Final Outcome

My goal was to explore virtual Cameras inside a virtual environment. I initially explored face performance capture using Metahumans but my computer crashed and I was unable to retrieve the file. I also similarly explored cinematics within Unreal Engine but my computer was unfortunately unable to handle the entire software so I finally opted to use Unity for cinematics instead. This was my first time working with cameras within an environment so I was very curious to explore the possibilities. 

My idea was to create smooth cinematic shots of the environment by using virtual cameras. I was specifically interested in creating wide shots that would pan from one area of the environment to the other. As a movie enthusiast, particularly of animated movies, it was fun to play around with the cameras and visually see the backend of camera work. Due to the timeframe of the intensive as well as my inexperience using unity, blender, etc, I did not have time to create my own assets. I used assets within the asset store to create a simple environment. My goal was to gain a thorough understanding of camera work within unity specifically exploring tools such as the cinematics package, timeline package, recorder tool, etc. 

For the environment itself, my goal was to create a nature scene that embodied summertime. And proceed to film it in a way that captures the scene, as well as explores camera work. I specifically wanted the shots to move from one camera to the next in a smooth motion. Controlling the cameras manually creates a jointers effect usually and it’s harder to get the effect of smooth spanning. My goal was to explore the cameras to achieve a smooth shot that panned from one camera to the next

Process

I used the timeline asset from the package manager to add a timeline and then added virtual cameras and panned the first camera to the second camera. I then used the recorder tool to record the videos. I had to reduce the quality of the videos due to difficulty exporting.

Reflection

I learned a lot through this intensive. Not only regarding virtual cameras but the other topics that were covered as well. As someone relatively new to 3-d rendering, I had to learn how to use the software and get acclimated to the software pretty quickly.

I started with Unreal Engine and got some scenes rendered, but the project unfortunately crashed and my computer wasn’t able to handle the software. Despite this, I still learned the basics of the software through watching YouTube videos and basic experimentation. Exploring cinematics within Unity gave me the fundamental skills and knowledge that I can hopefully transfer to Unreal Engine at some point. One of the primary goals in this intensive was to understand how virtual production works specifically with Cinematics which I most definitely achieved through this intensive.