HYLE
Unreal Engine, Niagara, Substance Designer, Embergen, DaVinci Resolve. 2024.
As part of Module 3 at Escape Studios this past August, I was briefed to deliver a 60-second cinematic teaser. I had 6 weeks to build a level using ready-made assets from UE Marketplace. The focus of this project was creating VFX via Niagara, shaders and Unreal Engine's timeline, as well as cinematography and the movie render queue.
"HYLE" is set in an undetermined time in a remote sci-fi facility, and traces the chase between the protagonist and a possible trespasser. The title alludes to Empedocles' and Aristotle's first matter of the cosmos, from which the four elements arose.
Electrical sparks, dripping water droplets, and a keyframed explosion were set up with Niagara. A flipbook animation was used for the steam coming out of pipes. For most Niagara components, I used Lerp Float, Float from Curve and Random Range Float in the A, B and Alpha inputs to introduce variation in the colour, size and particle behaviour across systems. User control parameters were set up to be accessible in the level to facilitate control.
Multiple packed textures for the hologram screens and glass condensation [originally, rain] were made in Substance Designer, and positioned, masked, and animated in shader. Gradient curves were used through a dynamic parameter node to control noise and tint values dynamically. Panning noises and lerped sine values rounded up to the nearest integer would create glitching effects.
I chose to include a character from Paragon which came with its own animation sequences. The latter were relatively short which was challenging and resulted in a lot of short camera cuts. Flickering lights and the characters' location and rotation were keyframed with each take being contained in an individual subsequence. Camera shake blueprints were used s
paringly. As the game was not simulated, blueprints and optimisation were not prioritised.
Point and spotlights were used as key, fill and rim lights with hidden planes shaping or blocking certain light sources. Different takes were shot in the same parts of the level, thus different light setups were keyframed to switch on or off depending on the active camera. Attention was paid to continuity and balancing the attenuation radius and intensity of diegetic lights.
For the final scene, the sphere was duplicated and the pile was dropped whilst simulating physics. The spheres' updated location was manipulated and composited for the acting camera.
I had originally started with a master cut featuring multiple locations using sublevels. For the exterior, I had included an explosion built in EmberGen and had attached the camera to the character's root. The cut did not work as well as anticipated, as the camera angle was jittery and the explosion was too large and tanked performance. Ultimately, the teaser was filmed in a single contained location which introduced a more coherent narrative.
SFX and colour grade were added in DaVinci Resolve.
Key references were Arrival (2016) and Blade Runner (2012).