Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War & Warzone™ CINEMATIC TRAILER

The middle of the cold war – a conflict between the Soviet Union and the West starts to aggravate. Experience the neon vibe of the 80’s on your own skin!

We had a chance to create a cinematic trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold & Warzone. The trailer announces the next part of the game produced by Activision studio. Director Damian Nenow and CG supervisor Hubert Zegardło talk about the process of creating the animation and the challenges the creators faced.

This tension-building video depicts the origins of the anger of one of the main protagonists and introduces the audience to the dark atmosphere of the 1980s. We prepared the animation using the assets and script developed by the Call of Duty team.

The Call of Duty team is a fantastic team of positive and very creative people. I highly value productions such as this one – where we become a real partner for the customer; productions with space for a creative dialogue that is full of mutual respect. As fans of the series, we felt both excitement and pressure when working on this project. – says Damian Nenow. – We translated the script into a film language throughout the storyboard, animatics and previz stages. We proposed a choreography, its placement in the set, the editing as well as the full cinematic form of the trailer.

The script is merely the start of countless possibilities for further interpretation. Each of those elements must be expanded and converted to become part of our CGI – says Hubert Zegardło. – This is true for the technical-asset aspect, visible for example in the almost entirely new interpretation of the character that has very limited in-game details, reshaping the character into a detailed model with millions of polygons; but this is also true for the camera shots, the use of appropriate framing, the acting and lighting of the virtual set.

The visual aspect of the undertaking features the projects of Karol Klonowski (Art Director), which are largely the result of the script and the special needs of the customer. Furthermore, we can see a ‘photo collage’ in the trailer in which the 3D animation intertwines with 2D shots.

The first part of the trailer aimed at depicting the brutal nature of the attack and the anger of one of the main protagonists. Karol emphasized these requirements using a dark lighting atmosphere and red accents.- says Hubert Zegardło -On the other hand, the second part is to introduce the audience to the unique atmosphere of the 1980s. Thus, the colourful interiors of the shopping centre, illuminated by neon lights that were popular at that time.

Initially, the ‘photo collage’ sequence was supposed to serve as a typical retrospective. Its two-dimensional character was also intended to largely optimise the production and add a more emotional touch to it. The team lead by Karol Klonowski created a very visually convincing scene, and the idea itself as well as the final effect were very well received.- says Damian Nenow.

Players have enthusiastically reacted to the trailer, which was viewed over 500 thousand times in the first 24 hours since its premiere. You can watch our cinematic here.

Credits