Shadowing Practice: How video game rocks get made - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
1
This is a rock.
2
But this man is not a geologist.
3
My name's Galen.
4
I work as a producer and an evangelist here for Quixel at Epic Games.
5
Video game developer Epic Games makes games like Fortnite, but they're as well known for Unreal Engine, the ever-evolving game engine for a ton of video games
6
and other industries that use 3D from Hollywood movies to demos for architecture.
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That's part of why Epic Games Studio Quixel sends people here.
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Because getting high resolution scans of rocks like these represents an evolution in making video games and all three-dimensional art.
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Where actually were you when you were doing these scans?
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The area specifically that we spent the most time in is an area called Hurra Pass.
11
And Hurra Pass takes about 90 minutes to get to at least where we were scanning to in an off-road capacity.
12
Pavement stops, there's sheer drop-offs, it's really sketchy, for lack of a better way to put it.
13
And since we're so far off the grid and we didn't bring a generator or anything like that, we would just scan and tell the batteries we go completely dead.
14
Galen is out there searching for rocks that might look good for Epic's tech demo, set on a moody, slightly alien landscape.
15
In this clip, Galen is taking high-resolution pictures of this rock from a bunch of different angles.
16
The tent keeps light even, no hard shadows.
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On the back, he's got a battery pack to keep going longer.
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And on the ground, there's a scale marker so they'll know how big the boulder is.
19
These pictures are pulled into software, then they're stitched together into a 3D model.
20
The software figures out what a complete rock looks like from the common points in the picture.
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All this makes up a scanned asset.
22
The Quixel team did a similar process for big structures by capturing via drone, and for textures by photographing a rock wall and capturing the canyon floor.
23
Making them can be pretty hard work.
24
You walk into an area and you think, oh, this is awesome.
25
And then you start breaking it down, thinking about what's actually going to be useful.
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And it becomes less awesome very quickly.
27
Mostly just because of the time, you know, the time constraints.
28
It's like, oh, well, I could shoot that, but I mean, is it the best use of the few hours we have left today, you know?
29
But shifting that time to Quixel and other scanners and then distributing their work saves time for individual video game designers.
30
And the treacherous highlights of the canyons of Utah are available for download and insertion into your own game.
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In the past, artists had to manually make these assets and textures, sometimes pixel by pixel.
32
These days, you might sculpt your own assets using special software.
33
Sometimes it works better than others.
34
I guess it's a face?
35
Downloading textures and models from a cloud marketplace cuts that out of the workflow.
36
They aren't just photos.
37
For example, they include additional images, like this normal map, which uses color to tell the program how high or low certain parts of an image should be.
38
And you can even remix and customize assets once you have them.
39
The example that I always use whenever I'm describing the library and the things that we do is, how many times do you as an artist need to remake that brick wall?
40
There are a lot of ways to get pretty good 3D stuff.
41
Part of what's exciting about all this technology is
42
that pretty much anyone can make a high quality 3D scan and get assets using stuff as simple as their phone.
43
You can use professional stuff like reality capture or honestly your own phone might get you 70% of the way there.
44
Do I look cool right now?
45
I feel so cool.
46
But for a rich environment, it's easier to just download something.
47
Polyhaven provides a lot of textures and models that work across many programs for free.
48
Quixel offers high-quality assets free to use in Unreal and for a fee in other programs.
49
And while I'm able to scan a local rock,
50
developers can't always go to Utah or another one of Quixel's biomes which range from rainforests to tundras.
51
Suddenly, everyone can make their game an alien planet without having to draw it.
52
Even though I'm not in the desert, it is super hot right now, and sometimes developers just want to sit at their desk.
53
Or make guys like Galen be the ones who have to trek out and eat lunch in the desert.
54
Quick Sam, you know what I mean?
55
Double cheese.
56
For Epic, these scans and textures were collected in part for that technology demo of the company's graphics supercharged Unreal Engine 5.
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It's a flywheel for Epic Games and Quixel, where scans make Unreal Engine better, and better Unreal Engine means more Unreal Engine games,
58
which means more people want to add scans that work with Unreal Engine.
59
That also means it is eminently practical to send a crew of non-geologists deep into the desert to photograph rocks.
60
Thank you.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “How video game rocks get made”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: scan, rock, Unreal, engine, Quixel. Deze video bevat 60 zinnen en 870 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 6:03. De spreker praat in een gelijkmatig tempo van ongeveer 144 woorden per minuut, prettig om te shadowen. Slechts 80% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is pittig.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| scan werkwoord | /skæn/ | afspeuren |
| texture zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈtɛkst͡ʃə(ɹ)/ | textuur |
| demo zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈdɛm.oʊ/ | demo, demonstratie |
| developer zelfstandig naamwoord | /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/ | ontwikkelaar, ontwerper |
| geologist zelfstandig naamwoord | /d͡ʒiˈɑːlədʒɪst/ | geoloog, geologe |
| pixel zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈpɪk.səl/ | pixel |
| canyon zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈkænjən/ | kloof |
| constraint zelfstandig naamwoord | /kənˈstɹeɪnt/ | beperking, inperking |
| evangelist zelfstandig naamwoord | /ɪˈvænd͡ʒəlɪst/ | evangelist |
| excite werkwoord | /ɪkˈsaɪt/ | prikkelen, opwinden |
| flywheel zelfstandig naamwoord | vliegwiel | |
| rainforest zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɹeɪn.fɔɹ.ɪst/ | regenwoud |
| treacherous bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈtɹɛt͡ʃəɹəs/ | verraderlijk |
| tundra zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈtʌndɹə/ | toendra |
| scanner zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈskænə/ | scanner |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Betekenis |
|---|---|
| figure out werkwoord | uitvogelen, er achter komen |
Zinnen om te herhalen
Korte, volledige zinnen uit de video die je in alledaagse gesprekken kunt gebruiken:
- Where actually were you when you were doing these scans?
- I guess it's a face?
- Do I look cool right now?
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 10 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, they're, aren't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: insertion /ɪnˈsɝʃən/, sheer /ʃɪɚ/, dimensional /daɪˈmɛn.ʃə.nəl/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: developer /dɪˈvɛləpɚ/, geologist /d͡ʒiˈɑːlədʒɪst/, eminently /ˈɛmɪnəntli/, evangelist /ɪˈvænd͡ʒəlɪst/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: customize /ˈkʌs.tə.maɪ̯z/, evolve /ɪˈvɑlv/, grid /ɡɹɪd/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: scan /skæn/, canyon /ˈkænjən/, evangelist /ɪˈvænd͡ʒəlɪst/, scanner /ˈskænə/, manually /ˈmænj(u)əliː/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: grid /ɡɹɪd/, graphics /ˈɡɹæfɪks/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Spreek zin voor zin na op normale snelheid en herhaal elke zin tot je ritme gelijk is aan dat van de spreker.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als scan, texture, demo.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.