PILGRIMAGE Episode 1: "Alpine Paradise" | Mass Effect Fan Series | UE5

[@Knight-In-Green]

I'm gonna be honest... I haven't seen anything done with Mass Effect besides porn or musical fan edits. And let's not forget Gamerpoop... This is really good and a welcome surprise! Now all Mass Effect needs is a remarkable catalogue of fan-made content to rival the 40K fandom. There's some way to go...

[@jonathansud]

maybe one day! it's too lore-rich of a universe to let slip away. If BioWare doesn't want to maintain it, then I happily volunteer

[@Knight-In-Green]

@@jonathansud Were I not so damned lazy I would airdrop you a life's supply of crunchy cookies for your valiant effort! Here's to hoping Bioware doesn't pull a GW and goes scorched earth on fan content one day. And here's to hoping you continue to grace us all with this content for years to come!

[@jonathansud]

Idk what you meant by GW, but thank you! If you ever do get those cookies, I do prefer chewy :)

[@DarkSamael55]

@@jonathansud GW (Games Workshop) that almost killed their fanbase by either sending lawsuit treats to fan animation creators or buying them to stop "competition". Keep doing this! This is high quality stuff! Last time I remember something good was made about mass effect was in 2013 I would chew those cookies and feed you like a mother bird to keep you going

[@jonathansud]

Nice and intimate-ooh la la

[@sizablekoala6879]

This is the kind of fan stuff I love to see. Original characters to tell your own stories set in this world. The Mass Effect setting was made for more than just Shepard and crew. I'd live to see more of this!

[@jonathansud]

I agree. Too much lore and depth! Thank you for watching :)

[@StarEnterprise72]

​@jonathansud I would love to start animations about mass effect. Do you have any tips? I'm completely new to the niche (let's say I had a mid range gaming laptop)

[@MphasieMusic]

I love that Elcor praising the dog

[@porpus99]

This has options of going multiple directions. Given the timeline of Cerberus taking Omega, that puts this at 2186. Depending on when, the Reaper invasion is about to begin as both happened in the same year. Not really much about Elysium was mentioned during the events of ME3. Blank slate. The Quarians would also be recalling all their forces for the attack on the Geth. So, things are going to become very chaotic very quickly if this is within the time frame of the Reaper invasion.

[@jonathansud]

indeed :)

[@the_corvid97]

Correction: Reaper Invasion happens in 2186, 2178 is when the assault on Torfan happens.

[@porpus99]

@@the_corvid97 No, I just realized where i went wrong. Was replaying ME3 and was doing the Leviathan DLC. Had just completed the Dr Garnom part and the Asari revealed they thought it was "2176". Was still fresh in my mind and I typed the wrong date.

[@lunacresentmoon]

This is a master piece ,so glad the fandom for this game is still strong after all these years. mass effect really is an amazing universe with so much potential to tell so many amazing stories

[@jonathansud]

this franchise is near and dear. I'm beyond happy to hear you loved it

[@nostalgiccollector89]

No gun fire, no space ships…minimal action at best…AND YET, this was AMAZING. It felt like the games. You NAILED the world building. The dialogue and interactions between the characters, the acting…SUPERB. I hope you plan to do more! WOW 🤩

[@jonathansud]

Those 20-somethin playthroughs finally paid off , lmao. Thank you!

[@natomiltary4573]

the voice actors did awesome! The human animations terrify me tho xd

[@VEZOK54]

Man, I love this so much. We rarely get into the Quarian perspective in ME media, and it’s nice to see a story around a member of them that doesn’t involve grave galactic stakes. Can’t wait for more!

[@jonathansud]

They’re too rich in culture to limit with “geth this” and “geth that”. Thank you for checking it out!

[@rex41e]

This was in my Watch Later after it was recommended. I was sceptical at first, but after the first minute, I was sold. The voice acting is great, and it feels like Mass Effect. I liked and Subbed it.

[@jonathansud]

Thank you for giving it a chance!

