MA 3D Computer Animation Blog

To refresh my mind, having spent a while getting to grips with UE5’s nodes and blueprints, I started playing around with C4D to create a poster to have on a wall. I made the eyes without pupils so I could potentially add functionality for them to follow the player around the room when things get more scary and stressful as the game goes on. I chose for there to be three characters to mirror the three antagonists/ hazards in the game.

Going with this vintage kid’s show aesthetic for “Burlap Friends” – I rendered the initial shot with deliberate golden hour lighting to emphasize texture and create this artificial warmth. The burlap material catches light in an interesting way, giving the character this uncanny quality even in its most “friendly” form. Positioned it on a victory podium with a “#1” marker – standard promotional material composition, deliberately generic.

The post-processing transformation pushes it into psychological horror territory. Added a blue-to-red gradient skyline that mimics those 80s horror posters, complete with VHS degradation and film grain. The wear patterns aren’t random – concentrated them around the edges and corners to suggest years of neglect. Dark processing makes those white eyes more prominent, creates this sense of watching.

The creases and rips are somewhat parallel to the aesthetic I’m going for, kind of like a distorted, neglected VHS tape. For environmental storytelling, I want to integrate this fictional franchise’s history into the room itself. Torn poster placement, scattered merchandise, old promotional materials – all serving as breadcrumbs and hinting to an alternate timeline where these toys exist.

Here I add circular planes where I want the eyes to be, and create blueprints so that I can implement functionality later on.

Making the eyes follow the player around was a challenge. I was essentially mapping 2d movement within a texture to reflect a player in 3d space, the initial idea was to map the player position on the floor as a 2d object and move the eyes accordingly, but this required so much trial and error. This way of development really pushed me to learn how the event graph works in unreal, and acted as the basis for my understanding later on, the functionality of the nodes above essentially have the eyes snap to the player once they stand in front of the poster, since the eye movements (following them around) were so janky and I really didn’t like the result.

I initially had two planes on top of each other, but opted to dynamically alter an instanced material instead. This meant that I could have the pupil move beyond the constraints of the whole eye, making it look more three dimensional, but this functionality proves redundant until I am able to complete this game in my own time.

One of the biggest aspects of the room I want to create is the curtain, it represents a large and comforting first step to the nightmare our player is going to experience. Once the curtain has been drawn, the game essentially begins. I began by looking for assets, and opted to create my own cloth in order to have more control over the dynamics.

I am essentially learning Blender from scratch, so I’m documenting my process here too to look back on. I start by adding a line mesh.

Then, subdividing it and selecting all points, selecting in checker mode and moving every odd point forward on the X axis.

I then extruded it down the Z axis and subdivided it, ensuring that I also subdivide on the top and side edges in order to have something to constrain it by. This will make sure the overall shape of the curtain is maintained.

I wasn’t quite sure what the problem was here, maybe I had accidentally extruded it on the X axis, creating an object that acts more as a cushion than a flat cloth.

Here is the cloth mesh with all the appropriate subdivisions.

Separating and creating vertex groups in order to control the cloth animation more.

Here I show the lines I selected in order to do so.

By viewing and correcting normals, I can ensure that the animation won’t have jagged or unnatural movements.

This is the end result. After the curtain was simulated using cloth dynamics, I removed the pressure in order to have it rest at a natural position. I then keyframed animation to have the curtain expand on an axis, this was baked in and the asset was exported as an FBX.

Then, I added the FBX file to UE. Adding a blueprint, painting the mesh with a cloth brush – leaving the polygons at the top. I then tweaked the cloth settings in order to create a more natural, realistic look.

Here is a bug I encountered, causing the curtain to bug even though there aren’t any objects colliding with it and I had self-collisions turned off.

I intend for the animation to play once the play has clicked on the curtain, this is what the event player looks like.

I then added a few more nodes so that the animation doesn’t play again once it’s already been triggered

Just some further experimentation with ideas, I like the visual of having a creature so big that it can stand up at a high windowsill and look in, this was quite fun to draw as well.

And now for some more practical experiements:

I got started on getting the room together, this curtain asset proved helpful for creating a sense of scale and knowing how things will be positioned in my scene, but I want to actually create my own assets so that I can produce and manipulate cloth dynamics, and make my game feel a little bit more alive.

For this, I have been using Blender. I am actually completely new to this software, but its modeling capabilities and malleability is actually a lot better than C4D so you know what? Sure. I’ll bite. Here are a few screenshots from my journey in creating this curtain mesh.

And here is the first issue I ran into during this project! I think I had extruded the polygons incorrectly, causing the dynamics to act as if the mesh is more of a pillow than a curtain, this took me a while to fix but when I had it sorted it was kind of smooth sailing.

I introduced some dynamics and then baked a position I liked into a mesh, this will essentially be what UE starts off with before I reapply cloth dynamics to it, allowing it to rest in a more natural position that it would be in otherwise.

I familiarised my self with boolean variables and custom events here, I also learned how to utilise components within blueprints as references. This BP doesn’t have a lot of capabilities that I end up adding in later on.

Here is some node logic that I played around with for hours trying to make work, the idea here was to make it so that the curtain animates where I click, so that there is some distortion and an increased connection between the player and the game. I want to make it look like a hand is pulling at the curtain as it moves towards closing. Unfortunately, this took way too long and I was making zero progress, I tried every single way I could imagine but to no avail, time to move on.

I want to incorporate a CRT TV in my scene in some way, it’s a large aspect of the short films I’ve produced (I have some sort of infatuation with CRTs apparently) and can be used as a storytelling device by showing short clips on it in certain situations. The TV itself could be part of the scares too. These old sets have such a specific look when they’re acting up – that warped static, the way the picture rolls, that weird high-pitched whine they make. Plus there’s something really unsettling about a TV turning itself on in a dark room, casting a cold glow everywhere.

