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The Darkest Age - Unreal Engine Filmmaking
เข้าร่วมเมื่อ 31 ส.ค. 2011
I am delving deep into Unreal Engine 5 and the Metahuman animation pipeline. I am a cinematographer by trade, looking to create short films and other types of content using this incredible software. Watch this channel for various animation tests, short films, and BTS content on my processes.
How to Create A Massive Zombie Horde in Unreal Engine 5.5 - Niagara Crowd Simulation, AnimToTexture
discord.com/invite/thedarkestage
This is an in-depth tutorial on creating a massive, stampeding horde of zombies using a modified Niagara fountain emitter and static mesh zombie particles that are animated using Vertex Animation Textures (VAT). We use a tool built by @TrashPraxis to convert zombie skeletal meshes into static meshes, with their animations baked into their material instances, which uses Unreal Engine's AnimToTexture plugin. This is all done in Unreal Engine 5.5, without having to leave to bake the static meshes. I also draw heavily from @CodeLikeMe's tutorial on creating a rat swarm tutorial, which I have also linked below.
Link to Trash Praxis' Tool on Github: github.com/kromond/AnimToTextureHelpers
Trash Praxis' Tutorial: th-cam.com/video/vrlFozqB0jA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=oJtM5twCbO8QBgXz
CodeLikeMe's Rat Swarm Tutorial: th-cam.com/video/NilyMiB1fos/w-d-xo.htmlsi=YBCah9zDPOLh9Aq3
Zombie Characters Used: fab.com/s/66eae7a3094c
Zombie Animations Used: fab.com/s/53aed38d6191
Affiliate Links to Support the Channel:
ElevenLabs for AI Voice morphing: try.elevenlabs.io/srb9mtho4n0l
QuickMagic for Body Mocap: www.quickmagic.ai?code=clmew4 (if link is broken, referral code is: clmew4)
Artlist for Cinematic Music and SFX: artlist.io/referral/dd1d776b-740e-43da-8557-29c2fe35e03d
00:00-00:34 - Intro
00:35-01:20 - CINEMATIC
01:21-04:20 - Overview of Effect
04:21-07:13 - Limitations
07:14-08:13 - Benefits
08:14-09:57 - Main Tutorials Used
09:58-11:29 - Project and Plugin Setup
11:30-13:02 - Download and Install Vertex Animation Texture Tool from Github
13:03-15:25 Adding Zombie Characters and Animations
15:26-16:33 Retargeting Zombie Animations
16:34-17:10 Organizing Meshes
17:11-24:19 Modifying Materials wtih AnimToTexture Blueprint Code
24:20-34:03 Baking the Vertex Animation Textures and Generating Static Meshes with Trash Praxis' Tool
34:05-38:13 Setting Up More Zombies
38:14-38:50 IMPORTANT Do Not Apply LOD If Prompted When Closing Static Mesh Window
38:51-43:13 Setting Up Niagara Emitter and Adding Meshes, Initial Spawn Velocity, and Collision
43:14-44:23 Changing Particle Lifetime and Randomizing Initial Scale
44:24-47:35 Applying Linear Force to Particles
47:36-49:58 Setting Up Variation in Linear Force and Adding Sine Wave Movement
49:59-51:23 Changing Spawn Volume Shape
51:24-53:39 Changing Spawn Rate of Particle Emitter
53:40-56:40 Adding Another Linear Force to Give More Directional Control to Horde
56:41-58:23 Making Zombies Face the Proper Direction, Aligning them to Direction of Velocity
58:24-59:40 Fixing Zombie Bounce by Changing Restitution, Fixing Clumping by Reducing Bounce Friction
59:41-1:00:00 Lowering Linear Force So They Don't Run So Fast
1:00:01-1:00:37 Turning On Cast Shadow for Particles
1:00:38-1:03:05 Adding a Curve to the Mesh Scale So Particles Ease In and Out of existence
1:03:06-1:04:37 Outro
This is an in-depth tutorial on creating a massive, stampeding horde of zombies using a modified Niagara fountain emitter and static mesh zombie particles that are animated using Vertex Animation Textures (VAT). We use a tool built by @TrashPraxis to convert zombie skeletal meshes into static meshes, with their animations baked into their material instances, which uses Unreal Engine's AnimToTexture plugin. This is all done in Unreal Engine 5.5, without having to leave to bake the static meshes. I also draw heavily from @CodeLikeMe's tutorial on creating a rat swarm tutorial, which I have also linked below.