[@Narcrotic]

"The food was ass" lmao

[@jillzie4321]

Scrolling Reddit Mass Effect, my morning coffee usual, to kill some time. Saw this linked. Thought, I don’t have time but will start it and get back to it when I have 17 minutes. Turns out I made the time and watched the entire thing. Well done. VA was fantastic as well. Great job everyone. Keep it up! Hope this gets all the love it deserves. Mass Effect Fandom is seriously the best.

[@jonathansud]

thank you so much, I hope it paired well w/ the coffee!

[@FilmCritictheone]

Uncanny faces but I can't say much else negative. I am happy about Mass effect getting some animation and we'll be watching your career with great interest.

[@jonathansud]

I’ll see what I can do, thank you!

[@CloakedOnyxGaming]

​@@jonathansud Vtubers use multiple types of Live Facial tracking software. The best one I know of is the iPhone ARKit. I believe it can be connected to UE5 MetaHuman.

[@CloakedOnyxGaming]

​@@jonathansud As for body motion, you could use the Xbox One Kinect camera and a green screen to record all the movements to make custom animations. There is a newer version of that camera but it's not cheap and kinda hard to find.

[@dominikkowol2535]

The last scene man... 10/10

[@jonathansud]

That's actually a huge relief-thought some of the camerawork was risky. Thank you!

[@andrews05]

Really great job! Voice acting and dialogue felt true to Mass Effect. We don't get enough Mass Effect fan film's so this was nice to see.

[@jonathansud]

That means more than you realize, thank you!

[@anthonyfanchin1144]

Big Mass Effect fan here. This is by far the best fan series I’ve ever seen. We need more stuff like this. Stories outside the main story with Commander Shepard. This universe has so many stories we’ve missed or we don’t know about.

[@jonathansud]

I agree, it’s nice to have a bucket list of in-lore topics/events to tackle soon!

[@MaxxPeerson023]

Leena is catching strays left and right, leave my poor girl alone 😭🤲

[@Tom-H1]

Theres obviously some rough spots, but I really like this. It's so amazing to see a mass effect original story

[@frederickwinters4109]

This was everything i didn’t know I needed until I hit play. Thanks but please keep the content coming. It’s great!

[@jonathansud]

i gotchu homie , thank you!

[@dropkickpherby6994]

The setting, the species specific audio quirks, the *characters* Love the potential this has!

[@chantelleRVO]

Let's goooooo! So happy to see everyone's hard work come to fruition. Thanks for working on this Sud and bringing us all together :)

[@BaronSitzkrieg]

Glad to be apart of this project! REYNOLDS FOR LIFE

[@jonathansud]

hell of a performance 🙌🏽

[@8BlackBart8]

This is really cool. I'm doing a Mass Effect 5e campaign in Elysium just before the Skyllian Blitz so this is really interesting. Also, whoever voice acted for the Quarian Lana did an incredible job! Please keep this up!

[@TheWarleader]

This is some of the best mass effect content I've seen in a hot minute! With Dragon Age finally coming back (and actually looking really good) maybe Mass Effect will follow suit! Hopefully fan made content like this continues to come so it stays alive. Amazing work on this, it was fantastic!

[@chadrye8088]

This was good. Lena is best girl, well that's actually Tali Zorah but i'll let Lena come in second. Evel is stacked, and thick. Holy damn. Thought she was in her Matriarch phase. Eager to see more. It's been sometime since we have had some Mass Effect content, canon or not. My commander Shepard approves.

[@YorkJonhson]

This was great, I've always wanted to see more fan-series like this set in the Mass Effect universe. The setting has so much potential for more small-scale stories, but we only have a handful of things outside of the games exploring it. Glad to see a Quarian protagonist as the focal point as well. I already feel for Lena and think her voice actress did a strong job. The Elcor interactions were fun, and I like that the Blue Suns have distinct personalities between them. Hope that this series continues, I'd like to see where it goes.

[@jonathansud]

It’ll continue. N7 festivities coming up-might just have to share somethin, who knows. Thank you for the kind words 🙏🏼

[@amihaggett9301]

The lighting and framing in the alleyway during the food sharing scene was excellent. I loved that little moment. Well done, looking forward to more, thank you for sharing this passion project with us.

