In The Shadow of Night | Unreal Challenge - Creep It Real

DeadWinter22 · October 24, 2022, 1:16pm

For questions relating to the current active challenge please use the tag UnrealChallenge
For submissions please include the tag CreepItReal

Title:
In The Shadow of Night - Creep It Real Challenge

Student Submission: Yes/No No

Credits to sourced content:

Screenshot

To say a few words about the process, I created three scenes with more or less different light scenarios. Thanks to level streaming, I was able to set up a kind of transition between them, just to have a small continuous plan effect. Since it’s a little difficult to create real cinema-like transitions from the Unreal sequencer, I preferred to play with post-processing to mask the transition from one camera to another. The level streaming was also used to switch fluidly between the lightings.

The only times I had to leave unreal were for the creation of some decals, LUTS and of course, for the preparation of the sound design.

Regarding the LUTS (Look-Up Table) for Color Grading, I have nothing in stock in my Unreal vault that can be used, but on the other hand I have some free ones on Photoshop. As the rule stipulates that the project must not be submitted to an external postproduction, I therefore decided to follow this tutorial which allowed me to create LUTS files that I could then import into Unreal and use on its internal postprocess.

For some sounds, I used Audacity to sample only the parts that suited me. The design and export of the final sound was then done from the Unreal sequencer. I then used a simple free video editor to merge this final sound into the sequence. The little narration is mine, I recorded my voice on audacity using one of the great effects from the Voicemod software.

Unfortunately, impossible for this project to use the movie render queue because it crashed unreal after a few seconds of processing (I guess it’s because of the heaviness of the project). So I’m sticking with the traditional movie render pipeline. Everything was rendered in .mov format encoded with Apple ProRes, at 3840x2160.

Optional

Description
The pitch is very simple : “Someone or something prowls silently in the forest on halloween night. It moves in the dark and looks for children to perform its ritual. It is said that this is what allows it to come back every year”

No particular reference here. I just mix in my sauce some well-known atmosphere of classic horror movies.

Engine version
5.0.3

BattleLicorne · October 24, 2022, 5:01pm

Just Perfect

DeadWinter22 · October 24, 2022, 5:13pm

Thanks dude

Dark.XFX · October 27, 2022, 10:36pm

awesome !
well done dude !

anonymous_user_d5213f361 · October 27, 2022, 10:36pm

Ooooh

videl42971 · October 27, 2022, 10:38pm

the best

DeadWinter22 · October 28, 2022, 5:18am

Thank you very much everybody

VityyOne · October 28, 2022, 2:55pm

Really good work there and some clever workarounds to be able to achieve your vision, really nice! Maybe one thing for me is the book’s closing animation may be a bit fast but it could be the only small default I could see there, well done!

DeadWinter22 · October 28, 2022, 3:06pm

Thanks @VityyOne . About the book anim rate, it’s a superfuge, to hide the small imperfections of this sequence

Marius557 · November 3, 2022, 3:07am

This one was so good! Can’t believe it only has 4 votes (including mine) at the moment.

DeadWinter22 · November 3, 2022, 4:55am

Thank you for your support , I really appreciate it

anonymous_user_597c0a81 · November 4, 2022, 9:53pm

Simple and effective, I like the way you bring an understandable storytelling to such a short sequence. Good choice of composition too, I was surprised by the shadow that appeared

Get_DOVAH_it · November 4, 2022, 10:10pm

Greetings @DeadWinter22 !

Astonishing! This is one of thee BEST submissions I have seen thus far! The storytelling is impeccable, and just the thought of what has happened off-screen is terrifying! You’ve done an amazing job with the transitions!

Thank you so much for breaking down some of your processes. Specifically, which horror movies served as your atmospheric inspiration?

DeadWinter22 · November 5, 2022, 7:49am

Thank you @anonymous_user_597c0a81 , I think that in challenges like this, the key is to keep it simple while providing the essentials

Floopycopy · November 5, 2022, 8:55am

Loved those transitions, Overall Great work.

DeadWinter22 · November 5, 2022, 9:01am

Thank you @Get_DOVAH_it . For the storytelling itself, there is no particular reference. It’s deja vu, it’s known. I especially wanted to bring a dimension let’s say… more down to earth by excluding big monsters, ghosts, etc. Although the story itself speaks a bit of the supernatural: “It is said that this is what allows it to come back every year”. In the intro sequence, we see an appearance but the spectator is free to interpret it. It could just as easily be a real zombie as it could be a human in disguise. This is mostly a brief hint of what halloween is in the collective consciousness but off this screen there is another reality.

Same for the atmosphere, no particular reference, it’s really a mix of several moods that I appreciated on a lot of films that I had kept in mind but overall, we can say that I based myself a lot on Poltergeist and Pet Cemetery. I also really like the mix of bright colors found in stranger thing and everything that is a bit retrowave. Here are my pure ref in the set during work . Cheers

DeadWinter22 · November 5, 2022, 9:05am

Thank you @Floopycopy