Youngbin Song_Unreal Engine Generalist Portfolio

Youngbin Song

Unreal Engine Generalist - Portfolio

01: Negentropic Fields

Interaction Designer, Visual Effects Artist

Negentropic Fields is an interactive virtual experience showcased in the National Gallery Singapore as a part of Proposals for Novel Ways of Being. The experience aims to address how conventional art can be reinterpreted when using a digital medium and pushing the boundaries of the new way of representation. The project also studies and speculates how a digital archive or a virtual museum would look like.

As a part of FormAxioms, I worked with five artists and the curatorial team to create digital interpretations of their works by creating virtual experiences where the visitors are free to explore and interact with the environment.

Negentropic Fields uses three television screens to immerse the viewers into the experience and a surround sound speaker system for the soundscape. This project was intended to be a virtual reality experience but, due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the time of exhibition, a Microsoft Kinect was used to develop the interactions.

Development Period: June 2020 - December 2020

Exhibition Period: December 2020 - Febuary 2021

Tools Used: Microsoft Kinect, Unreal Engine

Microsoft Kinect to Unreal Engine experiments.

Metaspace by FormAxioms.

Movement and Interaction Programming in Unreal Engine (blueprints).

Movement and interaction guide for the visitors.

02: Flight

Interaction Designer, Lighting Designer

Flight is an interactive installation showcased at Padang (Singapore) during Light to Night 2021. The work was commissioned by National Gallery Singapore with the theme ‘New Ways of Seeing, Thinking and Being’. The theme aims to show the general public how society has evolved through the pandemic and hopes that visitors would gain new perspectives through 60 different experiences located through out Singapore’s civil district.

The work is inspired by a flock of birds in motion which draws parallel to the current society where they move towards a goal in uniform. At a distance, the flock looks like a singular volume, which represents the community as a collective. However, upon approaching the structure, it shows a singular entity which is part of a larger group, the society.

At night, the spotlights will illuminate the structure. The visitors are able to interact with 9 bluetooth modules with their devices to trigger sequences of animation which emulates the flock of birds in motion from one end of the structure to another

The structure is made up of aluminium profiles joined with a corner bracket. A nylon spandex was used to represent the bird’s shape within the cubic modules. 36 DMX lights illuminated the structure at night and the bluetooth modules were programmed using Arduino.

The project was awarded right after the height of the pandemic, which made the parties involved difficult to come together and visualize how the final outcome would look like. I used Unreal Engine to visualize how the structure appears like during day and night. I’ve integrated the Arduino bluetooth modules with Unreal Engine to play the animations on the DMX lights when the modules were activated by the visitors.

Project done as a part of Litewerkz.

Development Period: September 2020 - January 2021

Exhibition Period: January 14 2021- Febuary 3 2021

Tools Used: Unreal Engine, Arduino, Rhino3D, DMX

Project video here.

‘Flight’ by LiteWerkz in front of the National Gallery Singapore.

‘Flight’ visualization from Unreal Engine.

‘Flight’ during day time.

‘Flight’ during night time.

Receiving Arduino data as interaction inputs to trigger light animations using blueprints in Unreal Engine.

Bluetooth nodes placed in an Unreal Engine level to simulate interactions and light animations. DMX Spotlights were placed to decide the best locations to illuminate the installation.

I wanted to highlight that the individual efforts can make an impact to the world and the society can achieve something wonderful if we work as a collective.

I attempted to convey this message by having the visitors activate the bluetooth nodes. Depending on the sequence of animation, the activation of the bluetooth nodes will either make the nearest spotlight to turn white or cause a ripple of colors to appear.

In order to show the individual actions affecting the larger scale, all spotlights will turn white to reveal the entire structure without any distractions if more than five unique bluetooth nodes are activated.

Bluetooth nodes/interaction points.

The lights will light up from one end to the other in sequence.

Upon interacting, the area around the interaction point will shine a solid white, disrupting the flow of the wave.

