Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521956
Tech CONTINUED FROM PAGE 43 53 S U M M E R Q 2 I S S U E He also worked on a "Ghostbusters" s h o r t f i l m w i t h C a n a d i a n – A m e r i c a n filmmaker Jason Reitman and director Gil Kenan ("Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire"). For this collaboration between Sony and P i x o m o d o, t h e y u s e d U E 5 to re c re a te downtown New York City where Ecto-1 could drive through the streets and face off against the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Toonen said, "It was a great way to get this technology into the hands of filmmak- ers. The animations were done beforehand, so Jason [Reitman] could go in as a camera operator and shoot in this digital space yet still get that live-action handheld look. Jason is def initely someone who loves live-action and working with actors, but we could show him that even for heavy CGI or visual effects sequences, he can be the one holding the camera. We can help bring that vision to life as a collaboration between the visual effects studio and the filmmakers." FOCUSING ON THE CREATIVE SIDE There are many powerful tools and features built into UE5. As a visual effects artist, Toonen feels Lumen (the real-time lighting system) is one of the most powerful for filmmaking. Lighting scenes using tra- ditional visual effects software takes time because making a change means waiting for the image to render. "You move this light and wait three to five minutes. It's almost like a real film set where you wait for people to physically move lights around. With Unreal, you can make creative lighting decisions in real-time and see exactly how it will look through a real camera," he said. "You can put a MetaHuman or 3D character into a 3D space in Unreal and then light it. You can move a hair light higher up or right above the actor instead of behind them. You can change the light color, or swing it around. All those small things that are very stressful to do in a short amount of time on a film set can be done in real-time in Unreal, and planned out before production starts. You get instant results so you can focus on the creative side of it." Toonen added, "Whether you work on a film set every day or are a visual effects artist, using UE5 will train your creative eye for better lighting results. I learned the most about lighting in Unreal because the response is so fast and you get accurate bounce light." There are also useful third-party tools for UE5. Toonen recommends DASH from Polygonflow, which uses basic physics simulations to scatter multiple copies of an object (such as rocks or bricks) into an environment, and Ultra Dynamic Sky (sold by Everett Gunther in the UE Marketplace), which is a blueprint for a flexible dynamic sky system with natural cloud motion, and customizable sun, moon, and stars. "Honestly, Unreal has numerous fea- tures built into the engine itself. You just have to enable them. That's a testament to Epic Games because Unreal works great right out of the box," said Toonen. LOWERING THE BARRIERS UE5 is democratizing filmmaking by significantly lowering the barriers to entry. Besides being free to use, the capabilities covered in this article (virtual scouting for film locations, pre-visualization and p re - p ro d u c t i o n p l a n n i n g f o r s e t c o n - struction, lighting, etc., and environment creation) merely scratch the surface of what's possible. "UE5 lets directors and filmmakers tell bigger stories for a lower cost, and that's across the board. That's at the highest studio level and at the indie level as well," said Toonen, who used UE5 to jumpstart his directing career. One of his recent projects was a 10-min- ute-long music video for the metal band TesseracT, created using UE5, motion cap- ture actors, and a motion-capture camera. "With a team of just five artists, we were able to pull off a project that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we did it in a short amount of time. We're able to punch above our weight and to stretch ourselves creatively. The music video, 'War of Being,' now has a million views on You- Tube," Toonen said. For visual effects artists and editors, UE5 provides more opportunities for face- to-face collaboration with filmmakers. "All of us in the visual effects industry love making films. We are clamoring for new ways to not be on a computer in a dark room. We have ideas to share, and UE5 allows us to share them faster, to share them on a film set. That's honestly been the most exciting part," said Toonen. On the directing and camera-operating side, UE5 provides instant creative feed- back for filming CGI-heavy sequences, as director Reitman experienced with his "Ghostbusters" short film. "They're making creative decisions while holding a camera," said Toonen. "It's an opportunity to take f ilmmaking into the virtual realm, but they're still holding that camera, they're on an actual set working with creative people; we're collaborating on set together. That's been some of my favorite experiences in visual effects, period," Toonen said. ■ Jennifer Walden is a freelance writer specializing in post-production technology. off his glasses, which seemed loud just because it was uncomfortable. That's a great example of "How do we not get in the way of these performances?" CineMontage: It's sound in service of storytelling, isn't it? Waters: That's exactly right. I always say you go through stages in your career as a sound person, and at some point, you stop trying to show off. You get to the point where all you care about is the story, and directing the story with the director. Wikke: It's one of my favorite projects of my career. The people working on the show are the kindest and most creative people I've ever worked with, and I'm super-grate- ful to be a part of it. It's so collaborative, and we all work well together and have no egos. It's a very nice atmosphere, and I think it shows with what we produce. ■