Sky Scraper
"Sky Scraper" marks my transition from motion graphics and vfx to cinematic storytelling, using Unreal Engine 5
Hey everyone! This is my 3rd cinematic animation in Unreal Engine, Sky Scraper. Here’s the first 2 if you missed those:
After about a year messing around in Unreal, I’m finally feeling comfortable with it. I come from a motion graphics and VFX background, and switching to UE5 opened up a whole new world for real-time storytelling. The instant feedback (including animation and lighting), fast render times, and capabilities of MetaHumans are what pulled me in and what’s kept me loyal.
Character Animation & Tools
- I don’t use a mocap suit, everything was mocapped using Move.AI, then I cleaned up with control rig.
I built a custom hand pose library to speed up cleanup.
Body and facial animation plugins: Threepeat Anim Tools and Locodrome.
This animation pipeline tutorial was a major help.
I recently learned about indirect manipulation in control rig: being able to hide gizmos and freely rotate joints helped make the viewfinder less messy when animating.
MetaHumans & Assets
- Head sculpts + hi-res textures came from 3D Scan Store, converted with mesh to MetaHuman.
(Haven’t tried the new MetaHuman Creator inside the UE editor yet. Let me know what you guys think about it.)
Environment & Workflow
- I recreated a stylized NYC landscape using meshes pulled via Google Earth API (tutorial), cleaned in Blender, and supplemented using art deco/Manhattan Kitbash.
- Since I dropped my Maxon subscription (sorry not sorry), I modeled the blimp from scratch in Blender and textured it in Substance Painter.
Cloth & Simulation
- Still using Marvelous Designer for cloth sims:
- 1. Exported FBX of MetaHuman (keyframed)
- 2. Brought into Blender → exported as alembic
- 3. Simulated in MD → exported cloth
- 4. Imported back into UE5 and matched the clothing
- *After 3 projects with MD, I’m thinking about switching to chaos cloth. Any good beginner tips?
Virtual Camera
- Used live link with my iPhone to recreate camera shake.
- I figured out that it’s more flexible to keyframe the base dolly/pan first, then record handheld shake over it. This way I was able to literally sit in my chair and fake the movement with my hands. It actually worked surprisingly well.
Thank You
- Huge thanks to the tutorial creators out there with gems of knowledge that have helped me tackle problems and debug along the way.
- Things I still want to get better at in future movies include nuanced facial expressions, audio and lip sync, and narrative structure. My biggest goal right now is to build full dialogue scenes using MetaHumans.
- Unreal Engine has been a game changer. Huge thanks to the UE devs for their tireless work to make all this possible for artists like me. Can’t wait to keep on creating!
- Happy to share more details or answer any questions. As always, appreciate all the support and insight from the community.
