Current Status of Animation Using Game Engines
In the past, in creating animations
Including but not only those for games
3D softwares used to be widely used such as Maya and Max
In contrast, nowadays game engines are very often in use
There are many different kinds of game engines
Each different gaming company
Has developed engines specifically aiming for their own games
For example
GameMaker Studio, Gamebryo
GameSparks, and so many more game engines have been released
The two most popular game engines as of now
Are Unity and Unreal Engine
These are the top two as of now
The reason is because
Many gaming companies
Are using these two game engines the most
Especially for Unreal Engine
It has been used widely not only for games
But also for producing animations and animated films
Another equally excelling Unity
It's widely used for live action or animated films
In particular, something popular
Something you must all be familiar with
Avatar or Planet of the Apes
Weta Digital that has produced such
Has collaborated with Unity Engine
They have announced that their next VFX film
Will be produced using Unity
The reason being
Until now, it has only been used for game engines
But with the advent of Unreal Engine
As animation or live action film production companies
Are using more and more of the game engines
Unity is now quickly
Adjusting to that trend as of now
Next up is
Of these two game engines
Why is Unreal Engine so widely used?
Let me talk a bit about its reasons
First
It is a very accessible engine
Because, as you may be able to check for yourself
at Unreal Engine's website
Unreal Engine is a free software that you can download
For Maya and other 3D softwares
Their annual plans cost up to several million won
That's why they are very inaccessible to many
That's why Unreal Engine has become so popular
Of course not everything of the software is free
If a company has 50,000 dollars worth of sale
25% of their sales
Must be paid to Unreal Engine of Epic Games
The second reason is
With real-time rendering technology, rendering takes much less time now
Generally, for an animation production
The rendering department takes a very long time
Generally for Hollywood movies
As you all must've seen from the news
Rendering one still may take a whole day
It's because they are rendering for
Some very high quality, high resolution images
So rendering takes a long time
That's why even after completing the production
They often miss the deadline due to rendering hours
But for Unreal Engine
Because it supports real-time rendering
Following the production stage
They can just render everything
To get the final product
Because this rendering technology allows for
Checking for lighting and effects in real time
This is a great software in terms of saving
Production time by a lot
And because Unreal Engine contains its own editing tools
You can edit the video in real time
For example, in the past production process
One could only use the exported video after hours of rendering
For editing tools such as Premiere
Or After Effects for further editing
But for Unreal Engine
Because it has its own editing tool
You can edit in real time to go over the content
With these reasons
Not only individuals, but also schools and companies
Big or mid-scaled companies producing contents
Many of them are using this software
Of course, this isn't with the downsides
For example, for live action VFX production
The field isn't yet as widely used with the quality issue
For example, many of us know about
These animation production companies
The Big Five, including Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks
Due to the low quality
They are yet to be using Unreal Engine
For their film rendering
They are still using the old software, Maya
Of course, for those that do not require as much quality, such as short animations or those for TV
Many of them are using Unreal Engine
But the case is not so for film companies
Before the development of Unreal Engine
Big companies have researched rigorously for real-time rendering
But they are not yet in use with the quality issue
And for animation production
There is another inconvenient animating system
For animation production, we require
Immediate feedback for things such as poses
Or knowing what keys are where
But in using Unreal Engine
Because all these aspects are in layers
It is very difficult to find the exact layer
So in checking for the animating part
Though it gets better with getting used to the system
Compared to other 3D softwares such as Maya or Max
Checking for animating is much more inconvenient
And rigging too, with Control Rig
Animation part is done with the built-in rigging
So there are many limiting points in realizing
Poses are acts that animators actually want
Therefore, rather than various kinds of animations
Many that are produced are often rigid in movement
That's why most companies only use it
For lighting and rendering parts
And for general animation work
They still use the old software Maya
And they transport that data
To do lighting again at Unreal
This is a rather complicated pipeline of work process as of now
Next, here are some representative results
The Voice in the Hollow
Mave
They are representative examples of
Those that have successfully used Unreal
And something very popular in Korea
Is Yumi's Cells
Yumi's Cells, with the rendering hours
Also used Unreal Engine
For animation, they used the old Maya
Or other old softwares like so
And for lighting and rendering
They are using Unreal Engine
And for all short works that have been released
As well as an Academy winner for a short film
Called War is Over
Is also produced using Unreal Engine
Another advantage of using Unreal Engine
Is that it has various presets
These assets and presets
Are freely accessible within Unreal Engine
Therefore, in production
In decorating the background or the characters
Using these assets can
Reduce production time by a lot
In the past, every single thing had to be made by hand
But Unreal Engine publishes such presets and assets freely
So anyone can access them
Which allows for a one-man production
Therefore, while this used to be a specialized field
In terms of animation production
Now it has become much easier for non-experts
To try out in the animation production field
Next, let me show you how to apply these
By actually showing you Unreal Engine
Here is Unreal Engine 5
What you are seeing on the screen is
The free assets I've downloaded from Unreal Engine Marketplace
See how game-like this looks
It has some characters as well
If you have some animations, characters
Or some movements
You can easily make a short piece yourself
