The Cloud Racer | Sci-Fi CG Animated Short Using Unreal Engine

Set in the near future, a young man and his blue-collar mechanic father compete in a qualifier for an advanced racecraft competition, through a treacherous course against elite racers that runs through the now "Ghost City" of Los Angeles.
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The Cloud Racer
Dir. Joe Sill
www.impossible-objects.co
"A sci-fi proof-of-concept short heavily indebted to underdog sports films, cinematic aviation spectacles, and old-school chase filmmaking. While the 100% CG film soars via its cutting-edge "virtual production" techniques and real-time workflows, its soul is firmly grounded in old-school Hollywood sensibilities, resulting in a glossy confection that is a pleasing amalgam of forward-looking futurism and nostalgia."- S/W Curator, Jason Sondhi ☁️🏁
Directed by: Joe Sill
Virtual Production Company: Impossible Objects
Producers: Joe Sill, Jerad Anderson, Matisse Tolin
Writer: Matisse Tolin
Virtual Production Supervisor: Luc Delamare
Performances by: Heston Horwin, Chase Cargill, Stephanie Kerbis, Trevor Stevens
Vocal Performances by: Bobby Doughnuts, George C. Owens
Composer: Trevor Doherty
Editorial: Impossible Objects
Color Correction: Impossible Objects
Audio Post Production: One Thousand Birds
Sound Design & Mix by: Jackie! Zhou
Additional Sound Design: Torin Geller, Myra Al-Rahim
OTB Executive Producers: Guin Frehling, Kira MacKnight
Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmakers.

[@shortoftheweek]

Thanks to Joe Sill and the team at Impossible Objects for allowing us to premiere another of their shorts! If you want to see more from this talented crew, subscribe to their KZbin channel -> kzbin.info

[@KharmaGuess]

- How much camera shake to add? - YES!

[@Sly2Cooper]

Looks great! That constantly shaking camera tho.. questionable.

[@furynotes]

The constantly disorienting shaking is too much me. The problem with shaky cam in most movies. Is that it was criticized for making the action unfollowable.

[@Sly2Cooper]

@@furynotes shaky cam is like a spice to a meal. Experienced DPs only add it at rare moments when the main character feels the most tension inside, like loosing ground, or when chasing someone important. At least graphics and story are great. Maybe they can re-render this short.

[@furynotes]

​@@Sly2Cooper The story isn't great. This is what they intended for the camera work. Good graphics argument is debatable. The experienced DP's would make anything close to this. Especially when the Director decided on those shaky shots in the first place. To bad we don't get a good sense of speed in most of the shot's. Animation the characters is leaned to only motion capture work. So its not cleaned up as well as it could have. I think the trailer to short is more exciting then the short it's self. I would rather watch the trailer to short than watch this 10 minute overpraised turd. So its disappointing. Judging from the channel. They seam to be better at commercials for products then actual short films.

[@lvccxs]

i think the camera shake is for keeping motion blur running, so the pores won't be as visible and facial features will be less distinguishable from a real human to a 3d model

[@robertdouble559]

makes it virtually unwatchable, scale of shake is totally off

[@memeautos1014]

The project looks Amazing！However am I the only one that noticed the crazy motion blur and camera shaking problems here？

[@waardlafrance110]

no

[@Yngwie.Malmsteen]

*Yeap, same here.*

[@veithnurtsch1069]

Forgot console commands r.MotionBlurQuality 5 maybe lol

[@donavanfrea6768]

No you are not alone🤢

[@minamayes1529]

Yeah I was getting motion sickness. It was just too much.

[@rd-cv4vm]

the camera shake completely destroy an otehrwise beautiful job

[@arctic.wizard]

The shakycam! IT HURTS! I managed 4½ minutes and I'm usually not sensitive to such things. The environs look fine to me, you don't need that shaking camera path to cover up any flaws. Use DOF or motion blur instead if the backgrounds are not up to par, but with good cinematography you don't even have to care because the viewer is supposed to be focused on the important thing in the frame, and the environs only have to look "OK". There's a time and place to use shakycam, usually when you want the viewer to feel as if they are close to the subject of the shot, as if walking or running next to them, or if you're doing the whole "found footage" thing. But you even have it shaking when doing an aerial shot (4:24) what kind of drone is wobbling like that when filming? The viewpoint is clearly high up in the air, not from somebody running along the ground. It's a darn shame because everything else looks really great.

[@kameljoe21]

I stopped at about 2 min mark and started reading the comments. i went back up at about 4 mins and my golly the shaking got worse. This is not for me no matter how cool the story is. My vision is not like it used to be and the shaky camera really killed it.

[@scottishrob13]

Would like to see this as a feature film or series - maybe with more sane camera shake and less claustrophobic zooms - but I want to see the full story now.

[@michaelwittmann5754]

This feels like a trailer to a game or movie which will be released after a 100 years lol

[@Sly2Cooper]

There were N-Gen Racing on PS1 and M.A.C.H. on PSP about jet racing.

[@hollapena97]

This is cool, but why did they give the camera to a baby who just learned how to stand.

