by Armando Burgos
Codex of Beasts is an animated short film about a brave little girl who meets a tenacious stoat and an irksome skylark inside a monastery complex. Together they fight a dangerous basilisk in order to rescue her loved ones and bring order inside a magical illuminated manuscript.
The film uses Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering capabilities and animation tools, such as the new 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. Here are test shots using some preliminary models and other assets.
Rigging and animations are done in Unreal Engine. Below are screenshots of initial tests made on the Control Rig and Modular Rig of the main character. The facial parts are not rigged yet.
Control Rig and Modular Rig
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.