Rivencliff - Content Pipeline (Patreon)

Hey folks!

As I am figuring out things on how to create the scenes for Rivencliff, I figured I would share my current process for those of you who are interested in it!

My current pipeline / tech-stack looks as followed:

Perforce

Perforce, short for "Perforce Version Control System," is a tool that helps people who work on computer programs or other digital content manage their work more effectively. Imagine you're working on a big group project, like creating a book or building a house with a team of people. Perforce is like a special notebook that keeps track of every change and improvement made to the project, making sure everyone is on the same page.

Here's how it works:

1. Saving Changes: Whenever someone in the team makes a change to the project, like adding a new page to the book or painting a wall in the house, they use Perforce to save those changes. Perforce takes a snapshot of the project at that moment.
2. Keeping History: Perforce doesn't just save the latest version of the project; it also remembers all the previous versions. It's like having a time machine for your project. This is super helpful because you can go back to an older version if something goes wrong or if you want to see how things looked in the past.
3. Collaboration: Multiple people can work on the project at the same time without causing confusion. Perforce makes sure that when one person makes changes, it doesn't mess up what someone else is doing. It's like having different workstations for each team member, and Perforce coordinates their work so that it all fits together correctly.
4. Comparison: Perforce can show you the differences between different versions of the project. If you want to know what changed between yesterday's version and today's version, it can quickly show you the additions, deletions, and modifications.
5. Safety Net: It also acts as a safety net. Imagine you accidentally delete an important part of the project or make a mistake. Perforce can help you recover the lost work, so you don't have to start from scratch.
6. Sharing and Distribution: If your team is spread out in different locations, Perforce helps share the project files with everyone. It ensures everyone has the same information and can work together smoothly.
7. Security: Perforce keeps your project safe from unauthorized access. It ensures that only the right people can make changes and that those changes are tracked.

In simple terms, Perforce is like a super-organized librarian for your digital projects. It keeps track of who did what, when they did it, and it makes sure nothing gets lost or mixed up. This way, teams can work together on complex projects without chaos, and they always have a record of their progress.

I am currently working solo using Perforce, as I am running it on a workstation in my apartment, and I do not have any team members (yet) that would need access to it. We'll see how it goes in the future when other people need access to it.

Autodesk Maya & Blender

Posing characters in Blender or Maya involves adjusting the positions and orientations of 3D models to create a desired scene or animation. Imagine you have digital puppets, and you want to make them look like they are doing specific actions, such as waving, dancing, or simply standing in a particular pose. Here's a simplified explanation:

1. Creating or Importing Characters: You can either create your own 3D characters or import pre-made ones into the software.
   These characters are essentially 3D objects with bones and joints, like a skeleton, allowing them to be posed. Some of them I have from other artists like Lunjy from MaxwellShiba, others I had commissioned from a professional studio.
2. Manipulating Joints: Imagine each joint of the character's skeleton as a point where it can bend or rotate, like the joints in your own body (e.g., elbows, knees).
   In Blender or Maya, you can select a joint (e.g., an arm or leg) and then use tools or controls to move, rotate, or scale it to create the desired pose.
   You might do this by clicking and dragging with the mouse or using keyboard shortcuts.
3. Creating Expressions and Gestures: Posing characters is not just about making them stand still; it's about making them look alive and expressive.
   You can adjust the positions of the joints to create various facial expressions, gestures, or dynamic movements.
4. Animating Poses (Optional): If you want your characters to move, you can create animations by setting different poses at different points in time. This is how you make them walk, run, dance, etc.
5. Exporting or Using the Artwork: Finally, you can export your posed characters or use them in other software like Unreal Engine, which is the next in the pipeline.

In essence, posing characters in Blender or Maya is like manipulating digital puppets by adjusting their virtual joints to create lifelike and expressive poses or animations. It's a crucial step in the process of 3D modeling and animation, used in various industries, from entertainment to engineering and design.

