Hello, I'm Byungsun Jeon, the Unreal Production Team leader of WESTWORLD
Nice to meet you
Today, I'm going to tell you about how to make
cinematic videos in Unreal
For this lecture, I'll introduce and explain the content first
then we'll review the content through the computer screen
Selecting and setting up the project for cinematics
We'll learn about project setting, the first learning objective
First, execute Unreal in the Unreal Launcher
and in the first window that pops up
select FILM/VIDEO&LIVE EVENTS
And this is the first item that appears
This project is a blank file
but the plug-ins and project settings needed for cinematics
is basically activated in this item
Second is for Virtual Production
The needed plug-ins, project settings, and
sources are provided in this project
Third, the lights used in the DMX stage setting
are the basic set-up of this project
Fourth, INCamera-VFX is a LED wall
where Unreal Environments can be projected, and this project contains the settings for it
Fifth is the nDisplay project
It's a project with settings that can perform multi display
If an ICVX movie is filmed through Unreal
it would usually start with this project
When creating a project, the basic sources and mesh effects that Unreal provides
can be decided to be included or not in this checklist
For Raytracing, it says it in the name
It's a checkbox for whether you want to use Raytracing
For Raytracing, it may be too heavy unless it's a high-performance computer
So the performance of your computer
should be checked first, before selecting the option
Now, after selecting the project that you want to make
and execute the project, in the first screen
you need to check the project settings first
For the project setting window, go to the top bar
and select Edit -> Project Settings
Search Rendering in the search box
and look for the Global Illumination and the Reflections option
Then change the settings from Lumen to None
Then, go to the Hardware Ray Tracing part
and check the box for Ray Tracing
When the Ray Tracing option is checked during the project creation
this function is basically activated
Starting from Unreal version 5, Lumen is the basic setting
but we change it because
I will be explaining about Cinematic Lighting
And when you work on projects later
depending on the project setting values
there may be errors
So recording the functions that you changed
will be helpful for problem solving in other projects
Now let's look at the computer screen
As I explained
select the FILM/VIDEO section
And you can see that five options appear
Here, we're going to select the Blank option
then select Starter Content and Raytracing
Choose the location and name of the project
and hit Create
In the top menu of the project
Go to Edit->Project Settings
Look for the Rendering tab
and find the Global Illumination and Reflection options
As you can see that it's in Lumen, we'll change it to None
Lighting techniques and settings for cinematics
Now I'll explain to you about cinematic lighting
Before beginning
I'll touch upon the importance of shadows
The world we see always has shadows
A world without shadows doesn't exist
As you can see in the screen, on the object that we view
if there's no shadow, it will look very awkward
This goes the same for cinematic lighting
The way the shadows are expressed through lighting
decides the quality of the cinematic
For setting up these lightings
in Unreal, as you can see here
Directional Light, Point Light, Rect Light, Spot Light
are the four basic types of methods that they provide
The importance part here is that in each light
the size of the light source can be adjusted
I took Spot Light as an example
In the detail panel window of Spot Light
when the parameter source radius value is changed
you can see that the shadow becomes very soft
From here, let's take a look at the computer screen
To test it out for you first
I prepared this level
As you can see here
I'm using Spot Light
There's the Source Radius of Spot Light
When this value is adjusted
The shadow becomes gradually softer like this
What do softer shadows mean?
In the real environment, other than shadows formed by the sun
most of the shadows are not clear
Same thing for the 3D environment, for cinematics
the shadows have to be soft
in order to create a virtual environment that resembles the real environment
Therefore, for the size of the light source that Unreal provides
never use the basic value
Now we arranged the light to make luminance
and we also made shadow
But we still have something missing
Isn't the shadow too black?
