{"id":804014,"date":"2022-12-07T14:08:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T21:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/us\/?p=804014"},"modified":"2024-06-18T11:33:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T18:33:58","slug":"unreal-engine-haz-dulull-rift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/unreal-engine-haz-dulull-rift\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Unreal Engine, Touch OSC, and Wacom Cintiq Pro in animation with HaZ Dulull"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Wacom continues to iterate on products that are built for creative filmmaking workflows, we\u2019re always looking to learn from those that are pushing the boundaries in their industry. Learn from animator and filmmaker HaZ Dulull in the interview below to see how he bridged tools like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unrealengine.com\/en-US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Unreal Engine<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackmagicdesign.com\/products\/davinciresolve\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DaVinci Resolve<\/a> while using a Wacom Cintiq Pro to create his animated sci-fi feature film, <a href=\"https:\/\/hazfilm.com\/riftmovie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">RIFT<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Sci-fi Anime Feature Film Trailer **RIFT**\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ZRUnr6BAZg?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How did the idea for RIFT come&nbsp;about?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea for RIFT actually was based on a story idea I created back in 2019 called \u201cBrother\u201d and we then developed it further into an early version of RIFT \u2013 which was going to be fully live action. We then shelved it as we focused on other projects, mainly because it was going to be very expensive to shoot (we\u2019re talking about physics defying action sequences and&nbsp;multiverses!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But then when the pandemic hit, we had to pause our other live action project. To stay relevant in an industry where content is king, we pivoted towards animation to continue being busy with production and creating content (feature film). In that process, myself and my producing partner Paula Crickard revisited the project, and we realized that animation is the perfect medium to do the ambitious ideas we had in the script we had developed with writer Stavros&nbsp;Pamballis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then in October 2020 myself and CG Supervisor \u2013 Andrea Tedeschi, decided to do a test sequence for the project, shared it with a few industry people including Epic Games, and from there it was clear we could do this and there was an appetite for adult&nbsp;animation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What creative boundaries were you looking to push with the&nbsp;production?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were several boundaries we were pushing mainly from a production an disruptor side of things, such as producing an entire 93 minute feature film completely remotely, entirely in Unreal Engine and with a small team\u2026oh, and also the entire thing is FINAL PIXELS, meaning we don\u2019t do the conventional CG thing, where you render out passes, etc., and then composite them together and apply comp FX before getting a final&nbsp;shot.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in our case it was \u201cwhat you see is what you get\u201d \u2013 straight out of the Unreal Engine viewport as EXR frames. This meant we can work in an agile way, and keep iterating. Some shots had so many iterations because of this final pixels&nbsp;approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What existing production challenges did you look to improve when creating&nbsp;RIFT?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Final pixels is something that you see in video games or interactive content, but what we were doing is taking real-time workflow and then rendering these out as frames for linear film content. So things like particles or physics, which are usually realtime things, can be unpredictable when rendering out as a linear approach (film). So we had to really push Unreal Engines Sequencer to make things work when rendering out as&nbsp;EXRs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other production challenge, which was probably the biggest one, is the overall look and style of the movie. We didn\u2019t want it to look like a video game cinematic. We wanted this to have its own unique look that stood on its own. I was particularly drawn to anime movies like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Cybercity Oedo, and more, when I was in my late teens, so I wanted to evoke that kind of energy and when creating a hybrid cel shaded and CG look to RIFT.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the time of production (Note: RIFT is created entirely in Unreal Engine 4.26.2) there wasn\u2019t much cel shader support in Unreal, apart from some post processing effects. These didn\u2019t really work for us, because we noticed when the camera moved around or specific lighting were done, the edge lines and reflections didn\u2019t look very good and it looked very&nbsp;\u201cfiltered\u201d.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So we spent a lot of time developing our own set of shaders which also meant we had to think about the way we designed and built out characters (using&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reallusion.com\/character-creator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reallusion Character creator<\/a>), in order to achieve the look I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"604\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz-home-office-setup.jpg\" alt=\"haz home office setup\" class=\"wp-image-812459\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz-home-office-setup.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz-home-office-setup-980x548.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz-home-office-setup-480x268.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What was your tech setup alongside the Cintiq Pro? What software and hardware were key in creating&nbsp;RIFT?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We were very fortunate to have got some really great hardware tech-sponsorship support, which really helped massively.&nbsp; ASUS came on board very early on with their ProART Workstation and ProArt PA32UCG 4K HDR monitor, fitted with an NVIDIA RTX A6000 card. The entire movie was actually rendered out on that single machine and&nbsp;card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Western Digital then came on with providing WDBLACK SSD hard drives to allow me to work fast with the unreal engine cache data but also the 4K EXRS rendered to those drives as Reels (we have 8 reels in total the film was split&nbsp;into).