Epic Games rolled out the new 4.17 update for the Unreal Engine. The update contains some really nifty new plugin support and platform support, including the ability to easily and conveniently port your project to the Xbox One X.
Over on the Unreal Engine blog, the developers announced that the new Image Plate plugin along with the new Composure compositing system has been added, enabling developers to composite imagery and scenarios within the runtime that combines full motion video with 3D assets. We’ve actually seen this just recently in effect within Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which used a mixture of FMV composites or live-action sequences with 3D assets in a real-time environment.
This may seem really confusing, but there’s a video to help give you an idea of how the Image Plate plugin can help bring a project to life by combing HD generated assets with real-life footage. Check it out below.
What’s fascinating here is that the texture to 2D renderer is almost similar to the solution that Cloud Imperium Games had to devise for their texture to 2D renderer used for Star Citizen for the holographic 2D/3D displays that can be rendered to textures using a very complex pipeline algorithm. The major difference is that Star Citizen’s feature is contained within the game, but the Unreal Engine feature will be used for a wide variety of projects, from commercials to movies to video games.
You can see a real-time demonstration of a 3D asset moving in a live-action set piece with the video below.
In conjunction with the Image Plate plugin, Epic also updated the Sequencer tool so that it’s now easier than ever to combine, cut, edit, chop and create workflows from assets containing 3D imagery and live-action footage.
Not only has the Sequencer been updated to make it easy to put together clips, but blending has been improved so that it’s now easier to blend entity states, object states, camera states, and actor states with ease. In fact, they showcase how the new Sequencer can be utilized to make your project workflow that much easier by demonstrating it in a video you can check out below.
Source Filmmaker, eat your heart out.
The Unreal Engine 4.17 is available right now, so you can get in on the action right the action is worth getting in on.
