Horizon: Zero Dawn Narrative Analysis & Fan Cinematic

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Narrative Analysis & Fan Cinematic

This was an individual project during my second year of studies at BUas, showcasing my passion for visual storytelling. I analyzed the narrative in Horizon: Zero Dawn and created a fan cinematic for the game using Unreal Engine sequencer and a cinematic tool I had visually scripted with blueprints in Unreal Engine. This project allowed me to learn about film theory, composition, and implementing game cut scenes.

Individual Project

2 Months

Research

Overview

Horizon: Zero Dawn uses various ways to deliver the story to the player, such as dialogue, quests, datapoints, vantage points, flashpoints (morality system), environmental storytelling, and cutscenes. I conducted research to identify and analyze these ways, and the result was a 24-page research document, and a fan-made pre-production cinematic based on my research.

This project allowed me to learn about composition, color theory, lighting, and film theory, while also implementing a cinematic in Unreal Engine by set dressing a scene, implementing dialogue, retargeting character animations, VFX, and implementing trigger events.

Environmental Storytelling

I analyzed different locations in the game, looking at the objects in the scenes, their placement, and how they support the narrative.

I also studied the overall mood of the locations that had been achieved with color, light, shape language, etc. and how these help guide the player, as well as the contrast between different areas of the game.

Cutscenes

I analyzed several cutscenes in the game, looking into:

What triggers them
The types of shots used and their duration
The composition of the shots
Dialogue
Camera movement
Character/object movement
The reason for the shot

Cinematic ImplementatioN

Storyboard

To plan the cinematic, I drew a storyboard frame-by-frame with the different shots types, characters, dialogue, what happens in the shot, and how the camera moves. I based this on my analysis of the Horizon cinematics.

Using this storyboard, the cinematic tool I developed, and Unreal Engine sequencer, I then implemented the cinematic in engine with the different frames, camera movement, focus shifts, and camera effects, such as fade to/from black and camera shake.

Cinematic Tool Development

To have more control over the cinematic, I improved the systems of Unreal Engine sequencer by developing my own cinematic tool with visual scripting with blueprints.

With the tool, you can easily place a trigger in the level to start playing a specific cinematic.

The settings I implemented for the tool:

Make the cinematic skippable or not
Play the cinematic only once or multiple times
Play the cinematic immediately when the level loads instead of using the trigger box
Disable player input during the cinematic
Set new player location after the cinematic has ended
Add UI on top of the cinematic
Show or hide specific actors during the cinematic and keep the state after the cinematic has ended
Play audio during and sfter the cinematic

Set Dressing

I didn’t have time to set-dress an entire area for this project, so I opted for a pre-existing environment as my starting point—the Modular Gothic Temple from the Unreal Engine marketplace. Its broken-down ruins resemble the old cities in Horizon: Zero Dawn and the snowy landscape was fitting for the Sacred Lands.

Building upon this base, I used assets from various realistic asset packs to set-dress the entire area so that I could use different camera angles and recreate the Horizon aesthetic, including elements like pine trees, mountains, barrels of blaze, and technological ruins emitting a purple glow. To recreate Horizon’s ambiance, I used warm outdoor lighting.

Animations

For the character animations, I used Metahuman characters with Mixamo animations. I retargeted the animations for the characters in Unreal Engine. I also used the Metahuman SDK plugin to create facial animations based on AI voice lines. I animated the character movements for the cinematic using Unreal Engine sequencer.

Final Cinematic

This cinematic was made for pre-production and to learn to make cinematics for future game projects. It is therefore not indicative of final quality.

Using my cinematic tool, when the player arrives in the right location, the cinematic is triggered. Since Aloy walks during the cinematic, the player is moved to the new location when the cinematic ends to make the cinematic blend seamlessly with gameplay for an immersive experience.