Creating a camera animation in UE4

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

  1. Create a Camera Actor:
    Cinematics > Cine Camera Actor
  2. Create a new Level Sequence:
    Right Click the Content Browser background and choose Animation > Level Sequence.
  3. In the Content Browser, Double Click the new Level Sequence to open it in the Sequencer.
  4. press ‘+ Track’ and choose Camera Cut Track.
  5. In the camera track press ‘+ Camera’ and choose the Camera Actor you created.
  6. press ‘+ Track’ and choose Transform.
  7. Move the Time-Slider to the motion start time, move the camera to its starting position and orientation, and press the little ‘+’ button at the right of the Transform track <- + -> to set the first Key-Frame for the camera movement.
  8. Move the Time-Slider to the motion end time, move the camera to its ending position and orientation, and press the little ‘+’ button at the right of the Transform track <- + -> to set the last keyframe for the camera movement.
  9. Repeat this to create more Key-Frames and develop the camera motion.
  10. Press the Clapperboard button to open the Render Movie Settings,
    Choose the file format, frame rate, resolution, and save location and press Capture Movie.

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Related:

  1. UE4 – Playing an Animated Level Sequence
  2. UE4 – Packaging a project for Windows
  3. UE4 – 3ds max & V-Ray Datasmith workflow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Create a richly colored metallic surface in UE4

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

One of the optical properties of many metallic surfaces is changing it’s color slightly as the surface viewing angle changes.
This effect can be simply created using a Fresnel node and a color-ramp texture.

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  1. Create a metallic material (metallic value of 1.0).
  2. Use an image editing software to create a linear color ramp texture (gradient) of the color change per viewing angle from left to right. like this example for a golden metal, and import it to your project.
    Ramp_Gold
  3. Add the ramp texture to the material Blueprint, and connect it to the material Base Color Input.
  4. Create a Fresnel node and set its Exponent value to 1.0 and its Base Reflect Fraction to a value of 0.0 so it will provide a linear angle blend value.
  5. Connect the Fresnel node’s output to the UVs input of the ramp texture node.
    * the reason the Fresnel node can be providing both the X and Y texture coordinates is that the texture’s Y dimension provides the same color for all values anyway.

Note:
When the Metallic property of an Unreal Engine material is set to 1.0, the material automatically simulates the metal’s color fading to white at parallel surface viewing angle (the sides) like it should.
So using a Color Ramp Texture like in this example creates an amplified effect.
* Simply put: You don’t have to have the Color Ramp fade to white on the right side of the texture..

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UE4 – Material Fresnel Node

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

The UE4 Fresnel node is actually a “Facing Ratio” node (aka Perpendicular / Parallel) with some extra control.
It basically allows controlling material effects according to the incident angle the surface is viewed at, which is a hugely important feature for designing advanced material effects.

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Exponent:
The steepness of the value / angle curve.

Base Reflect Fraction:
The value at perpendicular angle.

Normal:
An option to connect World Space surface normals input to affect the output of the Fresnel node.
* Tangent Space normals must be converted to World Space by using a Transform Vector node.

Note:
A value of 1.0 for the Exponent parameter, and a value of 0.0 for the Base Reflect Fraction will produce a linear “Facing Ratio” (“Perpendicular / Parallel”) falloff blend.

Examples of different values:
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More info:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Fresnel/

Related posts:

  1. UE4 – basic architectural glazing material
  2. Understanding Fresnel reflections

UE4 – Material Transform Vector Node

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

The Transform Vector material node transform the supplied vector between different geometrical spaces according to your choice:

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Note:
This is useful in order to convert surface normals from Tangent Space to World Space to connect them as input to a Fresnel Node.

UE4 – Changing the timing of animation tracks in the Sequencer

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

To move multiple clips in multiple track to a different time:

  1. Shift + Click multiple clips to select them.
  2. Click on one of the selected clips and drag to change time.

Note:
Infinite clips like Key-frame sequences in Transform tracks must be made finite to be movable.
Right-Click the track and in Properties uncheck Infinite.
* Make the the track Infinite again after the operation if needed.

Basic architectural glazing material in UE4

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

  1. Create a new material, and double click it to edit it.
  2. In the Details panel, under Material, set Blend Mode to Translucent.
  3. In the Details panel, under Translucency, set Lighting Mode to Surface Translucency Volume.
  4. Set Base Color to White.
  5. Set Metallic to 1.
  6. Set Roughness to 0.
  7. Create a Fresnel node and connect it to the Opacity input.
  8. In the Fresnel node, set Base Reflect Fraction to control reflection amount in perpendicular surface viewing angle (front).
    * Note that its connected to Opacity, but since the material is basically a flat mirror, when it’s not purely transparent it will be reflective.
  9. In the Fresnel node, set Exponent to control the reflection amount falloff curve from perpendicular surface viewing angle (front) to parallel surface viewing angle (sides).
    * Higher values will create a steep falloff curve, resulting in less reflection in most viewing angles.

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Related:

  1. 3ds max & V-Ray to UE4 Datasmith workflow
  2. UE4 – Material Fresnel Node
  3. Understanding Fresnel Reflections

Material Parameters and Instances in UE4

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

Material Parameters and Material instances allow you to create a customizable material template that can be easily reused with variations across the project.
In the Parent Material, you define the parameters that will be exposed for tweaking in the Material Instances.
Changing the Parent Material will affect all its instances.

Defining customizable parameters in the Parent Material:

  1. Create 3Vector Constant. (press 3 and left click the blueprint background)
    * Parameters can also be created with other types of data like a Constant or a Texture Sample and more.
  2. Right click the 3Vector node you created and choose Convert to Parameter.
  3. In the Details Panel, name the parameter.

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Creating the Material Instance:

  1. Right click the Parent Material and choose Create Material Instance.
  2. Name the Material Instance.
  3. Double click the Material Instance to edit it.
  4. In the Details panel, under Parameter Groups you will be able to edit the exposed parameters and create a variation of the material.

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Related:
Material Functions
Blending Materials

Vector Parameters in the UE4 Material Blueprint

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

UE4 Material Blueprint Numerical Vector Parameters / Constants and Colors are one and the same, which makes perfects sense, since in computer graphics colors are in fact 3D vectors, RGB quantities being equivalent to XYZ spatial dimensions (4D with an Alpha channel)

But take note that when setting the Vector values in the color picker you can’t set negative values, and when doing so through the Details window in Default Value you can.

* You can create 3D Vector Constants by clicking the background while pressing 3

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Unreal Engine 3D viewport navigation

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

LMB Drag – move horizontally on the X Y plane.

MMB Drag – move on the viewing vertical plane (to the sides and up / down ).

RMB Drag – Rotate (Pan) the view without moving.

Alt + LMB Drag – Arc Rotate view

Alt + RMB Drag – Dolly In / Out view (move forward and back ward along viewing axis)

F – Frame Selection (Zoom Extents)