Director Robert Petrie leads Preymaker’s cloud-based team of 30 artists and animators on a seven-minute family friendly sci-fi adventure made in real-time with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.

Robert Petrie: “BLUE was without a doubt the most challenging project I’ve been involved in, but it’s also the proudest I’ve ever been of anything I’ve worked on in the 22 years of being in this industry.

“As developed, BLUE is currently presented as a short film. However, by leveraging all of the BLUE assets in Unreal Engine, it can become a Metaverse experience, a game, an immersive VR world, and a live animation series – which is the most exciting thing of it all.

“The advantages of working in-engine included lighting and layout capabilities with the set-building aspect. The ability to select objects or lights and move them around on the fly was key.”

“BLUE was created over the course of eight consolidated months by a team of animators, modelers, FX, and Unreal Engine artists. Of the five Unreal artists, three of them lit and laid out 200+ shots.

“The team decided there would be no compositing, which proved crucial to the final look of BLUE. By removing the compositing step, Preymaker was able to dedicate more time to crafting the entire look of the film in-engine. This allowed the artists to make fundamental creative decisions all the way up to the final delivery.”

BLUE most recently picked up awards from London International Web & Shorts Film Festival, Venice Shorts, Sweden Film Awards and Independent Shorts.
 

 
Production: Preymaker
Director: Robert Petrie
EP: Angus Kneale, Melanie Wickham, Verity Grantham
Makers: Ruben Vandebroek, Tim Argall, Jabulani Simelane, Bradley Stilwell, Katie Schiffer, Rune Månsson, Pieter Uitenweerde, Imraan Zaindeen, Kwabena Sarfo, André de Villiers, Brandon Phillis, Depesh Cara, Hassan Taimur, Zolna Minik, Thomas du Plessis, Felipe Hansen, Greg Murray, Casey Herrick, Bridgette Doran, Brett Lambright, Fabio Piparo, Christian Reyes, Alan McSeveney, Jinell Webb, Ben Weaver, Eider Astigarraga, Paul Liaw, Syd Fini, Jongmoon Woo, Gabriela Brandes

Special Thanks:
Alistair Thompson & Rob Di Figlia – Epic Games
Chinwe Chong – Edit/Conceptual Edit – Consulate
Michelle Curran – Executive Producer – Ambr Music
Mike Perri – Senior Producer – Ambr Music
Alan Hankers – Composer – Ambr Music
Daniel Nolan – Sound Designer – Ambr Music
5.1 Mix Audio Post – Heard City
Zeki Kartal – Rigger – Hotspring
Kim Edwards – Advisor