How This Painterly Animated Short Was Rigged & Animated Entirely in Unreal Engine

Ghost Stride is an animated short by Dardo Studios about confronting fear and moving forward. It was made in Unreal Engine from character rigging through final render, with more than 60 hand-painted p

Painterly Movement Completed Through Real-Time Production

Dardo Studios’ original animated short Ghost Stride tells a story about moving forward while facing fear. In the voice credits, Damon Webb voices Ghost, while Rue Vox voices Shadow. The work adopts an approach that builds the characters’ emotions and movements while maintaining the completed atmosphere of each shot, connecting the story’s themes to its visual production method.

From Rigging to Camera Work Inside Unreal Engine

The production team rigged the entire character using Unreal Engine’s Control Rig and animated it directly in Sequencer. The camera was blocked alongside the animation within the final environment, allowing the team to review and revise the lighting, shaders, and camera within the same scene. Unlike a workflow that passes work through separate processes in sequence, this production flow lets direction and animation share the same real-time scene.

Hand-Drawn Texture Added Over 3D Surfaces

The painterly surfaces were created by projecting more than 60 hand-painted paintovers onto the 3D models. This treatment made the brushstrokes appear to come alive as they followed the movement on screen, while hand-animated 2D FX were added to Shadow’s hair and the environmental effects. It is an example of combining the revision speed of real-time 3D production with the irregular texture of hand-drawn effects.

Sources: 80 Level original article · Dardo Studios official project page