Framestore's FUSE project to make film entirely in Unreal

Framestore has anounced the Framestore Unreal Shot Engine (FUSE) project, which aims to create a film entirely using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.

Using a new VFX pipeline built around the technology, the project aims to progress from earliest concept through to final pixel using only the large-scale pipeline. 

Directed by Oscar-winning chief creative officer Tim Webber, the film will also allow Framestore to create, stress-test and develop features which will feed back into Epic’s Unreal Engine, contributing to the wider VFX and engine communities as they adopt the technology. 

It will build on Framestore’s previous work in real-time VR and AR activations and interactive theme park attractions, as well as projects that utilise virtual production techniques for film, episodic and advertising projects.

VFX supervisor and project lead, Theo Jones, said: “FUSE will bring into focus how real-time technology can be rolled out further into a pipeline that will create a much more efficient way of working, not just for us, but the whole industry. This is an endeavour that’s all about being able to scale across the entire business, not just niche divisions or use cases.”

Director Webber added: “The notion of taking a project from the earliest stages of design, previs, scouting and virtual camera through to completion is one that I’ve thought was important for years now. And this project is one in which we intend to re-design the whole creative process of filmmaking from script to final delivery, as we take advantage of the interactivity and flexibility of real-time in Unreal.”