Month: June 2025

Part 6: Final touches & Reflection

Reflecting on Project 1, it became clear that while the ambition and narrative intent were strong, the execution highlighted a gap between conceptual ideas and the current animation skill level. The project was instrumental in revealing both creative potential and technical limitations, serving as a grounded platform to test large ideas in a more focused scope.

Though the initial concepts were expansive and at times unrealistic to fully realise, this previs allowed for the distillation of those ideas into a manageable form without sacrificing their core impact. Importantly, it confirmed a strong interest in animation as a career path, particularly in environmental and cinematic storytelling. However, it also underscored that animation as a craft requires time, repetition, and refinement, skills that are still catching up to the scale of creative vision.

These lessons will directly shape the approach to the final year project, where clearer planning and a stronger grasp of animation fundamentals will be key to delivering more cohesive, technically sound work.

Serra Lesson

Week 8 marked the beginning of finalising each animation shot, focusing on polish and cohesion across the sequence. Each scene was reviewed to ensure visual clarity, with attention given to the final parts of the animation.

With the animation nearing completion, early post-production also began. This involved refining environmental lighting, enhancing colour grading, and running render tests to push the cinematic tone. The project is now entering its final stage, where atmosphere and detail play a crucial role in delivering a believable and compelling space chase.

While efforts were made to improve the overall animation quality—particularly in smoothing out motion curves and adjusting timing—the core of the project remained rooted in experimentation. There was a conscious decision not to over-polish or diverge too far from the original goal of exploring new workflows and tools. Balancing animation refinement with the use of procedural tools like Gaea and Niagara allowed the project to retain its exploratory nature while still aiming for a visually compelling result. This approach offered valuable insight into the strengths and limitations of blending technical experimentation with storytelling in real-time environments.

Serra Lesson

Week 7 focused on enhancing the realism and visual clarity of the space chase. One key addition was the implementation of rocket boosters on the spaceships. This grounded the ships within the environment and provided a stronger sense of propulsion and direction. The visual feedback from the boosters helped sell the movement, making the animation feel more intentional and responsive.

The boosters were integrated alongside existing animation paths, complementing previous weeks’ rotations and speed adjustments. Their glow and particle emissions also added to the overall VFX layer, tying into the stormy environment built with Niagara. These refinements collectively improved the visual storytelling, making each ship’s presence more dynamic and readable within the wide, Gaea-generated landscape.

Serra Lesson

Week 6 continued the development of the scene, shifting focus toward animating the spaceship movement. The process was straightforward and enjoyable, primarily involving the adjustment of ship rotations along the Cinematic Rig Rail to match the pacing and direction of the space chase. This added an extra layer of realism and energy to the previously established flight paths.

The white lines in the photo represent the different rail rig paths the ships will take, utilising the entire environment to showcase a variety of angles and animation opportunities within the wide landscape. This highlights the benefit of using Gaea, as its layered terrain adds depth and flexibility for cinematic movement and scene composition.

In parallel, improvements were made to the Niagara VFX system. While the initial snowstorm provided a good base, it lacked the dynamic quality seen in real-world references. Many of these references highlighted the importance of wind gusts in measuring the environment’s intensity.

In this reference, Over the Mountains showcases the winds and snowstorm.

To replicate this, wind effects were layered into the particle system, introducing sudden bursts and directional flow that added complexity and believability to the storm. Achieving this required using a particle system capable of generating a large volume of particles to ensure the effect was visually impactful across the expansive landscape.

The sprite size of the particles was increased so they wouldn’t get lost within the scale of the environment, maintaining visibility and presence on screen. Additionally, adjustments were made to particle velocity and shape, allowing for a more natural, gust-like movement that better matched the visual references and conveyed the chaotic energy of a wind-driven snowstorm.

Serra Lesson

Week 2 focused on project setup and moodboarding, establishing the narrative structure and visual direction. The concept revolves around a sci-fi space chase featuring rocket ships, creating opportunities for dynamic movement and high-energy sequences.

During the reference-gathering phase, the release of Andor Season 2 proved unexpectedly valuable. Key sequences from the show offered precisely the kind of animation reference needed, particularly in terms of ship movement, atmosphere, and framing. These visuals became a foundational influence, helping to shape the storyboard and inform pacing and shot composition.

A Screenshot of the sequence used as a reference

The project also takes advantage of Unreal Engine 5’s FAB materials, using modular, mix-and-match assets to streamline the construction of spacecraft and environments. This combination of strong references and flexible assets created a solid base for building the upcoming animation.

Serra Lessons

Experimenting

Week 1 of the Advanced and Experimental Unit began with a focus on procedural environment creation and simulation. Gaea was selected to generate terrain using its node-based system, offering precise control over shaping natural landscapes.

As the only terrain design software of its kind released in 2019, Gaea is still evolving, but it remains highly effective for experimentation and is well-suited for integration with Unreal Engine 5.

In parallel, Houdini was introduced to explore environmental simulations like snow and wind. Despite having no prior experience with the software, its inclusion represents a deliberate step into more complex technical workflows.

Houdini is considered experimental within this project due to the lack of prior experience and the software’s highly technical nature.

All elements are being prepared for integration into UE5 to test the flexibility of the pipeline and enhance visual storytelling within a real-time space. The project is designed to be ambitious, pushing technical and creative boundaries while embracing the spirit of experimentation.

This combination of tools sets the foundation for an ambitious and forward-thinking project one that embraces technical risks and aims to unlock new visual storytelling potential within UE5.

George Lessons

Spline is fine

Week 9 involved further refinement of the acting shot, following feedback on body movement and facial detail. While some improvements had been made, the body animation remained choppy and moved too quickly, breaking the natural flow and reducing believability, as well as the end with the framing of the head and the neck stretching.

In contrast, the eyes and eyebrows continued to read well, maintaining smooth transitions and effectively supporting the emotional tone. However, the mouth still needed additional work. Certain shapes were either unclear or poorly timed, weakening the sync with the dialogue.

The tutorial provided valuable insight into animating the eyes more effectively, highlighting how subtle shifts in motion can convey a wide range of reactions and emotional states. It emphasized the importance of timing, focus, and context showing how the direction of a glance or the speed of an eye dart can change the entire tone of a performance. This guidance helped build a deeper understanding of how the eyes can drive emotion, intention, and character thought in a scene.

The week emphasized timing and spacing was again the fore most issue, especially in body mechanics during dialogue. Continued refinement of the mouth shapes remains a priority to ensure the performance reads clearly and cohesively across all elements.