CheHsin's animation Blog

Category: Unreal Engine

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Unreal Engine

Week5-Final Project Storyboard First Draft

1.《What Was Taken》

Story Synopsis

A small kitten arrives in a mysterious afterlife. Its body looks like a damaged rag doll, with one missing button eye and one missing limb. Alone in this strange world, the kitten approaches a large white door glowing with light.

Behind the door, the kitten meets an old toy that it loved dearly when it was alive. The toy looks like a little clown with spring-like arms and legs. However, it is not an ordinary toy. It is actually a mysterious god-like being.

The toy gently touches the kitten and begins to read its memories. Through fragments of the past, it discovers that the kitten was badly mistreated during its life. After seeing what the kitten went through, the toy decides to confront the person responsible.

Using its supernatural powers, the toy travels to the person’s home and secretly hides behind a door. It creates a mysterious accident, causing the person to trip over a thin red string. As the person falls, several kitchen utensils are sent flying. The scene suddenly cuts away, leaving the outcome to the audience’s imagination.

Afterwards, the toy appears beside the fallen person and collects a mysterious black orb, which represents the person’s eyes and hands. Using its magical powers, the toy transforms the dark orb into a warm golden light.

The toy then returns to the afterlife and gently offers the golden light to the kitten. As the light surrounds its body, something wonderful happens. The damaged rag-doll kitten transforms into a real cat. Its missing eye and limb are restored, and it becomes whole again.

Finally, the kitten happily curls up beside its beloved toy and falls asleep peacefully, purring softly.

For the first time, the kitten can finally rest without fear.

Theme

This story explores animal cruelty, justice, and healing through a dark fairy tale. By combining a painful past with a gentle and magical afterlife, I want to encourage audiences to reflect on how vulnerable animals are treated and the responsibility humans have towards other living beings.

Although revenge is part of the story, the emotional focus is on the kitten’s recovery and its final moment of peace.

Storyboard 60-90s（Storyboard sketches by me, visually refined with AI assistance.)

More reference

2.《Bird collision》

Story Synopsis

Two small birds are happily flying above a modern city, playfully chasing each other through the sky. The bird in front flies faster, while the bird behind flaps its wings harder, trying to catch up with its friend.

As the bird speeds up, the camera switches to its point of view. Ahead of it is a beautiful blue sky filled with soft clouds. Everything looks peaceful and inviting, and the bird continues flying forward without hesitation.

However, what the bird sees is not the real sky, but a reflection on the glass surface of a tall building. Before it can realise the danger, it suddenly collides with the glass and falls to the ground.

The bird lies motionless on the pavement beneath the building. After a moment, it gets up and tries to fly again, but something feels different. It soon discovers that it has become a spirit, and its real body is still lying on the ground.

Confused, the spirit bird looks around and notices several other birds lying nearby. It gradually realises that it is not the only bird that has experienced this tragedy.

The camera slowly pulls away, revealing the tall glass building reflecting the beautiful sky above. The city continues as usual, while the birds remain unnoticed on the ground.

What appeared to be a beautiful and peaceful part of the city has become an invisible danger to the birds that live around it.

Theme

This story explores how human-made environments can unintentionally harm wildlife. Through the bird’s point of view, I want the audience to experience how something beautiful from a human perspective can become dangerous for another species.

The film encourages viewers to reflect on the hidden environmental impact of urban development and whether humans should take responsibility for the harm caused to other living beings, even when it is unintentional.

Storyboard about 60s（AI-Generated Storyboard)

More reference

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Uncategorised Unreal Engine

Week4-Final Project Proposal

1. Period Thief

Core Theme: Women’s Issues
Story Concept:
An alien from a lifeless planet dreams of creating life. Believing that menstruation holds the key to the mystery of life, it travels to Earth in a spaceship to investigate the secrets of menstruation and discover how it works.
Intended Message:
Through a humorous and playful storyline, the animation explores the physical discomfort women experience during menstruation and the significance of menstruation in their lives.
Visual Direction:
Surreal science fiction with a humorous and unconventional perspective, exploring the physical experiences and social challenges women face in relation to menstruation.

2. Core Theme: Animal Abuse and the Dignity of Life

Story Concept:
A stray kitten with physical disabilities walks through a door and enters a room where the Grim Reaper resides. Upon discovering that the kitten has lost its eyes and feet, the Grim Reaper decides to punish those who abuse animals by giving the kitten the abuser’s hands and eyes.
Intended Message:
Humans often assume they have the power and right to control other forms of life, sometimes taking animal lives without a second thought. This project explores the idea that those who treat other living beings as if they have no value may themselves be subjected to the same arbitrary power by beings from a higher dimension.