Link to Trash Praxis' Tool on Github: github.com/kromond/AnimToTextureHelpers
Trash Praxis' Tutorial: th-cam.com/video/vrlFozqB0jA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=oJtM5twCbO8QBgXz
CodeLikeMe's Rat Swarm Tutorial: th-cam.com/video/NilyMiB1fos/w-d-xo.htmlsi=YBCah9zDPOLh9Aq3
Zombie Characters Used: fab.com/s/66eae7a3094c
Zombie Animations Used: fab.com/s/53aed38d6191
Affiliate Links to Support the Channel:
ElevenLabs for AI Voice morphing: try.elevenlabs.io/srb9mtho4n0l
QuickMagic for Body Mocap: www.quickmagic.ai?code=clmew4 (if link is broken, referral code is: clmew4)
Artlist for Cinematic Music and SFX: artlist.io/referral/dd1d776b-740e-43da-8557-29c2fe35e03d
00:00-00:34 - Intro
00:35-01:20 - CINEMATIC
01:21-04:20 - Overview of Effect
04:21-07:13 - Limitations
07:14-08:13 - Benefits
08:14-09:57 - Main Tutorials Used
09:58-11:29 - Project and Plugin Setup
11:30-13:02 - Download and Install Vertex Animation Texture Tool from Github
13:03-15:25 Adding Zombie Characters and Animations
15:26-16:33 Retargeting Zombie Animations
16:34-17:10 Organizing Meshes
17:11-24:19 Modifying Materials wtih AnimToTexture Blueprint Code
24:20-34:03 Baking the Vertex Animation Textures and Generating Static Meshes with Trash Praxis' Tool
34:05-38:13 Setting Up More Zombies
38:14-38:50 IMPORTANT Do Not Apply LOD If Prompted When Closing Static Mesh Window
38:51-43:13 Setting Up Niagara Emitter and Adding Meshes, Initial Spawn Velocity, and Collision
43:14-44:23 Changing Particle Lifetime and Randomizing Initial Scale
44:24-47:35 Applying Linear Force to Particles
47:36-49:58 Setting Up Variation in Linear Force and Adding Sine Wave Movement
49:59-51:23 Changing Spawn Volume Shape
51:24-53:39 Changing Spawn Rate of Particle Emitter
53:40-56:40 Adding Another Linear Force to Give More Directional Control to Horde
56:41-58:23 Making Zombies Face the Proper Direction, Aligning them to Direction of Velocity
58:24-59:40 Fixing Zombie Bounce by Changing Restitution, Fixing Clumping by Reducing Bounce Friction
59:41-1:00:00 Lowering Linear Force So They Don't Run So Fast
1:00:01-1:00:37 Turning On Cast Shadow for Particles
1:00:38-1:03:05 Adding a Curve to the Mesh Scale So Particles Ease In and Out of existence
1:03:06-1:04:37 Outro
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Thank you very much for this! Can anybody please tell me if you can also use a LOD system using this method? I guess it will be difficult, because the vertices are baked and removing them will cause funky issues - right?
very very very cool!
Is there a way to make them swap with another mesh?
You forgot to make her hair wet
So cool
Thank you so much for the tutorial! That's exactly what I needed :) For the Time offset driven by Niagara, you have to modify the "ML_BoneAnimation" and make an add with a Dynamic Parameter on the TimeOffset already in there. Then you drive it at spawn time in the Emitter (and you have to multiply it by an Integer, because it's an offset on frames). That should do it 👍
Great tutorial thank you!
Thanks for using the plugin, it's nice to look at people who are having fun with the updated version of plugin.
i cant even use Niagara with a i9 14900k and RTX 3090 lol.. UE5 will instant Crash when i drop the Effect into the map, dont know whats wrong, dont realy have any other problems with UE5
Hmm that is very peculiar. It's crashing with just a normal fountain emitter? I would try updating drivers, reinstalling engine perhaps. Try on a different version of UE too
so dope. i had just watched the secret level presentation from Unreal Fest 2024 on the Unreal TH-cam channel and i was mindblown when they said they used Niagara to populate the stadium crowd, and i was wondering how they did it. this must be the way! thanks for the tutorial
I'd recommend more tutorials like this in ue5 cause there are very few. Idk why
but we will not be able to shoot them with line trace (guns) right ?
I am notbsure about line trace specifically, because of how the collisions work. I know you could interact with them and destroy them and have them spawn ragdolls or gibs
Can we actually interact with the zombies or are they just a cool effect? Like can they attack the player? Can we kill individual zombies and will they ragdoll?
CodeLikeMe's part 2 of his rat swarm tutorial shows how to make them follow the player. And yes, you could make the particles get destroyed by shooting them or something, and when they are destroyed, spawn a ragdoll or a bunch of zpmbie bits, but that was too much for this tutorial. Maybe part 2
My pc crying In the corner 😂
Bro i was trying to figure how this would work in unreal engine. Zombie horde. Love it. Awesome tutorial.
