With the evolving capabilities of real-time engines and technology, we are able to create and iterate much faster. Software like Unity and Unreal Engine were designed with games in mind, but have evolved to become powerful tools in the storytelling toolbox.

Real-time and the advent of Virtual Production has opened up the way I work as an Editor and allows me to leverage my expertise as an Animator. This frees me up to layout new scenes and create new shots, cameras and animations as needed when I’m working on an edit. Overall, it affords more creative exploration, collaboration and experimentation in less time.

I’ve spent the past 15 years working and creating with real-time technologies at Microsoft and Epic Games. While at Microsoft, I was part of an incubation group focused on creating compelling games and interactive experiences for Xbox Kinect and the mixed reality Hololens headset.

Most recently, I worked the past 4½ years at Epic Games in their Special Projects division. Our focus was to create demos and experiences that showcased the latest that Unreal Engine has to offer. Much of this work focused on cinematic narrative content and leveraged Unreal’s real-time capabilities to previsualize and realize stories.

Working in real-time environments with real-time characters, lighting, FX, etc. is like being on set and playing in the ultimate sandbox. My work at Epic was quite varied. I got to do a car commercial shoot in the Salt Flats of Utah, fly cameras through a sprawling Megacity and provide camera coverage and edit an for a fashion show. All of this work was done without ever leaving my home office.

For the recent, Fortnite: Big Bang finale I was tasked with creating an edit for the end section of the event featuring an in-game Eminem concert. I roughed out the initial edit with existing footage in traditional non-linear editing software, Adobe Premiere. Then I jumped into Unreal Engine’s Sequencer to layout the scene and created a variety of new shots and camera compositions to cover the performance. This footage became the basis of my edit.

Since this work was done in Engine, I was able to benefit from the ongoing work by the lighting and visual FX departments on a daily basis. Their work would inform the edit and vice versa. It’s fascinating to watch the final vision slowly form in front of you on a daily basis. A far cry from the weeks of waiting on shots to go through lighting and compositing when I was an Animator in film.

A real-time project is a constantly changing, evolving piece of art with many people involved. The entirety of The Matrix Awakens demo for PlayStation 5 and Xbox was conceived, created and completed during Covid with everyone working at home. Working in real-time allowed us to collaborate in new ways such as virtual motion capture shoots and holding live editorial sessions directly in Engine. This sort of iterative flexibility helped us realize the creative vision for the project in a more fluid way.

In order to fine-tune my editing workflows and processes for real-time over the years, I created a learning project disguised as an animated short.

I’ve used it to explore real-time editing, animation and layout for linear content creation and learn more about Unreal Engine.

Being able to experiment with a variety camera angles and compositions quickly helped me shape the edit. Adjusting animations and lighting in real-time was like being on a set and shooting a small scene with living action figures. The learnings from this project were used daily during my time at Microsoft and Epic Games, most notably during prototyping and virtual production shoots for various internal and external facing projects.

For more information on this project visit my blog where I share some of my learnings and give a behind the scenes peak into its creation.

Real-time technology is allowing us to experience worlds and characters in new and immersive ways.

I spent a majority my years at Microsoft as an Animation Lead and Editor working on Microsoft’s HoloLens. My work spanned from incubation and development all the way to production. There were many challenges in working with holograms and the emerging tech of this completely new development platform.

The teams I worked with had to be quick and nimble, sometimes starting from nothing and being on stage at E3 or Microsoft Build in mere months. It was a wild time of prototyping, learning and development all rolled into one.

The examples below are holographic captures from some of the demos and experiences I worked on.

Holograms + Minecraft

I had the opportunity to animate and rig characters for the HoloLens Minecraft stage demo and behind closed doors demos at E3.

Volvo + HoloLens

This project was part of an exclusive press event for Volvo and Microsoft. I animated the cars and timing on the sensor UI in Unity.

HoloLens + Giant Robotic Spider

An early version of the HoloLens game RoboRaid appeared on stage at E3 under the name "Project Xray". I was brought on to animate the finale of the presentation which involved a giant robotic spider boss breaking through the stage.

HoloLens + IOT = B15

To show to potential for HoloLens and IOT device communication, I animated B15. He is a robot that is part physical real world device and part holographic.

Dejarik recreation

I worked on many holographic prototypes and explorations during my 5 years on HoloLens. This was by far one of my favorite things to animate.

Holograms for Education

This was a stage demo at Microsoft's Build conference. It showcases examples and benefits of using holograms as a teaching tool allowing us to learn new things in new ways. I rigged and animated the heart.

Holographic showroom

These are clips from a demo showcased at the Cannes Lion International Festival of Creativity. It treated viewers to a unique way of demonstrating and advertising a product. I rigged and animated the watch, birds and sailboats.

Holographic diversions

These are a few clips from a holographic animated short called "Trash" that I created with some very passionate co-workers. I rigged an animated the 3 minute plus vignette. It was co-created and co-directed with the very talented Alex Laurant.