Mixing Unreal Engine 5 and DaVinci Resolve - how new film Babiru is changing animation

Babiru is an action feature film concept created using Unreal Engine alongside DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio. The production, a trailer that's acting as a proof of concept, centres around the remnants of Babiru, a megalopolis populated by A.I. robots. The conceptual short pitches the idea, what happens when humanity is gone and the machines are left alone, to live on?

The remaining AI continue to play out their final programming conceived by their long-dead human masters, but a chance discovery of a lost artefact by two delivery AI changes the balance, and triggers a war for the future of Babiru.

The concept is the brainchild of Nguyen-Anh Nguyen, a filmmaker based in Montreal. The idea actually originated a number of years before it finally started to take shape in 2017, when Nguyen met with two concept artists, Nivanh Chanthara and Fred Rambaud. Together, they pitched the idea as a live-action film before realising something of this scale would be impossible to pull off in the traditional way.

The team then turned their sights to alternative ways of filmmaking, including using real-time engines to generate visuals. They began seriously exploring using Unreal Engine. Nguyen stated that, “Unreal Engine was still in its early stages as a serious filmmaking tool, but I could see its potential.” After numerous rejections from traditional financiers – both public and private – they took a leap and applied for the Epic MegaGrant, a program ran by Epic Games for funding projects from the Unreal Engine community.

With the grant application progressing, the pandemic hit. All of Nguyen’s live-action projects were cancelled within a week but thankfully, “Epic came through with the grant to create Babiru. So honestly, without it, the project might never have existed, or maybe it would’ve been a very different project, made years down the line with fewer resources and less ambition,” says Nguyen.

The grant allowed the team to collaborate with world-class artists, pushing the boundaries of what was possible. Babiru challenges traditional filmmaking techniques and demonstrates what is possible with emerging technologies. I had the pleasure of catching up with Nguyen to hear firsthand how the project unfolded and the importance of next-gen technologies in bringing the project to fruition.

Unreal Engine - the future is real-time

Without Unreal Engine, Babiru would not have been possible. Nguyen considered Unity as an option but landed on Unreal Engine because of its all-in-one solution. Being able to handle pre-viz, animation, lighting, shot acquisition, and even final pixel all in the same software is a big win for any filmmaker. This workflow is becoming increasingly commonplace but was groundbreaking at the time. (This is not the first time we've heard from artists that Unreal is the future of filmmaking.)

Nguyen found there to be a lot more support from the community with guides, forums, and videos that helped them get started quickly. He also loved “the diversity and quality of content being made in Unreal” and was instantly drawn in. Traditional digital content creators can have steeper learning curves and the fact that they don’t offer real-time results is something that goes against products like Autodesk 3ds Max.

Unreal Engine is also free, which for indie filmmakers is one of the biggest reasons to use it. Nguyen told me that he’s “always enjoyed testing new technology and pushing boundaries.” He continues, “I could use it to realise creative ideas that might not be possible in a more traditional setup.”

Using DaVInci Resolve and Fusion

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Unreal Engine is fantastic at generating source imagery and viewing results in real time, enabling on the fly changes and the kind of happy accidents traditional filmmakers love. To achieve the cinematic visual design the team wanted, they made use of post-production software to enhance the Unreal Engine output. For this, Nguyen turned to Blackmagic and more specifically to DaVinci Resolve and Fusion. Having used it since he graduated from film school, he’s watched it grow from an underdog to becoming the industry standard in post-production. (Read our other creatives are turning to DaVinci Resolve.)

Anyone who has watched the Babiru trailer (or the exclusive short at the top of this page) can see that it has an incredibly strong visual identity. I love the unified colour palette and use of contrasting colours. The adoption of negative space with light and dark areas is another clear grading technique to direct the viewer’s eyes. I was interested to know how this look evolved so I asked Nguyen to unpack it further.

Nguyen says: “When I was conceptualising Babiru, I kept picturing something like City of God meets District 9. I wanted the film to feel gritty, sun-drenched, and raw – like a crumbling Brazilian favela with an entire civilisation’s collapse layered on top of it.”

He continues, “I imagined a post-apocalyptic world where AI have become the new inhabitants. That led our colourists to a colour palette that was both desaturated and vibrant in parts, balancing a sense of decay with the energy of this AI-populated world.”

In my opinion, they have absolutely nailed it but it didn’t come without its challenges. The output from Unreal Engine looked too clean, something Nguyen describes as a "video game sheen." This is common with CG animation, but it doesn’t lend itself to portraying a world that is dirty, lived-in, and real. Enter DaVinci Resolve.

They worked to darken the overall picture, adding grain and texture and breathing life into the imagery. By manipulating the gamma and contrast, they brought out textures and gave the film a much more grounded, cinematic feel.

Alongside Resolve, the team also utilised Blackmagic Fusion. It is a software package that Nguyen is familiar with, having first used it on his 2017 short film, Hyperlight. He speaks very positively of “its tight integration with DaVinci Resolve.” He goes on, “We were able to finish and comp some shots very quickly toward the end of post-production without needing to switch to another program or bring in a third-party artist.”

More specifically, the team was able to easily add lens reflections and imperfections in the shot to further push the realism. This could be done quickly with many iterations until it felt just right.

Working as a team

Any project of this scale requires a team of people to unite together in pursuit of a common goal. It shouldn’t be underestimated how important technology is in bringing people together to work both effectively and efficiently.

For Babiru, Nguyen utilised Perforce to manage all the Unreal Engine assets, levels, and shots, making sure that everything was backed up and not overwritten. At the height of the project, there were a whopping 45 international artists working simultaneously, and there wasn’t much room for error.

Before you think that these projects always run super smoothly, think again. Part way through the project, the team experienced a devastating blow where they lost three weeks worth of work due to a level mishap. Many projects wouldn’t have survived this but the Babiru team rallied and quickly got back on track.

The future of filmmaking

The process of making films is changing before our very eyes. This was brought home to me when I interviewed director Freddy Chávez Olmos about his horror film BYE-BYE. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask Nguyen about his views on it all.

He said that, “Now, with AI and machine learning influencing content creation, we’re only just beginning to see the real impact. I think we’re going to see a huge fragmentation of the industry. On one hand, you’ll have a wave of new talent creating films and content using these accessible tools in ways we’ve never seen before, using technology that was once reserved for big-budget studios. And on the other hand, you’ll have traditional, larger productions that require more resources but still hold onto those established, long-form methods.”

The realisation of Babiru shows that we’re at a point in time where technology is enabling a new generation of creators to do things that were unthinkable a few years ago and explore new, hybrid forms of storytelling.

Traditional digital content creators are dead, long live real-time engines (for more, read our guide to the best game development software). It might be overstated but I believe time will prove its truth. If you want to know what the future of filmmaking is going to look like, keep your eye on visionary directors such as Olmos and Nguyen.

Visit the Second Tomorrow Studios website for the latest on Babiru. If you want to start creating for yourself, read our guide to the best software for animation. You may need to upgrade to one of the best laptops for animation.