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Getting started with the Unreal Engine based DE edition

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Please note that this is an ARCHIVED document. All information presented here is considered obsolete, even if found partly relevant in the newest version of Aximmetry.

 

Introduction

00:00:00
In this tutorial, we will show you how you can import Unreal (UE) projects into Aximmetry and use them. It is important to know that only the version of UE specifically customized for Aximmetry will work. We are providing this version of UE, please use this in all cases!

Launch Unreal Editor for Aximmtery. You can load your existing UE project, but in this example, we will create a new one. Select the Games project category. Choose the Blank Template and press Next. On the Project Settings page we advise to create a Blueprint based project with Desktop/Console target hardware and no starter content. Quality and Ray tracing settings are up to you. Select the location of your project. Name your project if you want. We kept the default ‘My Project’. Click on Create Project.

Adding Aximmetry Camera to an Unreal Scene

00:01:00
Once its loaded go to Aximmetry/ Add camera. Here we have many different cameras for your needs. Now we add a Virtual Camera. The position of the camera doesn’t matter as it will be controlled by Aximmetry.  Move the Player Start Actor to a position where it will not be visible to the camera. This is because this will be rendered as a grey sphere by default and we don’t want it to be visible in the scene. You can read more about this problem and possible solutions in the Aximmetry DE documentation.

Basic Settings for Unreal Scenes

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Click File then Save All to save the Map. Change the name if you want. We left it as ‘Untitled’ Click Edit and find the project settings. In the Search Bar, type ‘custom depth’. Change the Custom Depth Stencil Pass from Enabled to Enabled With Stencil using the drop-down menu. This is required for the Aximmetry Camera to work properly. In the Search Bar, type 'map'. Set the Editor Startup Map and the Game Default Map to the map you saved earlier. In this case, it’s called ‘Untitled’. Setting the Editor Startup Map is optional but setting the Game Default Map is required as the map selected here will be loaded when you open the project in Aximmetry. Search for “Planar” and find “Support global clip plane for Planar Reflections” and turn it on. Close the project settings window. Click File / Save All to make sure everything is saved. Restart your project to apply the changes. Now click File and click on the Cook Content for Windows after cooking is completed exit UE.

Using Aximmetry VirtualCam_Unreal compound

00:03:02
Open Aximmetry Composer. Press Start. Create a new compound. In the File Browser find the previously created Unreal project ‘My Project’. Click and drag it into the FLOW tab. Next, we need a virtual camera in Aximmetry. In the File Browser Search bar type ‘unreal’. Choose ‘VirtualCam_Unreal_A-B_Preview_3-Cam’ and click and drag it in. Lastly, we need a talent. For this example, we will use one of our test videos, ‘Green_Nils_Demonstrate_Notes’. Same as before. Click and drag it in too. Connect the pins in the following way. Switch to the CAMERAS contol board. Click on the Free Camera Mode to be able to look around in the virtual scene freely. Click on the BILLBOARDS control board. Click on the TEST button in the INPUT 1 box. Now we can see our test video. Click on the INPUT button in the MONITOR 1 box to be able to see the unprocessed video input. Click on the KEYER 1 box. Pick your green screen reference colour. You can do it by clicking on the Green rectangle at the BackgroundColour. Click and drag the Sampler tool and release it at the desired spot. Click OK. Click on Cropped and turn on Portrait to rotate the video. Click on the KEYED button in the MONITOR 1 box to be able to see the keyed out video. We have to set the parameter of the keyer. We will explain these values in another tutorial. Press Final to see the result. BILLBOARD 1 now became selected. To edit its position, turn Editing Mode on by clicking on the three arrows icon on the top of your screen. Assign it to Preview 1. Find the arrows and position the Billboard, so that the AO is just over the ground. Set the Lift parameter so that the talent stands on the ground. Adjust the AO. Switch back to the CAMERAS contol board. Click on the camera icon at CAMERA & RENDER SETUP to set a new path. Click on A and set the camera starting position. When done, click on the copy button. Click on B, then click on paste and set the final position of the camera. Once you’re done, click on the play button to see how it looks. With this, you’ve completed the tutorial successfully.

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