:: My idea ::

Now that I had my idea somewhat solidified, I can begin pre-production for my piece, starting with the storyboards. A good thing about using Unreal Engine for the production is that I can experiment with different camera techniques in real time, so these storyboards are able to be altered somewhat in a way not granted if I was using real life cameras for my production.

A dynamic tracking shot of an ethereal dove flying through a medieval siege battle

My Idea Summarized

It is very important for me to create clear and precise storyboards for my piece. This will allow me to come back to these boards after I have gone through creating the scene and producing the visual effects I will need. Learning to create these visual effects will be a time-consuming process and so having storyboards to come back to instructing me what I intend for each shot will be very helpful later in production.

:: My Storyboards ::

Below you can see my storyboards, which are still subject to change. With one of the biggest benefits of the production being done entirely digitally with Unreal Engine being it allows me to experiment in real time without having to re shoot any scenes. Also, the timings of these shots are very much up for debate, and I will need to review my sequence often to make sure the shots are not too long or too short. With the entire scene being basically a tracking shot I will need to make sure the final product is not too dull nor filled with a nauseating amount of vfx.

My storyboards can be roughly sorted into four separate sections. The first board (Fig.1), which focuses the camera on the bird and sets the scene of the siege. With the second board (Fig.2) we see the first VFX splash, with an explosion and a large stone on fire. This then blows the bird off course and over the top of the army.

Then we have the second flash of VFX in the form of the lightning strike, adding a bright flash of cool colours to contrast the reds of the fire (Fig.3). This strike then blows the bird back on course which brings us to the final board (Fig.4) where the bird comes to a rest on the cannon. By this stage the VFX of the piece are largely finished. But the smaller scale lit wick allows for a different type of fire effect to those explored previously.

:: My Animatic ::

With my storyboards finished I can create a rudimentary 2D animatic of my scene. This allows me to get an overall feel for my idea and spot any issues that I may have planted before I start on my full production within Unreal Engine. I also added some sound effects for the key parts, but I will naturally have to give more thought to the audio of the final piece. Audio such as an ambience track and good use of sound levels will be crucial to give a polished final video.

I think my idea will work well overall, and I think the shot selection I have chosen succeeded in making the tracking shot visually engaging. I also think the use of VFX is very fitting for the piece, without falling into the trap of adding visual noise unnecessarily. However, one issue the animatic brought to light was the intended lengths of each shot. I had anticipated most shots lasting around 3 seconds, however having seen the speed of this with my animatic I found the shots were far too quick for the viewer to fully understand what they were viewing.

Because of this I had to extend most of the shots length, making most of them around 5 seconds instead of 3. As a result the animatic of the piece runs to the 90 second mark when the assignment only requires a 60 second video. Whether this will be an issue depends on the timings in the final production. But should I find myself needing to trim the video I could cut out the section of the piece with the lightning strike. Instead of having the bird blown to the left over the top of the army the trebuchet impact could force the bird down slightly before it corrects its path. This would however result in loosing one of the major VFX I had planned for the scene.

:: References ::

AudioPapkin (n.d.). ‘Big Impact’ [Audio Clip]. Available online: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/explosion/?manual_search=1&order=None [Accessed 16/11/2022]

foad (n.d.). ‘Thunderstorm Lightning Strike’ [Audio Clip]. Available online: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/lightning%20strike/?manual_search=1&order=None [Accessed 16/11/2022]

qubodup (n.d.). ‘Cannon Shot’. [Audio Clip]. Available online: https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/cannon/ [Accessed 16/11/2022]