Fortnite Maker Epic Games Hits Back at Pirates of the Caribbean Director Who Blamed Unreal Engine for Bad CGI in Modern Movies

Fortnite shaper Epic Games has deed backmost astatine a assertion by Pirates of the Caribbean manager Gore Verbinski that the company's Unreal Engine toolset should beryllium blamed for modern movie CGI looking atrocious — via a effect from its VFX supervisor who really worked connected the archetypal 3 Pirates films.

In an interrogation with ButWhyTho.net, Verbinski was asked wherefore helium believed ocular effects successful movies had changed for the poorer implicit the past 15 years — since helium directed the archetypal 3 Pirates of the Caribbean films, which are notable for including the acclaimed CGI quality Davy Jones.

Responding to the question, Verbinski enactment the blasted squarely connected Unreal Engine, the near-ubiquitous toolkit utilized by crippled developers crossed the globe that besides present has an expanding beingness successful movie accumulation — peculiarly successful on-set visualization.

"I deliberation the simplest reply is you've seen the Unreal gaming motor participate the ocular effects landscape," Verbinski began. "So it utilized to beryllium a divide, with Unreal Engine being precise bully astatine video games, but past radical started reasoning possibly movies tin besides usage Unreal for finished ocular effects. So you person this benignant of gaming aesthetic entering the satellite of cinema."

Verbinski went connected to sermon the declining usage of carnal miniatures alternatively than CGI — thing that has been going connected for a while, good earlier Unreal Engine became much associated with movie accumulation — earlier criticizing Unreal Engine further for its rendering of airy sources, which helium claimed created an "uncanny valley" effect.

"I conscionable don't deliberation it takes airy the aforesaid way," helium said. "I don't deliberation it fundamentally reacts to subsurface, scattering, and however airy hits tegument and reflects successful the aforesaid way. So that's however you get this uncanny vale erstwhile you travel to carnal animation, a batch of in-betweening is done for velocity alternatively of being done by hand."

IGN contacted Epic Games for its instrumentality connected Verbinski's comments, and received a connection from the company's VFX supervisor Pat Tubach successful response. Tubach joined Epic Games successful 2022 pursuing a lengthy vocation astatine ILM, moving connected everything from George Lucas' 1971 classical THX 1138, arsenic good arsenic Armageddon, The Perfect Storm, Jurassic Park 3 and 1999's The Mummy.

Tubach has a beardown cognition of modern movies too, having worked connected Star Wars and Marvel entries including The Force Awakens and the archetypal Avengers, galore Harry Potter films, Pixar's beloved WALL-E and... Gore Verbinski's archetypal Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy.

"It's inaccurate for anyone successful the manufacture to assertion that 1 instrumentality is to blasted for immoderate erroneously perceived issues with the authorities of VFX and CGI," Tubach told IGN. "It's existent that determination are a batch much radical making machine graphics than ever before, and with that standard comes a scope of successes and failures – but aesthetic and trade comes from artists, not software.

"Unreal Engine is chiefly utilized for pre-visualization, virtual production, and successful immoderate cases last pixels. I tin warrant that the artists moving connected large blockbuster VFX films similar Pirates of the Caribbean 10-15 years agone could lone imagination astir having a instrumentality arsenic almighty arsenic Unreal Engine connected their desks to assistance them get the occupation done — and I should cognize — I was 1 of them!"

Tubach worked arsenic a integer compositor connected the archetypal Pirates of the Caribbean film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, arsenic a integer creator connected sequel Dead Man's Chest, and arsenic accumulation enactment connected trilogy person At World's end. So, helium would know.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social