PREVISUALIZATION | LAYOUT
RUSH
A man rushes through the woods, desperately trying to evade a relentless hunter on horseback. Will he reach the gates of heaven, or will her flawless aim seal his fate?
Programs Used:
Breakdowns
THE PROCESS
Storyboards
I began developing this original concept by sketching storyboards to establish the keyframe shots that would guide the timing and streamline the previs process. As I build out boards in Photoshop, I start to visualize the camera transitions and flow of action, giving me a clearer sense of how the sequence will unfold.
Environment Layout
After gathering assets from the Fab Marketplace, I used Unreal Engine’s foliage tool to begin laying out the forest environment. I populated the scene with trees, rocks, flowers, and grass, adjusting density, scale, and Z-offset as needed. I ensured NoCollision was enabled and that all assets were set to static.
To speed up the process, I created foliage bundles by grouping specific assets and painting them directly onto the terrain. I varied tree types and rock sizes in areas with more screen time, keeping the background simpler since it would be obscured by motion blur. I also paid close attention to key points of interest, such as the rock hiding spot where the girl and her horse jump over.
Character Animation
I retargeted most of the animation using an existing library downloaded from the Fab Marketplace. To do this, I selected each animation sequence and assigned it to the correct Metahuman skeletal mesh. After exporting the retargeted animation, I brought it into the Level Sequencer and applied the layered animation to the appropriate Metahuman characters. I followed the same process for both the girl and her horse.
For certain shots, I used the option to “Bake to Control Rig.” One example is the horse’s jump over the rock. While the base jump animation was adequate, I needed more precise posing. Since this horse asset didn’t include a control rig (only joints) I baked the animation to the mesh and manually keyframed the joints to refine the motion. I referenced real show-jumping footage to ensure accuracy. For hero shots involving slow motion, I used time dilation so the original animations remained clean and undistorted.
Camera Animation
There isn’t much reference of a man being chased through a forest by a girl on horseback firing arrows, so I had to Frankenstein footage from House of the Dragon and a scene from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. One of the main challenges was deciding when a shot should feel handheld versus fully CG.
Camera Shake Blueprint
To achieve a convincing handheld camera feel, I used Unreal Engine’s Camera Shake Blueprint class. For the Root Shake Pattern, I chose Perlin Noise because it best replicated natural handheld movement. Depending on the intensity I needed, I fine-tuned the location and rotation amplitudes and frequencies. For shots from the male character’s POV, I also adjusted the FOV to mimic subtle eye strain. I experimented with composite camera shakes as well, layering multiple shake patterns with different settings to create a more organic result and avoid anything that felt artificial or cheap.
example: camera shake composites.
When the girl and her horse enter the frame, I treated her screen time as deliberate and efficient. She’s skilled, confident, and doesn’t waste a shot. These were the moments I enjoyed creating the most, as they allowed for more dynamic and expressive camera animations.