Camera Work

Following from last years work with UE4 I haven't full got my head around using the camera's and matinee's within the engine and I wanted to have a quick play to make sure that I at least know the basics and over the weeks can make sure I get the best camera angles for the cinematic as I don't want to leave it until last minute to try and understand how it all works together. To do this I made a quick scene within UE4 and started to mess around with a few camera's while doing research in how to make clips from in UE4.

Above shows a screenshot of the scene within UE4 taking reference from the howls moving castle idea. I also experimented with the landscape and foliage tools so that I could refresh my memory for the upcoming work. Below is the grass strand that I made in Maya which I used in the foliage tools in UE4.

After I had set up the scene I wanted to put a few camera's in and started to move them using the matinee's to get different shots of the early castle and scene to see how they would turn out. I am planning on continuing this research and development into the camera and matinee work to make sure that I can get the best shots come the end of the module for the cinematic. Here shows a short bit of practice using the matinee's.

Idea central

I have had a couple of ideas for my Advanced graphics module which I want to explore before I make my final decision. My first idea is taking inspiration from a Studio Ghibli film called "Howl's Moving Castle" as the castle within the film is a breathtaking piece of art when looked upon from every angle. I would like to do the outside of the castle and have it walking through the landscape to show the size and scale of the castle.

However due to wanting to be an Environmental Artist I thought that just doing a green hill filled landscape wouldn't look very good so I decided to explore other ideas. Another idea was from The last air-bender animated series specifically within the western air-temple as it is set on the underside of a cliff face being built as an upside down city, which would visually look stunning to show the difference of camera angles and how it differs from being upside down. I decided to gather some reference images in a mood board and then proceeded to make very quick block-out of the scene.

One final idea took inspiration from the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy specifically at Minis Tirith, I was first wanting to model the whole city however thinking it over I decided on just designing the top courtyard and main hall as they are at the top of the city and are very stunning in their own right. I went on to collect some reference images again to get a better view of how I would start to make this area.

Out of the three ideas I think that the Lord of the Rings idea will personally be the best as I could do both the inside of the main hall and the outside courtyard which would be a nice big area to make but also manageable about keeping it to a high standard.