Weekly Overview
This week, our team is making great strides as we prepare for the upcoming soft. Building on last week’s efforts, we continued fine-tuning the equipment in the green screen room to ensure everything is ready for showcase.
One of our most exciting achievements this week was a major breakthrough in the festival video production. We incorporated Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman technology to bring our main character to life for the project’s introduction video. By leveraging MetaHuman’s audio-to-animation tools alongside body motion capture datasets, we enabled our character to speak and perform seamlessly in the scene. This integration excellently bridges the gap between reality and virtual, showcasing the power of virtual production.
Introduction Video
Facial Animation
We’ve chosen to set the tone of our introduction video in the style of Detroit: Become Human. Instead of using a live presenter to explain the virtual production pipeline, we’ve introduced Alice, our MetaHuman actress, as the guide.
To achieve this, we utilized the latest MetaHuman plug-in in Unreal Engine 5.5, which offers groundbreaking tools for animating facial expressions using audio files. This approach eliminates the need for traditional facial motion capture devices. By simply importing audio, we can generate lifelike facial animations that bring Alice to life, allowing her to speak and emote naturally.
Body Mo-Cap for Video
We also aimed to make Alice fully interactive in our scene to demonstrate the integrated technique. For her body movements, we captured animation data using motion capture technology and applied it to her virtual body. This scene showcases a seamless combination of facial animation powered by audio files and body motion achieved through mocap, creating a cohesive and lifelike performance.
Feedback from Soft Opening
We held a soft opening and received detailed feedback from faculty and professors, focusing on three main areas: final deliverable improvements, website usability, and audience engagement for the festival.
For the final deliverable, we will refine our documentation to include solutions and evaluations and highlight how the project benefits ETC students, particularly in Visual Story and film production. Regarding the website, we will clarify the information on the landing page and ensure navigation is intuitive for a seamless user experience. Finally, to enhance festival engagement, we plan to provide prompts and clear instructions to guide the audience and encourage interaction.