The War of The Worlds | Virtual Production
‘The War Of The Worlds’ is a game cinematic made using Unreal Engine 4. It conveys the story of the catastrophic Martian invasion and conquest of Victorian London, based upon the famous novel by H.G Wells and look development from a recent BBC Mini Series. It is defined as a ‘Virtual Production’ as it utilises real world production techniques in a Realtime environment.
The project was conceived in December 2020 working with CG Spectrum game design department head, Troy Dunniway, whilst creating a framework for an Interactive Drama. It later became a ‘special project’ supported by CG Spectrum's game art department, produced over 70 days between April and October 2021, principally with the support of Realtime artist, Deepak Chetty, with additional support from game artist, Clinton Crumpler, and virtual production fellow, David Williams.
A breakdown of hardware, software and shot particulars is detailed below and a press release is available here.
Hardware
Laptop Computer | Dell XPS 13 13.3 Inch 4K UHD Touchscreen 2019 Laptop Intel Core i7-8565U, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD
Graphics Card | MSI Nvidia Geforce RTX 2060 Ventus XS 6G OC
EGPU Housing | Razer Core X External Graphics Enclosure for Thunderbolt™ 3 Laptops
SSD Drive | LaCie Rugged Mini 1TB USB 3.0 Portable 2.5 inch External Hard Drive
Facial Capture | Apple iPhone X supporting AR Kit. Live Link and Unreal Remote plugins
Virtual Camera | HTC Vive VR Wand and Neewer Camera Rig System for DSLR, using Apple iPhone X as preview monitor
Software
Realtime Engine | Assembled using the Unreal Engine 4.26 editor, animated using Sequencer and rendered via Movie Render Queue
UE4 Plugins | Control Rig, Steam VR, Daz to Unreal, Live Link (facial capture/virtual camera), Take Recorder, Quixel Bridge, UE Remote
3D Modelling & Animation | Autodesk Maya
3D Assets | Quixel Megascans, Unreal Marketplace, Turbosquid, Kitbash 3D
3D Texturing | Adobe Substance Painter
Character Creation | Daz Studio, Metahuman Creator
MOCAP | Epic, Mixamo, Actorcore
2D Textures & Matte Painting | Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Shutterstock, CG Trader, Textures.com
NLE Editor | Adobe Premiere Pro
Colour Grading | Black Magic DaVinci Resolve
Source Control | Perforce P4V and Perforce/Unreal integration hosted on Digital Ocean
Audio Track
Cursed Intro by Rafael Krux | Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5624-cursed-intro- License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Shot particulars
All frames shot at 24FPS at 21:9 ratio. Lighting, cinematics and post processing was bespoke to each shot but not included below.
01 - Title Screen | Environment Solar System Materials, Cinematic Earth. Font Neo Latina
02 & 03 - Martian Horror Scene | Environment The Vault. VFX Paragon: Rampage
04 & 05 - Martian Hangar Scene | Environment Sci-Fi Kitbash. Custom Martian Capsule Maya/Substance. FX The Vault, Cinematic Earth
06 - Earth Revolving into Sunlight | Environment Solar System Materials, Cinematic Earth
07 - Capsule Emanating from Mars | Environment Solar System Materials. Custom Martian Capsule Maya/Substance
08 - Capsule Hitting Atmosphere | Environment Cinematic Earth. HDRI Sci-Fi Kitbash. Custom Martian Capsule Maya/Substance with Custom Lava Shader. VFX Vehicle VFX
09 & 10 - Capsule Travels over Horsell Village | Environment Victorian House, Victorian Kitbash. Character Custom Amy in nightgown & George in shirt using Metahuman Creator/Daz Studio. Animation Actorcore/Mixamo. VFX Custom animated vapour trail. FX Dynamic Sky
11 & 12 - Capsule Lands at Horsell Common | Environment - terrain made in Maya & textured using Megascans. Rocks, debris and scatter using Megascans, Pine Trees. Forest billboard photographed at the real Horsell Common in Surrey, UK. Custom Martian Capsule Maya/Substance with alternative texture set. Character Custom Amy in dress & George in suit with hat, Ogilvy in shirt and tie using Metahuman Creator/Daz Studio. Animation Epic/Mixamo and custom made using pose tool in UE4. FX Dynamic Sky. VFX Fire (starter content), Custom fog card with depth fade, Custom dynamic fog particle made in Cascade. Virtual camera using Vive tracker and take recorder using a custom ‘Virtual Camera Stage Controller and Steadicam’ made using blueprints.
13 - Amy & George Fear | Environment Victorian House, Victorian Kitbash, Western Desert Town, Megascans. VFX Custom fog Card. Character Custom Amy in dress & George in shirt using Metahuman Creator/Daz Studio. Animation George using Live Link facial capture/take recorder and Amy hand keyed using control rig. ‘Virtual Camera Stage Controller and Steadicam’ using Vive tracker and take recorder.
14 - The Narrator and The Tripod | Environment Victorian Kitbash, Stain Glass, Megascans. FX Dynamic Sky with custom animated smoke and fog cards. Character Custom George in suit using Metahuman Creator/Daz Studio in static pose. Tripod 3D asset retopologised from Turbosquid model and textured using trim sheet. Custom Tripod skeletal rig using Maya for bones and UE control rig to create an FK rig to hand key in Sequencer. Custom Tripod lighting effect using Maya, Illustrator, UE4 shaders.
15 - London’s Burning | Environment Matte Painting Skybox, Photograph from Shutterstock edited in Photoshop, Victorian Kitbash, Megascans. Tripod 3D asset retopologised from Turbosquid model and not textured. Tripod animation using Simple Procedural Walk tool recorded using take recorder. VFX Smoke, Toxic Gas, Fire (starter content). Film damage and lens dirt using Resolve.
16 - The Red Weed Takes Hold | Environment Victorian Kitbash model with 8k Megascan texture and decals, Statue. VFX Procedural Vein Growth made in UE4 and cleaned up in Maya. Custom ‘rust effect’ shader created to animate across statue. Custom Dust and Fog Cards.
17 - Martian Reveal | Environment The Vault. Character and Animation Paragon: Rampage. CineCamera movement hand keyed for fine control.