Video courtesy of Epic Games, Goodbye Kansas | Deep Forest Films, Stargate Studios, and Lionsgate

Storytelling reimagined

FILM & TELEVISION

From high-quality previs, to virtual production, to in-camera visual effects that take the post out of production, Unreal Engine is ushering in a new era of storytelling. Whether you’re working on episodic animation, live-action blockbusters, or short-form content, real-time workflows are radically transforming established pipelines and delivering renewed creative control.
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Revitalize your entire production process

Whether you’re a director, producer, cinematographer, set designer, VFX artist, or working in any other department in film and TV production, you can benefit from introducing Unreal Engine into your process.

A deep background in film and television

Drawing on decades of experience working with top filmmakers and studios, our team is dedicated to developing best-in-class features and rigorously testing them with our own internal virtual production projects, as well as deploying them to commercial productions. Then, we give that innovation back to you as built-in tools—including source code—for free.
Image courtesy of Stargate Studios

Immediate feedback, without the wait

With real-time rendering that enables creatives to receive immediate feedback on their work and make changes on the fly, shot production is no longer a waiting game. In Unreal Engine’s collaborative creative environment, your entire crew can share ideas visually, iterate quickly, and make decisions with confidence.

End-to-end production efficiencies

From earliest concept to finished frames, Unreal Engine workflows provide the flexibility to reuse the same set of optimized assets through every phase of production, eliminating time-consuming and costly rework. You can even use the same assets for interactive and location-based entertainment, marketing materials, and more. 
Image courtesy of ILMxLAB

Defining virtual production

Unreal Engine has been at the forefront of virtual production since the first workflows began to emerge; today, virtual production can influence every aspect of the production pipeline. Visit our Virtual Production Hub for news, articles, interviews, and insights, and download both volumes of The Virtual Production Field Guide, our comprehensive primer, for free today.
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Production-proven on over 80 major motion pictures and episodic TV shows

The Epic Games team has a big, deep background in film production. You can actually feel the pedigree through how the software presents itself. There’s a movie way of doing stuff, and Unreal just oozes that.
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- Kevin Baillie, VFX Supervisor, Welcome to Marwen

Digital humans that will stand up to close-ups

Convincing digital stand-ins can play many roles in virtual production. We've been working with companies like Cubic Motion and 3Lateral in a bid to create the highest-quality digital humans for years. Now, we're excited to introduce MetaHuman Creator, a new tool that could rewrite the narrative for everyone.
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Case studies

Behind the scenes with Unreal Engine's next-gen virtual production tools

To test-drive the latest virtual production toolset in Unreal Engine, we partnered with Lux Machina, Magnopus, Profile Studios, Quixel, ARRI, and DP Matt Workman. In this video, we take a more in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the project.
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Image courtesy of Digital Domain

Digital Domain and the quest for the ultimate digital human

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Solo: A Star Wars Story™ © Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved.

ILM uses UE4-powered virtual production on “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

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Image courtesy of Blue Zoo Animation Studio

Blue Zoo creates distinctive animated short “Ada”

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Key features

Virtual production toolset

The next generation of filmmaking is here! From high-quality previs that truly communicates creative intent, to designing action sequences or prepping for VFX with postvis, Unreal Engine’s extensive virtual production toolset enables teams to truly collaborate and make decisions in real time. With in-camera VFX, virtual scouting tools, iPad-driven virtual cameras and lighting controls, and multi-user control, Unreal Engine lets you tell better stories, faster.

Nonlinear sequence editor

Unreal Engine includes Sequencer—a fully nonlinear, real-time cinematic editing and animation tool built for collaboration. Define and modify lighting, camera blocking, characters, and set dressing on a per-shot­ basis. You can even record animations from motion capture linked to characters in your scene and from external tracked sources direct to Sequencer for future playback.

A perfect fit for your pipeline

Support for the most widely-used formats and protocols in film and television production like FBX, USD, C4D, OpenEXR, and OpenColorIO means Unreal Engine is ready to integrate into your pipeline. And with Python and Blueprint visual scripting, a robust API, and complete C++ source code access, you can create the custom hooks and interfaces you need to make Unreal Engine a seamless fit. 

Final pixels in real time

With real-time photorealistic ray-traced rendering, real-time compositing, film-quality post-process effects, and advanced particles, physics, and destruction, Unreal Engine delivers everything it takes to create final-pixel output for both live-action and animated content. With the ability to see your changes instantly, you can iterate at the speed of your imagination and make creative choices when it matters most. 

Get the world’s most open and advanced creation platform

No matter which licensing option you choose, there is only one Unreal Engine. With no need for additional plugins or purchases, Unreal Engine comes production-ready out of the box.
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