CD Projekt Red hiring Clair Obscur cinematic animator to close UE5 pipeline gaps on The Witcher 4
Summary
CD Projekt Red hired Sandfall Interactive's cinematic animator Lucie Hennet for its Warsaw studio working on The Witcher 4
Hennet built a UE5 cinematic animation pipeline from scratch at Sandfall, directly relevant to CDPR's first major UE5 title
The hire reflects a broader pattern: AAA studios sourcing specialized UE5 talent from breakout indie teams
"It's just full-scale production proceeding at its pace, as per our internal plans"
01
Hennet's skillset targets CDPR's engine transition risk
Her Sandfall role focused on cleaning facial and body mocap and managing Xsens-to-UE5 data pipelines
She also helped build the animation pipeline for cinematics, a foundational infrastructure task
The Witcher 4 is CDPR's first major title on Unreal Engine 5, replacing proprietary REDengine
Recruiting someone who already built a UE5 cinematic pipeline under indie constraints reduces tooling ramp-up time
02
Indie breakout teams are becoming AAA talent farms
Sandfall's cinematic team won GOTY at The Game Awards, Golden Joystick, New York Game Awards, and D.I.C.E.
That awards sweep validated Sandfall's small team as a benchmark for AAA-quality cinematics
Specialists who built pipelines under resource constraints carry more transferable production knowledge than large-studio counterparts
BD signal: expect more AAA poaching from award-winning indie teams with proven UE5 output
03
Warsaw on-site hire confirms Witcher 4 as top resourcing priority
Hennet relocated from France to Warsaw for an on-site role, not a remote position
CDPR's Warsaw studio leads The Witcher 4; Vancouver and Boston handle Cyberpunk 2 and Project Sirius
A 2026 release has been officially ruled out, giving the team runway to build pipeline depth
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