[@jonathansud]

specifics like this make me melt, thank you so much

[@Taldaris]

The life and struggles of a quarian had me more invested than most shows on TV today. There's some getting used to be done with those UE5 human faces, but otherwise, this is great! Great job on the voices by everyone! Get Lena on the Normandy, she deserves better, or in some mod like EGM! :)

[@jonathansud]

I really need to make time and try EGM. Thank you for the kind words! I’m experimenting with what I can feasibly do for humans :)

[@Taldaris]

For a more extended ME3 experience, definitely try it, along with some other mods! Here's to hoping Lena gets to see her homeworld, or at least get better treatment! Keelah se'lai. :)

[@fref7938]

This is truly a diamond in the rough, I would say to maybe try and make the human animations or some general anims a bit smoother, but the rest is A-ok to me at least. (sometimes I wish the captions worked a bit better, but skill issue lol) I do hope you continue this story and remain faithful to the source material as you have done well with. This is one of my favorite games ever to date, the third installation probably has its ups and downs, along with the second... but it was still a major blast and it is a great source of inspiration... I'll never forget the main antagonists of the series, the Reapers were some of the best sort of threats in science fiction for me. My favorite species are the more non-humanoid ones (with a few exceptions) like the Hanar and Elcor, I feel aliens should be more "alien" though that's just me lol. Once again, this was some damn impressive work and made Mass Effect feel all the more rich to me, the little touches of some TV and Lena helping out someone else having it rough as well is a great touch and makes it feel more alive.

[@jonathansud]

Mass Effect is near and dear to my heart. Thank you for the kind words--I'll always try to do right by fellow fans

[@darandomator4010]

Very well done. I appreciate that this must have taken quite a long while. Can't wait to see what else you make in this series.

[@angels2demonsgaming775]

I honestly like mass effect like a lot it’s my favorite Sci-Fi universe and I’m glad you made a fan made film ima share this all over cause like it’s a really really good made film 😊

[@jonathansud]

Thank you 🙏🏼 it’s my favorite as well :)

[@texasrick7327]

Wow this was really good. Makes me wanna see more Mass Effect content come out that's a bit smaller scale than the mainline games. Great stuff!

[@jaredragland4707]

Elvis is the best name for an elcor ever written, by a mass effect jump.

[@latchkeysystem]

Thank you for all your hard work on this machinima! I am interested to see the story you spin. A difficult pilgrimage for Lena'Jan nar Anya, strained human/non-human politics on Elysium, heightened merc activity...who will swoop in and help? A virtuous Turian maybe? Or someone completely unexpected? Well, here's to the next chapter. -🌱

[@robh5695]

Well done! I really enjoyed that. Congrats to you and the cast, Sud! Looking forward to more. 👏

[@blainej1980]

Thanks for bringing new life into this classic story! Looking forward to seeing more!

[@EndThusIAm]

While the human animation is a little scary, a much more grounded story in the Mass Effect universe is a welcomed surprise. Looking forward to Chapter 2! Solid voice work too!

[@jonathansud]

thank you for your honesty!

[@EndThusIAm]

@@jonathansud No problem, since you're not offended by it, why do you use what I'm guessing are custom models instead of human models from the game like you're using aliens? Is it to better test your skills in the field?

[@jonathansud]

@@EndThusIAm it's easy, faster, and more reliable to use MetaHumans in my workflow. This can be a very tedious process. Any avenue of practicality is a godsend, and I personally didn't notice too much of a visual disparity. when you say they look scary, what specifically do you mean? I'd hoped I reached a level of "acceptable" with the mocap'd face anims, but I might look for help if not

[@stuart4341]

i was expecting this to be garbage, I was pIeasantIy suprised, thanks for making this

[@Geohillierneo]

As an up and coming voice artist, who's done okay in the last year, my ultimate dream has been to appear in a Mass Effect game, I'd have loved to have been a part of this! I do a mean Krogan or Salarian voice 😭 Great job btw 👏 I love the level of detail such as the slight doubling/delay to Turian voices and the in-helmet sounds.