Because, if you have an animation
All you need to add to this is a camera
Then it will work very quickly
For you to make your own short piece in real time
Let me briefly demonstrate how to make
A short film
First, at Unreal Engine, as I've told you
You can edit and real-time render at the same time
So these are editing tool features
That are called sequencers at Unreal Engine
Once you add a sequence
You will be saving the sequence
For example, let me make a master sequence
After making this master sequence
You get this window called Sequence
And you get to add some shots here
In order to add a shot
You need to first create a track to add these shots
Which is called a Shot Track, so go ahead and open one
And now you get to add the shots
Basically, in production, you need to know
What a shot, scene, and a sequence is
You need a prior understanding of each
Before you jump into production
So that you have a much better understanding of
All these Unreal Engine terms
So after creating a master shot
Then now you get to actually create shots
Starting with shot number one, two, three and four, and on
So let's create shot one
And then within the shot at the master sequence
Add shot001 that we just made
And now as you see, we have a time bar that looks like a film
This is the length of that shot one
And same thing here
In order to continue with shot two, three, and on
You can copy these shots and name them, like shot two
And then continue on
If shot one ends at 60 frame
And shot two begins at 60
You can either drag or use a hot key to snap shot one
And piece the shots together in order to
See a continuing video when you play it later
Like so, adding a sequence
Is followed by adding cameras for the shots
As well as things such as characters and backgrounds
So click on shot001
And add the backgrounds, characters and cameras in this sequence
For example, if I am to add characters
Here are the characters
And now we need some cameras
So add one, and though I'm not adding any camera animation
If you are to add an animation
That would apply to shot one
So for example, shot one describes the characters
If this is the description shot
There are other animation files that these characters have
In order to add these animation files
You can choose the animation file from this character's model and add it yourself
See how it has been added
Now, let me show you the animation
Here we see the animation of the character standing up
See how it's standing up
And the advantage of this is, as I told you
If your model has an animation information
You can just add the animation to the model, like teaching actors
After the actor has been taught to act
Now you only need to use a camera to film that character
So when this character here is standing up
If we are to add some camera animation
Add key to Transform
And to describe, for instance
Let's say there's a camerawork going around
Something like this
This camera animation is something very rough
But you get to check in real time all these backgrounds, lighting, and character animations
Just like you're a director of a live action film, moving the camera around
You get to check in real time whether you like that composition for shot one
Same thing, something like this
Same with shot two, if you are to
Work on this
For example, let me add another animation
Here it is, the character is collapsing
Of course, it's rough work now; it doesn't connect to shot one
But you get the idea of how these work
So the important thing is, if we are filming for a movie
For example, the director cues cut
Meaning, simply put
The camera is off, it is no longer running
And then the camera moves to another position
And then the camera is on again; that middle section
That's what the cut means
And same thing with this sequence work
Having worked on shot one
Means that the camera has been exhausted for shot one
Therefore, in shot two
You need to bring in a new camera, or bring it in again
So in shot two, you can open another camera
And do the camera animation just like in shot one
For example
Something like this
Animation, and key
Now the camera at shot two moves like this
So, for example
Let's check these shots at the master shot
This is shot one, and then shot two
Very simple
In this sense, animation production
Has become very simple
If you don't like the camerawork here
You can actually get into shot one and fix the camera
In the past, you needed artists and experts for each of these processes
But now you can make an animated work all by yourself
Of course, for example
If we are to add some music or sound
Open Audio Track at Track
And then connect the audio you'd like to add
It's also in real time, you get to watch and hear
It's like a combination of Maya and Premiere
And for the shot transform that you need for video editing
For example, dissolve
Or black in, black out, or white in, white out
These are the editing processes for a video
And you can add them right at Unreal Engine Sequence
Without having to export it to somewhere
You can do that at Track again
And you can add each as you like
For example, let me add some fade in and fade out
So I open Fade track
And add the key here
It begins with black
And eventually
The color disappears, video in
And in the end, the color again
Covers in black for the fade out
So with this fade in and fade out track, let's play it
Like this
It's something Maya or Max does not support
Which is production and editing simultaneously
It is fascinating
Of course, when you are using Unreal Engine
You could use the backgrounds and
Characters that others have created
But in order to produce your own created animation
Or your own original content
The most important thing is to create something that hasn't existed before
So for the backgrounds or the characters
You do have to design them all by yourself
But as I told you
Once the background becomes very complicated
It will be very challenging for you to create every single thing in there
Same thing with the characters
So you need to download from Marketplace
And do your own quilting with the little aspects
And for thoe Unreal Engine users
We call it level design
Which is a term often used in game production as well
So after a good level design work
And if you have also completed your character design
You can merge all backbone parts or the rigging itself
Then you could apply an animation motion capture info
Or any animation file through other AI
And apply them right to the character
As you complete these animation motions
You can create a whole video out of combining these parts
So this software definitely saves time and money for production
For example, how does Marketplace work?
