From Unreal to Screen: M2 Pipeline【Cinematic Deep Dive’25】

Cinematic Deep Dive’25 FROM UNREAL TO SCREEN M2 Animation Unreal Series pipeline A brief story about our journey from offline rendering to final pixel in Unreal. #UECinemaDive

WARHAMMER TV SERIES FROM UNREAL TO SCREEN o CHARACTERS: rebuilt for UE o TOOLS: Custom UI in Unreal o COLOR: Grading and ( fix it in ) Post #UECinemaDive

AARHUS PARIS LOS ANGELES BANGKOK FEEL FREE TO HAVE A LOOK AT OUR WEBSITE #UECinemaDive

EXPERIMENT #1 OUR FIRST TRAILER PRODUCTION IN UE4 IN 2020 #UECinemaDive

WHY UNREAL JOURNEY TO REALTIME Yeah, but it still looks like a game… #UECinemaDive

WHY UNREAL Inspiration from games o o o Rebirth Trailer Megascans Games catching up to Offline render quality #UECinemaDive

WHY UNREAL Our first experiments in UE4 #UECinemaDive

HAVE A LOOK Interview EPIC JP #UECinemaDive

SERIES SHOWREEL A FEW OF OUR SERIES PRODUCTIONS #UECinemaDive

#UECinemaDive

300 + MINUTES 97% FX 2-4 x FASTER Delivered Done in-engine Lighting & Material iteration #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS HIGH QUALITY CHARACTERS FOR SERIES Mod Ratchata // Unreal Fest Bali 2025 Building Real-Time Cinematics at M2 Animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-siBR9Kt2M #UECinemaDive

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-siBR9Kt2M

CHARACTERS 1st Generation o 1 High resolution mesh for final use in engine. o 1 Low resolution mesh for tasks like rigging and animation. #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 1st Generation Using only SSS-Profile to drive the subsurface and fake depth offset for eye shading o Warhammer Horus heresy UE4.26 #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 1st Generation Warhammer Pariah Nexus UE 4.27 Viewport Warhammer Pariah Nexus UE 4.27 Viewport #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 2nd Generation #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 2nd Generation o Geometry-based eyelashes o Detail-preserving topology #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 3nd Generation o 8K option for close up shots o Precise cavity map for better specular response o Built in FX system - sweat o Texture variant system #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 3nd Generation #UECinemaDive

CHARACTERS 1st vs 3rd Generation #UECinemaDive

PIPELINE PYTHON & CUSTOM UI Tools Chris Bardoux // Unreal Fest Bali 2025 Bringing Unreal Engine into a Classic CG Pipeline with Python https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjjkWH0eT3U Shotgrid + Perforce + Unreal = Act as one system with Python #UECinemaDive

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjjkWH0eT3U

PIPELINE Python and custom UI tools UNREAL MAYA SHOTGRID o o o o PERFORCE SERVER Interconnection with other tools (Maya / Shotgrid / Perforce ...) Leverage our own "home" python api (setdress) Asset management We can build our own UI for Unreal (Pyside) #UECinemaDive

PIPELINE SET SHOT UI #UECinemaDive

PIPELINE Python and custom UI tools SET SHOTS UI #UECinemaDive

PIPELINE Python and custom UI tools o o Uses subsequences to "Manage" animation tracks Set playback range by querying Shotgrid #UECinemaDive

PIPELINE SEND RENDER JOBS UI #UECinemaDive

PIPELINE Color management and Post look dev Send Render Jobs UI SHOTGRID Sets MRQ and renders Post Render Callback generates mp4 and publish Resolve Shot preset Transfer EXR #UECinemaDive

COLOR COLOR MANAGEMENT AND (fix it in ) POST #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color Management Un-color managed potential pipeline issues. 0% Sanity ARTIST A ARTIST B ARTIST C ARTIST D ARTIST C ARTIST D Color managed pipeline 100% Sanity ARTIST A ARTIST B #UECinemaDive

UNREAL SCENE Web Client MP4 Review EXR Shotgrid Davinci Resolve Rec 709 Delivery EXR Creative Intent o o ACES - our color system OCIO - keeps all the screens consistent #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev ● Deferred Render ● Final Grade EXR We use Resolve Fusion for retouch and in case of compositing external FX. #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

COLOR Color management and post look dev #UECinemaDive

The M2 team here today in Tokyo. We would love to meet and chat. Filip Stanfeld Director Chris Bardoux CG Supervisor Mod Ratchata Look Dev Artist Ask me about: Ask me about: Ask me about: Color Pipeline Cameras Creative Lighting Python Coding Houdini Integration Character Assets Shading Faces Nikolaj Lindhardt Brygger CG Generalist Ask me about: FX Sequencer Previz Benjamin Foo Unreal CG Supervisor Ask me about: Pipeline Team Structure Integrations #UECinemaDive

THANK YOU どうもありがとうございます #UECinemaDive