Steampowered Movies - Valve provide technology for new film by "9" director Shane Acker

[ríomhaire]

Today DEEP, a new animated film based in a post-apocalyptic Earth where humanity has moved underwater to stay alive, was announced. It is being directed by Shane Acker, who previously worked on the Tim Burton produced 9, and is being animated by the Ireland-based Brown Bag Films, who previously made the Oscar nominated short films Give Up Yer Aul Sins and Granny O'Grimm. The story revolves around the crew of a nuclear submarine, the Norwood, as they try to discover the secrets of the Wayfarers.

The DEEP team have been provided tools based off Valve's Source engine, which has powered all of Valve's games since 2004. The Source engine is allowing Brown Bag much more flexible cinematography than traditional computer-animation methods and allows for a much simpler character animation process while allowing them to render in real time. This brings them massive savings in time and money compared to traditional animation processes.

Because Source is primarily a game engine the assets for the film can be easily translated into a video game format and the team are already working on a level to be distributed via Steam, perhaps something like the Super 8 teaser featured in Portal 2? User-created content also features in the plans for the video game side of the DEEP universe.

One of the film's producers, Gregory R. Little has said:

The collaboration with Valve has been a wonderful experience for all of us. The opportunity to produce it in this groundbreaking way gives us great creative freedom and allows us to leverage new distribution channels and platforms.

Source: Market Watch.

 

[Stigmata]

Ballin'. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

[Edeslash]

2 deep 4 me

 

[Dekstar]

Whuh? As much as I love Valve and the Source engine, one of its main functions is to be playable on older hardware, with the trade-off being slightly lower graphical functionality.

I'm just wondering why DEEP didn't go for something like the Unreal Engine 4, the tech of which is already well established in cinematic trailers for the engine (e.g. the lava-castle tech demo). Sure, the Source engine has the 'Meet The...' videos, but you'll be pushing it to say the two are on par.

Even basic effects like bokeh on lights don't seem to be present in Source-engine games (correct me if I'm wrong in saying they aren't possible in the engine though), yet are readily available on an engine geared towards high-end cinematic effects.

EDIT: Cinematic effects in the Unreal 4 engine:

EDIT2: The sheer ease surrounding UE4. IIRC, people who use Source's editors tended to be a little against it. I remember PiMuRho being pretty anti-source for a lot of things:

 

[BrimStone04]

Maybe the art style of their "movie" fits more into what the source engine does. I'm just spit balling here.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

They may of had access to the Source Filmmaker, which should be releasing anytime now along with Meet the Pyro.

Given it has been about 5-6 years since anyone has seen the filmmaker, its possible they have made major strides in the underlying technologies, and who knows, creating custom animation in choreography scenes in the new Hammer editor, may use the same technology.

 

[Lobster]

I dare say the choice was only partially to do with the engine and much to do with the kind of deal they could broker with Valve. Its quite possible that Valve offered a free (or at least cheap) commercial license for the chance to experiment with movie distribution via Steam. I could see that being the case anyway.

Its also kinda silly suggesting UE4 as an alternative right now. The engine has yet to be used in a released game and the demonstration above was only publicly shown yesterday. It's not like any low budget developer can just stroll up to Epic and get a license just yet.

 

[MFL]

I for one would love to have my movie library on Steam instead of on the shelf.

 

[-smash-]

Dekstar, they explained why they chose Source. The filmmaker tools are where Source really excels compared to other developers.

Valve has provided the "DEEP" team with new tools and technologies based on the developer's Source game engine. The tools enable flexible cinematography and editing, a simplified character animation process and economical lighting, sound and visual effects. Render time is cut to nearly nil, enabling rapid revisions to animation, which brings dramatic savings in time and money over traditional production.

On top of all of that, this partnership seals the deal for Steam distribution of their content.