Bifrost

A 13-minute film blending live action and Unreal Engine.

Brief

A practice dissertation for my MA at MAHE Bengaluru, extending earlier research on storytelling in games. A 13-minute fiction film blending live action with characters and environments built in Unreal Engine. The condition I set: do every department myself, in four months.

Approach

I wrote, directed, and produced the film. I built the digital characters by 3D-scanning actor faces with a phone, rebuilding them as MetaHumans inside Unreal Engine, and matching them to licensed Paragon character bodies. I captured facial performance with Live Link, ran the shoot across five days on a Sony A7 and an iPhone 16, and operated camera on most setups. I edited the film, designed the VFX, did the color, built the sound design in Premiere Pro, and cut the trailer.

RealityScan outputs

Actor faces captured on a phone, processed to 80,092 and 67,087 polygon meshes

Base mesh stage

Cleaned-up head and Paragon body before MetaHuman rigging and texturing

Live Link facial capture

Phone-based motion capture driving the digital character's expressions

MetaHuman wireframe + LOD breakdown

MetaHuman wireframe breakdown with LOD transitions. Custom-built MetaHuman head and body used as the digital double in Bifrost, optimized for real-time rendering.

The Mac was the hardest constraint. Live Link doesn't officially work with MetaHuman on macOS, so I pulled the raw facial data out, rewrote it in Xcode so the engine could read it, and brought it back in as animation keyframes. When the final render then broke the faces while the live viewport still looked right, I stopped rendering the traditional way and screen-recorded the viewport at one-tenth speed with every quality setting maxed out, then sped the footage back up in the edit.

Edit and 3D stations during post.

Aadhithiyah came in as a second camera operator for two-actor moving shots. Gautham played the lead; I played the supporting role on screen. Everything else was on me.

Output

A 13-minute film, end to end.

Roles I owned

Direction, Writing, Production, 3D Modelling and Texturing, MetaHuman Build, Live Link Capture, Facial Animation, Cinematography, Editing, VFX, Color, Sound Design, Trailer.

Tools

Unreal Engine, Maya, Substance Painter, RealityScan, Live Link, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Xcode.

Outcome

Official screening at Lens & Legacy Student Film Fest, MAHE Bengaluru, April 2026. Trailer posted by the department social channel dlhs.mahe reached 13.2K views, 292 likes, 114 shares.

Lens & Legacy Student Film Fest screening

MAHE Bengaluru, April 2026. With Gautham (lead actor)

Bifrost trailer post

instagram @dlhs.mahe

Testimonials

"Bifrost was a truly refreshing discovery. The film offers an immersive experience that is both captivating and unforgettable. Magesh's mastery of visual storytelling, and the attention to detail evident in every frame, made it a work we were eager to showcase. As the closing film of the festival, he demonstrated what can be achieved as a student filmmaker working with limited resources."

— Utsha Sarkar,
Organiser,
Lens & Legacy Student Film Fest, MAHE Bengaluru

Magesh executed Bifrost end to end as a solo filmmaker, across direction, 3D, live action, and post. The technical ambition was significant, particularly his work integrating real-time engine tools with live action footage. I have little to add as criticism; the film stands on its own.

— Dr. Pranava Kumar R, Dissertation Mentor, MA Multimedia and Communication, MAHE Bengaluru

Watch the trailer here

Watch the full movie here

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