I thought of the story and immediately started developing the look of the world while iterating on the narrative. This couldn’t have been done without Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering and powerful animation tools.

It forced us to not overthink, and since we could actually see the film as we built it, we knew if a plot point had the impact we intended or not. Developing a story while the actual short was being created might sound crazy, but it was the only way I could have completed it in this time frame. I was the creator, director, and co-writer, and the crew was relatively small-so it’s rather remarkable to think that we not only completed the short in that amount of time, but produced something that we are incredibly proud of. We just wanted to ensure that we had a story that felt complete and that the audience cared about Valentina, the main character, and her journey.ī&a: You made the film so quickly – what approach did you take to writing, any storyboarding, concepts, previs etc in such a short space of time?Īaron Sims: In retrospect, it’s a bit hard to believe that we made this film in six weeks.

It was a very collaborative, creative process, working through the narrative, and I’m so happy we went with that particular idea. We bounced several ideas back and forth between us, and when Vivian mentioned the idea of an inescapable time loop, it hooked me and we fleshed it out to work in our story. The “loop” concept originated from a collaboration with my co-writer Vivian Yoon in order to have the impactful ending that I wanted. Warning: this interview contains spoilers.ī&a: Tell me a little about the story process for The Eye - how did you come up with the time loop idea?Īaron Sims: One of the hardest things to do with a good sci-fi story-any story, really-is nailing the ending. Plus, you can now access the ASC ‘Teuthisan’ alien featured in the short animated with Control Rig in UE5. You may know Aaron Sims and his company, Aaron Sims Creative, as a leader in creature design, but lately they have also jumped head-first into real-time filmmaking, particularly with Unreal Engine.Īs part of Shortnitemares, an animated Fortnite creative short film festival, Sims directed an alien planet story called The Eye: Calanthek in just six weeks using Unreal Engine 5 (Early Access) and MetaHuman Creator.īefores & afters caught up with Sims to discuss how the film was made in such a short space of time, including the mocap and creature work involved. And, how you can download the alien creature animated with Control Rig from the short right now.

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