Amazed by UE4 possibilities I dived into learning the tool in 2014. I needed some basic tools. At that time I got a chance to try Spedtree’s SP Modeller demo for UE4. EmptyLands and Keltica were my first UE4 projects that taught me a lot. Unfortunately one can’t know everything. As a designer I could create a scene, but my programming skills were not good enough, so I had to learn.

No matter how cool UE4 is, you still need MoCap, sound, code and other stuff. Having a good scene is not enough – you need money and people. That is why my possibilities formed the idea. I had no money for MoCap and I found another solution. Basically it’s a project with no animation; a project with stop-motion and flying camera. It’s like a frozen tale now.

Building Animation and Characters

The most important elements are the right topology, ideal rigging and good mapping. There is no animation without these.

It’s all about your idea and concept. But I skip this part and start right from the production. I could do some concept art, but this time references or some photos are all I need. One of the tricks here is to sculpt ready model – I try skipping retopology. That can save you a lot of time. So, I take some basic model with right lowpoly topology, build its shape and start the sculpt.