By leveraging the fast real-time production workflows that Ergin describes, the team was able to complete the project in just a few weeks, as close as possible to the scheduled go-live date.That ability to deliver on a short time frame is key when you’re working with a superstar like Mahomes. Put simply, the bigger the star, the less time you have with them. “We had a tight turnaround due to Mahomes’ schedule,” explains Flores. “Unreal Engine was essentially the solve. It let us create the sets in no time at all. Ordinarily, we’d have to source local set builders, or spend a fortune shipping stuff in. We were able to build the rooms virtually and pull them up on location with no hassles whatsoever, helping make the entire process more efficient.”

Kuke expands on this, elaborating that the team actually only had one day to shoot and minimal time to prepare beforehand. “Unreal Engine backgrounds were created over the course of a week, but until you are on set, matching the background to the real-life foreground props, seeing how a particular environment works with the talent—those are all educated guesses.”

3D engines on film sets

Once on set, the team could instantaneously tweak and adjust the visuals in real time. This enabled them to perfectly match up the live action, physical props, and CG environment there and then. Effectively, ‘post’ becomes ‘pre’. “That ability to make changes in real time, to make all these elements, real or CG, fit convincingly together—that is the winning combination when time is short,” says Kuke.

The Robot Company is a relative newcomer to Unreal Engine, but the team had wanted to work with the technology for some time. “We were most excited by the flexibility it offers for getting more out of your shoot day, and the freedom to build truly crazy sets that you can tweak in real time,” says Flores. “It definitely lived up to its reputation on all counts!”
 

Source: Unreal Engine Blog