Self-made animated films just got easier
Ian Dean meets filmmaker Erasmus Brosdau who reveals how Crytek’s Film Engine can help you start your filmmaking career
Artist Erasmus Brosdau recently released the five-minute ‘prologue’ for his Warhammer 40K fan movie, The Lord Inquisitor. What sets the film apart is the use of a new animation and filmmaking software called Film Engine, the successor to Cinebox, developed by Crytek. “I’m assembling all the scenes, doing the lighting, cameras, particles and rendering in Film Engine, in real time,” says Erasmus, adding that Film Engine goes further than other software to deliver final image quality, instantly. “Some people already get crazy about real-time path tracer rendering software like Octane or V-rray RT, but once you know what a real-time rendering pipeline really means, without all the noise and grain permanently, you really wonder how you could work all the time before that.”
As the prologue is real time, Erasmus has created his assets using game software, such as Substance Painter and 3ds Max, but he also recommends free software such as Davinci Resolve 12 for editing and colour correction.
The Lord Inquisitor film has been in development for four years, with 40 artists working on the project at one point, but now Erasmus has 10 key friends developing the movie, including Soheyl Mohammad who has taken on rigging and animation. “You quickly learn that nobody is as crazy about your project as you are, so you can’t expect other people to spend as much free time on your project than you are doing. Luckily, I found a few nice friends who helped me.”
If you’re interested in creating your own animated film, Erasmus says be prepared for long hours and hard work. Free software like Film Engine (when released) could make the process easier and more accessible.
The trick is to be firm with your decisions. Erasmus admits that he remodelled his assets time and again as his skill improved, and moving from a 3ds Max/v-ray pipeline to Film Engine set production back. In real terms, he says, the ‘prologue’ has taken a year.
“To get a project up and running is fairly simple, the key is to be able to keep it running and to eventually finish it,” reflects Erasmus on the past four years of work.
That’s not to say Erasmus would deter anyone trying to make their own film, in fact he believes there’s no better time than right now… “We live in a time where everybody can make movies and distribute them worldwide, very quickly,” he says. “So if it’s your dream to become a director, just go out and create your own movie – it’s absolutely worth it.” Watch The Lord Inquisitor prologue at www.bit.ly/lord-inquisitor