Description

The purpose of this project is to create photo-realistic virtual environments (lounges, landscapes, interior sets, etc.) and virtual characters to allow real actors to be placed into the virtual space using green screen technology for a virtual production set. The INART project will use the Unreal Engine to create photo-realistic 3D settings to be used by Professor Meyer and the TVF students as their production sets. These virtual rooms will be used as sets for actors to interact with the world and objects in that world. The team is involved with the TVF Advanced Production to grasp a better idea on how green screens and virtual sets are used in films. Along with this, the team is looking at the implementation of animations and A.I. system for the virtual characters. INART VR serves to simplify the process of virtual filmmaking.

The project has changed over the academic year of 2020-2021 per the liaison's request:

Hotel Film Project (Fall)

The initial project was the development of a realistic hotel environment to be used as a virtual production set for the short film Hotel Paraiso. Our goal was to create photorealistic virtual environments to place actors, objects and characters into the virtual space for production and filming. The team was involved with the TV & Film Advanced Production to grasp a better idea on how green screens and virtual sets are used in films. 

Not only did it take to learn about coding within Unreal engine but it also involved learning the basics of the film industry in which we had to learn about the filming of certain shots using the virtual Cine Camera, Rig Rails, and sequencers to recreate the movements of a camera that would otherwise be made in real life. In addition, lighting was an essential aspect to be able to create those photo realistic settings we needed to be able to create the film the liaison needed.

Screen recording pans and shots were done within the virtual world and then exported to OBS (Open Broadcast Software) to combine with actor footage. Different types of environments were made and lighting sources were created to match them. 

Interactive Book Project (Spring)

The current project is the development of an interactive virtual environment created for the launch of the book Interactive Storytelling for the Screen by Sylke Rene Meyer. The environment is used to to portray a digital story and also for the production of the short film Unreal Realities. The user explores various locations throughout the environment in order to gain more pieces of information regarding the book and encounters a virtual rabbit as a guide which is uses artificial intelligence in order to interact with the user.  

Weekly meetings were conducted to update the liaison on the project as well as provide details on what features the virtual book required. The main requirements the virtual book had were a virtual character (rabbit) that would guide the user through the book and interact with the actor, a variety of imported images and acting footage to the virtual world and providing accurate lighting and lighting reflections across multiple levels.  

The group lead was able to go out to the film studio and assist the liaison in filming the scenes with the actor in the virtual world. From here we were able to see how the virtual environment interacted with the actor and how to fix any issues. The team was able to chroma key in the actors with the virtual environment in the background. Footage needed to be exported and imported from the virtual world  in order to put many of the scenes together. 

The group divided the project between the Software Engineers and those working with Unreal Engine, the Documentation team involved with tracking meeting notes and creating project checklists and documents and the Communication team that was involved with leading team meetings and contacting the liaison. 

The entirety of this project was done with the use of The Unreal Engine and OBS studio to both create the virtual world and characters and combine them with the actor footage. 

Customer/Industry Liaison: Prof. Sylke Rene Meyer, INART, Cal State LA

Advisor: David Krum

 

Role	Name	Contact
Team Lead/Architecture	Kevin Diaz-Lopez	diazkevin825@gmail.com
Communication Lead	Daniel Ramirez	jr.ruiz1996@gmail.com
Documentation	Taha Kamran	tahakam2@gmail.com
Documentation	Steve Galvan	sgalva15@calstatela.edu
Project Planner/UE4 Operator	Kiet Hoang	keithhoang644@gmail.com
Project Planner	Noah Castro	noahcastro25@gmail.com
Architecture	Jessy Francisco	jfrancisc324@gmail.com
Software Engineer	David Hermosillo	david.hermosillo882@gmail.com
Software Engineer	Zudong Li	li1143556477@gmail.com

 

Desired Features/Tasks:

• Game development, digital story world design
• Learn about production through Advanced Co-Production meetings
• Create virtual sets like a desert, hallway, office, book nook, and city using assets from Unreal Engine
• Develop a virtual character with the appearance of a realistic rabbit and implement an A.I. allowing for it to roam the virtual sets and interact with users.
• Create functionality for live-action actors to navigate in the virtual world via green screen technology.

Other Notes:

• The Hotel Paraiso production will be presented live, three times (6pm, 7pm, 8pm) on November 19, 2020
• Professor Sylke Meyer's book lounge showcase on May 7, 2021
• INART VR Project showcase at the Senior Design Expo on May 7, 2021.