CG Animated Feature Film in Development
“I Broke Paradise” is an adaptation of the children book “The Story of The Blue Planet” written by Andri Snær Magnason.
The film is produced by Nimbus Film, Nørlum and Einstein Film. Directed by Philip Einstein (The Incredible Story of the Giant Pear, 2017),
Maria Biilmann and Jericca Cleland (Ratchet and Clank, 2016).
One of the first CG animated feature films made in a game engine.
To our knowledge there haven't been produced an animated feature film primarily in a game engine before. With the “I Broke Paradise” teaser we wanted to explore if that is possible, and that makes this project extremely exciting to us.
2nd Studio was brought on as technical assistance very early in the pre-production phase because of our background in animated films and our expertise in Unity (See our other projects). 2nd Studio’s responsibility was to research and develop a sustainable pipeline for an animated feature film production in Unity with a high quality look. We collaborated with Unity on the project and their assistance helped tremendously. With the team we developed a small teaser where our job was technical direction, look development, environments, props, shaders, visual effects, cameras, lighting and rendering. The team consisted of talented people with many years experiences in the animated films- and visual effects industry.
The pipeline was a challenge since we had to make everything run in Unity. We had to develop a pipeline for character animation, lighting, textures, hair and so on. These are all elements that we plan to improve on. The technology is improving so fast that the tools we used were still in development and constantly being improved.
The benefits are countless.
The directors were able to sit next to our artist and improve shots on the go, which had an immediate effect, instead of waiting for a rendering to complete. There is a lot more back and forth with the directors and feedback could be implemented with a few clicks and instantaneously produce a final frame. Disney produced their Baymax shorts in a similar fashion.
Jericca Cleland and Dennis Jensen working with Expozure
Virtual cinematography (Expozure)
We used the camera setup Expozure, which allowed us to film direction with a physical setup that recorded our virtual camera movement in Unity. Digital Monarch Media introduced us to their product with a few lessons and helped along the way if we encountered challenges or had questions. The camera setup allowed for different lenses and focal lengths. It’s intuitive for a director of photography to use. We provided technical setup and assistance for the cameras during digital layout for the teaser. This tool is used by the best visual effects companies in the business and on movies like “Blade Runner 2049”, “The Jungle Book” and “Ready Player One”.
The result of using Expozure is a more grounded and realistic camera that adds to the immersion. It emulates different camera rigs as well but are not bound to them which gives incredible freedom.
Contact us here if you would like to work with us.
