Embrace the Game
As the CTO of Filmio, part of my job is to be aware of what is happening in the tech world. Aside from watching the crypto community and blockchain developments, I track new exploits for software and exciting new developments in enterprise hardware management, basically, I track it all.
Since we play in the content creation space, I also work to stay on top of what the big players are doing, Apple, Adobe, Avid, etc. New versions of their software drive new and exciting content, and that is something we need to know.
Which leads to today's article. I want to talk about advances in software that are driving amazing expressions of content, but not from one of the companies I named, and I expect, not from companies you would think of: Video Game Engines.
Enter the Game Engine
As the scope of the games we play continues to increase and become more and more complex, the hardware and software that we need to play them must keep up. While more powerful gaming hardware is exciting, it isn't going to make it easier to make your next movie. No, that distinction belongs to the software that powers our games, typically referred to as "Game Engines".
Today's game engines are beginning to rival, if not match, the quality of effects and animation that you see coming out of shops like ILM and Weta, and the companies behind these engines have taken notice. The most recent releases of the two most respected and highly used engines, the Unreal Engine and Unity, have included tools, plugins, and workflows for cinematic storytelling.
Now, this is extremely exciting for game developers since most of the biggest games today have cinematic sequences and cut scenes, but it has also opened up interesting avenues for filmmakers, especially indie filmmakers who have smaller budgets and workforce, but stories just as big as a Hollywood blockbuster.
The proof is in the pudding
Take the short film "Adam" from the team at Unity. This short film was created in 8 months by a small team working on it part-time. While they created hacks and new code to make it work, the majority of it was added to Unity, as of version 5.1.
This means if you download Unity today, you have the tools to make something this amazing, literally at your fingertips.
Oh, did I mention it's free to download and use? Let that soak in for a minute. Software that can create the film you see above, is free to download and use. Oh and it renders in real time, so you don't have to create something, wait hours for it to render, find a small mistake, go fix it, and start all over again.
You can make changes on the fly and see them immediately. It's magic.
Not to be left out, Unreal Engine can deliver some really amazing results as well. It doesn't look like Epic has created anything of their own, so here is a great looking video from an Unreal Engine creator.
The Unreal Engine is free to use for filmmaking as well and has a real-time pipeline just like Unity, Again, magic. It has never been easier, cheaper and more exciting to be working in independent filmmaking. Don't let your tools limit your dreams. Think outside the box, be creative, take risks.
Make it happen.