Earlier this year, 3Lateral and Epic Games opened their new facilities in the Science and Technology Park in Novi Sad to stimulate the development of creative ideas and gather local creators in one community place. Their first educational program, Unreal Fellowship: Storytelling, drew 15 local 3D artists with extensive experience in video games, film, fashion, advertising, and other creative fields.
After five weeks of intensive training that included frequent lectures, practical work, professional motion capture sessions, and experimentation with various tools from the Unreal Engine system, the Fellows produced 15 projects based on their original scripts. They also used MetaHuman Animator to tell their compelling stories, making this a unique opportunity for them to test its capabilities before others since the tool was officially released only a few days after the program ended.
Epic Games has just published an official sizzle reel with all their cinematics on the Unreal Engine channel. Below, you can see the uncut versions of several of these projects, all created by artists from local game dev studios, mostly SGA members.
Applications for the next iteration of Unreal Fellowship Storytelling (which kicks off by the end of September) are open until August 13. Program and competition details are listed on the Epic Games Novi Sad Artstation page.
Check out these finished cinematics:
Igor Rajković – Cloudburst: The Awakening
During the program, Igor Rajković from Phobos created the animated prequel for Cloudburst: The Awakening, a game that is currently being developed by his team.
Ivan Stanković – GAIA
Ivan Stanković, CTO and co-founder of Demago Studio, also created a cinematic that corresponds to the stories from the same universe in which all their games take place.
Bogdan Vukomanović – Circle
Original story by Bogdan Vukomanović, painter and art director at the game dev studio Stick and Rope.
Jovan Dudić – Darkness
Jovan Dudić, technical director at ILBE Studios, wrote the story together with his colleague Jelena Pranić.
Ognjen Petrović – 3327
The author of the short noir crime story with a simple but effective style is Ognjen Petrović, Director / Editor / Previs Artist from Bunker VFX.
Nikola Jovanović – Hope
Another artist who proved himself as a movie director is Nikola Jovanović, Lead 3D Artist from Onyx Studio. He was inspired by the retro SF style.
Petar Jovović – Once Upon a Time in UE
Petar Jovović, founder and CEO of Crater Studio, joined the Fellowship after decades-long experience in VFX. Yet, it was during the program that he first took a director’s chair.