Unreal Engine 5

Importing characters and shading them in Unreal Engine can be a bit complex for someone who isn't familiar with technology, but I'll try to break it down into simpler terms:

1. Importing Characters: Think of Unreal Engine like a digital playground where you want to bring your characters to life.
   Characters can be 3D models of people, animals, or anything else you want to include in your game or project.
   Importing means you're bringing these 3D models into the digital playground so they can be used in your project.
2. Shading: Shading in this context is like painting or coloring your characters to make them look more like I would like them for Rivencliff!
   Imagine your 3D character as a clay sculpture. Shading is like adding colors, shadows, and highlights to make it look less like clay and more like a real person or object.

Now, let's put these two concepts together:

Importing Characters and Shading Them in Unreal Engine:

1. Bringing Characters into Unreal Engine: Unreal Engine provides a way to bring the characters from Maya or Blender into this digital world.
   It's like taking a photo of your real-life sculpture and putting it in the playground. You might have to do some technical stuff, but it's essentially just placing your characters in the digital space.
2. Making Them Look Good: Now that your characters are in Unreal Engine, they might look a bit plain. This is where shading comes in.
   Shading involves adding colors, textures, and lighting effects to make your characters appear more like they belong in your digital world.
   You can think of it like painting or dressing up your characters to match the environment and style of your project.
3. Using Unreal Engine Tools: Unreal Engine has tools that help you with shading. These tools allow you to apply different textures and materials to your characters.
   You can also adjust how the lighting in your digital world interacts with your characters to make them look more natural.
4. Animating and Rendering: Once your characters are imported and shaded, you can make them move and interact with the environment using a tool called Sequencer.
   Sequencer is like a digital director's chair. It lets you create animations, camera movements, and control the timing of events in your virtual world.
   Imagine your characters acting out a scene in a movie, and you're the director guiding their every move.
5. Preparing for Export: After creating your scene in Sequencer, it's time to render it out as a video.
   This is where the Movie Render Queue comes in. It's like a virtual film studio that takes your digital scene and turns it into a playable video file.
6. Adjusting Settings: In the Movie Render Queue, you can choose various settings for your video, such as the resolution (how clear the video is), the frame rate (how smooth the motion looks), and the format (what type of video file it becomes).
   It's a bit like deciding the quality and format of a video you want to watch on your TV.
7. Rendering Your Video: Once you've configured the settings, you can start the rendering process.
   It's like hitting the "record" button in a camera, but instead, you're recording everything happening in your virtual world.
   Unreal Engine will take all the information you've set up in Sequencer, apply the shading and lighting you've done, and then create a video file that captures your animated scene.
8. Reviewing Your Little Videos: After rendering is complete, you can watch your little videos. These videos showcase the actions and interactions of your characters in your digital world.
   It's like watching a short movie that you've directed and brought to life using Unreal Engine.

In summary, importing characters and shading them in Unreal Engine is like bringing digital sculptures into a virtual world and then adding colors and lighting to make them look as realistic or as stylized as you want.

It's a creative and technical process that helps bring your digital projects to life.

By using Sequencer and the Movie Render Queue in Unreal Engine, you can create animated scenes with your characters and then turn those scenes into little videos.

It's like being the director of your own digital movie, where you control the characters, their actions, and how it all looks on the screen.

This allows you to tell stories or  showcase your virtual world in a dynamic and visually appealing way.

Adobe Media Encoder

Because Unreal Engine hates me, exporting mp4 files out of it does not work very well. This is why I export PNG sequences instead. Basically the video as individual frames / images as PNG files.

I then throw them into AME to just convert them to a video file which I can use in Unity.

Unity

I create Rivencliff using Unity and Naninovel.

What is Unity? Unity is a powerful and popular game development engine that allows you to create 2D and 3D games for various platforms like PC, mobile, and consoles. It provides a user-friendly interface and doesn't require extensive coding knowledge to get started.

What is Naninovel? Naninovel is a Unity plugin designed specifically for creating visual novels. It simplifies the process of making interactive stories with characters, dialogues, and choices.

Naninovel takes most of the coding work away from me which is a huge time saver. I do create some custom things that it does not ship with (i.e. disabled dialogue choices as shown in the picture above), but I can mostly focus on writing / adding the content I make elsewhere and put it together in Unity to make a playable game!

And there you have it! All this makes for a playable game! If you guys are interested, I can talk about making automated builds of the game next which are automatically uploaded to Steam whenever I submit a change!

Please let me know what you think about these kind of posts!

- Buru