In this post I I will be summarized my process of working on this funky project in mainly Maya and UE5:
The starting point of this project is a model I built from scratch from last year, inspired mainly by the concept art delivered by the company DNEG. As the design has been highly appreciated through review, therefore I decided to add a story behind it and make it more comprehensive:
Due to my knowledge of using UE5 and Maya, I started blocking the cyberpunk world of this robot directly from Maya and working on its following animation in the same scene. I added an additional dream scene in week 8, and baking alembic cash files with blend shapes from it to the unreal project. For the other model with either rigs or animation, I baked them in FBX files and then imported them into my UE5 file.
I used the advanced skeleton to build up the rigs of the main character, the tattoo robot. However, after completing most of the project, I have been given frequent reviews of adding facial rigs on top.
In the UE5, I have imported my baked animation into the sequence and added all materials on top of each model. Furthermore, I have learnt how to build fire Niagara in week 7 and added that to the sequence as well:
For the lighting, I added all of them inside UE5, and keyed a few of them through the animation sequence:
I have also added the colour grading of the scene through the camera, to make the scene reaching what I expected more:
In the end, After I had rendered all my animation I used the software Premiere Pro to work on its editing and sound design. I used the website ‘story blocks’ recommended by technicians in the digital space and selected a matching soundtrack to the narrative:
I added the dream-like effect on top in the matching dream scene by mainly adjusting the level of exposure and contrast of colours:
I received my final feedback from lecturers, peers and industrial people from Siggraph to make sure I can create better idea based upon the progression of this feedback.
Overall, I really enjoy this project, I have learnt a lot of new knowledge from the weekly workshop and also it allows me to work on an experimental figure in its story. In the future, I want to create more robotic characters and add what I have learnt from this project to their model, rigs and animation.
And in the end, here is my recorded formative presentation for the design proposal of this project, I hope you enjoy watching it: