This project involved creating a cinematic game trailer for an indie game set in the mysterious Valley of Death with a custom MetaHuman hero character. The project began with the client presenting a rough story concept and the overall vision for the trailer. From there, we worked together to develop the narrative, visual style, environments, characters, weapons, lighting direction, and overall cinematic approach. My responsibilities included character creation, asset sourcing, environment development, lighting, cinematic production, animation integration, visual effects, editing, color grading, sound design, and final rendering.

Once the story direction was finalized, we gathered references for environments, characters, weapons, effects, and trailer style. Based on these references, I created a complete storyboard outlining every shot, including camera direction, voice-over timing, and visual storytelling notes. This planning stage helped establish the trailer's pacing, visual direction, and storytelling before moving into production.

The hero character was built using a combination of custom modeling, MetaHuman, marketplace assets, and custom clothing creation. A custom head model was created based on the approved concept and integrated into the MetaHuman workflow. Clothing was modeled and textured separately before being rigged and integrated back into Unreal Engine. Hair simulation, cloth deformation, and skin weighting were carefully refined to ensure the character performed naturally across cinematic and combat sequences.

The project utilized existing marketplace environments that were extensively relit and customized to match the story. Camera positions, set dressing, atmosphere, and lighting were refined based on the approved storyboard. The visual direction focused on a blue-and-golden color palette, with most of the final look established directly inside Unreal Engine rather than relying heavily on post-production color grading. To maintain consistent color accuracy, I used professional video scopes connected directly to the Unreal Engine viewport, allowing real-time monitoring of luminance, hue, and saturation throughout the lighting process.

Animation assets were carefully selected, blended, and adjusted to create distinct movement styles for the hero and villain. Camera animation was developed alongside character animation to refine timing and pacing. Visual effects, weapon impacts, environmental interactions, and cinematic transitions were integrated to enhance the scale and impact of key story moments.

The client preferred a subtle musical foundation rather than a dominant soundtrack, which allowed environmental and character sounds to remain an important part of the experience. The sound design process was built around four layers: voice-over, ambience, sound effects, and music. Ambient sounds were carefully selected based on each environment, including atmospheric elements such as wind, fire, storms, wildlife, and temple ambience. Character actions such as footsteps, movement, combat, and vocal reactions were then layered on top. Finally, cinematic sound effects including impacts, weapon clashes, whooshes, transitions, and risers were added to enhance the intensity of key moments throughout the trailer. The completed sound design played a key role in enhancing the scale, atmosphere, and emotional impact of the trailer.

After final approvals, the trailer was rendered from Unreal Engine using high-quality EXR sequences in a linear color workflow. This provided greater flexibility during grading while maintaining consistent color accuracy throughout post-production. This project was both challenging and rewarding from a technical and creative perspective. It marked one of my most MetaHuman-focused productions to date and required me to develop new workflows across character creation, simulation, animation integration, sound design, and cinematic storytelling. Beyond the final trailer itself, the project provided valuable experience in balancing artistic direction with technical problem-solving while collaborating closely with the client throughout every stage of production.

Project Note: The final trailer and production breakdown are shared with the client's written permission.