Watch: Reel FX arrives in real time with "Super Giant Robot Brothers"

As part of the Virtual Production Week event, Epic Games has revealed the behind-the-scenes footage of the new animated Netflix series, Super giant robot brothers!, produced by Reel FX (The Book of Life, Free Birds, Rumble) and created using the studio's innovative and proprietary virtual production animation pipeline, in which all aspects of the show were visualized and rendered in Epic's Unreal Game Engine.

With a preview clip of the finished product, the video demonstrates Reel FX's leadership in creating high-quality animation using a real-time workflow that brings live-action techniques to the world of animated film through a combination of cutting-edge technology and traditional animation tools.

Directed by Academy Award-winning director Mark Andrews (Courageous), Super giant robot brothers! is a 3D animated action comedy about giant robots who must save the world from kaiju invasion by overcoming sibling rivalry! The Netflix show developed and produced by Reel FX is created by executive producers Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres and executive producers of showrunner Tommy Blancha, as well as Jared Mass and Steve O'Brien of Reel FX Originals. Netflix will debut the 10-episode series in 2022.

Behind-the-scenes video shows how Reel FX's virtual production pipeline enabled showrunners to shoot motion-captured actors on stage, with stylized 3D animated characters and environments that have already been built and living within Unreal. Engine. With these resources at his disposal on the set, the director was able to freeze and film the actors (whose performances will later be used as references for the animators) using a virtual camera and see the performances of the animated characters come to life simultaneously on the screens. neighbors, allowing for more flexibility and improvisation of the story than a traditional process. The Unreal Engine brings lighting and real-time rendering into play, which allows you to more fully visualize your final creative decisions on set.

The video also mentions how this workflow is a game changer for the editorial process. After the days of filming, the editor was handed "tons of coverage" which is not typical of animation. This was a result of being able to film the recorded performances from different camera angles using the virtual camera on stage after the actors had finished the day. With loads of footage to choose from, a 3D cut of the show is prepared and delivered to Reel FX's experienced animation team. The animators were able to make the typical creative choices for keyframe animation, but they had more information to refer to than ever. With Super giant robot brothers!, Reel FX transformed the animation process by building its techniques around the mindset of a live-action production.

Reel FX's live-action approach to making animated films condenses several steps in the animation process and creates plenty of room for workflow efficiency. These innovations make animation production more accessible to the live director, allowing them to use the existing toolset and vocabulary to promptly direct animated film and television content, and even hire a live crew for production and editing. This also appeals to animated film directors and television showrunners who want to be more hands-on in the storytelling process, as they have the opportunity to interact with the actors in person and work alongside the animators in the early stages of defining and perfecting the story. their vision.

You can watch Epic Games' full Virtual Production Week Q&A recording with Reel FX, with director Marc Andrews, producer Adam Maier, cinematographer Enrico Targetti, and Unreal operator Rey Jarrell here. starts after 12 minutes).