As you can see in the top right, I include a shelf with picture frames. I plan on either having a photograph of a family or maybe some pictures of old people to really drive home that we’re in an old, lived-in room. The wainscoting in the back I plan to have be relatively ornate, potentially saying that the house used to be quaint and lovely but slowly decayed into disrepair.

I had fun with a couple doodles to sort of come up with the feel I want to produce. I doubt I’ll have the time to create an experience that will really capture what is being shown in these concept arts, but I want to push myself to the absolute limit and see what I produce in this timeframe.

Now I have some of the basics down, and some clear inspirations. I’ve started getting some ideas going for the main aspects of the game. After considering various approaches to demonstrate computer animation fundamentals, I’ve decided to create a first-person horror experience that builds upon my previous work with “Burlap Friends”. The decision wasn’t made lightly – I want to challenge traditional boundaries of computer animation by incorporating multiple experimental animation techniques that can only truly be experienced through active participation.

The cool thing about making it first-person is how much I can play with animation in ways that can unnerve people. I want to capture and create a unique feeling where the environment you’re in just feels like it’s working against you. Like, imagine looking at one of these creepy plush toys and seeing it twitch ever so slightly – but when you look back, it’s completely still.

I’m thinking of starting with regular curtains, nothing out of the ordinary. Then, when the player walks into a specific trigger zone, or, what I want to have happen as part of the game mechanics, when a certain time frame as passed, something starts peeking through – this creepy, toothy smile appearing between the folds. I’ve sketched out how it could emerge gradually: first just a hint, then more visible, finally revealing this unsettling face with those wide eyes and grin.

I’m exploring different ways the face could appear. Maybe it stretches unnaturally between the curtains, or maybe it should be positioned outside the window looking in – that could add an extra layer of dread since it implies something’s actually outside, watching.

I want to play with lighting, and maybe have it as an important mechanic in the game. The way a light source is positioned in a room can completely change how the environment is perceived. This light source should be a sort of life-line, being a way of notifying the player of dangers and also creating a sense of unease when removed.

Going on from my research prior, I’m going to implement a door hidden behind the bed. This door will be potentially the most derelict object in an already old and withered room, if I go down that route.

It’s funny because all my work with the Burlap Friends shorts has actually been great preparation for this. I’ve learned a lot about timing and how to make things feel unsettling, and now I get to make those moments interactive. Plus, working in Unreal Engine is pushing me to learn proper techniques instead of my usual Cinema 4D shortcuts (no more hiding everything in post!).

We went deep into UE5’s rendering setup. The post-processing volume provides incredible control over the final look, way more than I initially expected coming from Cinema 4D’s more straightforward render setup.

Console commands streamline the workflow – highresshot 1920 x 1080 is a quick and easy way to get a high-res screenshot without having to go through the lengthy rendering process I’m kinda used to. We played with spatial and temporal sampling, pushing beyond the default 8 samples really cleaned up static shots and smoothed out animations.

The render warm-up count helps avoid those rough first frames, giving the engine proper prep time. Working locally versus network made a massive difference in render speeds. Setting everything to cinematic under scalability settings provides that extra polish, though finding the right performance balance takes some tweaking. Coming from C4D, the real-time feedback makes experimenting with different render settings much more efficient, even if the initial setup is more complex.

I have a lot of experience with Octane render, but the viewport isn’t as responsive as UE5’s, also, I can interact with a rendered environment which C4D octane lacks the capability of.

This week, looked into dynamic lighting in UE, exploring how intentional and informed use of lighting techniques can enhance a scene and even contribute to storytelling. The seminar had me experimenting with these techniques firsthand and gave me a newfound appreciation for how light, materials, and atmosphere interact in a 3d environment.

The Lumen system is pretty interesting, though getting it to work right was a bit of trial and error. Had some annoying issues with noise in my renders at first, but figured out it was because I was pushing the global illumination settings too far. Once I dialed those back, things started looking much cleaner.

The different light types were fun to mess around with. Directional lights for sun stuff felt pretty straightforward, but I got really into experimenting with spotlights and point lights for more specific effects. Those rectangular lights were cool for soft lighting, and can help fill in a scene when you dont want to have to decrease the shadow constrast.

Material interaction with lighting turned out to be crucial. Adjusting the albedo before adding lights helped optimize the global illumination. Post-processing volumes let you control effects either globally or in specific areas. Adding IES profiles to spotlights made them behave more realistically. Reflections required careful consideration. Using skylight and different reflection types (box and sphere) improved material realism, especially for metals and glass. I found those IES profiles for spotlights interesting – it gives a realistic look that I really like. Had to keep an eye on performance though, especially with ray tracing and high-res reflections.

Post-processing was another thing we touched on, that I found intruiging. Experimenting with color grading through Look-Up Tables (LUTs) showed me how much impact these adjustments can have on the overall mood of a scene. The ability to maintain consistent cinematic tones across different shots feels like a powerful tool for storytelling.

I had a bit of a revelation with post-processing volumes – they’re actually really useful for tweaking specific areas without changing up the whole scene. I’ve been thinking about using them sparingly but purposefully in my project in order to utilise colour theory to my advantage, I’m going to look into being able to change settings mid-gameplay so that I can have it react dynamically.

The most useful thing I learned was probably how to balance different lighting approaches. Sometimes you need that real-time dynamic lighting for specific effects, but other times you can get away with baked lighting and save some performance. Thankfully, I have a decent PC, but if I want to be able to produce experiences that most people can enjoy – I should become acquainted with ways to manage performance.