While Unity is typically associated with game development, one director sought to walk the path less trodden. With Unity 2017’s heightened graphics power and visual sequencing tool (Timeline), Neill Blomkamp saw a niche for film-making. ADAM: The Mirror and ADAM: The Prophet are sequels to the 2016 short-film ADAM, and premiered during the Unite Austin Keynote.
Blomkamp, who is the founder of experimental indie studio OATS, originally created ADAM to showcase Unity’s technical innovations. The film went on to win a Webby Award, and the release of its sequel (delivered in two installments) will allow viewers to appreciate the evolution of Unity technologies:
“Ever since I started making films I’ve dreamed of a virtual sandbox that would let me build, shoot and edit photorealistic worlds all in one place. Today that dream came true thanks to the power of Unity 2017…The fact that we could achieve near photorealistic visuals at half of average time of our production cycles is astounding. The future is here and I can’t wait to see what our fans think.”
To create lifelike animation, OATS crafted a facial performance capture technique that streams 30 scanned heads per second with no requirement for rigs or morph targets. After shooting over 35,000 photos of props and environments, OATS then imported the images to Unity using the delighting tool, streamlining the creation process by skipping over the production of high-res models. Unity’s Timeline feature was the final step in ensuring photorealistic graphics. It both enabled OATS to put together scenes without additional programming, and made it possible for up to 20 artists to collaborate on the same shot at once.
ADAM: The Mirror continues where ADAM left off. It also introduces audiences to an unnamed villain.
Unity 2017.2 is out today.
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