We need to do something about the color of the shadow
Now let's talk about ways to change this
Actual light gets reflected from an object
The reflected light is called indirect light
The reflected light, of course, hits the shadow as well
So shadows can never be completely black
The 4 basic light sources can express direct light
And in Unreal, there's something called Sky Light
This actor is the one that expresses indirect light
This is when the Sky Light is there and when it isn't there
As you can see, the colors of the shadows
are clearly different
By applying Sky Light to only shadows
it's difficult to check how it's being applied
So a way to check this is Chrome Ball
This actor can be created with material
In the material search window, search for Chrome
and the corresponding material will appear
Then, as it's applied in the image right now
you can check the image of Sky Light
In the Detail panel window
go to advanced, and uncheck Lower Hemisphere is Solid color
and the Sky Light image appearing on the Chrome Ball
will be changed
This function can only be used when the Sky Light is a movable type
and when you look at the sphere next to the Chrome Ball
you can see that the ground part is slightly different
I'll show you this myself, through the computer screen
I prepared a Sky Light level in advance
As you can see, Chrome material is applied on the sphere mesh
and Sky Light is Movable
And when you look at the Solid Color here
you can see that it changes like this
Now you probably know how Sky Light works
There's another function here
You can apply an HDRI image on the Sky Light
What this HDRI is, is that
realistic indirect light sources for producing 3D environments
can be used through this image
This source image has a wide spectrum
so it has a function that can make the indirect light expression more abundant
There's a website that provides HDRI images for free
When you access the corresponding website, there's the HDRI tab
and there, you can see images made in different versions
When you download the images
they will be downloaded in the .hdr format
and you can bring it in by simply dragging this file into the Unreal content browser window
This is how to apply the HDRI image on the Sky Light
In Sky Light, change the Source Type to SLS Cubemap
and in the activated Cubemap below
insert the downloaded HDRI image by dragging
or select it through search
and you will be able to use the corresponding image
Let's take a look at the computer screen
to review how to apply the HDRI image
For application of HDRI image
change the Source type to Cubemap
And within the current project
select the HDRI image
and you can see that the value changes like this in the Chrome ball
Next, in order to set up this HDRI image in cinematics with the best quality
you need to match the light source of Unreal and the light source seen in the HDRI image
We'll learn about this method now
First, select Lit in the upper left hand side of Viewport
Then out of the options listed below
uncheck Game Settings
Then you can see that the EV100 option underneath gets activated
When this value is increased in increments of 1
you can see that the viewport screen becomes gradually darker
Then only the light source of the HDRI image in the Chrome ball will be visible
Here, when directional light is added
you can see that another light source appears on the Chrome Ball
The emphasized part in the screen is the added light source
Change the rotation value of the light
to match it with the light source of the HDRI image
Once it's matched, activate Game Settings in Viewport again
This way, the light can be set-up in the most realistic way
But there's one part missing
It's the intensity of the light source
The light source intensity of the HDRI image
and the light arranged in Unreal
need to have the same intensity value
We'll learn about how to do this
In the content browser of Unreal
when you click the setting button, you can add engine contents
Here, there's a mesh called Color Checkerboard
When you search Color, a mesh called ColorCalibrator will pop up
This mesh is the color checkerboard mesh
Then, in the Unreal Viewport window
go to Show->Visualize->then select HDR
Then a box will appear in the middle of the Viewport screen
and you'll see numerical values next to the box
It's an option that can measure the EV values of images within the box
Bring the HDRI box to the white part of the color checkerboard
The measured EV value
and the white EV value of the color checkerboard in the HDRI image
need to be matched the same
As you can see, then the white point
and the darkest part is matched
the accurate lighting setting is established
But to use this function
the color checkerboard has to be filmed in the HDRI image
And during the filming, in the color checkerboard
we need to know the EV value that's measured in the white area
It's a mandatory process when making a real project
but it's not easy, and there's a lot to prepare
So rather than adjusting the intensity by matching the EV values
find the darkest part and the brightest part in the 3D environment
and make it the same as the HDRI image
Let's look at the computer screen to review about
how to match the light source
First, turn off the Game Settings in Lit
and adjust the EV100 value like this
Then we can see the HDRI light source and the location of the light source in the current level
From here, the location of the light source
will be matched to the location of the HDRI light source
Match it like this
Turn on Game Settings again
This time, go to Show
and select Visualize -> HDR
Then you'll see that a white rectangular box appears like this
Underneath, you can see that the EV value is being measured
In the color checkerboard arranged in Unreal
set the focus on the white part
Then when the EV value measured in the white part of the HDRI image checkerboard
is matched the same
a realistic lighting setting will be established
This time, we'll learn about the functions of Lumen setting
First, in project setting
in the Global Illumination part
change None to Lumen again
When Lumen is selected, the Reflection part
changes automatically
What differences do you see between Lumen and None?
It's the difference in indirect light
Even without Sky Light, Lumen
is the function that expresses indirect light in real-time based on the surrounding environments
At this state, when Sky Light is added
the effect adds on to the value calculated by Lumen
To see how Lumen works
I'll show you through the computer screen
As you can see, the settings right now
are in None
Like this, the shadow part
becomes black
Here, in Project Settings
Rendering
We'll change the Global Illumination to Lumen
A message box pops up asking if we want to change it automatically
Then Reflection changes automatically
With these settings, close Project Settings and take a look
and you can see the Lumen-applied lighting
Until now, in order to implement the real environment that we view
I introduced you to lighting methods and functions
As you saw in the computer screen
Lumen that creates indirect light right away
is a great function
But even if Lumen is exceptional, 3D environment
is ultimately made by a human
So viewing good references and using those references
to practice making them, is necessary
To give a quick overview of what Post Volume is
after producing an Unreal environment
