Unreal 5 Secrets Every Filmmaker Must Know

Want to make better films and cinematics? Win more clients? Make 2024 your best year yet? It starts with this video.

We'll explore advanced Unreal Engine 5 techniques, from lighting and rendering to animation and real-time visual effects. Here's a sneak peek at a short film I'm working on with Mr. Freeze in the Batman Beyond universe.

Incredible Mr. Freeze model/concept by the one and only Pietro Nume!

Whether you're transitioning from traditional filmmaking to Unreal 5 or seeking to enhance your VFX skills, this video offers valuable insights and practical tips. Get ready to transform your creative workflow and elevate your cinematic projects with Unreal 5's unparalleled capabilities in rendering, real-time interactivity, and photorealistic environments. Perfect for both professional VFX artists and hobbyists, this video is your key to unlocking the full potential of Unreal Engine 5 in the realm of filmmaking.

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Do your renders look like a video game?
0:50 - How to make Renders look Cinematic
2:08 - Lighting Breakdown
3:25 - How to Animate Your Lights
4:45 - The Secrets to Photorealism
8:47 - Compositing for a Photoreal Image (The 3 Imperfections)
10:37 - Chromatic Abberation (The Right Way)
14:11 - Level-Up as an Unreal Filmmaker

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[JoshToonen]

Did you know 90% of VFX artists don’t know Nuke? This is the software behind your favorite Hollywood films
If you want to go from beginner to studio-ready in Nuke, this is for you!

[BB-oqsb]

I liked this video because:
- It provided initial info value: shotdeck
- No canned phrases or imagery, this was actual footage with a point
- It talked about the simplicity of lighting and power of contrast that is used by legendary professionals/projects
- It broke down actual imagery, UE and video editing values with a very cause and effect style

This was one of the most informative, clean videos I've seen on youtube. Thanks and well done.

[matteo.grossi]

Man, this is hands down the most informative, transparent and straight to the point breakdown video about cinematics one can find on the internet. Hats off.

[hosstam]

Condensing years of learning into one video is truly impressive. Your knowledge amazes me.

[Eden_Vision]

where have you been all of this time???
youre videos are pure gold!

[elainascott]

You are by far the BEST Unreal tutorial channel I've ever seen!! Thank you for communicating these principles so clearly!!

[fishingwithcav]

Instead of building the physics setup to animate a light, a simple blueprint class actor could be set up to animate the motion of the light. Instead of a fan model, a simple animated light function material could be used.

[thedevo]

It is genuinely hilarious how lens and camera manufacturers compete to replicate the perfection of CGI while CGI professionals compete to perfectly replicate the imperfections of lenses and cameras 😂

[ArthurBaum]

Very important and often overseen topic. Thanks for getting this out. Though I need to add one of the most important if not the important secrets to filmmaking: Story is key!

All of the techniques you've mentioned need to be shaped and molded to support the narrative of your film, which often translates to: Break the rules if necessary. For example, there's no point in low-key short side lighting if you're showing a happy conversation between your protagonists. Same thing applies to your other tips. It really depends on the story.

Though I really like your approach on lighting: less is more. Sometimes even one light source does more than you'd think. Pro tip: since the introduction of Lumen using bounce cards as fill lights works surprisingly well.

Oh, and one other thing about the translucency pass: This is NOT a magic solution for all your DOF issues. It's a temporary fix and will only shift the problem. Translucency will never behave realistically in combination with DOF inside Unreal. That's just a limitation of deferred rendering. I'd advise you to create multiple instances of your TL materials with different pass parameters and / or use masked materials and blur the edges.

That was a lot of unstructured informations to add. Again, thanks for the video. It's super important to talk about those topics but let's never forget what makes a movie "cinematic" first and foremost: the ability to tell a compelling story.

[developingtank]

I really want to learn how to make Unreal Engine cinematic videos. This walkthrough was well paced and avoided being overwhelming, while giving a lot of good ideas of what to investigate more to gain more understanding of how to build these types of scenes. I appreciate this kind of video so much. Subscribed and ready to see what else you've put together. Cheers!

[aedelya]

A little tip on the anamorphic, you can use the "crop" setting beneath the "focus" setting to change the ratio of the image, instead of tinkering with the filmback, that way you can keep your original sensor size

[adz]

Obviously, everybody is mentioning grain, which is also the first thing that popped into my head and was surprised that you left it out. But I love how you focused on the imperfections of the optics as a way to make the image more realistic. And I agree about lighting - less is often more.

Another couple of points - the obvious 24 FPS with a 180 degree shutter angle is always worth mentioning. Using lenses in the 24mm to 50mm range (Super 35 equiv). Exporting the footage in a LOG gamma curve and grading afterwards - which can be really simple with a good colour space transformation and then a print film LUT (Juan Melara has some fantastic ones).

[thegildededge]

Wow thank you for this! It looks amazing after you added the post process effects, definitely more cinematic. Well done! Inspired to try this now.

[robertdouble]

Excellent video Josh, keep 'em coming! That "before DoF" tip for translucent materials is a particularly good one.

Lens focal length actually changes the "perceived" depth of field, not the actual depth of field. If you crop the center section of a shot filmed on a 25mm lens and enlarge it to match the equivalent crop of the same scene captured with an 85mm lens they will be pretty much the same in terms of framing, apparent "depth compression" and DoF. A subtle difference in terminology, but a truth of lens physics many people overlook. Sure there will be differences in barrel distortion, diffraction etc, but that's a chat for another day. I imagine you probably know all of this and you're just keeping the video simple for your viewers.

Also, nothing screams "CG" more than overuse of chromatic aberration. Thanks for telling the viewers to be subtle with it. It tends to be done to death by beginners and looks....really sh!t. Keep in mind Deakins used some old lenses on Jesse James. old! I remember reading about it in American Cinematographer back when the movie came out. Like yeah, an actual paper magazine from 15 years ago. I'm old. 😁

Looking forward to the next video!

[AAvfx]

That's great 👍 thanks for sharing your techniques

[IliaCinema]

Chromatic abberations do not appear because of imperfections of the lens, they appear because the refractive index is defferent for different light wave lengths. And different colors have different wave lengths. Like and thanks tho))

[georgikozhuharov]

Hi, which of your courses is best for person who will start with unreal engine 5 for the first time :) I am professional videographer and I really want to start doing unreal engine cinematic videos which I could use in my documentary movies. Now for the first time in years I will have 3 months free time and I really want to start learning this software.

[michaelb]

I am thinking of doing the 21 day boot camp but which unreal engine are you using for the course or can i use 5.4 and then as we move ahead and final release is available to 5.5? Also will there be someone to look at the projects we are given to do to grade them?

[ycaro.d]

Great! Could you make a video with this idea but focusing on indoor lighting? I work with architectural visualization and have difficulty achieving high levels of realism in interior scenes.

[Elayzee]

@1:24 Wong Kar Wai films look like art in every single shot.