The Palace- An Unreal Project

I've long been fascinated by Midjoureny AI and Unreal Engine's filmmaking and storytelling capabilities. Recently, I experimented with Unreal and created a small photorealistic scene (Click here to view), and I wanted to take it a step further by creating a small sequence/scene utilising it to convey a story. This is my amateur attempt at doing so.

While browsing the megascans library in unreal engine, I came upon a free asset titled "Medieval Palace," which inspired me to build a short horror scene with these assets. I began by watching youtube horror teaser trailers for inspiration before launching MidJourney and adding prompts to determine the type of scene. I utilised the MidJourney results to construct a scene in Unreal Engine leveraging the free elements from the megascans collection.

After constructing the scene, I tried to light it to achieve a volumetric look. However, I was unable to get the desired effects because there were no readily available window assets within Unreal, so I opted to add the window using VFX and render the scene with a green solid instead of a window.

I picked a door that seemed like a decent starting point for the window, rendered an image, dragged it into Photoshop, and altered it to obtain the aesthetic I wanted. I now had a window that I liked, which was 3D camera tracked and added to the scene using After Effects.

Again, I utilised MidJourney for the Ghost, which appears for fewer than three frames in the sequence. I preferred a really elderly woman whom I felt would enhance the scene's drama. So I provided Midjourney with the prompts and was able to decide on one. Then, I used Photoshop yet another time to combine two shots of the elderly woman and modified it somewhat to achieve the desired aesthetic. I then 3D tracked this to the scene and positioned it in front of all layers.

I wanted to capture the complete scene in a minimal manner on the poster, so I used Procreate and sketches until I was satisfied with the composition. I then sculpted it in Unreal, rendered a single frame, and imported it into Photoshop, where I added elements to complete the poster's composition.

Altogether, the entire sequence was made digitally with the use of current techniques. Without having to go to large studios or physically shoot, I was able to achieve what I desired using these programmes and my prior experience. It only encourages the amateur filmmaker in me to create more films.

Watch the Full Video Here: https://vimeo.com/773365219