MegaGrant Recipient, 2D animation in Unreal

Previously I had posted a test project here, to see how well I could integrate 2D animation in UE4 environments. When it was complete, it was featured on the Twitch Community Spotlight and got some attention on Twitter. I attached it to my Epic MegaGrant application as a “prototype of a much larger project in the works”. To my utter disbelief and elation the application was successful. The MegaGrant funding arrived and that “much larger project” is now well and truly in production. For now, this is a solo project and I’ve streamed the entire process live on Twitch every weekend. Below is my first teaser from the movie, along with a more recent process vid on how I’m integrating my 2D animation into Unreal.

A year ago I was naively certain that I’d need to hire someone to build me some custom 2D integration tools for Unreal. But as I learned more I was amazed to discover that the tools are all there; I just needed to acquaint myself with them! Now that I’ve figured out my process, it’s a matter of getting faster at it. Apart from the 2D 3D integration, I still have a lot to learn about lighting and postprocess, but things are coming together very nicely. Thank you Epic and the Unreal Community for the fantastic support.

Interesting, nice work and congrats on the dev grant! Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. =)

Best of luck with this. I saw the videos on Twitter yesterday and was pretty impressed.

Thanks guys. For me the big unknown right now is when I introduce the antagonist, which is basically one giant VFX creature. How I might get Niagara and/or Houdini sims interacting with the 2D characters is going to be a challenge but I’ll post updates here and on my blog, as well as the regular live streams. Cheers!