I am thrilled to announce the release of my first short film - “AURORA Aftermath”. This is a personal, non-commercial project which I started as a way to learn more about Unreal Engine 5 and practice cinematography.
It all started as a 30-second automotive animation, but I gradually extended the timeline as I wanted to also implement a short story to accompany the vehicles. One thing led to another and I eventually developed a small sci-fi universe on top of an awesome soundtrack by NERO, which was a big inspiration towards my vision for this project.
There were a lot of challenges, mostly hardware limitations, as my current GPU doesn’t officially support Ray-Tracing (it’s a Pascal architecture), so I had to “hack” some .dll’s in order to enable this feature (thanks to the tech-savvy people on the Unreal Engine forums). Although working with RT was painfully slow given the context (low VRAM and few CUDA cores), I managed to finish the project safely.
The entire process proved to be a significant challenge, as I had to plan the events, learn various concepts, test and solve a lot of technical issues along the development. I still feel like there are a couple of things to iron out, but I had to give myself a rest and focus on improving my next projects.
The film was rendered in UE 5.5.1 using Lumen, Nanite and Ray-Tracing on a NVIDIA GTX 1080. Post-production was done in DaVinci Resolve.
Hope you’re well and having a wonderful week so far
Not sure how I missed this post for so long but I just wanted to pop in and say this was such a genuinely cool project to watch. It felt cinematic from beginning to end. I just wanted more! Do you plan on creating more short films any time soon or are you taking a break after all this work?
Hey @PresumptivePanda! Thanks for your feedback! I am really glad you enjoyed it. If it felt cinematic it means I reached one of my goals
I had no prior experience animating cameras, so I was a bit anxious going into this. I remember the disappointment of realizing I had to redo the first shot—up until the garage—because I initially used the Camera Rig Rail system. Any extension of the rail altered my previously synced keyframes, no matter what I tried to counter it. Eventually, I animated the camera from scratch using a hierarchical binding system with helpers for position and rotation, allowing me to go fully free-roaming.
Right now, I’m taking a short break, but I’m planning at least one more short movie before the end of the year, set in a medieval/fantasy realm. I’d also love to revisit the script for Aurora Aftermath and continue it with a more dynamic vibe. I just need to refine my Embergen/Niagara skills for this one.
Spoiler alert: It will most likely involve drone swarm chases in the city on the horizon—with a plot twist.
Oohh, drone swarm chases in a medieval setting honestly sounds kind of incredible I’d definitely love to see it once after you’ve had that break, that is. I know how frustrating getting camera’s to just work can be but I’m glad you stuck it out! I look forward to seeing your future work, happy developing until then
Thank you! Having worked with a traditional offline rendering pipeline using V-Ray or Corona, I find Unreal Engine’s real-time feedback to be a game changer. It’s hard to imagine going back!
Do you plan on creating more short films any time soon or are you taking a break after all this work?
I’d definitely love to see it once after you’ve had that break, that is.