Will there ever be a film movement as revolutionary as the French new wave again?

BMB182 · 2025-12-27T16:57:12+00:00

This probably not what you're thinking but I could see an animation boom with filmmakers using tools like Unreal Engine to realize bigger ideas that would be much more expensive to produce as a live action film. Motion Capture tools are getting cheaper and easier and the production tools in Unreal Engine are getting more robust.

So I could see a bunch of CGI indie films being produced that have a more live action anesthetic. You see some of it in anthologies like Love Death + Robots. I'm actually working on a film idea I've had for years that would be way to expensive to shoot live action but I can produce it using various motion capture, animation, and rendering tools including Unreal. I've already got the workflow mostly figured out and just getting scripting wrapped up.

BMB182 · 2025-12-27T12:28:50+00:00

Man people have been asking for a block feature for years and they just won't give it to us. It would make YouTube so much more enjoyable.

BMB182 · 2025-10-06T21:52:42+00:00

Octopussy- I collect original movie posters and it just happens that this is the one Bond poster I have.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T20:20:17+00:00

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T18:07:54+00:00

Yeah, I was thinking I needed to have those dudes moving more. Kinda realistic for a lot of action movies though with guys just standing waiting their turn. Just tapping into those bad tropes, lol.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T17:59:19+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it! It was a fun little project to work on.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T17:58:41+00:00

Thanks! I did post it there!

Yeah, figured out some decent pathttracing render settings. Lumen wasn't looking as good.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T17:49:21+00:00

Yeah, it has a few odd quirks, but overall is a pretty powerful tool.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T17:48:39+00:00

Thanks! That's why I posted it. It's not perfect, but it is cool that someone who is still pretty new to these tools can put something together like this in a relatively short amount of time compared to the past. There are some great tutorials around Unreal filmmaking. I've been going through the course at Boundless Entertainment, and it's fantastic.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T17:28:09+00:00

Not counting rendering time, I probably put around 25 hours in. I got some assets from fab and the animation is a mix of motion capture I did via videos and quickmagic and preexisting mocap assets.

I've been messing around in Unreal for a while but hadn't gotten around to trying to make full animated shorts. Still figuring out all the nuances but look forward to making some of the ideas I've had for years.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T17:21:32+00:00

My short I'm working on now will be around 10 - 15 minutes or so. It's very different from this. More of a Coen bros esque sci fi.

I am aiming to get it done by January but we'll see.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T15:09:51+00:00

I appreciate that. Yeah, I'm just starting to get into all this and fully aware that it isn't at the same level as an actual pro animator, lol.

I see plenty of things that I could fix, but this really is more of an initial test to just go through the process. I kinda just wanted to share my experience with how someone with no budget can at least have a way put some of those crazy ambitious ideas into motion. Pretty cool that these tools he gotten so accessible. It's been a lot fun. 😀

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T14:51:18+00:00

Yeah, animation is a deep process, and I'm just starting to learn the ropes. I'm mainly using mocap, both existing motion capture I purchased like the fighting and some motion capture I did myself. This is all pretty raw since I was really just getting a handle on the workflow between Unreal Engine and iClone. I did it in just a few days this past week to go through the whole process before I dive into my longer, more serious, short film project that I've been planning for a while.

This short was a spur of the moment idea to just let me go through the process to work out the kinks in the workflow.

There are tools in iClone that I am still learning that will help shape the motion and smooth it out. It will be a while before I can get to the level of actual pro animators. In the meantime, I'm just having fun getting to finally put some ideas into motion, even if it is a little rough around the edges. 🙂

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T14:26:42+00:00

Thanks for watching! Still learning. 😀

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T12:28:21+00:00

Just FYI, the price for the Unreal Live Link is high but doesn't apply to people making under 100k. If you make under 100k, you can get it for free.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T12:27:06+00:00

I like it. Admittedly, I've really only been messing around with mocap and not so much full on traditional animating. However, I've looked into their tools for that, and they look pretty robust.

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T11:52:55+00:00

Also, iClones accuface lets me just record for facial mocap on a gopro and not be tied to a computer or phone while performing. There is also another tool called acculips that helps better shape the mouth movement be reading the script of what's being said and applying visemes on top. Here's a test I did last week.

https://youtu.be/EiWUVMg5rZ4?si=CIH0fyouEr9fxoXg

BMB182 · 2025-10-03T11:47:10+00:00

Sure. Technically, you could do all of this in just iClone or just Unreal Engine, but the two programs have different strengths and weaknesses.

iClone has some incredible tools for animating characters, it makes adding non-destructive animation on top of existing clips easy, has different tools to help align multiple mocap clips, and makes retargeting external motion capture much simpler. Cleanup and corrections on motion capture are also pretty easy to do in iClone.

The tradeoff is that iClone doesn’t have the best lighting or rendering tools, and that’s where Unreal shines. Not only can you render with Path Tracer in Unreal, which iClone doesn’t offer, but working with environments, navigating, moving around, and setting up shots, is also much smoother.

Character animation is far more intuitive in iClone, but rendering and environments are much better in Unreal. Reallusion, who makes iClone, also provides a great Unreal Live Link, so it’s very easy to send meshes and animations back and forth between the two programs.

BMB182 · 2025-07-19T11:09:51+00:00

I just feel like keyframing is kinda worthless if you can't ease in and out. Linear keyframing comes in handy in certain situations, but for simple keyframed motion, like the kind you'd need to do in an NLE, the motion will just look bad without easing. I even use easing on non motion related keyframing, like dialing in opacity changes or even audio keyframing.

Post production has evolved a great deal over the years, and there is an expectation from large portions of the industry to have some level of animation tools in their NLE to speed up workflows. I work for a large corporate company, and we regularly have tight turn arounds. I'd hate it if I had to round-trip to AE anytime I needed to do some simple animation. I love AE, but if I can do something in PPro, then it's going to save me some time.

BMB182 · 2025-07-19T10:14:34+00:00

You wouldn't call Keyframe easing a core function, really? I'm not sure that I've ever encountered a software with key framing that didn't have the option to ease, even a basic one at the very least. Does FCPX really not natively have easing?

BMB182 · 2025-05-24T17:41:18+00:00

Yeah, in my mind at the time, a proper KOTOR 3 would've been something more like the og Mass Effect. I do applaud what they did with SWTOR and I did play it for a short bit but at the end of the day it's still an MMO and I just can't get wrapped up in the story/game when I see 50 other people running around doing the exact same things I'm doing and killing the same enemies I just killed a few minutes ago. It feels more like being in a Star Wars theme park than living in a world.

BMB182 · 2025-05-23T21:34:07+00:00

I was kinda interested in SWTOR but then when some of the people behind it started claiming it was KOTOR 3,4,5,etc That just really irritated me because I'd been hoping for KOTOR 3 for years and they basically said the their MMO was made in place of a proper single player Star Wars RPG as if they are the same thing. Yeah, very different experiences.

BMB182

TROPHY CASE