[@joshlumley3851]

I wanted to watch it all the way through but I'm ill and I genuinely couldn't get through it for how nauseating that camera shake was

[@hollapena97]

@@joshlumley3851 yeah I took a break about halfway because I was getting a headache

[@jobisselle2861]

Bit harsh!

[@screenapple1660]

The video Game Award 2023 should vote this - Best Animated Shorts using Unreal Engine.

[@Cosmoscavle]

Ok This Film is Fantastic but it seems like the cameraman was me while i am drunk :)

[@foxers7710]

Outstanding job, the amount of work that goes in to make these ships fly smooth through the courses is crazy. We have to bring up how good some of those cinematic shots were. The girl with the sunglasses looks incomparable to a live action movie on the big screen. Keep up the great work 🎉

[@asallen]

Super impressive! Congrats Joe and team on the accomplishment. I'd love to hear more about your process for making the film.

[@rodrigoferreiramaciel4815]

dude that was amazing i'd loove to see a full fledge film of this, really really cool ambience and story telling, congrats guys this is just top notch art

[@richardbidinger2577]

I would love to see more of this. This had me on the edge on my seat. Great job. 👍

[@user-ge2qn6gp4o]

Wow Los Angeles of the future looks way better than it does currently.

[@planet_babylon]

Absolutely epic. Incredible work.

[@no_torrs]

press pause go to video settings and turn the motion blur and camera shake off.

[@aopaul]

Cameraman: "Looks like I picked a bad week to start amphetamines." Still... I can't wait for the next Wipeout game to look this good.

[@KagatoIuchi]

I agree with the other comments that mention too much cam-shake and quick-cuts, it does make it seem quite jarring and overly chaotic. The lip syncing/VA work was fine in some places and sketchy in others. However, I feel like the sound design was pretty good!

[@manuelka15]

lip sync was terrible, but I agree with your other comments.

[@B1GDaddyDJangoF311]

This is just beautiful the things people create I appreciate the love people put into their passions and I know my kids definitely motive me

[@ejbeastthamaker]

How this only has 29K views is a crime. This as a intense high skill ceiling game would be the best! This is phenomenal cinema! Shakiness makes me a little sick but that's me. Still great.

[@WitchSmeller74]

Those ships unnecessarily spin more than prequal Jedi.

[@quaich14]

Ten Stars. Fantastic CGI. When is the full length feature?

[@Corps8800]

I could watch these all day

[@fortniterambo220]

This should be a full series Netflix or Amazon need to talk business with the creator(s), I was hyped the whole way 😳👍🏾😆

[@St.Raptor]

They'd ruin it... make it into a push for woke script. What could be really fun is making their own studio and releasing it that way. It's tome for some new completion anyway. Give people an alt to the mainstream.

[@user-rz7ih7bh5d]

This sunglassed woman was sounding like Sonya blade from Mortal kombat X

[@MrDanINSANE]

I don't want to point on the director... but I got sick with the over-do camera shake, I guess they wanted to make it feel natural... but maybe I'm the only one who felt that, I don't know. Good job on the overall project, looks like you really invested lots of hours and it looks wonderful! ❤

[@JT-wu3wi]

Incredible. Really incredible. Is there a making of? So much work. Beautiful crafted story and direction.

[@jonathanwennstromm1578]

Has it‘s flaws but I’d say really amazing work. For future reference I’d try to have the speaking parts more clear without to much action noise at the same time and I actually liked the camera shake but it was to much imo as well

[@3dchick]

Gorgeous and great story!!

[@creativeateliers]

Shaking camera Disturbing Eyes!!! The work is Awesome...

[@sluggy6074]

If you continue this series you should revealed the reason of his moms death as a conveyor belt accident working in an Amazon warehouse.

[@sauletto1]

That was fricking awesome !

[@AzeAlter]

This is UNREAL

[@sengbush0077]

This is super cool, a little too much camera moves and would have loved longer cuts of the racing. Felt like a Micheal Bay edit at some points. The aircraft design and idea of kinda a "formula One" in the sky/future was fun and unique, once I saw the Red Bull jet I was in! too bad she crashed...

[@DKFilmStudiosLLC]

I enjoyed the story, and I really liked the design of the racers. I feel that that the shaking camera could've been tone down a good bit. It made it hard to understand what was being shown to me at times

[@alduinfr]

1:50 his face lmao. and also the camera is too shaky.

[@danabana8121]

That was awesome. 👏👏👏

[@cogamo2602]

My only question is if this was motion captured if this were not than it is super impressive it is still impressive if it is motion captured

[@charless7903]

speed racer in space, looks good guys

[@daddykool3290]

Now that’s more like it! Something us sci-fi nuts can easily relate to. More!

[@SYTOLOGIC]

i just loved it 😍❤ keep it up !!!!

[@jamjarr8808]

That was really good

[@harkinabefe]

Thos absolutely Beautiful

[@scottmcmahon7209]

Hey great work! This movie was epic. Im thinking about getting into film making using unreal engine so i want to know if you were able to make this on your own and how long it took you?

[@hondaraider178]

Видели уже такое-звёздные войны,эпизод первый.К тому же: с такими технологиями,почему бы не заняться восстановлением города.

