Using RADiCAL Mocap Tool & Unreal Engine to Create Music Video

Introduction

Hi, my name is Julian Basurto, and my artist name is Jeulo! I have always been passionate about music and art from an early age but I only truly began my career in 3D design during my time at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles while completing my master's degree in Architecture.

My interest in 3D design and specifically motion graphics and Unreal Engine stemmed from my thesis project “Let’s Rage” where I created an interactive virtual dance club in UE. After completing my master's, I worked in exhibition design and began freelancing in the XR and UE space for companies like Agile Lens and Polycam.

I grew up playing classical piano and listening to all kinds of music, but I never pursued my own career as a Music Artist until 2019, when I first started to release covers and eventually original songs. I worked for a few years cultivating my sound and finding suitable collaborators for my project. I started the process of releasing singles from my debut album (coming out next year) starting in September of 2023. “Power Away,” the song featured in this music video, is the third release from this record.

I believe an important part of becoming an artist is embracing your strengths and cultivating your own unique language and creative syntax. Music and 3D design are intertwined in my artistic endeavors because they are natural components that make me me and that keep me inspired. My music is modern and avant-garde while still embracing the pop and hip-hop songwriting and melody that I love and grew up with. I knew that my experimental work in 3D design would further elevate my music and bring my art to new heights.

RADiCAL

I discovered RADiCAL software while shadowing at Agile Lens, a creative XR firm based in New York City and led by Alex Coulombe. There, I began working with Adrian Miranda, a super-talented creator and artist, on a live performance platform called “Ractor Realm.” The goal of our project was to create a pipeline where performers could film themselves acting or dancing at home and recreate the scene in virtual space in real time. Adrian and Alex introduced me to RADiCAL, which we found to be the most effective at producing the results we were seeking. Using RADiCAL helped us to create a few solid demos of our platform, including a dance performance of “Cell Block Tango” from the Chicago musical and a music video based on Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff.”

The advantage of using RADiCAL, especially during this stage, was to quickly and easily iterate movement onto virtual avatars. RADiCAL was extremely easy to use as all we needed was a web browser and webcam to properly capture the movement. In addition, the process of implementing the movement onto the virtual avatar was remarkably easy, as there were many easy-to-follow tutorials online explaining the process. After creating these demos for Agile Lens, Adrian had the smart idea to implement the same process for one of my songs, “Power Away.” I wanted to create a dance performance video for this song, and I knew that RADiCAL would be the perfect tool for that.

Power Away

I had written and finished my song “Power Away” in late 2023, and I knew I wanted to create a performance video for the song that brought in my dance experience as well as my affinity for motion graphics and UE design. The content of the song is quite vulnerable and deals with my struggles in overcoming/dealing with my depression and OCD. I felt that using mocap-driven digital avatars could illustrate these themes in an abstract and thought-provoking way while also elevating my music’s modern and avant-garde sonic quality. This is when Adrian and I had the idea to re-implement the RADiCAL pipeline we had started at Agile Lens, but this time capture the original dance movement to the song.

In addition to being a superb artist, Adrian is also a great dancer and choreographer, and he helped me choreograph a routine for the song. I had used UE for music videos before, and I knew I could create a futuristic and sleek scene that would elevate the song’s material. I initially wanted to bring the RADiCAL movement onto a MetaHuman, but after a series of iterations, I decided to use the RADiCAL digital avatars, as I thought it captured the futuristic vibe of the song. Ironically, using the RADiCAL pipeline and actors gave a whole new meaning to the song title “Power Away” and its message, where so often we can feel removed from our own power and ability to change negative thought patterns.

Animation

I utilized RADiCAL Core to animate my digital avatar with my dance movement. The process was super easy thanks to the RADiCAL team and their online tutorials. In our first iteration, Adrian filmed me dancing to the first verse of my song, and I then uploaded the video to RADiCAL Core through RADiCAL’s online site. After only a few minutes, RADiCAL processed the video and created an animation of the movement onto a RADiCAL actor.

Having my original video next to the animation, I was able to see my original dance routine captured immediately onto a virtual avatar. Next, I downloaded the FBX file directly from RADiCAL’s website, which I could then bring directly into my scene in Unreal Engine. After a few initial attempts, I started to just film myself simply using my iPhone tripod in landscape view and bring these videos into RADiCAL Core. The process was easy and fun!

RADiCAL to Unreal Engine

Integrating the RADiCAL models into UE was remarkably easy, but it took some time to figure out the fastest workflow. I followed RADiCAL's tutorials as well as some others that I had found online. I was able to upload the RADiCAL FBX files directly from my Downloads into Unreal Engine. After installing the necessary RADiCAL plugins and files, I was able to select the RADiCAL actor as my target actor when uploading my FBX actor. This automatically brought my dance performance onto a digital avatar.

I find the RADiCAL+UE combo to work really well. The advantage of the workflow is the possibility of creating amazing, personalized content and music videos for a low budget (both RADiCAL and UE are free, which is huge). Also, you have the power to place yourself performing in literally any space, from an amphitheater to outer space from the comfort of your home. I think these workflows and resources are important for artists because they give you the freedom to create in new, thought-provoking ways. Also, the technology is still relatively new, and it is a huge advantage for artists to familiarize themselves with these tools as they will be ahead of the curve once mainstream culture catches up.

It took me roughly three months to finish the “Power Away” music video. However, most of this time was taken up by finessing the Unreal Engine scene and handling the cinematography of the video (i.e., when to switch from one scene to another, the pacing of the video, etc.) As with a lot of projects involving Unreal Engine, it takes a few times to understand the fastest, most efficient method of going through the process. I found that bringing in the earlier RADiCAL animations took more time; this process also included some back and forth in figuring out how to rig MetaHumans and what the best method to get a good dance animation on a RADiCAL avatar was. In addition, I struggled quite a bit with the process of integrating my dance movement onto a MetaHuman actor (MetaHumans can be quite clunky and heavy files) and ultimately decided to forego the software this time, as I found the aesthetic of the RADiCAL actors worked really well with the song and creative direction.

I find, as with a lot of creative projects, the main challenge was editing and knowing when to stop and move on. Because this music video is the first of many in my explorations with music, UE, and motion capture, I knew it was time to step away and embrace the progress I had already made on this project.

Conclusion

My advice to aspiring artists getting started with RADiCAL is to be patient and begin a project in baby steps. Start small to get used to the process of tracking movement onto RADiCAL, perhaps with just a 15-30-second clip. It can take some time to figure out what movements translate best to the RADiCAL actor. I found that simpler, more 2D movements translate really well from an iPhone camera to RADiCAL. If you are interested in creating a dance video, first start with a short clip of you dancing in front of the camera.

If your aim is to bring a RADiCAL animation into UE, spend some time familiarizing yourself with RADiCAL-provided tutorials on bringing RADiCAL FBX into Unreal Engine. If you are interested in building an animated music video in UE, I would definitely suggest checking out the “Cinematics with Sequencer: Project Overview” tutorial series on YouTube. It will help you become comfortable placing cameras in Unreal Engine and composing your own animated videos using Unreal Cinematics.

This process of creating a project with RADiCAL and UE may seem intimidating, but I found it best to start out with simple movement and with starter content in UE. There are also a lot of great scenes and downloads available through Quixel Bridge and the Epic Games library, which is another great place to start. Most important is to be patient and enjoy the process of learning and making dope shit.

Julian Basurto, 3D Designer & Music Artist