In an end-of-year update post on the Unreal Engine blog today, Epic Games revealed that since its launch in 2019, the $100 million Epic MegaGrants program has supported more than 1,600 creators and teams across 89 countries — with almost a staggering 400 new recipients receiving funds in 2021 alone.
“When imagination meets innovation, the possibilities are infinite, and with cutting-edge tools such as Unreal Engine available to all, creators have the freedom to express themselves without limits,” said Chris Kavcsak, Director of Epic MegaGrants and Strategy. “Through Epic MegaGrants we’ve had a special opportunity to not only accelerate this vision, but to support hundreds of talented people and teams around the world as they realize their dreams and continue to make amazing things.”
Epic MegaGrants was established to support creators all over the world working with Unreal Engine or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community. Projects benefiting from the program run the gamut from animation film and TV projects, to videogames, software development and even state-of-the-art medical training.
Interested in applying for an Epic MegaGrant? Visit www.unrealengine.com/megagrants.
Media & Entertainment recipients include:
Metropius from 18 Degrees (www.metropius.com) is a sci-fi, dieselpunk franchise consisting of a TV series and game in the making. Set in an alternate future where World War II has continued to rage for 40 years, Metropius will take you into a mechanized city, complete with a melting pot of characters and dark stories.
Flying spaceships, epic landscapes, giant mechs — see it all in Knights of Debris, an original sci-fi series from D.ROCK-ART (www.drockart.com), one of the first companies in China to explore real-time 3D animation production.
The feature film Gilgamesh from Hook Up Animation (https://hookupanimation.com/wp) tells the mythical story of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who tyrannizes his subjects until they implore the gods for help. The deities decide to create Enkidu, a being whose destiny is to show Gigamesh the limits of his power.
Forlorn is an animated action-adventure short created by Alex St. Pierre. It tells the story of a mercenary treasure hunter who breaks into an ancient city and encounters something she did not expect. Produced by Midnight Scientists (www.projectforlorn.com).
Now on Amazon Prime, Tranz-A-Tronz is a tongue-and-cheek take on a children’s edu-tainment show, starring robots originally intended to be caretakers of human “chil-dron” on an abandoned space station. Although there are no humans on the show, the bots continue with their misguided day-to-day endeavors of “teaching.” From Bunko Studios (www.tranzatronz.com).
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