HAOQUAN
WANG
BlUE DESERT
----An experimental short film rendered in Unreal Engine
Tools
Unreal Engine 5.3, OpticTrack(Motion Capture), Motion Builder, MetahHuman, Adobe Premiere
Project Genres
Virtual Production, Unreal Engine Cinematics, Abstract Storytelling
Roles
Art Direction(Unreal Environment Artist, Lighting)
Motion Capture Technican
Co-Director
Abstract
A young woman navigates the delicate threshold between reality and dreams, caught in the intricate dance of her own turbulent thoughts. As she grapples with the fragments of her fractured psyche, an ineffable longing stirs within her soul—a poignant quest to reclaim the elusive bond severed by her mother's departure. In a hypnotic voyage through the shifting landscapes of her mind, she embraces the enigma of her own identity. Drawn by an ancestral whisper, she embarks on a poetic odyssey, seeking connection in the vast expanse where dreams intertwine with stark reality. "Blue Desert" unfolds as a lyrical exploration of fragmented memories, offering a hauntingly beautiful testament to the human spirit's resilient pursuit of connection beyond the veil of consciousness.
World Building + Environment Design
In this project, my main responsibilities and tasks include setting up the scenes and directing the artistic direction. The key scenes encompass the desert, train carriages, pond and tub in her dreams, train stations, the girl's apartment, her hometown house, an altar, and the sea, etc. Lighting plays a vital role in rendering and accentuating the character's inner emotions and driving the story forward. Through specific lighting design and contrasts in color, the girl's state of mind and the different stages of the story are clearly presented to the audience, which is one of the important goals of this project.
Motion Capture, Retargeting, Animation
In addition to the artistic direction, I also served as the motion capture technician for this project. We conducted motion capture using the OpticTrack system at 370J MediaCommons, NYU's motion capture studio.
In Motion Builder, I retargeted Unreal's MetaHuman skeletal mesh to combind the motion capture data, and finally returned to the Unreal Engine for rendering. The motion capture actor was Michelle Ma, the initiator of this project and my partner.
