It was the summer of 2021, and instead of taking a vacation, I had to create a seven-and-a-half-minute video showcasing the transformation of an old, abandoned port into a modern and vibrant marina of the future. I spent two months brainstorming, directing art, crafting the story, modeling in 3D, animating, and rendering. As a Maya artist, it seemed an impossible task to produce such a compelling project. However, with the power of fast level design, marketplace assets, real-time rendering, and AI crowds, the project was completed on time, thanks to Unreal Engine.
Project consists over 5000 actors, 2200 unique static meshes and almost 1000 materials. Because subject is a real marina in the City of Rijeka, landmark assets couldn’t be bought from the store and had to be modelled.
I cut corners wherever I could. The distant environment was made using panorama photos from the city.
Large ships in the distance were simply scaled-up small ships, transformed into megayachts.
Crowd animation was replaced with AI NPC crowd simulation. Although some of the NPCs left the area, by constraining them within an invisible box, I managed to render a video that had one good take, almost like in real life.
Even the foam simulation from the boats wasn’t a part of the ocean shader. Instead, I used a Niagara waterfall FX emitting particles horizontally 10 cm above the water. With the right camera angle, the trickery was completed in just a few minutes.
This project wasn’t a game, so performance wasn’t a concern. Although the editor framerate was around 90 with a 3080 Ti, the sole purpose was to assemble and render the project as quickly as possible.
For a project made in such a hurry and with so many hidden flaws, the overall reception was quite surprising. The video was even played on national news television, and screenshots appeared in newspapers.
Unreal Engine truly is a lifesaver when it comes to handling ambitious projects! It’s amazing how technology can help turn seemingly impossible tasks into stunning results.
Check out full video on YouTube.