[@mellis966]

Fantastic!

[@stuartghoststoriesalvis6635]

Make this a dam movie please fucking magnificent

[@screenapple1660]

I'm saying SEGA should hire this man.... This preview video could beat Nintendo's F-ZERO.

[@Slvrbuu]

The wobbly camera really hurts it for me.

[@andrebullitt7212]

Awesome!!!!

[@makeitlastmedia]

this looks good

[@lawrenceking6388]

The cloud racer reminds me of the Wipeout and redout video games using unreal 5 as it's canvas.

[@knotme5349]

Please make next episode

[@abhrenders6534]

Amazing graphics 🔥🔥🔥

[@KaminariHouse]

Sci-Fi Racing is one of my favorite things ever, so this was an instant click for me! A pity it's so uncommon in film. I do have some gripes tho: the camera shake was a bit much, the races lacked a sense of speed, and the animation seemed a bit Mocap only. Overall an okay experience. The VA/VD and music were cool tho.

[@TheSnufking]

All that camera shake and ridiculous amount of short cuts made it very difficult to focus on what was happening on screen.

[@NinjaKoalaAUTW]

everything is perfect except for the mis-use of shaky-hand cam

[@Tamaresque]

Needs a steadycam!

[@malindurashmika8386]

Daamnnn ,,This is sooo Goood

[@ECHSBACHS]

Cool !

[@vagabon5130]

well done.

[@AbdurakhmanovH]

wow

[@ZeroGrain]

bro, i can't get past 3o sec without nausia

[@Guyver02USA]

- Whoever made this needs to chill on the motion blur and sharpen everything . Its blurness overshadowed everything else . Also , the sound effects & BGM is also louder than the speech at some points thus I can’t exactly make out what’s being said .

[@guydude7550]

Really good film, loved the interjections of lore by the announcer. Only thing is it needs to lose the shakycam.

[@clarencenikel_6420]

Whats there pc setup?

[@kingpicolo111]

whats the approx size of this whole 10 min movie

[@BillWhittleStratosphereStudios]

Might want to look into a steadicam, guys.

[@Kutersing]

Great work! Nice cgi. But do adjust the camera shaking 🙂

[@beakingsman777]

Very cool graphics and filming perspectives. I enjoyed the ships a lot. Script hard to hear and rather lacking. Overall: good job!

[@techrobotics5755]

Anyone know , how to do facial animation in unreal engine

[@DownTownDK.]

camera shake why. i couldn't watch this for more than a min before getting dizzy

[@amitbhawanie2931]

I’m about 5 min in and the camera shaking is a real turn off . Love the concept and the style but i can’t truly appreciate the animation because of the constant shakey cam movements. Too bad because there is real talent to be seen

[@AdamHillikerLikesRobots]

This shaky cam is a disaster. One minute in and I'm done.

[@MatiasPiens]

This is a Great job, but for me the camera is shaking to much

[@user-rz7ih7bh5d]

Ghost town like this must be after nuclear war I guess, these damages in 2055 I imagine what could happen with Moscow after Metro: 2033

[@dranklive1522]

Yo is this a reboot of the pod racing scene from Phantom Menace?

[@DiscipleOfHeavyMeta1]

I'm officially recomending this short as an example of the Mecha-Tankie æsthetic. 🦍☀️🦍☀️

[@obz_1370]

I think it needs a little camera shake.

[@frankinher7467]

skins and emotions look better but i guess well never get rid of those dead CGI eyes

[@gajalaafreen1232]

Great work, just the motion blur is too much

[@oneaboveall1895]

whats up with the camera man cant hold it steady with futuristic technology

[@michaeljamesauty]

I wanted to like this but that badly judged camera shake made me feel ill unfortunately

[@doesitseemthatihaveaname5469]

Is it animated in unreal engine?

[@kameljoe21]

Who has the unshaken version?

[@joelbergfx]

Amazing, the shaky camera is pretty distracting from the story. Feels like Im on a boat. Actual camera shake from a steadycam is much more natural and watchable than post.

[@director_unknown9]

Just 1K on this marvelous video and 1M on women shorts,just shame on audiences!

[@jamesgary8897]

This was incredibly Brilliant. Amazing Job to the whole team. Way to take new tech by the horns and make it your bitch. Loved it! Every bit.

[@tubagus.a2159]

the graphics and quality are quite good tho,but lip sync unfortunately still lacking

[@brandonkoo2033]

camera work is too shaky

[@jordanhwang]

this film is raising the bar for the future of cg!

[@1eyedwilli3]

Way to many shakey closeups

[@shad0wburn3d]

good animation, but need to slow down on the camera swapping and moving.

[@SelectStart89]

Looks really damn good. But I can't stand the camera shaking. Even the aerial shot looks like somebody drunk walking around holding the camera. Makes me very dizzy TBH.

[@paulatreides1354]

shaky cam everywhere...

[@Shovi_]

The camera shaking is WAY TOO MUCH!

[@dunne54321]

Camera made me sick

[@PrinceZakariyya]

Camera sucks but the idea is cool.