Artist Makes Interactive Painting Using Unreal Engine 5 and Kinect

gamerant.com:

Paintings are one of the oldest and most enduring art forms. But one thing paintings have in common with modern visual mediums like video games and film, is that they have a frame. Whether it is the frame around a painting in gallery, or the edges of a screen, the art itself can only be viewed through this small window. The best art in any medium is that which utilizes this frame and makes the viewer believe that the world they are seeing into could exist further beyond the boundaries of the frame. Focus and lighting are key in achieving this effect, as seen with cinematic films like The Batman.

Video games are unique among art forms in that they allow the viewer to control the subject within frame. The 90s saw the refinement of 3D games which allowed full in-game worlds to be made which the player could freely explore and interact with. These virtual worlds are only getting more realistic with the development of engines like Unreal Engine 5.

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Now a creative artist on Reddit named bernielaoh has taken this element of interactivity and implemented it into a more traditional gallery style portrait with a stunning and mysterious art piece. The artwork itself was made using Unreal Engine 5 which allowed it to have extremely realistic visuals. It depicts an extremely moody and atmospheric scene that shows a woman lying in the grass in the dark, and it isn't clear at first if the woman is alive or dead.

What truly elevates the painting is its interactive elements, as the piece is also connected to a Kinect sensor. Kinect was Xbox’s ill-fated motion sensor which failed to become widely accepted by players, but the device has found a second life being re-purposed for