New Series Announcement: "True Size"
Added 2022-08-14 19:43:36 +0000 UTC
We are excited to announce a new project where we aim to bring the "True Size" of the past to life using Unreal Engine 5.
What is it?
All too often, when watching movies and shows, we get excited about the scale of blockbuster scenes but ultimately come out disappointed because of all the historical inaccuracies. We wanted to do something about this.
The goal of the "True Size" series will be to produce a more accurate and interactive recreation of the past by leveraging the latest that technology has to offer.
Progress so far?
The move to 3D brings with it many new benefits but also hurdles to overcome. One of the most important is the practicality of accurately rendering hundreds of thousands of characters and elements at their proper scale. We therefore spent much time testing different visual styles to balance accuracy, readability, and scalability.
Ultimately, we decided that a 2.5D style, which consisted of 2D illustrations on a 3D base, was the best option. This allowed us to quickly produce hand crafted models for close up shots whilst not taxing the system when zoomed out.
From here we set to work further testing model movements, animations, equipment, highlights, camera movements, and environments.
As we dialed in our presentation style we worked in parallel on building out the content of the series. This involved conducting research and building calculators to determine the “True Size” of our subjects of interest. For instance in our episode on the “True Size” of an Imperial Roman Legion we were able to show that such a force at full strength actually consisted of not just 5240 soldiers but also 319 officers, 35 specialists, 1580 slaves, 1902 animals, and more. We could then properly array these in various stances such as parade rest, camp, march, and battle order.
From here we were able to properly visualize the “True Size” of the Roman Legion and derive novel conclusions such as the fact that their column stretched out over about 2 km in ideal conditions while the battle line spanned around 400m.
Here are a few demo videos of our progress!
- True Size Demo 1 - Scaling Up (link)
- True Size Demo 2 - Character Animation (link)
- True Size Demo 3 - Environment and Layout (link)
- True Size Demo 4 - Narrated Sequence (link)
What comes next?
We plan to kick off the series by portraying the “True Size” of a Roman Imperial Legion, a Roman Republican Legion, a Macedonian Army, and a Spartan army. From here we will continue to deepen our exploration of army sizes as well as widening the format to look at things like battles, logistics, architecture, infrastructure, and more. The possibilities are endless and we could really use your help!
Leave your feedback and suggestions below for what we should cover!
Comments
I think as Corentin suggested some softer colors for the contours and base might work well, especially if you're trying to showcase the scale of a battle where you could choose a different color for each side. It kind of reminds me of Greatest Tank Battles on History where they would have short cutscenes where they'd drop in 2D images to display artillery, tanks and other equipment of each side of the battle. I'm excited to see it used here and hopefully expanded upon to give somewhat accurate numbers (Greatest Tank Battles didn't really care about numerical accuracy to display size of the two forces).
Kyle
2022-08-22 01:33:38 +0000 UTCHey there, thanks for the feedback! We are currently testing out different borders and base styles. :)
Invicta
2022-08-17 15:53:23 +0000 UTCI must say, this is an awesome project! We fail to appreciate how actually imposing these armies were and how difficult it must have been to muster them, when Hollywood so effortlessly can generate battles of any realistic or fantasy scale at the press of a button (more or less ;). So your demos are very exciting indeed, I can't wait for the series to begin! Regarding your chosen artistic direction, I also believe 2.5D was the right choice, since you can leverage the talent of the incredible 2D artists you have been working with so far. :) I was wondering about the mini-figure aspect of the elements, with thick white basis and white contours. It makes them strongly contrast with their environment (the ground and the other figures), and I couldn't help but finding it a bit disruptive. Was it actually your intention to make it look like a tabletop wargame? Did you also perform visual tests with a more... "2.5D Borderland style" I would say, with thin black contours? I'm just giving my first impressions here. ;)
Drakehinst
2022-08-17 09:46:49 +0000 UTC