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But whilst working on the main shots, I wanted to be able to work on editorial at the same time, and later in production as my machine was rendering out the queue\/&nbsp; batch of shots. I was editing on the ASUS&nbsp;StudioBook 16 OLED laptop&nbsp;connected with my&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/estore.wacom.com\/en-US\/wacom-cintiq-pro-16-dth167k0a.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wacom Cintiq Pro 16<\/a>. My Head of CG, Andrea Tedeschi, also used his Wacom Cintiq Pro to sculpt hair geometry for our characters using ZBrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"625\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz_Zbrush_cintiq.jpg\" alt=\"haz Zbrush screenshot\" class=\"wp-image-812460\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz_Zbrush_cintiq.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz_Zbrush_cintiq-980x567.jpg 980w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/12\/haz_Zbrush_cintiq-480x278.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1080px, 100vw\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How integral was the Wacom Cintiq Pro to your creative process?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Cintiq Pro came in mid-way of production of the film (I was using a Wacom Bamboo before) and I was blown away by the large size screen and work area, I decided to use it with Davinci Resolve as well as Unreal Engine to explore ways we can be creative with it on RIFT, as well as our other&nbsp;projects.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a production company who produces original IP and not service other IP, we always have to be exploring new ways to create content as well as ways to make our productions more&nbsp;efficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When working in Unreal Engine, I spent 90% of my time inside Sequencer \u2013 which is essentially the timeline of scene\/shot. Editorial is a key component in my storytelling process, even in pre-production I\u2019m editing previs to craft the story as early&nbsp;on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, instead of me telling you my creative process, let me show&nbsp;you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Watch the video below showing how HaZ works directly in Unreal Engine Sequencer with his Wacom Cintiq Pro to have a much more immersive experience with his filmmaking&nbsp;process:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Wacom Cintiq with Unreal Engine 5\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tFz5QKuNI6Y?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How did you utilize Touch OSC\/Unreal Engine\/Cintiq Pro together? How did you discover these&nbsp;capabilities?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was exploring other production opportunities with the use of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/hexler.net\/touchosc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Touch OSC<\/a>&nbsp;and Unreal Engine, that no one seems to be pushing when it comes to Touch OSC in Unreal Engine editor (not realtime games, but for actual cinematic creations), so we took it onto ourselves to explore and develop that on our end.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Andrea and Ernesto Arguello figured out how to create some basic Touch OSC tools in Unreal to give me the ability as a director to choreograph specific action like lighting tweaks and&nbsp;explosions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Watch video showing the tools HaZimation developed early on utilizing Touch OSC with Unreal Engine and Wacom Cintiq&nbsp;Pro:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Touch OSC in Unreal Engine with Wacom Cintiq\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q6ykflzTlRE?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We\u2019re big fans of OTOY Sculptron at Wacom. Can you describe how you used Sculptron in your workflow? What potential do you see with this&nbsp;software?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although we didn\u2019t use it in the main shots of the film, we did explore it for a few shots in RIFT, and what we found super useful was the fact you can sculpt your facial expressions and you then export them out as blend shapes. It felt so liberating and the results had this kind of organic feel to&nbsp;it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Watch video showing HaZ and his team experimenting with Sculptron in&nbsp;RIFT:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Using Sculptron with Wacom Cintiq\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SRijU0Ix_v0?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s next for you?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are currently screening RIFT at various festivals \u2013 we just had RIFT screen at the Oscar accredited SPARKS Festival in Vancouver, and a few days ago we had the UK premiere at the BAFTA qualifying British Urban Film&nbsp;Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Project-wise, we are in production on two of our video game IP\u2019s, one of them being the Spin off game for RIFT and the other is SYNCROMANIA (both for Xbox console), which will be announced early next&nbsp;year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We are also producing a huge metaverse project called XLANTIS, which involves openworld gameplay, whilst also prepping for our next animated feature film project to start next&nbsp;year.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of those projects are produced using out Unreal Engine pipeline and of course Wacom Cintiq Pro being used in all areas of the the&nbsp;productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Want to keep up with&nbsp;HaZ?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:20%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/08\/1600811844913.png\" alt=\"haz dulull headshot\" class=\"wp-image-800775\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/08\/1600811844913.png 200w, https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2022\/08\/1600811844913-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:80%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hazimation.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">his website<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Follow HaZ on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/hazdazzle\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/haz_dulull\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HaZFilmStudio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn from animator and filmmaker HaZ Dulull in the interview below to see how he bridged tools like Unreal Engine and DaVinci Resolve while using a Wacom Cintiq Pro to create his animated sci-fi feature film, RIFT. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":812461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2326,2332,2341,2567,2340],"tags":[2563,376,642,1495],"class_list":["post-804014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation","category-cintiq-and-cintiq-pro","category-software","category-virtual-production","category-products","tag-haz-dulull","tag-interview","tag-unreal","tag-virtual-production"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.wacom.com\/en-us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}