Apr 5, 2022

Nexus and Patrick Osborne reveal a teaser for the real-time animation project "This tape deck is a time machine."

Oscar-winning director Patrick Osborne, Disney Shortface and Google Spotlight Stories vr Short Pearl Helmer have created an impressive teaser for the series under development, this tape deck is a time machine.

Created using Epic Games' Unreal Engine and produced using real-time animation technology at Nexus Studios (Netflix's The House), this teaser takes an early look at a time-hopping teenager using a portable cassette player to visit musically charged moments in other people's lives.

During production, Osborne led a team of real-time artists and creators to challenge the challenge of creating worlds in Unreal Engine without using synthesis. Using Unreal Engine has created a number of production benefits, including the ability to render images almost instantly while allowing multiple simultaneous inputs to any scene.

"This is a project that breaks new ground both creatively and technologically," Chris O'Reilly, co-founder and executive creative Director of Nexus Studios, said, "It's an animation production centered on music, talked about with a strong graphic sensibility, pushing animation to a new audience, and at the same time pushing it to a new audience." We are innovating the way we have been able to achieve our goals."

Nexus was a recent recipient of Epic Megagrant, and the studio "realises an agile and more iterative approach to linear animation filmmaking at the highest quality"

Karen Dufilho, Executive Producer of Epic Games' Content Partnership, said, "Patrick and Nexus Studios are very excited to be part of this project." What we've achieved exemplifies the way modern storytellers want to work – collaboratively, spontaneously, and quickly – by combining existing expertise in animation with the power of Unreal's real-time to create new worlds and stories that will captivate audiences over the next few years.”