Animation teams around the world are discovering the creative freedom of using Unreal Engine to produce episodic series and feature films, taking advantage of real–time rendering to actually see the project as it develops. This new paradigm for production turns the traditional pipeline on its head, slashing production time and giving teams the opportunity to collaborate and iterate right up until delivery.
How do they do it? The Animation Field Guide explores the foundations of real-time animation pipelines with Unreal Engine, and features interviews with many creatives who are already producing with this workflow.
Animation is about bringing stories to life. For decades, animation teams have followed a traditional, linear pipeline, a series of processes designed for separate departments, each with its own specific job. Such a pipeline leaves very little room for creative changes downstream, as these changes need to be sent back to earlier in the pipeline, often at great cost.
With a real-time pipeline, departments work in parallel, with production phases like layout, animation, and lighting overlapping fluidly. The work done for storyboarding, look development, and previs flows right into the production, and every team member can see the entire project as it's built and polished.
When teams can try different camera angles, experiment with lighting, and test various compositions in real time, the costly do-overs of a traditional pipeline become a thing of the past. Best of all, these teams are excited about the creative freedom of working in a real-time pipeline and finding the perfect way to tell their stories.
But don't take our word for it. Download The Animation Field Guide today, and read what Sony Pictures Imageworks, BRON Digital, Reel FX, and many others have to say about using a real-time pipeline, and learn how you can take advantage of this new way of working to bring your own stories to life.
The Animation Field Guide
This comprehensive resource for animators is now available for free.
Download it today.