by Armando Burgos
Set inside a medieval monastery complex, Codex of Beasts is an animated short film about a brave little girl, a tenacious stoat, and an irksome skylark who team up to fight a dangerous basilisk that has turned the girl’s parents and other guests touring the place into stone.
The basilisk wants to dominate all the creatures who have come to life from a medieval manuscript, to rule the monastery complex and spread terror beyond its walls. While helping her animal friends, the little girl tries to find a way to turn her parents and the other people back into human form.
The story happens in the restricted confines of a monastery complex, the main cloister, a monk’s cell with garden, and hybrid 3D-2D scenes inspired by the medieval manuscript illuminations of beasts, also known as a bestiary.
The film uses Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering capabilities and animation tools, such as the sequencer tool, control rig and modular rig, skeletal mesh editor, motion trails, tweens, and the curve editor.
All the 3D assets for the film are modeled and sculpted in Blender and exported to Unreal Engine.
Codex of Beasts is still in production.
Generative AI is not used in any part of this film, from conceptualization, writing, creation of assets, to production and post-production.