As one of the best game development platforms for photorealistic work, Unreal Engine 5 has been put to use for all kinds of fan-made game remakes, from a 3D Super Mario World to Sonic Adventure. But the software isn't just for games. People are also using it for their own takes on big movie franchises thanks to its powerful capabilities for VFX.
One project to grab our attention is this short UE5 Godzilla cinematic from pro VFX artist and director Josh Toonen. Having worked on blockbusters like Star Wars IX and Godzilla vs Kong, he set out to apply some of the tricks he's learned in Epic Games' engine to prove that you don't need a multi-million dollar budgets to make Hollywood effects.
Josh, who has lots of tutorials on YouTube, says everything was built in Unreal Engine 5. He and his team animated Godzilla, lit and rendered each shot and created a mini Hong Kong for the kaiju to smash and destroy. The short was animated and rendered directly out of the engine and composited with Nuke.
With dramatic lighting and atmospheric effects and wonderfully smooth animation of Godzilla by Jon Abanheim, the piece is impressively polished (I'm not quite sure why there's a biplane in the middle of modern Hong Kong, but OK!).
You can get a glimpse into the work that went into the piece in the making of video below, which looks at everything from getting Godzilla into Unreal Engine 5 to animating crowds, building the environment and how to achieve photorealistic rain.
Fans are impressed by the realism, with many people commenting on social media that they thought the animation was from a game. That's leading many to wonder what a Monsterverse game could be like since there aren't many games with Godzilla other than mods. Alas, games have to run realtime and wouldn't be able to achieve this level of fidelity today.
I think making a full film like this would also be a challenge – the upcoming Rogue Trooper movie will be a good test of whether Unreal Engine can serve for the creation of entire movies.
For more inspiration, see our pieces on the evolution of the Godzilla design and the best movie monster character designs.
