Unreal Engine streamlines desert production on Dune: Part Two
Director Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi blockbuster film Dune: Part Two is a masterpiece of craft and storytelling. Interweaving tales of succession, betrayal, love, and revenge, and blending harshly primitive desert environments (sandworms and all) with futuristic technology, the film takes viewers on an unforgettable journey as Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) fights for the fate of the universe. The film, based on the novel Dune by Frank Herbert, was released in March 2024 and is the highest-grossing film of the year to date.
Bringing such a complex film to life was no easy task, especially when it meant weeks on end of shooting in some of the most desolate and remote deserts in the world—including Wadi Rum in Jordan and the Liwa Desert in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Villeneuve’s key creative and production teams, in which Director of Photography Greig Fraser and Co-Producer Jessica Derhammer played key roles, utilized Unreal Engine in innovative ways to pre-plan their desert shots from the production headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. By using Unreal Engine, the production team could all accurately align around Villeneuve’s vision and understand exactly what would be needed once they arrived on location.
“When I saw the complexity that Dune: Part Two was going to have, I realized that being able to use Unreal Engine and have control over all the light staging all in pre-production was only going to speed up the process,” explains Fraser. “A large part of what we used Unreal for was to pre-plan the shots that we were trying to achieve and being able to put MetaHuman characters into the virtual location to pre-plan where the shadow was going to reveal them, where the shadow was going to be off them. Using Unreal in pre-production was a godsend.”
Bringing such a complex film to life was no easy task, especially when it meant weeks on end of shooting in some of the most desolate and remote deserts in the world—including Wadi Rum in Jordan and the Liwa Desert in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Villeneuve’s key creative and production teams, in which Director of Photography Greig Fraser and Co-Producer Jessica Derhammer played key roles, utilized Unreal Engine in innovative ways to pre-plan their desert shots from the production headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. By using Unreal Engine, the production team could all accurately align around Villeneuve’s vision and understand exactly what would be needed once they arrived on location.
“When I saw the complexity that Dune: Part Two was going to have, I realized that being able to use Unreal Engine and have control over all the light staging all in pre-production was only going to speed up the process,” explains Fraser. “A large part of what we used Unreal for was to pre-plan the shots that we were trying to achieve and being able to put MetaHuman characters into the virtual location to pre-plan where the shadow was going to reveal them, where the shadow was going to be off them. Using Unreal in pre-production was a godsend.”
Derhammer shares, “We were going to spend about two months total in the desert, one month in Jordan and one month in Abu Dhabi, and we as the logistics people needed to be able to very quickly get into the creative headspace so that we could understand the vision that Denis and Greig had, and then give them the tools they needed to execute. So many times in filmmaking, there’s a disconnect between the creative and the logistics. For us, Unreal Engine was the perfect tool where everyone could clearly see and understand the creative vision and get on the same page so that we could make sure everything was going to work in terms of continuity and lighting and shadows.”
Fraser, who has extensive experience using Unreal Engine for virtual production on projects such as The Mandalorian and The Creator, deeply understood the value of using it to sketch out various lighting scenarios ahead of time. While in pre-production, the team conducted a tech scout on location in both Jordan and Abu Dhabi, using a drone to capture photogrammetry data. Back in Budapest, Fraser, working with Virtual Cinematography Technician Tamás Papp, was able to input the photogrammetry data into Unreal Engine to create a virtual scene, apply sun path data for each location based on the projected shoot date, and add MetaHuman characters to the scene. Then, they could experiment with how light or shadows would hit various characters in the scene, helping with creative decisions for both adding additional lighting and ensuring continuity.
Fraser, who has extensive experience using Unreal Engine for virtual production on projects such as The Mandalorian and The Creator, deeply understood the value of using it to sketch out various lighting scenarios ahead of time. While in pre-production, the team conducted a tech scout on location in both Jordan and Abu Dhabi, using a drone to capture photogrammetry data. Back in Budapest, Fraser, working with Virtual Cinematography Technician Tamás Papp, was able to input the photogrammetry data into Unreal Engine to create a virtual scene, apply sun path data for each location based on the projected shoot date, and add MetaHuman characters to the scene. Then, they could experiment with how light or shadows would hit various characters in the scene, helping with creative decisions for both adding additional lighting and ensuring continuity.
MPC and Wylie Co. were also on board, leading previsualization on the film. While Fraser focused on lighting, Villeneuve developed the action sequences with MPC and Wylie Co. focusing on the visual effects. The production team worked in parallel to focus on the practical and financial questions of how to practically shoot these scenes six months down the line, while considering the many challenges posed by the desert locations. For instance, how can you capture what you need and maintain continuity when your hours are strictly limited each day due to heat? And how can you maneuver massive cranes, shadow makers, and other equipment in these dense sand dunes and narrow rock canyons? With Fraser’s extensive prep and Unreal Engine, production was able to make informed decisions to ensure success on set.