Unreal Engine is a software by Epic Games
So go to Epic Game Launcher
And click on Marketplace
And we see a myriad of assets
Some are free, some are not, there are a ton
So for your own personal production
You can search for free contents
And there are a lot of great free contents
That come as very useful
So you can use these here
If an asset is too complicated to create yourself
You can buy one here
Then you're buying for its copyright as well
Which will reduce the production time by a lot
That was Marketplace
Or there's also Quixel Bridge, which is, let me open it
It's very similar to Marketplace
Marketplace has products uploaded by
Other individual or corporate users using Unreal Engine
While Quixel Bridge is the built-in
Default specs within Unreal Engine
For example, you can download all
3D assets here and apply them for your project
For example, this later connects to Metahuman
So all the customized characters at MetaHuman Animation
Can be imported to your projects
You could import bits of assets for different parts
Or you could import the entire system here
You can go to surface, import a whole system
So using all these
Could allow you to complete various levels
Prospect: Unreal Engine
I have briefly introduced to you
How Unreal Engine is used
For video productions
And let me share my own opinions as well as
Many agreeing users' regarding its prospect
This is a quote from a news article
"Epic Games has released the status for"
"Real-time comprehensive interactive 3D including last year’s achievements in the digital creative ecosystem"
They prospect that there will be much more 3D content
The number of Unreal Engine global monthly active users increased by
An average of 23% compared to the previous year
North America showed the biggest growth, an increase of around 40%
Likewise, there is much more demand for Unreal Engine
As well as much more actual uses
Therefore in my opinion, a production environment using this real-time rendering technology
Of Unreal Engine has become indispensible
Of course, as I already told you
There is a quality issue
I have talked to my colleagues from the field
How many companies are utilizing Unreal Engine
And their answers were
That most companies no longer use it
Because of the quality issue
However, compared to Hollywood production companies
There are a lot of users in Korea
As well as many companies who are proactively using the software
Because, first of all, Unreal Engine
Is a free content, a free software
And compared to Hollywood, we require less of
The quality of the production
That's why a lot of Korean companies use it
And as the real-time rendering improves in Unreal Engine
I expect that Hollywood will one day actively use the program
For now, this is optimal for animation production for
TV series or YouTube contents
So if you're studying into animation production
Or if you're producing a short piece
I recommend that you utilize this software
However, I also advise that no one should be lazy
Because in animation production
What matters the most is the basic things
Meaning, a tool is a tool, and nothing more
However much the tool develops
If you do not perfect the basis of each department within the production process
It will become very tricky to apply it into the tool
Therefore, rather than knowing the tool
I consider knowing the foundation of the process
As much more important
There may be another engine other than Unreal Engine in release later
And if you only know how to use a tool
You will be required to study this yet another tool all over again
Without your foundation in knowledge, you lose any merit once another tool is released
That's why I consider knowing the foundation and practicing to
Apply the tool are very important
That's it for today, thank you
1. Current Status of Animation Using Game Engines More film and animation production companies are using game engines, and Unreal Engine is being widely used in animation production
Advantages of Unreal Engine Accessible (free download) Real-time rendering technology- less rendering hours
Real-time feedback on lighting and effects Real-time editing using built-in editing tools Presets and essets
Disadvantages of Unreal Engine Quality issue: not as much used in live action VFX movie production Inconvenience in animating system
2. How to: Unreal Engine Create a shot using Shot Track Add background, character, and camera within a sequence Camera animation: Add key to transform, film the character with desired angle and composition
Shot transform (e.g. dissolve) can be applied at sequence Marketplace allows for various complicated background and characters Quixel Bridge: built-in specs at Unreal Engine
3. Prospects of Unreal Engine Production environment using real-time rendering technology by Unreal Engine has become indispensable Once real-time rendering technology develops more, Hollywood will proactively utilize it