3.Bird-Window Collisions

Core Theme: The Impact of Human Development on Birds’ Natural Habitats
Story Concept:
A bird is happily flying across the city alongside another bird. Suddenly, it collides with an invisible glass window. After shaking its head, it attempts to continue flying, only to discover that it has transformed into a spirit. Looking down, it sees numerous other birds lying on the ground, all having suffered the same fate.
Intended Message:
As humans build cities and pursue convenience and aesthetic beauty, should they also take responsibility for the environmental consequences their actions have on other living beings? If harm is caused without malicious intent, does that mean it should be overlooked?

Categories
Uncategorised Unreal Engine

Week3-Translating Film into Unreal Engine

During the session, I learned how to animate objects in UE by changing their positions over time and using Auto Key to automatically create keyframes. This helped me understand how keyframes control movement and how animation can be created directly within Sequencer.

I also learned how to create and position a camera, adjust its settings and control its movement within the scene. By using a Camera Rig Crane, I explored how to adjust parameters such as Pitch, Yaw and Arm Length to create different camera angles and movements.

1. From Traditional Filmmaking to Virtual Production

This workshop explored how traditional filmmaking concepts can be translated into Unreal Engine (UE). By comparing physical film sets with digital environments, I learned how familiar film production processes can be applied to virtual production.

In UE, a project corresponds to a filming location, a level represents a stage, and sub-levels organise different sets within an environment. Props and actors are represented by Static Mesh and Skeletal Mesh Actors, while lighting, cameras and visual effects are managed through digital tools such as Components, Blueprints, Control Rigs and Niagara.

2. Translating Film Structure into Sequencer

Traditional film structures, from the overall film to individual shots, can be organised in UE using nested Level Sequences. A Master Level Sequence controls the overall film, while individual Shot Level Sequences manage specific shots.

This structure helps organise complex scenes and makes it easier to manage camera movements, timing and editing within a virtual production workflow.

3. Different Filmmaking Workflows

The workshop introduced several ways to translate traditional filming techniques into UE:

  • Master Scene Technique: A linear workflow that uses a master sequence, multiple cameras and an editing track to organise a scene.
  • Triple Take Technique: A non-linear workflow that uses nested sequences and the Take system to manage repeated performances and overlapping actions.
  • Collaborative Workflow: Sub-levels, sub-scene tracks and visibility tracks allow multiple artists to work on different elements of the same project.

These approaches demonstrate how UE can support both traditional filmmaking methods and collaborative digital production.

4. Understanding Sequencer

Sequencer is UE’s built-in cinematic sequencing tool. It can be used for pre-visualisation, creating individual shots, producing complete cinematic sequences and developing game cutscenes.

It allows artists to combine animation, camera movement, timing and editing within a single digital environment.

Categories
Unreal Engine

Week 2 – Unreal Engine

What I Learned

Getting familiar with Unreal Engine

  • Learned how to open and navigate the Unreal Engine interface.
  • Became familiar with the main panels, viewport, Content Browser and basic workflow.

Downloading and importing assets

  • Learned how to find and download assets through Epic Games / Fab.
  • Practised bringing external assets into an Unreal Engine project.

Lighting and Environment

  • Learned how to set up environmental elements such as Sun Light(Control+L), Sky Atmosphere and Sky Light(Window).
  • Explored how these settings affect the overall lighting, atmosphere and mood of a scene.

Material Editing

  • Learned the basics of editing Materials in Unreal Engine.
  • This allows us to change the appearance and surface properties of objects and create different visual effects.

Sublevels / Level Organisation

  • One of the most important things I learned was how to use Sublevels to organise a scene.
  • Sublevels allow different parts of a project to be separated and managed more efficiently.
  • This is especially useful for large projects and collaborative workflows, because different team members can work on different parts of a scene in a more organised way.

This was my first time using Unreal Engine (UE). I learned that it is a fast and practical platform for 3D production and game development. It can provide high-fidelity, real-time rendering for games, virtual production, and simulations, while also supporting programming languages such as C++. I have always been interested in game development, so I would like to use Unreal Engine as a platform for further research and experimentation in this area.

During my free time, I found a tutorial on game development using Unreal Engine. I have currently reached the section on character animation and will try to implement what I have learned in the following sessions.

https://youtu.be/e_SPuvO_l1w