(Term 1: Week 8-13)
In this week class, Luke asked us about our research topic for 1500 words essay. I proposed to make a research about real-time rendering as I’m really interested in that topic because it’s getting more popular and advanced nowadays.
I was involved in using a real-time rendering, Unreal Engine when I was working to produce a game with my friends about 2 years ago. I was the animator for the in-game animations and cinematics for the game. The game visual was not designed towards a realistic look, but I was blown away with the power of the engine which can render almost everything I threw into the cinematics in real-time such as fog, reflection and volumetric lights.
As I was getting interested with the engine and searching online for tutorials to improve my knowledge with Unreal Engine, I found out that the game engine is getting popular in actual film and animation productions because its capability to produce realistic rendering in a shorter time compared to offline rendering.
Back to my research topic, at first I want to focus on the method used by real-time rendering of how it can optimise the processing power and rendering time compared to other rendering type. But I think the research will results in to have too much technical jargons, terms and algorithms that I myself don’t understand as I’m not into programming.
Luke said that real-time rendering is such a massive topic. So he want me to narrow it down to how it use to produce effects (VFX) or how it use in virtual production.
After that I was thinking for few days about my topic because I don’t want it to be too big and too small either.
Early Research
Title:
– Real-time Rendering Method in Virtual Production
– Real-time Rendering and How It Can Benefit Visual Production
– Future of Visual with Real-time Rendering
– Advantage of Realtime Rendering in Visual Creation.
Question / research scope:
– What is Real-Time Rendering
– Technology for fast rendering
– Brief history of real-time rendering
– Has been around for decades in games
– Method / how it works
– three conceptual stages: application stage, geometry stage, rasterizing
– Type of real-time engine
– Integration in production
– What are the benefits
– Time
– Cost
– Previs for script writing, set building, motion capture, animation
– What is the future of rendering? Can it compete with another render?
–
Early references:
I found a book titled “Real-Time Rendering, Fourth Edition: (4th New edition)” by Tomas Akenine-Moller, Eric Haines and Naty Hoffman. Its really going in-depth and very technical too. Its not really suitable for my short essay, so I may use this book just for basic references only.
https://www.techspot.com/article/1888-how-to-3d-rendering-rasterization-ray-tracing/
https://unity3d.com/real-time-rendering-3d
https://unity.com/solutions/real-time-filmmaking-explained
https://www.designblendz.com/blog/what-is-real-time-rendering-and-how-does-it-wo
https://80.lv/articles/integrating-real-time-rendering-into-film-production-pipeline/
https://unity.com/solutions/real-time-filmmaking-explained
After more thinking and looking at various references, here are almost the final outline for my research essay.
Research Outline
Title
Advantages of Real-time Rendering in Animation and Visual Effects Design
Introduction (200 words)
– Problem in production in terms of rendering time, cost, etc
– Solution with real-time rendering
–
What is Real-time Rendering (300 words)
– Description of what is real-time rendering
– Brief example of how real-time engine works
– Maybe compare to off-line rendering
– Example of real-time engines
– Not too technical
–
Benefits to workflow and creativity (900 words)
– Can see result in short time / instantly
– Fast review / feedback cycle
– Can experiment with ideas
– Team can collaborate in real-time
– Save time & cost
– Short development time
– Some real-time engines are free
–
– Find samples of real productions using real-time rendering
– How it helps with creativity
– How it used during production
– How it opens a new type / style of entertainments
–
Conclusion (100 words)
– Real-time rendering is the future as it getting powerful
–
Other related links:
How Real-time Rendering Is Changing VFX And Animation Production
Upcoming Animated Series ‘Zafari’ Is Being Rendered Completely With The Unreal Game Engine
https://www.polygon.com/2017/3/1/14777806/gdc-epic-rogue-one-star-wars-k2so
Gene Splicer From 3lateral & ILM Rogue One on UE4
https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/spotlights/virtual-production-the-future-group-pushes-xr-limit