Hello Epic!
We are producing the next Polynoid Shortfilm.
Our proposal is to assemble it in Unreal and through this help raise the quality bar for real time cinematic filmmaking.
Who
POLYNOID is a globally acclaimed collective of animation filmmakers. We have won numerous awards for the quality and style of our artistic short films, including Best in Show at Siggraph and a golden Nica at Ars Electronica. Our films have been viewed by millions and some marked significant milestones in visceral animation storytelling. Our ambition is to constantly push the boundaries of CGI filmmaking.
What
Since 2018 we are working on our next short BYE BEAR.
Set in an unknown dystopia, where robots are following through with their animal fetishes, the 5 minute film is a dream-like tale about friendship and farewell. Intensely told in a Lynch style montage, set to a dragging song, the film provokes to emotionally react to lifeless objects and therefore pushes you to reflect about the meaning of all things.
How
We have set out to create this film in the most stunning CGI quality possible. Only if we achieve perfect photorealism the film will reveal it’s full magic. The viewer must be sucked into a world that is completely believable. At the same time it’s highly designed and every shot is staged and light in the most expressive way.
Story, design and previz of the film are locked and we are currently focusing on the asset build. Ahead of us are animation, effects, shading and lighting. We are now ready to bring on a full team to produce the film.
Why
Our studio pipeline is based on Houdini with renders happening in Arnold. This is great for shorter client projects but extremely time intense on longer productions. We are in high need of faster workflows to produce more work in less time.
We have already produced a handful of high end real time VR projects for clients like SAP and Disney. In Unity. While Unity offers great flexibility and easy access to crew, we have never been satisfied with the final visual quality.
This is why we have been looking at Unreal for a while now. With BYE BEAR we finally have the perfect project to switch over and develop our skills in Unreal. In our vision Unreal offers the perfect mix of high end quality and time efficient production.
Our project creates a number of complicated production challenges to solve and we are excited to put Unreal to a test and make it work. Complex Robotic systems, Dynamic Fur, and Fluid Simulations all are topics that in high end quality still pose big challenges in a real time context.
With the support of Epic we are convinced that we’ll achieve no less but to produce a milestone of CGI filmmaking. Pushing the boundaries of what has been achieved with realtime rendering to date. Creating a timeless piece of art.
Use of Funding
We will use the funds to bring in crew for the production of BYE BEAR. The biggest part of the funding will go towards bringing in experienced Unreal artists that can get the job done.
We are planning to kick off production at the end of June and finish the piece till the end of the year. The requested sum would allow us to bring in five additional team members for the entire project. We are looking to onboard two technical directors and three lookdev and lighting artists.
