01 / Motion source
Starting with an AI-generated performance.
I generated a two-character martial arts video as the motion source for the real-time production.
Artwork
The Dragon and the Tiger
Real-Time Action Cinematic / 2026
Overview
A compact martial arts cinematic built around the confrontation between two MetaHuman fighters.
Created in Unreal Engine 5, the piece began with an AI-generated martial arts performance that was converted into motion data, retargeted to MetaHuman characters and manually refined through Control Rig.
I developed the lighting, virtual camera coverage and final edit to turn the short combat sequence into a clear cinematic beat.
- Role
- Director / Unreal Engine Artist
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Character
- MetaHuman
- Format
- Real-Time Cinematic / 20 sec
Production process
From AI-Generated Motion to a Finished Real-Time Cinematic.
- 01
AI-Generated Motion Video
- 02
Motion Capture in UE5
- 03
Retarget & Refine
- 04
Lighting, Camera & Edit
02 / UE5 motion capture
Converting video into editable body animation.
Each fighter was processed separately through Unreal Engine's monocular video motion-capture workflow. I checked the body solve against the source footage, exported animation sequences for both performers and brought their timing back together inside the project.
03 / Retarget & refine
Making two captured performances connect.
The captured animation was retargeted to two MetaHuman characters and baked to MetaHuman Control Rig for manual cleanup. Video-derived motion established the broad action, but close combat exposed errors that had to be solved by hand: unstable wrists, weak hand shapes, drifting feet, intersecting bodies and contact points that missed at full speed.
I refined the performance shot by shot and frame by frame, adjusting hands and fingers, arm lines, head and torso orientation, foot placement and IK controls. Punches, blocks, sweeps and flying kicks were re-aligned so both characters met at the correct place and time while keeping the silhouettes, balance and weight of the martial arts poses readable.
04 / Camera & edit
Directing the finished action through shots and rhythm.
After the animation cleanup, I staged the fighters in Sequencer, created the arena lighting and built virtual-camera coverage around the choreography at 24 fps. In Premiere Pro I compared the reference with the rendered material, selected the strongest angles and tightened the rhythm into the final 20-second cut.