Building Beyond Babylon: Malaysia's First Cyberpunk Motion Capture Animation

What happens when traditional film methodology collides with real-time game engine pipelines? You get Beyond Babylon, Pixljaya's first original IP and, as far as we know, Malaysia's first cyberpunk animation built entirely around real-time motion capture and Unreal Engine. The project was produced with Summit Features and supported by Vicon, using Vicon Valkyrie performance-capture cameras.

Directed by Wan Muhammad Irfan, with Animation Director Zulfahmi Othman and MoCap Supervisor Yury Kordas, Beyond Babylon is not just a proof of concept. It is a direct challenge to the status quo of local animation.

Ancient mythology meets dystopian sci-fi

Beyond Babylon was conceived not as a standalone short but as the foundation of an expansive, multi-format storyworld built for an international audience.

"Beyond Babylon is a new cinematic universe that combines ancient mythology and a dystopian future for a new generation. We are building it as a global IP, combining powerful storytelling with groundbreaking filmmaking technologies."

Eugene Trubetskoy
Executive Producer

To sustain a universe of that scale without a conventional multi-year budget, the director set out to shift local storytelling norms by pushing motion capture realism into heavier, more mature territory.

"I wanted to challenge the norm of the animation industry in Malaysia by producing heavier and more mature themes in animation."

Wan Muhammad Irfan
Director

High-fidelity mocap, cost-efficient workflow

Building a photorealistic sci-fi world from scratch is expensive. To deliver a high-concept cyberpunk proof of concept efficiently, the team ran a smart internal pipeline strategy.

"Beyond Babylon really is a proof of concept showing how we can utilise high-fidelity motion capture in an animation pipeline, drastically reducing animation time while maintaining premium visual quality."

Zulfahmi Othman
Animation Director

Three moves made it work:

• Strategic kit-bashing via Fab. Sourcing foundational 3D environments and hard-surface assets from Fab, Epic Games' marketplace, removed thousands of hours of initial modelling.
• Focus on performance and narrative. Sparing technical overhead meant maximum attention went to casting, dialogue, and directing human performances.
• Real-time mocap integration. Live actor performances piped straight into Unreal Engine, bypassing traditional hand-key animation delays.
  

A hybrid film pipeline

What makes Beyond Babylon distinctive is that it runs like a live-action film set during production, then becomes an all-digital real-time project in post.

Pre-production and on-set, the film approach. Scripting and world-building carried the weight of a live-action feature. Physical actors were cast to perform on stage, and their performances were captured on set, holding nuance, body language, and dramatic timing in real time.

Post-production, the real-time engine approach. Environment assembly, dynamic lighting, atmospheric fog, and camera direction were handled entirely inside Unreal Engine. Rendered passes then moved into DaVinci Resolve Studio for editorial, cinematic colour grading, and final sound design.

The future of original IP at Pixljaya

Beyond Babylon marks a shift for us, from a high-tech facility into a creative IP generator.

"We're here to empower creative excellence, and Beyond Babylon proves exactly that. This is just the beginning."

Elena Kucheriavaia
Founder

By combining our LED studio, full motion capture pipeline, and Unreal Engine virtual production, we are building tools that let local creators tell bigger stories on a global stage without international budget constraints. Expect more original, genre-pushing content from us soon.

Push your narrative to international standards

Whether you are developing an original animated series, a feature film proof of concept, or a narrative-driven commercial, come see the pipeline that brought Beyond Babylon to life. Visit our LED and motion capture stage inside MMU Cyberjaya, test real-time mocap data in Unreal Engine, and work through your idea with our technical directors.