[@jonathansud]

Thank you so much, and if I ever need additional voices, I always share the casting call on here :)

[@Dante_Richardson]

Thank you, this looks amazing. Can't wait for episode 2.

[@Neutral-Party]

You deserve praise for this.😊 Nice to be back in the galaxy.

[@user-co9rd2sl7u]

Amazing good job....it really shows your love for the Mass effect universe....

[@khonojeya01]

This is absolutely gorgeous, and so underrated! Congratulations on this project!

[@Narcrotic]

I have no doubt this probably took ages to make and construct. Kudos!

[@jonathansud]

it's been a journey to say the absolute least, haha. Thank you!

[@1337user]

This was incredible. Instant sub!

[@Theredstonedragon]

Great work 👏💯 can't wait to see a lot more 😁

[@jonathansud]

thank you for giving it a chance!

[@user-do5zp5it4e]

I like this I haven`t seen anything other shorts musicals plus the Mass effect 5 coming a long time from now but this is really good keep it up 🔥🔥👏🏿👏🏿I love the Elcor with hid dog lol.

[@jonathansud]

the doggo was especially satisfying to include

[@user-do5zp5it4e]

@@jonathansud Cool !The elcor our my favorite race that was a great idea keep going bro!

[@Rainbowhawk1993]

Liked and subbed. Can’t wait for more! Lena is absolutely adorable. ☺️

[@jonathansud]

your support means more than you know 🙏🏼

[@matix1256]

great work :) need more :D Quarians are the most cool race in mass effect :)

[@jonathansud]

I think culture-wise they're the most distinct, for sure. My faves as well :)

[@dwightkirkwood9090]

Glad to see M.E fans still going strong.

[@MetastaticMaladies]

Man I can’t wait for the next Mass Effect, and this gets me even more excited for it.

[@redautobotsoldier3812]

This turian's moral compass is all over the place. He's working for a mercenary company that actively partook in human trafficking/slavery and he wants to include morals while doing shakedowns? This guy needs to reflect on his life choices before he dies in some pointless shootout.

[@didncozosksma4466]

Reminds of the hawk world mini series by Timothy Truman. Katar works as a police officer in the underworld of thanagar, his moral objections are way more reserved and shameful. There’s a panel where Katar sees a statue of Kalmoran, a great hero of Thanagar, most don’t believe he even existed, but Katar remembers the history. Sometimes good folks get caught up in the wrong line of work, shouldn’t be that way, but life has a way of taking you for a ride.

[@MrRemmington]

As a huge Mass Effect fan, this was cool

[@ForlanceAbice]

Facial animations could use a little work, but can be improved with a little TLC. The rest of it so far with regards to the voice acting and story seem solid. Given time, the rest can be refined. Keep up the good work.

[@Gexx15]

I look forward to following this series. Looks great so far.

[@PragmaticOptimist_N7]

Ya know what... I'm like 40 odd seconds in and I'm gonna thumbs up just from the point that it's 'fan made and looks great'. Please, continue... 17:31 Worth the watch for any ME fan.

[@mr.robsshow8813]

hopefully there’s a part two

[@NaderVaderYT]

finallly someone out here making some cool shit with my fav series! W!

[@ghostwarrior3878]

This is really good for a first episode, look forward to seeing Ep 2

[@earlinesims8222]

Didn't think I'll like , but it's really is good . 10/10

[@dantheman3546]

Thankyou for this! I just got into mass effect with the legendary edition. Thinking about doing another play through with andromeda. Definitely including this as well!

[@jonathansud]

Eyy that’s wussup, enjoy the ride!

[@Pete27N]

WOW! That was so good!

[@Helos743]

This is really impressive work, Bioware needs to hire you to help work on future Mass Effect games. ^^

[@jonathansud]

that'd be a dream come true

[@synthronautic]

This was superb!! Keep it up!!

[@purelycryptic]

This is incredible.

