The Last Dungeon film is the result of SCAD students coming together from different fields of study and creating a stunning animated short film.
SCAD has been highly regarded for its campuses being the only ones to offer its students opportunities to utilize their two LED volumes (one in Savannah, one in Atlanta), which are compatible with Unreal Engine. To show off the school and students’ efforts, they have created a short, animated film called The Last Dungeon. They were able to share the full-feature short film, along with some behind-the-scenes footage—everything made by the students.
The Last Dungeon is described as a movie about a paladin, an elf and a dwarf who enter a forsaken temple and discover an evil presence lurking in the shadows of a tomb. The heroes encounter a powerful undead necromancer and struggle to hold their own, until the party’s paladin awakens something divine when against all odds in the fight. It was truly a spectacle, reminded me of the most recent release Nimona and a blend of the drama from Critical Role’s streaming series The Legend of Vox Machina.
SCAD offered to share some of the concept art behind the heroes and the creatures in The Last Dungeon. In the behind-the-scenes footage, director Alexandra Young discussed the direction of the film, trying to tell its narrative with everything offered at SCAD. From the film/television department to game design, motion capture and animation. Everything tied up together with their use of their Immersive Reality (IR) volumes where the actors could offer their performances in real-time, with real-time background/environment changes.
Animation chair and SCAD alumni Chris Gallagher (technical director on Moana, Big Hero 6) shared his thoughts on what made this project extra special: ” In the history of animation, we went from black-and-white to colour, from hand-drawn to computer-generated, and I believe we’re now on the precipice of another massive change…Unreal Engine provides our students with the ability to create and visualize content in real-time, which means we can see our ideas come to life immediately, rather than waiting for lengthy rendering processes.”
Here are the credits of the students who headed the whole project, among many more who made the anime short film a success:
Director – Alexandra Young
- Junior – animation
- Hometown: Lakeland, TN
VFX supervisor – Ashlyn “Ash” Brock
- Senior – visual effects
- Hometown: Bainbridge, GA
Technical Director – Kate Meine
- Sophomore – animation
- Hometown: Magnolia, TX
This filmmaking process has already been used in films like The Batman, Black Adam and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It was even used in upcoming streaming series like Ahsoka and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. While those projects have Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney-level budgets, the students at SCAD Atlanta and Savannah have the opportunity to take advantage of the Hollywood-level filmmaking technologies.
If you are in the Atlanta area in the fall this year, you can catch The Last Dungeon premiering at SCAD Animation Fest 2023.