If more than 5 points have been interacted with, the entire structure will light up in solid white for a short while and will loop back to the wave animation.

Spotlights will illuminate the structure during different timings with different colors. Upon interacting, the area around the interaction point will shine a solid white, which stops that area from changing to a different color.

Ripple

At random timings, a color will expand from a point in a circular form. At the same time, the visitors can also activate these circular animations by interacting with the bluetooth modules.

Flock (unrealized)

When a visitor interacts with the modules, the computer will generate a random path in which the spotlights will light up. This is aimed to emulate the flight path of a flock.

If more than 5 points have been interacted with, the entire structure will light up in solid white for a short while and will loop back to breathing.

01: Wave 02:

03:

Breathe

04:

Interaction Designer, Visual Effects Artist

Trace2 is an visual and performance art piece by Teow Yue Han in collaboration with FormAxioms comissioned by Singapore Art Museum for an exhibition called “Can Everybody See My Screen?”. The piece explores the whereabouts of the data accumulated during the pandemic, especially contact tracing, while speculating new forms of artificial life that will emerge from the data accumulated. The artificial life is represented by a dance-artist by performing motions which are not quite human-like but attempts to imitate it.

The work features three TV screens, each one showing a different performance of the artificial life gaining its own conciousness as time progresses. The performances were recorded using a camera and was brought into the digital world as an animation. The webcam on each TV screen will cause a distortion in the world which represents a disruption in the collection of data.

I worked on the programming of the interaction and bringing the performanc of the dancer into Unreal Engine. I also worked on the visual effects of the project which involved particle, the distortion effects and the camera movements. This project was done as a part of FormAxioms.

This project also showcased a one-time live performance in the venue. The performance was livestreamed into on the TVs, replacing the recorded performance in the background, using NDI.

Development Period: July 2021 - September 2021

Exhibition Period: September 9 2021- December 11 2021

Tools Used: Unreal Engine, NDI, Blender3D, PlaskAI One of three stations for ‘Trace2’

0: Trace2

One of three stations for ‘Trace2’

Interaction points for ‘Trace2’. Webcam encloosed inside a 3D printed case.

Video footage to skeletal animation experiment.

Our representation of the digital life overlayed on top of the captured performance.

Digital life enclosed in an unknown cube.

04: Collective Memory

Lighting Designer

Collective Memory is an art installation made up of recycled CDs interwoven into a mesh which forms a landscape of discs. The landscape is suspended by tying the ends to the Waterfront Promenade Breeze Shelter in Marina Bay. The project was showcased during iLight Singapore 2022.

The installation question the notion of technological waste in the context of data storage. While CDs were used frequently decades ago for storing information, they are obsolete due to technological advancements. Collective Memory allows the visitors to reminiscent of the past and make new memories from the reflective landscape of the CDs.

For this project, I took charge of the lighting design and visual experience for the visitors at night.

Project Duration: June 2022

‘Collective Memory’ at Marina Bay.

Making of ‘Collective Memory’.

05: PEDRO Photoshoot (Unrealized)

Virtual Production, Technical Engineer

PEDRO is a shoe company launched by Charles & Keith which later expanded into accessories such as sunglasses and belts. As a part of their Fall 2022 campaign, the producers wanted to showcase their new Fall 2022 collection in an environment such as New York.

I was approached to set up Unreal Engine’s In-Camera VFX to bring the models into the virtual environment with the goal to simply visualize the outcome. The setup involved streaming a DSLR camera into Unreal Engine and chroma-keying the greenscreen to isolate the model.

I collaborated with the photographer in arranging the shots and exchanging ideas to make the photoshoot more dynamic. This aided the producers and executives of PEDRO to visualize how the outcome of the photo in post-composition.

Project Period: June 2022

Tools Used: Unreal Engine ICVFX, Blackmagic Camera, Lighting Equipments

City used for pre-visualization.