Defect
New Virtual Production project
See projectOn March 18th, during an online event SQUARE ENIX PRESENTS, a cinematic that we created for OUTRIDERS™ had its premiere. The game is developed by the Polish studio People Can Fly®.
Snowy mountain peaks, a city at war, jungles, and forgotten temples – these are just some of the locations that viewers can admire in our new production. Our task was to create a dynamic animation presenting the game’s rich world and giving the entire cinematic an appropriate narrative. Bartek Kik – the trailer’s director, Marek Gajowski – CG Supervisor and Michał Niewiara – Art Director, talk about the expectations, inspirations, and goals of the creators.
“Platige did an amazing job bringing our original storyboards and ideas to life. They successfully captured a vast journey across a planet preying and feeding on humanity, that is of course until the beasts of Enoch meet the Outriders…” – says Jon Brooke co-Studio Head for Square Enix External Studios.
“The inspiration for creating the environments was a handbook of the OUTRIDERS world, filled with imageries and concepts, which we received from People Can Fly. Thanks to this, we were able to take a closer look at the crucial elements of production. Our inspiration was also drawn from observing nature, looking for real locations similar to those from the game, and then selecting elements that suited us.” comments Marek Gajowski.
For the purposes of the cinematic we created 8 superbly developed and diverse environments and ecosystems, each with dozens of characteristic and unique elements such as vegetation, terrain, or architecture. All details were developed in close collaboration with Square Enix, who also provided us with the storyboard and animatic.
“The course of events in the cinematics was suggested by the client. Then, in cooperation with a storyboard artist, Andrzej Grzechnik, we worked out all the details and created the final vision. Our client was fully trusting and open to our ideas and suggestion, thanks to which, together we managed to work out a dynamic interpretation of the action and locations existing in the game. Obviously, we have added some movie magic to the whole thing so that the final product fully reflected the atmosphere of the game and was attractive to the viewer, both in terms of plot and visuals.” adds Bartek Kik.
Apart from the locations, our artists also made 20 characters and other creatures occupying cities, forests, mountains, and deserts.
I set myself an honorary goal to make each scene as clear as possible and by using light, tone, and composition, I tried to achieve the desired effect.” Michał Niewiara sums up. “The project itself is an example of all around great cooperation. What began as a sketch, which determined the direction, was reproduced and enriched with the smallest details, so that each of us had a chance to express ourselves artistically within the existing universe.