Side Quest – Tuo's Blog

This is the final outcome. I have already uploaded in YouTube.

Supplementary note: The following are the blogs I wrote on and off throughout the entire project production process. There are my own feelings and summaries inside. She doesn’t have a unified upload time, so what she wrote might lack logic. I’m sorry for this.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

BASIC IDEA

A dragon from the cave want to catch the grave robber.
- PLACE : the tomb.
- STYLE : age-old, shabby and dusky.
- CHARACTER : a dragon and grave robber.
- DETAILS : leaves, spider web, weed …
- SIDE : from up to down.

STORYBOARD （First Edition）

I attempted to scrawl this story in order to present the concept I finally conceived.

The beginning of story, a grave robber arrived at the dim tomb.

The robber’s aim was to obtain the treasure that had been buried in this building for many years.

As the tomb robbers approached, the tomb’s mechanism was triggered. All the lights hidden deep in the tomb were lit up and the bells around the treasure sounded alert.

The light and sound awakened the sleeping dragon who is the guardian of the tomb.

The final shot effect is that the dragon came out from below to catch this grave robber.

In fact, I am not feel perfect about this story …

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

SECOND IDEA

After a series of tests and reflections, I have decided to modify the plot setting of my project.

A dragon from the cave want to catch the grave robber.

PLACE : the tomb in the sky.
STYLE : loneliness, castle.
CHARACTER : player (you) and a dragon.
DETAILS : treasure, light, fire, fog …
SIDE : first-person perspective.

STORYBOARD （Second Edition）

I set the background of this story as a cut scene of a game. Accept a side quest from a first-person perspective.

Based on the Settings of the first version, the use of objects in many scenes is not intended to be changed; it’s just that the story flow has been transformed from a different perspective. I don’t think a 30-second shot can fully convey all the ideas.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

SCENE CONSTRUCTION

The setting of the scene is a deep well in the misty sky.
The grand scene has been set up, but also have some problems.
- The light is too bright.
- Dragons are not likely to be placed in the scene without being molded.
- Considering it as an animation, the final output is too short.

LIGHT and RENDER

First, I lowered the ambient brightness, reduced the intensity of the fog, and the color and saturation of skylight.

Secondly, to make the middle storyline smoother, I added many lights indoors, so that the entire environment would change from dark to bright after the player was discovered stealing the treasure.
The final effect is to hope that the lights gradually come on, giving a buffer time.

During the pre-production stage, the camera work related to the scenes actually went very smoothly.
One of the most serious problems is that the final rendering effect is completely inconsistent with the exposure and the preview effect of the lens.

I sought help, asked my classmates, inquired about deepseek, and searched on online video platforms, etc. The final solution is to first go to the project Settings to turn off automatic exposure, then add post-processing and adjust the data. The effect rendered afterwards is the normal one.

CHARACTER

I really fainted. Why is there a problem with my dragon rig? It can’t move? What went wrong ???
Why can’t it move !!! (Roar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Okay, there’s not enough time. Put it aside for now. I found a better resource to temporarily replace my own model. I will still come back to solve the problems I need to solve. This is my task.

Good! Crazy again. How did my dragon lose its rendering?

Let’s add a roar to the dragon at the end, but a new problem arose: why did the bones of this dragon come off when it was rendered?

I sought help from AI (I’m sorry to ask for help in Chinese, as this is the fastest way for me to solve the problem).

Where is the Movie Render Queue?????
Where is the Temporal Sampling?????
Where is the Is Editor?????
Where is the Is Preview????
Where can I find them?????
Ha????

Okay, after six hours, it was finally discovered that all one needed to do was select the character. Make sure Simulate Physics is disabled so that the character can move normally without the phenomenon of “cartilage”.
(YEAH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

At the end of the project, I created the scene for the mission release at the beginning. The character jumps down from a helicopter surrounding the cave entrance in the first-person perspective, jumps into the cave and discovers the treasure. At the moment of approaching the treasure, it was discovered by the “Tomb Keeper” and alarmed the divine beast guarding here.

OUTCOME

The following video are cuts.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————

CONCLUSION

To be honest, the story itself is very simple. The main focus is on the process of experiential learning and self-study of UE. There are still many problems in the middle of production. For instance, when it comes to the initial idea, it is necessary to provide a logical story connection for this idea, including its cause, process, outcome, and so on. Also, during the project production period, there were issues encountered regarding the software itself, such as data, rig, character animation, creating necessary lighting, sequence levels, rendering, and so on.
Personally, I think the most interesting thing is not encountering difficulties. It can’t be denied that the moment you encounter difficulties is really maddening. Sometimes, it takes several hours or even days to solve the problem, which is really infuriating. But once the correct answer to this question is obtained after one attempt, a person will have a very satisfying sense of achievement in their heart. It is precisely such a moment that enables me to discover the joy of applying and learning UE and creating projects.
In the future, I will still continue to study deeply into UE. Actually, there are still many problems I have encountered that haven’t been completely resolved. I hope that in the near future, I can solve the problem of control rig, the correct use of lighting, and create some interesting shots and rich film content. I hope to learn gradually. People are always on the move. This semester’s study was very rich. Although it couldn’t change me much, at least it gave me a very good direction.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply