How Small Studios Can Think Big With Unreal Engine

Thursday 12 Nov 2026 - 12:00
Anthony Burgess Foundation
Runtime: 75 mins (approx.)

Join Bradley Harris, CEO of Krygon Studios, for a behind-the-scenes look at how a small independent studio is using Unreal Engine to take on ambitious work across animation, visual effects, and virtual production.

At the heart of the session is Sven, the MetaHuman Orangutan, a performance-driven digital character created for an independent feature film. Built using Unreal Engine 5, the MetaHuman ecosystem, Houdini groom workflows, and Vicon motion capture, Sven became a test of whether a small team could create the kind of high-end digital character work traditionally associated with much larger VFX productions.

But Sven is only part of the story.

Bradley will explore how Krygon has built real-time workflows around Unreal Engine to allow a compact team to work at a much greater scale, from performance capture and digital characters to virtual production, animation, and final-pixel imagery.

The session will look at the creative and technical challenges behind Sven, the lessons learned along the way, and how real-time technology is changing what is possible for independent studios.

This event is supported by:

Guests

Bradley Harris

Bradley Harris is the founder and CEO of Krygon Studios, an Emmy-winning game development and digital production studio based in Greater Manchester. With nearly two decades of experience across games, animation and real-time production, Brad specialises in high-end 3D art, character development and Unreal Engine workflows. His recent work explores how real-time technology, performance capture and MetaHuman can enable small creative teams to deliver ambitious, high-quality animation and VFX.