Forlorn is an animated series of adventure, dark fantasy, and cosmic horror
Forlorn is a seven part series of shorts created by Alex St. Pierre and powered by Unreal Engine. It tells the story of a mercenary treasure hunter as she makes her way through an ancient forgotten city, encountering various obstacles and curiosities within.
Project Forlorn began as a tech demo in early 2018, followed by a prototype in October 2019. The series is animated, written, and directed by Alex St. Pierre with music by composer Toft Willingham.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why use Unreal Engine?
Compared to traditional rendering pipelines, Unreal Engine offers unparalleled feedback and speed, particularly for a team of one. Utilizing Unreal, I can preview lighting set ups, materials, and FX instantly without having to learn multiple programs or wait hours for renders. And through study and practice, I can push the visual fidelity of my scenes far further than what I would be able to accomplish through a traditional renderer without an experienced team.
How many people are working on Forlorn?
Forlorn is made almost entirely by a team of two people. Alex St. Pierre is the series creator, and is responsible for art, animation, sound, and editing. The music for the project is composed by Toft Willingham. In addition, Lindsey St. Pierre provided assistance with facial rigs for the main human characters as well as some design artwork.
What does your pipeline look like?
I use Maya for modelling, rigging, and animation (including cameras). Textures are painted for the hero assets through Substance Painter. Much of the environments are textured through a combination of methods utilizing Megascans materials. All of that data is then imported into Unreal, where I do lighting, FX, and render out the final image. I take the image sequences into Premiere, where I assemble them into the final edit. Sound design is created in Premiere through a basic sound effects pack, combined with some foley I perform in my apartment. Music is then added and the sound is mixed, resulting in the finished episode.
What are your technical specs?
The initial release is created using Unreal 4.25 and rendered on an Nvidia GTX 1080ti.
How much time does an episode take to make?
In terms of the overall timeline I began modeling the first character in October 2018, and after finishing all the assets and animation the prototype film came out almost exactly one year later, in October 2019. From there I remade the main characters and built the first set, and released the first episode proper in July 2020. Afterwards each episode has taken roughly 3-4 months apiece of working in my spare time to create the assets and animate.
Did you make all the assets yourself?
All of the characters and most major props were created by me in Maya and painted in Substance Painter. The majority of the environments were created by kitbashing together several asset packs, in addition to some custom modelling.
How many episodes are there?
There will be seven episodes in this arc, which represents a condensed version of the Forlorn story. When all seven episodes are released, I plan on editing them all together into one single short film, as originally envisioned.
Where can I follow more about the project?
I post regular updates to the production blog on this website, as well as on the project’s twitter page (@projectforlorn). The links to those can be found on the website header. I hope you’ll follow along!
