Awhi means to embrace and cherish.
‘Awhi’ is an animated cinematic produced in Unreal Engine 4. It follows Bruno, an aging man who wants closure. He returns to his small hometown only to find that it is not as it once was, the buildings are dilapidated, his childhood friend Awhi has passed away and automation has taken over his pub.
This project was created by myself and Oli Bixley.
Awhi intends to subvert the notion of a nostalgic narrative and portray a sense of closure for rural communities facing hardship due to automation. Using real-time rendering technology, the hope is that speeding up the creative pipeline for our animated cinematic would create a higher quality project.
Real-time virtual production allowed us to work at home and create a cinematic that was not stifled by COVID-19. Inspired by game developments quick, iterative nature our methodology of practice-based research aided us in not getting stuck technically, creatively, or mentally.
With Unreal Engine 5 being released soon, the variety of quality tools put into the hands of students is only going to increase. This opens the opportunity to develop amazing work and because of what we have accomplished, we see our future work and studies going in the direction of real-time technology.
