Still learning Unreal Engine 4 7-6-2020

Still doing lots of tutorials and tests. I’m getting close to doing my first short film all CGI. This isn’t meant to look photoreal but rather to have an animated film style look. The speed at which I can single handed knock out shots like this is astounding.

Next I’m learning how to make people talk and change expression so I can have scenes with dialog.

I still have much to do on the actual location building but the second location of the forest was built in a day and I cranked out 4 shots, cut them in Adobe Premiere and uploaded to the server. Amazing.

It’s been a long haul

After weeks of study…

Some of you may remember I have been working in Unity creating VR experiences. I got pretty good at it and then I was told that another 3D engine for making video games was better and I should make the switch. Not an easy switch because although 3D programs are all similar they often achieve the same results using different methods.

After lots of tutorials and many trials and errors I am finally ready to make my own films. These engines are a studio in a box. That is to say they aren’t just for video games anymore. You can create any location, studio stage with sets, realistic actors, just about anything you can imagine and bring it to life in the computer. This has always been a dream and now it’s a reality.

It can be a dangerous tool too for a rebel like myself because now I can make those movies that glorify a peaceful world where humans drop their differences, embrace the universe and live in peace. Protest against the system, war, and greed with filmmaking.

My first attempt will be to create “The Park”. Some of you have read my stories on stories website:  https://shortstoriesbysteveneill.home.blog/   The Park is a place I have visited more then once. I have no idea if it’s real or not. But it sure felt real. It was an incredible place of peace that words fail to describe. And I’m not alone because it has been written about by many long before I ever spoke of it.

The end game here is to make the second episode of the “But Something is There” series entitled, “The Dreamtime”. 

But first I get my feet wet recreating the Park both for VR and a short film.

After a long haul and a lot of fiddling I got a rough shot off yesterday. I figured out how to use the camera and motion control. It’s one thing to create a world in 3D space but another to move through it with a camera and that I did. This opens everything up to making that short.

The Park isn’t finished and quite rough at present but much will be added to it over time and the real production of making a short film will begin.

Episode two of “But Something is There”?

I wrote the next script in 2018 and it has been sitting unread, un-produced for quite some time now. I read the script recently and found it better than I had remembered. As strange as it may seem to some of you so is the Universe. Whether real, imaginary, or dreams, I experienced them. They were real to me. And this experience is shared by the silent witnesses out there.

I’ve never said I know what this all means or who these mysterious visitors are or come from. To be honest, I just don’t know. Only that it is there. After reading the script I knew I had to make this happen some how some way.

While working in Unreal Engine 4 https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/ creating a virtual world talked about in the episode script it struck me I could make the film animated in Unreal Engine. It is literally a studio in a box.

It’s a reality today to create anything with this powerful tool freeing the film maker from location shooting, crews, camera, sound equipment and budgets that have made so far making this second film impossible. It’s like painting a movie. The most incredible canvas for an artist ever conceived.

It will take some time to do alone. It’s my hope to have help from someone out there. The film isn’t being made to sell, or put on the market. I just want to create art on film and share as I did with the first episode.

Soon maybe this weekend I’ll have a test short up that takes you through the park that I have visited in my dreams many times. Small steps to large beginnings.

Here’s the script. It needs several more edits to fix the typos and other errors but the content and my experience are there.

bsit-the-dream-time-edit-1-mary-3Download

If this is something that you have a passion for and would like to contribute to, I will need help with everything from texturing, creating materials, mesh making to motion capture files and more. Please contact me if interested.

I’ll post updates as always. Thanks for ready.

Steve

6-17-2020 the latest

The studio and I have remained busy during this very real pandemic. Our doors will remain closed to the public and all visitors for a long time to come. But Mary and I continue to work and stay busy with projects.

Recently I just finished this original mask design for a mask company that wanted original Steve Neill designs for their mask line. They call it the Shadow Demon after a movie monster I made years ago for a Roger Corman movie “Galaxy of Terror”.

Currently I’m working on a recreation mask of the famous Out Limits alien the Ebonite.

In addition I am creating a model kit of the now famous and successful Falcon 9 and capsule.

To see more of of our work at our Studio visit our Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/SteveNeill

Slot car track art

So I spent a better part of the day yesterday painting track figures from the 60’s I found on eBay. I like these better than the over priced 3D printed ones I have seen. Being that they are hand sculpted by real artists gives them soul. I have many more to paint a place on the track but the track is getting a life to it slowly.

Most of the cars here are all hand built from kits, some kit bashed and one scratch built as are all the buildings. The diner is still under construction.

SNG raceway lives.