Quixel Guide: Creating Photoreal Cinematics in UE4

The Quixel team shared an in-depth tutorial goes through the entire production process for Rebirth, a stunning cinematic made using Unreal Engine 4 and Megascans. Don’t forget to read our interview with the team behind the project here.

“Beyond its visual process, Rebirth serves as a benchmark and kickstarter for virtual production workflows.”

Quixel’s photorealistic cinematic short was originally revealed during Epic’s “State of Unreal” GDC opening session, featuring an unprecedented level of photorealistic features built with Unreal Engine 4.21. The short was created by three artists who spent a month in ice-cold rain and thunderstorms scanning locales in Iceland to get over 1,000 scans and capture a wide range of eco-regions and natural environments to feature in the short.

The result is “Rebirth,” a 1:45 real-time cinematic set in a futuristic alien landscape. Megascans provided standardized content from the get-go, which simplified production by eliminating the need to build assets from scratch. The high fidelity of the physically-based scans delivers results that are remarkably photorealistic.

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