it's a source for applying visual effects
The corresponding source is mandatory for making cinematic videos
In this lecture, the functions within Post Volume used for cinematics
will be introduced briefly
This is Bloom
Bloom is a function that makes the relative brightness of the light source a little brighter
The light source that gives light expands as if it's getting blurred, and it becomes brighter
This is Exposure
You can adjust the exposure levels of the corresponding scene
The function that's used the most often
are Auto Exposure Histogram and Manual
It's the difference of auto and manual
This is Chromatic Aberration
Used in video expression techniques
it's a chromatic aberration effect
It's basically separating the RGB channel
When the value is adjusted
just like the image on the left, you can see separated images
For the bottom value, when Start offset is adjusted
the center of the screen becomes the standard
and it's the value of how far you'll apply the effect from the center
In Post Volume, real camera
setting values are implemented
This function can be used when Exposure
is set to Manual
This is Local Exposure
As the name says, the dark or bright parts of the screen
can be changed through this function
I'll explain about the three types that are used the most often
First is Highlight Contrast Scale
Within the Viewport, the brightest part's
intensity is expressed here
Second is Shadow Contrast Scale
It's the intensity expression of the dark part within the Viewport
Third is Detail Strength
It's the intensity expression on contrast within the Viewport
Lens Flare
When the angle of the actual camera is matched around the light source
the effects can be expressed through the function
In Unreal, the corresponding function has a basic setting of 0.5
and if you're not using it, you must set it to 0
This is Image Effects
It has the effect of making the edge of the image darker
It's just like the Vignette effect
This is Color Grading that changes the color of the screen
The changing values for color correction
are done in here for Unreal
I'll explain each of them briefly
Temperature is the function that adjusts the temperature of colors on the screen
Global adjusts the color of the overall area of the screen
Shadow adjusts the colors that correspond to the dark areas of the screen
Midtones adjust the colors that correspond to the middle areas of the screen
Highlights adjust the colors that correspond to the bright areas of the screen
Misc adjusts the colors of the image
This is also called Tone Mapper
It changes the values on the S-curve
the graph that shows the change in values of a particular color
The graph image is showing an S-curve
When the corresponding value is changed in Tone Mapper
the curve shape changes
This is Motion Blur
In Unreal, this value is basically
set as 0.5
If you don't want to use Motion Blur
you must change the value to 0
And for Target FPS
if the particle frame doesn't match
it may not appear as intended
Therefore, when using particles, check the corresponding value
I first explained about the functions briefly
Let's take a look at the computer screen to see how
the effects of the corresponding functions work
I'll change the values of the functions that I've explained
to show you the effects it brings
I'll first show you Bloom first
When the value is increased like this
the light source shines more
It looks blurred, right?
This is the effect that it brings
This time, Exposure
As I explained, there's the auto mode and the manual mode
When the value is changed, like this, within the Unreal environment
the exposure value is adjusted
Next is chromatic aberration
As you can see, when the value is increased
the RGB channel separates like this
With the value applied like this
when Start Offset is adjusted
the applied range can be determined
This time, Camera
As you can see, it's inactivated right now
When it's set to Manual here
you can use it like this
Then, for local Exposure, like this
The bright parts of the screen
only the bright areas can be adjusted
with this values, and same thing for Shadow
It can be adjusted like this
Then, Lens Flare
The basic value is set as 1
For this guy, Bloom
Bloom value needs to be activated
If it's not activated
this kind of Lens Flare effect can't be observed
And the Image Effects, Vignette effect
Like this, as you can see
It's a function that makes the edge of the screen dark
Next is Color Grading
When you look at color temperature first
increasing the value like this gives a cold feeling
and lowering it gives a warm feeling
On the bottom, there's Global, Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights
there's a tab for each area where you can make adjustments
You can see how it adjusts like this
Here, Global is the overall area
For Shadows, the relatively dark areas
are adjusted
Midtones are the middle level
And for Highlights, the brightest level
values are adjusted
Then Tone Mapper As you can see
when you change the value of the S-curve
you can see how the image changes like this
Next is Motion Blur
The basic value is 0.5
If you don't want to use this guy, change it to 0
The feeling of Motion Blur
can only been checked through the rendered image later on
But if you want to change Motion Blur
you can change it in Post Volume, as what you should know
For Post Volume, I briefly explained about the functions that we use right now
but I'll explain about it additionally in future lectures
Thank you
Project selection and settings for cinematics Selecting and setting up projects that provide plug-in activation and basic assets Blank: project that only contains the minimum functions of cinematics
Virtual production: project that contains settings needed for virtual production (VR, virtual camera, n-display, etc)
DMX: project that contains settings for the virtual stage InCamera-VFX: project that contains ICVFX settings
Ndisplay: project used for multi-display Project Defaults: select whether you want to receive the basic sources that are provided when the project is first opened
Lighting techniques and settings for cinematics The principle and application of lighting that decides the quality of the cinematics Types of lights that Unreal provides: Directional, Point, Rect, Spot
Never use the basic values for the light source provided by Unreal Shadow becomes softer when Source Radius value is changed
Check the applied image of Sky Light using Chrome ball Match the light source of HDRI and the lighting that works within Unreal
Adjust the intensity value by observing the darkest and brightest parts of the image in the 3D environment
Post Process Volume Setting Function used within Post Volume for cinematics PostProcessVolume: source for applying visual effects after producing the Unreal environment
Bloom: function that makes the relative brightness of the light source brighter Exposure: can adjust the exposure value of the corresponding scene
Chromatic Aberration: chromatic aberration that expresses by separating RGB channels Camera: the actual camera function
Local Exposure: adjusts the exposure of the dark parts within the Viewport screen Lens Flare: effect changes that arise when the actual camera angle is matched around the light source
Image Effects: changes the edge of the image to be darker Color Grading: tab that adjusts the color of the screen