MAJOR PROJECT
Brief:
Create establishing shots of a medieval environment focusing on the digital matte painting and 3D environment design in Unreal Engine 5.
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Response to Brief
It will start in the forest: short idyllic shots of the forest trails, god rays peeking through the trees, flowers along the pathway etc. Sound will be relaxing and calm, birds chirping and sounds of branches in the wind.
The idyllic scenery will then slowly turn darker; a trail of breadcrumbs will appear in the scene, there will be placed hidden objects in the camera's path for the viewer to discover: blood spatter on the trees, smoke from bonfire etc..
Next, the camera will move over abandoned weaponry, swords, helmets and shields covered in blood. In the distance there's a glimpse of corpses of defeated soldiers. The peaceful sound will gradually increase to a climax for the finale.
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At the end of the path the forest opens up to reveal a valley with a castle on a hill. The castle is on fire, and there's a war on its doorstep. What seemed to be a quiet relaxing forest scenery turned out to be a vicious bloodthirsty war.
Moodboard
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Inspiration
Color palette
Concept Art
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Storyboard
Blocking the Scene
Tree Mash in Maya
I wanted the camera to move through the woods, to reveal the DMP and to create a story. The easiest and most efficient way to achieve that would be to create a 3D environment, instead of keeping it plain 2D.
I was conflicted between choosing Maya or Unreal Engine for my project. Eventually, I experimented in Maya using the MASH tool to block the scene. I built the forest using one model and let Maya duplicate the model and randomize a pattern with different tree sizes. The Mash tool was fairly easy to use, but because of the size of my scene, the lighting and textures required to set the scene and the render time, I decided to only block in Maya.
Next step now is to create the environment in Unreal Engine and set a camera. Simultaneously as I create the environment, I will also try to finish the digital matte painting and layer it up in Nuke.
Digital Matte Painting Progress
Original Background
This image above was the original photo I made my digital matte painting from.
I removed the sky in the original image, because I wanted to put in a grey sky for dramatic effect. Also, I scaled and pulled the mountains in the back a bit down.
The grey sky would help with the illusion that the area was undergoing a war with it's dull lifelike exterior.
I added the hill with the castle to the scene, and started to colour correct it to match the background.
I added the hill with the castle to the scene, and started to colour correct it to match the background.
Next, I built and expanded the castle to get a authentic medieval feels to the building.
I placed the castle on screen right, where it felt more natural and looked the best.
I added the mountains again, but they didn't fit in to the scenery so I decided to remove them.
Timelapse
Megascans
These are some of the megascans I found that would suit my scene and I was thinking of using.
Sound inspiration
Unreal Engine
Started by creating a new level, from there, I made a landscape and added light, sky atmosphere and volumetric fog.
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I formed the landscape by the use of sculpt tool, and made more variety with the help of noise. I then formed the pathway in the ground. I wanted the forest trails to be bumpy and uneven to match the medieval aesthetic. Afterwards, I set up cameras to where I wanted the perspective, and started building the scenery.
For the illusion of a busy, well-traveled road from the middle ages, I decided to create some puddles in my path. Where soldiers on horses, wagons and carriages frequently passed by damaging the road in their wake.
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The puddles were made by a plane, scaled and added a water material on top.
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I then started adding different tree meshes, who would be the most prominent in my scene along the trails.
Next, I added material to the landscape by combining different textures and colours. The main material, which was a green grass-moss looking texture, I just dragged and dropped on the surface of the landscape.
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To separate the different parts of the path, I then drew the track with different colours of materials. For the actually trails I drew with soil material, the edges of the forest cliffs was drawn with dirt.
3D Scans
Models
Work in progress
WAR OF SILENCE - FINAL MAJOR PROJECT
WAR OF SILENCE - BREAKDOWN
Showreel 2023