The video game Fortnite has players of various ages glued to their screens.
The video game Fortnite has players of various ages glued to their screens.
The video game was developed by Epic Games and People Can Fly. It is a co-op survival game, where a global storm results in massive disappearances of humans – and the appearance of zombie creatures that seem set on annihilating the remaining humans. Players band together to scavenge items, build structures, craft weapons, and fight the invading monsters as they embark on missions. Epic has described the game as a cross between the ultra-popular Minecraft construction game and
Left 4 Dead.
Fortnite's aesthetic is also different, leaning toward the cartoony rather than the realistic. To pique player interest, Epic needed a trailer that would highlight the look and feel of the game.
For Fortnite's cinematic trailer, artists leveraged Unreal Engine's real-time volumetric rendering tools to create seamless special effects that integrated perfectly with the action. Storm clouds and enemy deaths were generated in real time using a combination of character-based volumes, fluid simulations, and virtual reality painting.
In this video, Epic details its real-time pipeline it devised for a faster workflow.