Composition
During the production process, it was important to keep in mind the position of the camera to ensure that the composition of the video was of sufficient standard. For the beginning shot, I wanted the camera to be positioned in the woods surrounding the swamp and leading towards the pond.
I experimented with the different camera settings such as the focal length and the manual focus distance. The focal length determines how wide the shot will be, while the focus distance controls the blur of the background; with these settings adjusted, I first began with lower values to blur the background and create a wider shot to ensure that details aren’t missed as the camera emerges from the tall grass.
As the camera moves further into the environment, I positioned it so that it would stop at the centre of the pond before coming out and moving towards the cave. Using the ‘golden ratio’ composition theory, I highlighted the detail of the pond by situating the camera adjacent to the log and drawing attention to the current position and the surrounding area. When moving towards the grass, I used the same method of adjusting the focus distance to a lower value so that it would blur the cave as it moves towards it, before setting a transform key to the entrance of the cave and altering the focus value to high when the cave is in view.
To ensure that there was a range of compositions throughout the video, I included an extreme close-up of the skulls in the cave. By adding a close-up shot, I have drawn attention to the assets shown within the frame and implied importance; this gives the audience an idea of the narrative of my environment.
The interior of my environment is composed of still shots, panning and extreme close-ups of the details I want to draw attention to. For majority of my shots, I decided to use panning to ensure that the viewer can see the details of the interior.
Colour
Considering my environment is a swamp, I needed to pick a colour palette that fits the landscape. The suitable theme would be comprised of murky green colours for the exterior, so I attempted to keep a consistent colour scheme using the below palette.
Lighting
During the process of lighting, it was important to keep in mind which lights I used. In Unreal Engine 5, there are five different lighting types:
- Directional Lights are the primary outdoor light, or any light that needs to appear as if it’s casting light from extreme, or near infinite, distances.
- Sky Light captures the background of the scene and applies it to the Level’s geometry.
- Point Lights act as a light bulb, casting light in all directions from a single point.
- Spot Lights emit light from a single point in a direction limited by a set of cones.
- Rect Lights emit light from a rectangular surface in a direction (Unreal Engine, 2023).
With the different types of lighting in mind, I first began to produce the sky. To begin with, I added a ‘Sky Atmosphere’ component into my scene; this new component allows me to alter the appearance of the sky – the direction in which the sun is located in the scene. Rotating the component allows me to transform the position of the sun towards the horizon, meaning it would be a dimmer effect on the scene.
Combining the sky atmosphere with a directional light, I’m able to direct the primary light to face the landscape and act as the sunlight. With the directional light selected, I altered the temperature to a warmer colour to blend with the environment.
Due to the fact that my environment is set in a medieval era, I was limited to using fire as a light source; because of this, I only used point lights. When adjusting the settings, I altered the temperature of the lights so that it would emit warm colours in order to act as a fire. This combined with the fire component provided by Unreal Engine, I was able to mimic the appearance of fire throughout my environment.
Aleksander Bolbot (n.d.) Natural coniferous stand of Bialowieza Forest Landscape Reserve. Available online: https://color.adobe.com/search?q=swamp [Accessed 01/05/2023].
Unreal Engine (2023) Light Types and Their Mobility. Available online: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/light-types-and-their-mobility-in-unreal-engine/ [Accessed 27/04/2023].