Last Dawn in Vietnam - Kevin Ebel

I recently watched “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and wow, what a blast! The setting really inspired me. As our end-term project deadline for PIXLVISN media arts academy approached, I became even more motivated to recreate a similar scene. Our theme was "Far East," and I knew the Vietnam War would be a perfect fit. It matched the theme and fueled my passion for creating an intense, war-torn atmosphere.

With only 7 days to complete the project, I had to get my priorities straight. After a lot of hard work and late nights, I'm thrilled to share the final result with you!

I hope you enjoy what I’ve created as much as I do, and remember, never lose track of your own dreams!

“Keep your creativity in motion”

Initial Idea:

Recently, I watched the movie “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and it really inspired me. The film was visually stunning and had an extremely compelling story, in my opinion. Ever since, I've wanted to create similar scenes: a person in the trenches experiencing their first war, capturing the panic, fear, and harsh reality of combat recorded from a first-person body cam. When we received the theme for our endterm project, which was "Far East," I realized I could adapt my idea to focus on the Vietnam War, maintaining a similar setting to what I had envisioned. With only a rough concept, I searched for references and quickly found some that fit perfectly.

The importance of reference!

Referencing is essential for creating outstanding work. Browsing platforms like ArtStation or LinkedIn provide valuable inspiration and help develop a clear vision of what you aim to achieve. It's a process of refining your preferences and understanding what resonates with you creatively. It gives you time to organize your thoughts, finalize your vision, and boost your confidence. So, take your time to explore and gather ideas—it's all part of the journey towards creating something truly remarkable

My Reference:

My approach to the project:

1: Initial thought:

Since I already had an initial idea that I thought was really good, I just needed to decide how it should look. I considered either a jungle-like Vietnamese setting or a completely worn-down war site inside a trench, everything bombarded and walked to the ground. Knowing our time is even more limited than before, I had to determine which idea was more feasible. I decided on the latter, feeling confident that I could achieve an acceptable result within the time constraints.

2: Reference work

As mentioned earlier, every project starts with the search for inspiring concepts, tuning into music that resonates with my ideas, exploring color themes, laying out designs, crafting narratives, refining compositions, and more. This process helps me develop a comprehensive understanding of my project, leading to the crystallization of a final idea and image in my mind.

3. Blockout

After completing the reference work and idea stage, I typically jump into Maya to create a quick blockout of my scene. This is a really efficient and fast way to build the first iterations and find the right camera animations. Normally, I create a rough blockout to start iterating on camera movements. However, since I wanted to create human-like body cam animation, I thought of quickly making one using my mobile camera. Unfortunately, the application that streams camera data to Maya is only available for iOS devices, and I don't have an iOS device. This was quite demotivating, so I decided to further polish my blockout without knowing exactly how it might look on camera. Realizing I would need to address the camera issue soon, I started hand-animating semi-realistic body cam footage and called it quits for now.

4. Detailing

After finishing the blockout stage, I proceeded to download some 3D scanned models and started creating tilesets for the next steps of my process to ensure fast-paced creation. I created three sets that I could duplicate and adjust slightly to ensure the tiles varied from each other.

After placing all the tiles, I added further detailing elements like corpses, ammunition, sandbags, sticks, and scattered wood. Following that, I created simple cloth simulations in Houdini for the entrance and the clothes draped over the fences. To complete the environment, I sculpted a quick wall to add more depth and placed it accordingly.

5. Composition

Since my scene is pretty hectic, I wasn't sure what kind of composition decisions to make. One key element was definitely the fisheye camera effect, which should give the impression of a body cam recording, making the viewer feel like the “protagonist” of the scene. This method helps create deeper emotions, as it feels like “you” are experiencing it firsthand. Additionally, I placed key characters, like the commander and the soldier in the trench, according to the rule of thirds to guide the viewer's eye to them.

I also used the road as a leading line to draw attention to the subjects.

6. Texturing

Texturing was a quick task for this project since most of my assets were 3D scanned models that already came with textures applied. On the other hand, I had to create the ground and wall materials, but both were fairly simple. For the ground, I used a relatively wet soil texture with some footprints to give it a chaotic, trampled look. The walls were a clay and stone mixture to create an excavated wall feeling.

7. Animation

Animation was a key part in creating a chaotic and panicked look, from the camera movements to the commander’s actions. Initially, I planned to use software to track my mobile device's movement for the camera animation, but it only supports iOS devices. So, I hand-animated the body cam movements using myself as a reference. I experimented with how I would react and move in various situations and tried to recreate those actions in the animation, which I am pretty satisfied with. 

The “I” character is only seen in the first 100 frames and has simple hand animations to make him more engaging. 

Next up are the commander and soldier. Initially, I planned to use highly detailed MetaHumans and motion capture their movements and facial expressions for a more realistic look. However, this also required iOS devices, making it more difficult. 

Due to these constraints, I attempted to hand-animate the MetaHumans but encountered several issues. First of all the rig of these MetaHumans a pretty complicated to maneuver, they also came without clothing, so I planned to create outfits in Marvelous Designer. However, with a tight timeframe of 6 ½ days, it was practically impossible to achieve the high-quality character models and facial animations I envisioned.

 So, I decided to scrap my initial idea and used a premade soldier model, applying Mixamo animations as a base. I then refined the initial animation to get closer to the desired result.

8. Lighting

I already knew that I wanted to create a cool, gloomy, dark, and foggy lighting setup, often seen in films and real life due to the enormous amount of gunpowder being shot and bombs exploding. I searched for a fitting HDRI to get a feel for how it should look. After that, I added some additional lights to brighten up the first scene, as it was very dark initially. I also created "bomb explosion" lights that I could individually turn on and off by rendering them as light groups.

What I’ve learned:

Especially during this project, I’ve learned that Reference as well as a well-planned schedule is important. You have to stay organized to make the most of your time and keep yourself on the right track! In addition to that, every Feedback I was able to get was gold in my hands. You can’t describe how much well-rounded feedback is taking off your back and keeping you motivated to move forward with the project! In addition to great Feedback, I could also deepen my knowledge of every Software I used during this Project

The importance of planning:

I can’t mention more often how important planning is! To make yourself a good plan is like crafting a detailed roadmap before embarking on a journey. It is essential. Even if your plan just focuses on the basics that have to be done you can still expand the plan in the end. Because of throughout planned roadmap, I was able to archive the things I wanted to archive and be satisfied and proud of my finished work!

Thanks a lot for reading this breakdown and I'm very open to any critique or feedback you have to offer me!