The Warehouse Scene - Scene 30-33
In this sequence of scenes, we experience Yuki on her own as she encounters the first Zomborg in the series. Zomborgs are individuals who have opted for cybernetic enhancements prior to being infected by the X80 virus. Now that they're zombies they are some of the most dangerous creatures we could possibly encounter. That is until Yuki is captured by a pesky Hive Bee.
YUKI, TIM & ZOMBORG 1
This was our first Tim and Yuki scene. It was fun seeing them move around in an environment together. This is a moment for both of them where desperate situations call for them to separate. Tim places Yuki in a spot he thinks is safe while leading away the Hive Bee that was tailing them. Yuki's interaction with the Zomborg is one we wanted to feel terror-inducing.
UE5 & THE ANIMATION
This sequence of scenes was one that we had practiced with back in Sept 2023 as our Zomborgs Teaser Trailer. We thought it'd be a good one to circle back to and explore now that we're branded as Survivors Don't Die. What we realized was we could do so much we couldn't with the Move.AI pipeline.
Soo... we've been busy these last few months getting our animation practice in. These four scenes are the result and we're so very excited to do more. We've come out of this sequence exploding with new ideas and a better understanding of the UE5 animation pipeline.
Unfortunately, we have yet to learn how to customize metahuman body meshes in the manner we want for the end product. So the Zomborg aspect of this edit doesn't really come through. Eventually, we want to update this particular zomborg to have bionic arms and legs seen in the screenplay.
For this particular screen test we were really focused on capturing the chase aspect. Getting better acquainted with cameras and subsequences. Jayson took control of scene 30-31. While Amber learned on scene 32-33. Both with equal merits and places to improve.
BIGGEST TIP
A big tip that helped was learning not to pre-set up all of your shots in a sequence.
Instead, build as you go. Pace your animation and cameras for each moment you have mocapped. Then duplicate that shot for different camera angles. Treat each camera like it's own set up (like real life).
DO NOT time your cameras to the animation like capturing a play with camera cuts.
You lose your ability to "cheat" the frame when you need to. By working in multiple shots with the same animation timing you can move props/walls/cameras/actors just like you would on set... in real life.
MOVING FORWARD
We learned so much working on these four scenes. Places for improvement and exploration include getting better at pacing in place mocap. We had to keep the camera really close as our feet were sliding all over the damn place.
Character design upgrades in the wardrobe and hair department. Things still feel too "game-y." Eventually we want to learn how to customize metahuman bodies so we can get those mechanical arms on our metahuman.
Then there's the element of fine-tuning how we communicate with one another. We both have very distinct styles of shooting and we'll need to find a way to communicate our expectations for each moment. That way scenes feel cohesive.
In the meantime, we'll continue doing test scenes! Let us know what scene you'd like to see come to life.