Bro I can’t believe no game has ever done this. Project zombie is the closest one. It does a great job, the game is extremely detailed in mechanics and you can mod it. Only issue is I barely know anyone interested cause it’s top down 😂. One of my all time fav zombie games regardless! Hope somebody takes this in VR or something! ❤❤❤
project zomboid's engine is well optimized like roller coaster tycoon 3, it's crazy how those zombies have mechanics too like lootability and rotting corpses that's on the screen at once. I always wanted to create something like that in 3rd person but it does require a shit ton of tinkering and knowledge with how your engine interacts with the hardware.
the world war Z game has some massive hordes and it creates a really cool atmosphere
Imagine a Prototype remaster in UE5! 😏
I have been waiting for this tutorial we need a plugin that helps a lot
Love it, love it, love it! You make it so clear and probably easy to follow. I will definitely try this out, thank you so much!! 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Now I have to do that without that limitations and without Niagara but every one is a single individual actor with full AI controls by state tree.
Which Gpu do you have?
3090
That was a crazy intro! The camera animation and compositing-ouh! It really sell it. *Chef's kiss!*
The English accents lol, this was like how USA imagine countries , like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt going to the imaginary Colombia that a stupid gringo imagined instead of researching
I read that thumbnail as "Husbands of Zombies" for a second which in all honesty would be a hit show for Bravo to develop.
strange everything works up until baking i cant get past that part
Can you give more information?
I've been hunting for a tutorial like this for ages. Thanks for this 👍
can u make a tutorial to make that city
It's the City Demo project from Epic Games, it's free
Wow, this is crazy! Thanks for the in-depth look at this: I've been curious about vertex animation from a texture for a while.
Thanks! Yeah the free tool from Trash Praxis makes it really easy to make them in UE without other software
I just found this tutorial th-cam.com/video/_uL6myuQUY0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=dSdZPc64fDgL0LEc that archive the animation offset of a Texture Vertex Map in Niagara, sadly I don't know how to apply this same principle to your approach.
you could have this and just spawn real actors around the player, have the real actors kill the player.
Very impressive, a good combination of different features
Already hit the like button even before watching.
This is crazy, thanks for sharing this tuto!
Excellent, dear friend, you teach a new and cost-effective style of making animation with your training, and I am grateful to you. Can this multiplication solution be used for the population of the ancient corps in front of each other and when the two corps meet and fight? 😍🤩🤩
Absolutely!
You're super cool. Thank you. like-subscribe- van love
Excellent video very unique pls bringing videos like this🙌🏻🥹
shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit! LOOKS AMAZING! ITS CRAZY!
Awesome, very nice, beautiful
great JOB thank you for sharing it, can you make a video tutorial please, how to make a CFD wind tunnel with niagra (for pedestrian confort) like this one please? th-cam.com/video/ObriFE3i6go/w-d-xo.html and here th-cam.com/video/Md_XTOzp7tk/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=MariuszHermansdorfer
That's super cool, not sure if i have any plans for something like that 8n the enae future
Interesting!
I was just waiting until the end for the offset animation trick. Hope you could find the solution for Part II, I try same approach several month ago and have no luck getting the right answer.
U are the best man can I use it in game creation
Awesome work as always! One complaint about the camerawork though: not sure about the unmotivated shaky cam - the handheld style makes sense if the camera is positioned and moving in a way that a person would (the shake always draws attention and makes us aware of the camera on some level). Here the position and general movement is of a crane or a drone shot (several meters above ground, long distances covered relatively fast), so when it simultaneously shakes like someone's running with it, it becomes artificial and uncanny. The zombies look amazing though, I'm definitely bookmarking this for future reference! Keep up the great work :)
You are totally right, I did the shaky cam really to just make it feel more intense
INSANELUV IT!!!!!!!! TYTYTYTYTYTY
how do you do this part 9:20 how can you adjust the animation using control righ
Right click on the skeletal mesh track in the Sequencer and select bake to Control Rig, select metahuman control rig. Then add an additive layer to the control rig track
@@TheDarkestAgeUnreal thanks
Going to try this tonight! I have so many video ideas with hordes now. Thank you so much for your tutorials
So thats how you get VAT in to niagra. Ty so much. Been using flock and flocks for flying shit. But this. Using vat animated meshes in nigari. The possibilities.
Exactly!
I just say the first 1 and half and I will grab a cup of coffee and learn that shit all together today for sure ! Thanks!
How can I make the zombies turn and follow my character?
Check out @codelikeme tutorial on rat swarm, he has a second part that shows how to follow the character
I know what im doing today🤣🙌🔥🔥