Category Archives: ue_term1

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Final Work

11th January 2024 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

This was my final assignment for my first semester in college.

It is set in the Longmen Grottoes in China and depicts an ancient grotto, eroded by time and nature, containing ancient Buddha statues and temples. The spiritual and religious elements embedded in the scene create a sense of mystery and shock that transcends reality.

I try to express my awe and respect for human civilization, emphasizing the combination of tradition and mysterious stories. In the depths of a distant valley, there is an ancient temple that has gone through many vicissitudes of life, and in the silence comes the sound of gentle chanting of Buddhist scriptures. A devout Buddhist stumbles into the temple and witnesses the “echoes of salvation” in front of a solemn statue of Buddha. As the bell tolls and the statue slowly collapses, a mysterious and distant voice calls out through the power of the statue’s destruction. In the end, the temple is transformed into a place of salvation, and the Buddhists finally understand the impermanence of all things, just like the quote at the beginning of the video: “There is no tree in Bodhi, nor is there a mirror in a bright mirror, and there is nothing in the first place, so where does it stir up the dust.”

I used ue5, houdini, nuke, zbrush, maya, and substance painter All of these programs are first time users, and there are many deficiencies that still need to be improved.

Background music: Ancient Traditions_Alan Williams

Some presentations about the nuke file and houdini file contents

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Week 11 lens of transportation in UE5

3rd December 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

Camera：Especially in UE5, I think this aspect of lens transportation is difficult for me. Because it’s not just a normal display of images, it requires adjusting the aperture, depth of field, and focal length of the camera, which I think involves a lot of knowledge about photography. I had to go online to learn more about the lens aspect of photography before I started trying to make some animations.

Understanding some basic knowledge of photography is very helpful for me to apply it to ue, because the camera parameters in ue are the same as those of real cameras.

In the ue sequence, I imported the fabric animation I had previously created and imported the geometry cache in the Level Sequence, which effectively helped me animate the fabric as it floated around the scene.

This part is very useful for me, I can change the size of the aperture and the focal length to adjust the depth of field. The larger the aperture, the brighter the image will become and the background will become more blurred.

In addition, there is also the “bloom” in the camera settings to adjust the camera’s light spot, making the image more atmospheric!

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Week 10 Final Work_Modeling and Mapping of walls

23rd November 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

Since I felt that the scene was very empty except for the part with the Buddha statue, I talked to Manos on Monday about the possibility of adding some walls, pillars or flags to the scene. So I started to build them in maya and used zb to add the Chinese pattern.

I found a reference picture that helped me to establish an understanding of the scene and be clear about its structure

I used the roof that I built earlier, and I continued to change it to this side wall

When Manos was helping me look at the scenarios, he told me that I could use alpha or normal to add subtle patterns to objects inside sp or zb, which helped me a lot. I think this is a very useful bit of knowledge and will help me quickly refine the content and details of the scene.

Using “curvature” in conjunction with the “dirty” map, you can create more rust marks and details on the stone pillars.

Adds more detail with lots of discolored dust in the corners

It’s very easy to use the mesh fill inside the sp, I don’t need to split the objects and I can spread the uv’s together and paste the materials at the same time.

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Week 8 improve scene model

16th November 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

First of all, I need to create a ladder for the scene. The steps I made at the beginning I thought were dull and unrealistic, so after looking for references on the internet I made another version of the steps and added it to the scene, which is more realistic and complete than the previous version. Finally, I used SP to create the texture of the stones.

I used zb to carve the shape of each step to make them look as irregular as possible.

But when I imported this staircase into the scene, I thought it didn’t look good and appeared too regimented.

Next, I’m going to switch to another idea and try again to build a staircase that is more in line with the style of my scene.

My experience in making stairs twice taught me that when I need to make individual objects in a scene, I need to find a lot of real-life reference images to make them as detailed and less rule-based as possible. Therefore, while refining the scenario, I need to make the atmosphere of the scene as consistent as possible so that it looks more complete.

I replaced the mapping of the Buddha statue with sp because I wanted to create a dimmer environment with mystical powers. So I didn’t use the normal stone material for the statue. Instead, it was replaced with a metallic body and has some flowing red elements in the seams, which is part of the story.

Next I will refine the details of the scene and add lighting.

Correction, I decided to change the red aperture on the back of the Buddha because after discussing with manos, I thought it was very fake

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Week 9 Cameras and Post Process Volume (PPV)

13th November 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

Cine Camera, Camera Rigs and UE5 Setup
Brief Cinematography: Exposure and Depth of Field
Workflow in UE5 using Cine Camera and PPV
Brief introduction to Sequencer (if time allows)

Today Emily describes the function of each camera, such as (Camera Actor): This is the most basic type of camera used to capture scenes in the game world. The camera can be attached to the player character or a specific location to capture content in a specified area. It is usually used for first or third person view.

reference video（about camera in UE5）

camera rig rail, which is a special camera type used to create customized camera paths. It allows me to customize the movement of the camera, simulating the action of a slide rail.

