CGI Short Film :
Collaborating with four others to experiment with UE5 animation and render pipeline. I Houdini Pyro, RBD - Unreal Engine 5.3 I 2024
Details
Project Brief :
In a team of five, we set out to create a short film from start to finish, with all assets produced by team members. This included modeling, texturing, environment creation, lighting, visual effects, compositing, and post-production. And finally using UE5 to render.
My primary role in the team was to handle destruction effects . Additionally, I contributed to directing, technical art tasks, and Sound Design.
After getting hands on this amazing model our artist creates.
I need to make it destruction-ready. Since the destruction only
takes parts in the middle section of the ship. It is beneficial to split the ship into 3 parts and simulate it with different complexity.
Wood Material
Pre-fractures.
Custom wooden pre-fracture ends up with 4,800 Pieces.
Using the squash, scatter, and stretch technique.
Constraint networks.
Wood doesn't shatter into individual pieces when it breaks. They are somewhat soft bodies where some of the pieces will be connected. To recreate that, I must relate them in
a way that they form convincing wooden fractures.
The left image is all the constraints between the pieces.
Each dot in the image represents an individual piece.
Main Destruction
To convince the "underwaterness"
Drag
Drag_Spin
Those two magical nodes are the key to creating an underwater
illusion of destruction effect. I can adjust and animate the amount
of drag dynamically throughout the impact to make
the most of the animation.
Dust trails and Shockwave
Trails Effect from Debris
To achieve realistic trail effects from the blast, I selected specific pieces of debris to serve as sources for the trails. After converting these pieces into volumes, I used a pyro simulation to fine-tune the behavior of the sand and smoke, leveraging their velocity to create a natural flow.
Ground Shockwave
The shockwave is essential for conveying the impact's power,
and it’s simulated separately to allow flexibility and efficiency
in making adjustments.
It originated from particles emitted outward, which were
then simulated using a DOPnet pyro setup to fine-tune the
drag and fluidity. It was then combined with the trail effect to
create a cohesive, rounded look.
Ship Mast Animation
Why the “Mast” ?
Given the dramatic destruction of the ship, filled with intense motion, I wanted to provide the audience with a focal point. This visual and motion interest serves to guide their attention, anchor the animation, and effectively convey the ship's descent.
This simple animation enhances the entire shot, bringing a much-improved flow to the scene overall.