Today DEEP, a new animated film based in a post-apocalyptic Earth where humanity has moved underwater to stay alive, was announced. It is being directed by Shane Acker, who previously worked on the Tim Burton produced 9, and is being animated by the Ireland-based Brown Bag Films, who previously made the Oscar nominated short films Give Up Yer Aul Sins and Granny O'Grimm. The story revolves around the crew of a nuclear submarine, the Norwood, as they try to discover the secrets of the Wayfarers.
The DEEP team have been provided tools based off Valve's Source engine, which has powered all of Valve's games since 2004. The Source engine is allowing Brown Bag much more flexible cinematography than traditional computer-animation methods and allows for a much simpler character animation process while allowing them to render in real time. This brings them massive savings in time and money compared to traditional animation processes.
Because Source is primarily a game engine the assets for the film can be easily translated into a video game format and the team are already working on a level to be distributed via Steam, perhaps something like the Super 8 teaser featured in Portal 2? User-created content also features in the plans for the video game side of the DEEP universe.
One of the film's producers, Gregory R. Little has said:
Source: Market Watch.
