Epic Games’ Animation Week continues through 1 July, with the most recent release being the trailer debut of Blue, an animated short film created in the cloud using Unreal Engine’s real-time technology. New York-based Preymaker produced the project with the support of an Epic MegaGrant; the film is slated to be released this fall.
One of the first animated shorts created entirely in the cloud, Blue, was brought to life by a team of artists collaborating virtually from around the world. It is also one of the first films rendered entirely in Epic Games’ Unreal Engine without compositing. The movie is executive produced by Preymaker co-founder and chief creative Angus Kneale and directed by Preymaker creative Rob Petrie.
In the film, Jules Reid is a bright, curious 12-year-old coming to grips with her mother’s mysterious disappearance a few years earlier. She ponders worlds and galaxies unseen, unknown and unimagined. While gazing up at the stars, she questions if their exploration is within reach. Then, one night she is startled awake by a mysterious disturbance in a nearby forest. There she discovers something magical that triggers a remarkable and, at times perilous, life-changing adventure. And, of course, there are some intergalactic villains along the way.
With Blue and its young protagonist, Preymaker set out to open people’s eyes to a more diverse world. By telling a story from a novel perspective, the film leans into the sci-fi genre to create a space of wonder and heroism for young people who now find themselves living in a world filled with fear and uncertainty.
Petrie explained that as developed, Blue can be a mobile game, AAA or VR game, a live animation series, or even a metaverse experience. The Preymaker team envisions the film eventually expanding into a full feature, brought to life by writers and directors who will join the studio to authentically reflect the property’s voice and culture.
“With the storytelling and Epic’s backend real-time technology bringing it to life. Blue can be all those things, which is the most exciting thing of it all. Blue right now is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the future of gaming and entertainment,” Petrie said.
“Although we used a traditional Maya pipeline for the animation part of the film, once we got into lighting in Unreal, it was amazing for the artists to get real-time renders pretty much instantly,” added Petrie.
“In the end, the team was able to work together seamlessly with the animators,” concluded Petrie. “For future projects, we will probably work a little bit more on integrating Unreal within Shotgrid so we can track the progress of each shot even better.”
Blue was created over eight months by a team of about 20 animators, modelers, FX, and Unreal Engine artists.
