working towards  an electric driven and slightly unsettling soundscape that went from 0 to 100 within the 15 second short.  Most of the composition was done using Abelton Live along with a combination of various synths and samples.

I did the final edit in Adobe Premiere.  Premiere was primarily used to combine the final sound edit along with the loop seen in the final video.  I created two separate renders: one where you see a closeup of the eye and another where the eye closeup is the last frame of Unreal render.  I used a transition in Premiere to seamlessly blend the two together.

DRKR PXLS 2023 Cinematic Animation Reel

This is my 2023 yearly recap and Cinematic Animation Reel. 2023 was a year of leveling up in the real-time 3D, virtual production and animation space. This reel exemplifies that. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have creating it.

SOUND ON! The song “On Fire” on this reel was composed by yours truly (Akintayo Adewole).