VFX supe and director Adam Valdez on the new tech in his UE5 short ‘Brave Creatures’

April 3, 2023

The short utilized the new Path Tracer feature in Unreal Engine.

This week on the befores & afters podcast, we chat to filmmaker Adam Valdez about his short film made with Unreal Engine, Brave Creatures.

befores & afters readers will know Adam as a VFX supe on such films as The Jungle Book and The Lion King. He was also a director on Prehistoric Planet.

With Brave Creatures, Valdez received an Epic MegaGrant to create a short all about a magic forest world where a young fairy tries to prevent a looming war.

You’ll hear how Unreal Engine 5 was used, along with Unreal’s new rendering mode called Path Tracer for photo-real lighting. Other tools relied upon included Megascans and MetaHuman rigs.

It’s a really fun chat which dives into more of the staging and shot production work as well, plus the fantastic build and animation work by MPC.

Watch the film here.

Check out the podcast below, and some breakdowns of the work, including using the iPad as a virtual camera, a progression on the main character, and Epic’s overview video of the short.

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