[@smatt9132]

Poor Leena, she deserves far better than what she gets. :(

[@big-stupid-jellyfish]

This is amazing in so many ways. I love Lena, I’m rooting for her

[@siighosts0145]

Dang this actually got me interested now 😂 Haven’t seen an animation of mass effect for a very long time

[@mirolyub_]

Черт как круто!👍 Ничего подобного в Ютубе еще не было, хотя вселенная очень богатая. На тот же СТАЛКЕР таких фильмов полным полно. А на Масс Эффект наверное ни одного, я ни разу не нашел Спасибо братан ✊

[@jonathansud]

Спасибо за добрые слова! (Надеюсь, Google перевел это правильно)

[@mirolyub_]

@@jonathansud Nice👍

[@gownerjones]

2000 views? This looks like a 3 million view video bro, good stuff!

[@jonathansud]

much appreciated--maybe one day with enough support! thank you for watching :)

[@NPGH2004]

That was cool. great animation.

[@Aaroboe]

Let me know if you heard this one before on this, but This animation has better Face animations than Andromeda lol

[@jonathansud]

it was a priority goal, and you're actually the first to comment on face anims. Glad to hear I did okay, lol

[@89BlackGatomon]

Subscribed ❤ Great content.

[@jonathansud]

thank you, it means more than you realize :)

[@89BlackGatomon]

@@jonathansud How long did this work needed to its completion? It seems pretty flawless in its flow of motions.

[@jonathansud]

Actual production took about two months, give or take, though keep in mind that I ran into countless, time-consuming and trivial mistakes. For example, that whole plaza/restaurant environment actually blew up-so a lot of time went toward rebuilding. Definitely work needed, but hopefully the just-released ep2 promo shows improvement :)

[@ParagonKev]

That was awesome! I can't wait for more!

[@jonathansud]

happy to hear, thank you :)

[@ParagonKev]

@jonathansud Are you still making episodes, or is it already complete?

[@jonathansud]

Potentially ongoing. This pilot was essentially to gauge community support and interest due to the level of effort/time it takes.

[@ParagonKev]

@@jonathansud That makes sense. I hope everything goes well. Mass Effect is definitely ready for something like this.

[@t00nsie15]

ahh.... now I gotta boot up Mass Effect again for my 60th trilogy playthrough. On another note, this is super cool! I really hope to see a full series on this!

[@jonathansud]

you will :)

[@MasterCheeksOfficial]

Pretty dope stuff

[@TailAbNormal]

10:55. I know this is the future in an alternate universe with aliens and space magic, and I know the exact rules can very depending on the business, but I'm pretty sure legally the Quarian should get her overtime pay even if she has to work those hours as punishment. Also awesome work. Only critique is that the human faces are really uncanny valley.

[@jonathansud]

Fair, tho I wouldn't put it past corporations/government to find a way. Can't tell you the amount of times I got screwed in my Army days. Thank you for watching!

[@sgtNACHO]

Very nice! Needs work for sure, but please keep at it!

[@CrazyCaboose009]

This was a solid 1st episode. Great voice acting/audio editing; every1 sounded like their race did from the games. The animation could be better, but it has a charm to it similar to the start of Red Vs Blue. I noticed some weird warping around the Human debt collector's chest, u might want to check the paint weights to see which joint is inadvertently affecting it.

[@jonathansud]

I’ll see what I can do, I appreciate your thoughts and for checking it out!

[@thatredhead3613]

👏👏👏 well done!!!

[@Geohillierneo]

This is why we need a Mass Effect big-budget series or film trilogy. But made by people who love the universe, unlike the Halo TV series.

[@Rocky-or4rz]

Better than anything Marvel or Star Wars has put out in the last five years.

[@TheSoulGage]

I love seeing more of this universe outside of Shepard. Paragon Lost fleshed out Vega that clearly changed to who he is in ME3 and I always want to see more like it. Like adaptations of those comics or fleshing out major events like First Contact and such. Especially, maybe show The Citadel before Priority Earth cause that's a pretty big deal to show on some capacity. I know it's probably not happening but I can dream lol. Cool first episode.

[@jonathansud]

I did a mock teaser for FCW/Shanxi that I’d love to follow up on, but I’d need to get a lot better beforehand

[@DarkElfDiva]

They really got the creepy human faces from Andromeda down perfectly.

