Discover Milk VFX’s Unreal Engine pipeline for Surviving Earth
Click the image above to watch Milk VFX’s main breakdown reel for Surviving Earth on Vimeo. You can see a second reel, focusing on the Unreal Engine pipeline for the series.
Milk VFX has shared not one, but two, eye-catching VFX breakdown reels for natural (pre)history documentary series Surviving Earth.
The main reel shows many of the extinct creatures that the studio recreated in CG, while the second, posted on LinkedIn, focuses on its Unreal Engine pipeline.
Recreating creatures from six different periods of prehistory in CG
Surviving Earth was co-produced by Loud Minds, whose founder, Tim Haines, created groundbreaking 1999 documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs, and it’s in the same vein.
The series, broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock, takes viewers to six different periods of prehistory, from the Late Ordovician, 444 million years ago, to the end of the most recent ice age – a mere 12,000 years ago – recreating both creatures and environments from each.
Over a two-year collaboration, Milk completed over 1,000 VFX shots, including 73 hero creature assets and more than 100 environments.
Click the image above to watch Milk VFX’s Unreal Engine breakdown reel on LinkedIn.
Pushing Unreal Engine workflow from previs to post
Although the studio used offline DCC software, including Houdini, for the work, it also made extensive use of Unreal Engine, creating 13 real-time environments inside the game engine.
Unreal Engine played a central role in Milk’s workflow, from previs through to post-production.
Key sequences like the Coral Forest, shown in the image above, were previsualised in Unreal, with selected assets evolving to final-shot quality.
Milk also developed a bespoke virtual production setup, pairing a miniature practical build with a digital backdrop to capture micro-perspective shots enhanced by real-time lighting.
“Surviving Earth escalated the entire Unreal Engine pipeline for us,” said VFX Supervisor He Sun. “We were using Unreal Engine from the beginning of the show, when the script was still in the writing stage [but] we also developed a unique approach – using Unreal Engine for finishing – which isn’t something that’s widely used or discussed in the industry.”
“Many of the larger environments you see in the show, including the seafloors, Carboniferous forests and ice worlds, were generated using Unreal Engine. Without that technology in place, much of this work would have been quite ambitious for this type of production.”
Studio: Milk VFX
Project: Surviving Earth
Artist credits: On IMDb
Other technical info: On Milk VFX’s website and LinkedIn account
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