Cut01
In Cut 1, the character walks from left to right along a path in the forest. In this scene, I focused on the sense of scale of the character and the movement of the surrounding plants.
Cut02
In Cut 2, the character walks toward the camera from the background to the foreground. In this scene, I wanted to clearly show the character’s facial expression. Therefore, I used a low-angle camera to make the character’s face more visible.
Cut03
In Cut 3, the character walks toward the cave. To emphasize the vastness of the background, I used a panning camera while gradually pulling back. This allows the viewer to clearly understand the scale of the environment, the smallness of the character, and where the character is going.
Cut04
In Cut 4, the character pauses in front of a Japanese torii gate at the entrance of the cave before walking inside. During this scene, I rotated the camera 180 degrees while maintaining focus on the character. By adding this dynamic camera movement, I aimed to clearly convey that this moment marks a significant change in the narrative.
Cut05
In Cut 5, the character walks inside the cave. In this scene, I kept the interior of the cave simple in order to draw attention to something ahead. As the character moves deeper into the cave, I emphasized this focal point by using brighter blue lighting toward the end of the cave.
Cut06-1
In Cut 6, the character arrives at the end of the cave. Rather than revealing what lies beyond, I focused the camera on the character to build anticipation.
Cut06-2
In Cut 6, I depicted a scene where the character stops and is overwhelmed by the view beyond the cave. In this scene, I did not reveal the entire interior of the cave; instead, I showed only a part of the tree to create a sense of mystery.
Cut07
In Cut 7, we focused on a Japanese shrine at the base of a tree. This shrine is visually connected to the torii gate we saw earlier at the cave entrance. By combining mystical elements like the cave and the shrine, we aimed to create a more beautiful and sacred atmosphere.
Additionally, we illuminated the shrine with orange and yellow lighting to highlight it and convey a warm, welcoming feeling.
Cut08
In Cut 8, the camera pulls back to show the entire cave interior. To emphasize the vastness and grandeur of the environment, I positioned the camera slightly above eye level, using a gentle high-angle shot.
UE5 Set up
Scene 1:
Foliage
When creating the background, I needed to place a lot of plants, as the setting was in a natural setting. I used the Foliage tool I learned in class to efficiently place plants and trees within a specified area. This function exists in other software, but it can often slow down processing or cause data loss. However, I felt that UE5’s greatest strength was that it runs stably and allows you to work quickly as long as you make sure to save regularly.
Based on this experience, in future background productions I would like to create the main objects and props in Blender, and then place plants and other elements later in UE5 to complete the background.
Scene 2:
When creating this background, I was conscious of guiding the eye naturally into the cave and of expressing the grandeur of the background. To that end, I duplicated and layered many assets to enhance the sense of three-dimensionality.
This method is not often used in other software, as it can cause strange surfaces and textures when rendering, and can also cause problems with light reflection. However, when I checked the sample background environment assets for this production, I found that many objects overlapped, creating a wonderful sense of three-dimensionality and working normally.
For this reason, I decided to incorporate this technique into my own work.
Scene 3:
As this background is set inside a cave, it is a dark environment with no sunlight. Therefore, we placed many point lights and spot lights to ensure brightness. Furthermore, by setting the light to blue, we emphasized the mysterious atmosphere.
We also positioned the base of the tree slightly below eye level so that the entire tree could be seen. Furthermore, by using lake assets, we were able to create a realistic and tranquil atmosphere.
Rendering Settings
What I Learned About Rendering in UE5
While working on this project, I tried different rendering settings in UE5 and noticed some important points. Here’s what I learned.
1. Save Often
Even though UE5 is stable, big scenes can sometimes crash. I realized that saving frequently is very important. I made it a habit to press save bottom regularly.
2. Lighting Matters
Adding many lights can sometimes make things look too bright or strange. I learned that adjusting intensity and radius carefully helps. Also, light color changes the feeling a lot: blue feels mysterious, while orange feels warm.
3. Reflections and Shadows
Reflections and shadows can be tricky. I noticed that using Reflection Capture and Lightmass helps make them look natural.
4. LOD (Level of Detail) Helps Performance
High-polygon objects can make the scene slow. I found that using LOD allows the polygons to decrease when objects are far away, which makes everything run smoother.
5. Object Placement
I also noticed that putting too many objects in one place can be heavy for the scene. Nanite in UE5 helps a lot, because it can handle high-polygon objects without slowing down the scene.
6. Rendering Settings
I tried different settings and learned:
- Anti-Aliasing makes edges and movement smooth. TAA works well.
- Post Process Volume helps adjust brightness, color, and contrast.
- Ray Tracing gives realistic shadows and reflections, but it can slow down the scene.
7. Preview Before Final Render
I found that it is better to preview in low resolution first. When everything looks good, then do the high-resolution render. Temporarily hiding unnecessary lights or objects also saves time.