Simple bindings to simulate rocker type cameras

The larger the aperture, the blurrier the background and the greater the depth of field. The smaller the aperture and the clearer the background, the smaller the depth of field.

We’re going to go deeper into the mirror sequence, and then I’m going to add different scene animations to my own personal final work, and export the abc file from maya to my sequence to create the “fabric flutter” animation.

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Week 7 First attempt to put assets into ue 5

12th November 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

When I finished modeling the temple door, I planned to import it into ue, but there were some problems because the format I imported was not correct, and the curtain animation I made in maya did not show in ue, which made me very upset.

When I learned that there is a great software for making terrain called world. When I finish making the terrain in this software, a height map will be generated and then imported into ue5, which makes me no longer spend time to draw the terrain, saving me a lot of time.

Find some stones inside the bridge and import them into my scene. And I’m going to import the stone that I made earlier.

In addition, I need to make some wooden frames to support the background of the Buddha statue. As the background of a Buddha statue that has experienced many vicissitudes, from its establishment to its breaking, his eyes are also witnesses to the joys and sorrows of people.

This week I finished building the big scene environment, next I need to add stone columns and steps to the scene, and use sp to make the Buddha map.

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Week 7 Lighting and Global Illumination Systems in UE5

9th November 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

Types of Lighting and their Properties
Environment Lighting
Shadowing
Lighting Plugins
Tools for Lighting
Different types of Global Illumination: Lumen and Lightmass
Introduction to Lumen GI and Reflections
Post Process Volume and Lumen

Today, Emily teaches us how to experimenting with lights and atmospheric and experimenting with Lumen and PPV.

1/ point light

It can be very visualized that a point light source emits specific light in all directions in a very noticeable way. And the shadows of objects are sharper.

2/spot light

In order to see the role of light more intuitively, I will adjust the mode to “light only”, spot light is similar to the light will be gathered after the dispersion, I think a lot of stage lighting is suitable for this light source.

3/rect light

Rect light spreads the light source over a wide area, making shadows softer and not as sharp as with a spotlight. I think rect light is good for scenes where the object itself is emitting a small amount of light.

Next, I need to add volumetric fog to my scene because I need my statue of Buddha to have a top light shining down on it, which will give the statue a greater sense of mystery and holiness.

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Week 6 : practice of texture on maya

31st October 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

In this class we learned about how to expand the simple UV and find some picture about moon and earth on website, and then put it into the Maya.

for demonstrate the operation, I practiced it again on my own when I back home.

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Week 5&6 concept and storyboard of final work

24th October 2023 Yifang Liu Leave a comment

My inspiration comes from ancient Chinese myths and Buddha statues.

I wanted to create an ancient cave eroded by time， include ancient Buddha statues and temples.

My goal is to make 7-8 shots to compose the final animation and will use nuke, ue5, and maya to realize them.

Story Concept:
Set in the Longmen Grottoes from China, this concept depicts an ancient grotto eroded by time and nature, with murals and sculptures of ancient Buddha statues inside. The scene is strewn with withered fallen leaves and the rocks are covered with moss, giving the overall scene a long and sedate atmosphere.

Part 1：

Modeling attempts on rocks in the environment

In the process of stone making, I used a relatively complete process to make different stone shapes. First, I created many simple blocks in maya, then I sculpted them in detail in zbrush and expanded uv. Finally, I tried to use sp for mapping, but it was my first time to use SP for mapping. Therefore, I will have further optimized plans for the subsequent carving and mapping of Buddha statues.

Part 2：

An attempt to model a temple gate in Chinese style

In this section, I’ll create a complex roof element in maya, and I’ll use the mesh tool to create the tiles on the roof. In addition, I used the “nCloth” and “nConstraint” modules to create banners and other soft material objects. In this process I also added an animated presentation about the fabric. In order to enrich the elements, I made a Chinese-style plaque, which is a sign that can be placed on the top of the temple door.

【Maya中式屋顶制作、建模、3D模型、建筑模型】 https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1tj411r7y6/?share_source=copy_web&vd_source=40dc29ce4ec4b214a8d0c18ffc4ab769

This is the roof making video I referenced, I used the mesh tool to make many of the tiles, and with the tutorial I think it was easier than I thought it would be. I would love to make these tiles and make a complete roof out of them.