[@jonathansud]

Been testing different things, I'd appreciate if you check out some bits from the new trailer to see if there's improvement!

[@pyroninferno3584]

This is awesome.

[@alaskamark4562]

Pretty much the only criticism I have is how uncanny the human animations look, the rest is pretty top-notch. Are you going to follow the events of the games more-or-less or branch off and fully do your own thing? Looking forward to part 2 either way!

[@jonathansud]

Somewhat. There's enough wiggle room between Omega's siege and Reapers arriving to play around. Respecting lore is of utmost importance to me. Thank you!

[@mcell101]

The Quarians have a case for a good villain arc the way there treated

[@jonathansud]

that's why I liked Admiral Xen

[@mcell101]

@@jonathansud 😂😂 yep

[@axelnilsson5124]

While I would like a quarian villain I prefer them being allies

[@silviadragoness5904]

The animation's a little rough, and some of the voice acting isn't the best (could be the VAs, could be the directing), but overall? Pretty good. I'm down for more. Wittchyn in particular was _quite_ good as Lena'Xaan. Side-note, this was also giving me a nice shot of nostalgia not just for the games, but also for when I first joined a _Mass Effect_ roleplaying forum... _Keelah,_ over a decade ago now. I was playing a Quarian on her Pilgrimage, who wound up on Omega when her shuttle's drive shat itself.

[@jonathansud]

Sounds like a fun time. I hope that one day we’ll get a game where we can choose different species to play (please, Gamble-if you ever stumble upon this comment-please)

[@hoffenwurdig1356]

3:09 In English, people who are to be pressured to make payments are often called deadbeats, or if they hide themselves, they are called ghosts. However, this does not apply when using the slang of credit card companies. In that case, deadbeat is the spiteful and ironic term for someone who pays bills *on time.* People who use one credit card to pay off another and continue the cycle are the ones credit card companies tend to go after, sometimes with company employees expressing relish or enjoyment. Those people tend to call their targets who have not paid "revolvers." It is a metaphor for how those who have trouble paying tend to use more cards as if reloading the chambers, in the unsuccessful attempt to break the cycle.

[@N7_.]

Very epic

[@NaderVaderYT]

one thing I will say with UE is the facial animation can be pretty off puting haha XD it looks quite uncanny

[@markorton838]

just popped up in my feed very good story so far graphics are good but some speech movement uhhh very much enjoyed though 8.5/10 looking forward to next episode

[@qaskew24]

This need to be a mod for the Legendary Edition.

[@bowman303]

I’m really hoping they take their time with the next mass effect

[@jonathansud]

as someone who's predominately a writer-I'm *very* curious about the direction they go

[@tolotko1786]

not bad at all.... like to see some more

[@heectorable]

Awsome ... but i need more 😂 I love it

[@jonathansud]

thank you! I get faster with each upload :)

[@jamiecon1961]

Great job.

[@KnifeTBH]

Do you need any voice actors, I would love to have an opportunity to take part in this. I really love Mass Effect.

[@jonathansud]

I’m booked up at the moment, but I always post/share casting calls on here if I ever need additional talent :)

[@andresherrera2902]

Is this supposed the alternate ending in the first game when the original council dies and humanity takes control of the citadel? I am asking because of the comment the turian made about humans being charge

[@jonathansud]

Nah, so Elysium is a human-founded colony outside of Council Space jurisdiction. That’s why they’re in charge-they got their own planetary government. Non-human species often do business there as the local mass relay is a hotspot in terms of getting around to different pockets of space quickly. As far as time goes, this takes place a month or so prior to Reapers’ arrival.

[@andresherrera2902]

@@jonathansud So before the major events of the third game and the Omega DLC, a interesting timeline you set up. I hope you and everyone continues this small fan project you all made.

[@christophermzdenek]

Just found this. Oh yeah... Subbed, for sure.

[@jonathansud]

Thanks for joining the journey, see you for Episode 2

[@Theredstonedragon]

Amazing 😍🤩😍🤩😍🤩