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Still from Cause and Effect: the explorer in blue-gray armor with tan and gold accents reaches an open hand up toward a single glowing firefly, a weathered boulder at her shoulder and a hazy dusk plain behind her

04, Unreal Fellowship · 2020

Cause and Effect

EPIC GAMES Unreal Fellowship Short Film

Unreal Fellowship badge: a dark shield with a gold border carrying the words Unreal Fellowship above the Unreal Engine logo
Program
Unreal Fellowship, Summer 2020 Cohort
Medium
Short film
Engine
Unreal Engine, Quixel assets
Role
Producer

I made this short film during the Epic Games Unreal Fellowship, a three month intensive, as part of the Summer 2020 cohort.

Cause and Effect is a one minute 3D animated short. It tells a non-verbal story: an explorer roams the land of fireflies, with a surprise in store. I worked across the cinematic production: storyboarding, world building, lighting, motion capture, texturing and materials. It renders in real time in Unreal Engine, with assets from the Quixel library.

Watch Cause and Effect on YouTube.

The film

Still from Cause and Effect: a giant firefly hovers against a red rock wall with its wings spread and its abdomen glowing yellow, sparks of light around it, while the explorer watches from the right edge of the frame
Still from Cause and Effect: the explorer in close-up, eyes wide and mouth open in astonishment, framed between two rock faces
Still from Cause and Effect: a wide dusk landscape of low rock formations with fireflies drifting above the plain
Still from Cause and Effect: the explorer looks up past purple flowers at a glowing firefly in flight
Still from Cause and Effect: the explorer reaches a hand up toward a firefly beside a boulder on the open plain
Still from Cause and Effect: extreme close-up of the explorer’s face behind a lit purple flower
Still from Cause and Effect: the explorer standing in blue-gray armor with tan and gold accents on the dusk plain, fireflies scattered behind her
Still from Cause and Effect: the explorer seen from behind in a narrow red rock canyon, a pale cloak over one shoulder, facing a large firefly settled on the canyon floor ahead of her

I animated the facial expressions with iPhone Live Link facial motion capture.

Video: learning facial motion capture

Next project Cymatic Star