Virtual Stage Production Setup
Summer 2020 I consulted with a local company setting up an Unreal Engine 4 virtual stage set. They provided the LED stage and content, while I assembled everything Unreal related to bring it together
Developed custom Blueprint code interacting with the artist’s MIDI pad, allowing them to change the scene live, including:
Controls allowing them to change light color and flash speeds.
LED moving head 2-axis rotation speed, set angle, and reset controls.
Custom particle effect color and activation.
Creating and troubleshooting nDisplay setup with SteamVR, explaining UE4 best-practices and patterns to artists.
This setup has gone on to be used for multiple clients by the company.
Process
I started off by collecting the requirements of the artists that were going to use the system. Researching this led to a primer by Ben Kidd, who used VRPN to allow SteamVR to communicate with Unreal when running an nDisplay project.
With this implemented, I went back to the artists to receive feedback and gather the requirements for the next system, MIDI pad controls for different scene elements. They requested scene switching, which was quick to implement.
I experimented based on their requirements and added tools allowing the artist to control lights, materials, and particle systems in the scene.
The MIDI pad being used had RGB buttons, so I connected the color of the button provided by the MIDI pad to the color of the effect in the scene, allowing them to recolor effects on the fly.
The artist is presented a scrollable color selection menu on the MIDI pad as a preview.
The rotating head controls have a bank of faders, two for each axis, one setting a rotation speed, and the other setting a static angle.
Scrollable color selector
Scene bloom control slider
Recolorable light overview
Recolorable pyro overview