“I don’t know of any other system that would have been able to show us everything that Unreal Engine did,” says Derhammer. “So much of what we were doing was making decisions based on the sun’s path and the lighting and what time of year we were going to be there, and Unreal just visualized all of that for us. A two-minute sequence could actually take days to film, and we had to make sure the continuity was exactly what Denis and Greig wanted.”
“I don’t know of any other system that would have been able to show us everything that Unreal Engine did,” says Derhammer. “So much of what we were doing was making decisions based on the sun’s path and the lighting and what time of year we were going to be there, and Unreal just visualized all of that for us. A two-minute sequence could actually take days to film, and we had to make sure the continuity was exactly what Denis and Greig wanted.”
Using Unreal Engine as a communication medium across the key pre-production crew in Budapest, Villeneuve and Fraser could be exploring the scenes within VR, with others viewing exactly what they were seeing on an external monitor. This virtual scouting, covering everything from exterior desert locations to ornithopter interiors, enabled all department heads to be aligned on the creative vision, translate that down the ladder to the entire crew, and plan accordingly.
Derhammer explains, “This was so valuable across all departments. We’d get the art department in, even the sound department in to visualize how they were going to wire it. We were even able to figure out where we could stash air conditioning fans out of frame to keep the cast cool in the desert—small things like this that you normally wouldn’t work out until you arrive to set, and then you need to have the VFX team paint it out. With Unreal, you can address all of that beforehand, which is so nice.”
For one particular location in Wadi Rum, nicknamed “UFO Canyon” by the crew, Villeneuve wanted to capture part of a scene entirely in shadow—but based on the sun’s path, the team knew that they had a limited window to capture a natural shadow. To get the desired shot practically, they would need to bring in cranes with shadow makers; however, they were very limited by the steep and sandy natural environment. By manipulating the various equipment scenarios in Unreal Engine, Fraser, Key Gaffer Jamie Mills, and the production team devised a solution that would work with only three cranes—a big win for production both financially and logistically, as well as creatively, as fewer pieces of equipment mean a lower likelihood of them impeding the shot.
Derhammer explains, “This was so valuable across all departments. We’d get the art department in, even the sound department in to visualize how they were going to wire it. We were even able to figure out where we could stash air conditioning fans out of frame to keep the cast cool in the desert—small things like this that you normally wouldn’t work out until you arrive to set, and then you need to have the VFX team paint it out. With Unreal, you can address all of that beforehand, which is so nice.”
For one particular location in Wadi Rum, nicknamed “UFO Canyon” by the crew, Villeneuve wanted to capture part of a scene entirely in shadow—but based on the sun’s path, the team knew that they had a limited window to capture a natural shadow. To get the desired shot practically, they would need to bring in cranes with shadow makers; however, they were very limited by the steep and sandy natural environment. By manipulating the various equipment scenarios in Unreal Engine, Fraser, Key Gaffer Jamie Mills, and the production team devised a solution that would work with only three cranes—a big win for production both financially and logistically, as well as creatively, as fewer pieces of equipment mean a lower likelihood of them impeding the shot.
“The UFO Canyon location is when I first really fell in love with Unreal and realized the power of this technology and what it could do for our film,” says Derhammer. “This scene was so complex, but we (production, Greig, and Jamie) were able to figure out that if we had this particular type of crane, in this particular formation, and as the sun path moved, we could tilt the shadow maker in this way to give us more time to shoot in that location—that was a huge success because there was no way we were going to get nine cranes in there. It saved us so much time and money to know that in advance.”
Conversations like this were common in pre-production, as the crew knew they’d only have a limited window to get the right lighting in a given scene. Using Unreal Engine, they could explore whether it was valuable to bring in a shadow maker to help extend their time or whether that would end up introducing new shadows that would ruin the shot. For each instance, based on its distinct variables, they could decide accordingly months out how to capture precisely what they needed on set—a huge benefit from a production standpoint.
Conversations like this were common in pre-production, as the crew knew they’d only have a limited window to get the right lighting in a given scene. Using Unreal Engine, they could explore whether it was valuable to bring in a shadow maker to help extend their time or whether that would end up introducing new shadows that would ruin the shot. For each instance, based on its distinct variables, they could decide accordingly months out how to capture precisely what they needed on set—a huge benefit from a production standpoint.
“Ultimately, Unreal was such a powerful tool for us because it enabled everyone that needed to know the vision, to know the vision,” concludes Derhammer. “I would encourage other productions to explore Unreal as a technique that can help you support your director as much as possible, because that’s what filmmaking is all about.”
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