In Development
Trading Render Farms for Real-Time at M2 Animation
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At M2 Animation, scaling cinematic production meant rethinking everything—from rendering pipelines to how directors interact with scenes. Benjamin Foo, CG Supervisor at M2, walks through the studio’s transition from a traditional Maya/Redshift workflow to a real-time, Unreal Engine-based pipeline. What started as a necessity—limited compute power and rising production demands—quickly became a creative advantage. Instead of waiting on renders, teams now iterate instantly. Directors can step inside scenes, shape environments in real time, and collaborate more closely with artists. But that shift also brought new challenges—from managing massive asset libraries to balancing visual fidelity with hardware limits. Ben shares how M2 builds custom tools, embraces experimentation, and uses Perforce P4 to manage version control across complex productions—all while keeping artists empowered to explore and create. In this episode: * How M2 transitioned from a traditional render pipeline to Unreal Engine * Why real-time workflows unlocked faster iteration and creative freedom * The technical and cultural challenges of scaling cinematic production * How teams balance visual fidelity, performance, and hardware limits * The role of custom tooling and experimentation in pipeline evolution * How Perforce supports collaboration and version control across teams * How Perforce supports collaboration and version control across teams * Why empowering directors inside Unreal Engine changes the creative process Timestamps [00:02:25] Meet M2 Animation [00:03:02] Ben’s Career Path [00:04:15] CG Supervisor Role [00:05:17] Before Unreal Pipeline [00:06:00] Why Switch to Unreal [00:07:21] First Unreal Trailer [00:11:08] UDIMs and Virtual Textures [00:14:05] VRAM Limits and Team Learning [00:17:30] Directors in Real Time [00:19:24] Asset Library and Versioning [00:22:39] Shot Based vs Sequence Based [00:25:34] USD vs FBX Today [00:26:55] FBX vs USD Plans [00:27:25] When Fixes Leave Unreal [00:29:19] Material Notes Workflow [00:32:32] Instances Per Shot Tweaks [00:34:03] Perforce Locking Discipline [00:35:43] Small Team Version Chaos [00:39:48] Local Rendering Hardware Strategy [00:42:23] Cinematic Look Pipeline [00:45:39] Effects Mostly In Engine [00:46:50] Lessons And Closing Advice Links mentioned: * https://www.unrealengine.com/spotlights/shock-and-ork-how-m2-brought-a-warhammer-kill-team-battle-to-life?lang=en-US [https://www.unrealengine.com/spotlights/shock-and-ork-how-m2-brought-a-warhammer-kill-team-battle-to-life?lang=en-US] * https://youtu.be/MjjkWH0eT3U?si=eJlkriPPjwkV2_MP&t=298 [https://youtu.be/MjjkWH0eT3U?si=eJlkriPPjwkV2_MP&t=298] * https://youtu.be/p9LbaCcFpgE?si=KgjlDW1y0tCoZ9Ly [https://youtu.be/p9LbaCcFpgE?si=KgjlDW1y0tCoZ9Ly] Jase Lindgren [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaselindgren/], Principal User Advocate, Perforce Benjamin Foo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-foo-jimbanne/], Unreal CG Supervisor, M2 Animation
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