Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR Reveal Trailer
Become AN Assassin
Cinematic Trailer
THE CHALLENGE
Become the Assassin
Assassin’s Creed is one of the most influential gaming IPs in the world today. Seeing the franchise make the leap to VR is no small feat, and we’re proud to have partnered with Ubisoft to unveil this exhilarating new chapter.
The primary mission was to capture the feeling of being an assassin. For the first time in the franchise’s history, it’s not about controlling an avatar but becoming the avatar yourself. Looking through the assassin’s eyes and experiencing their world first hand: running along the rooftops of Venice, moving stealthily amid civil conflict in early Boston, or diving head first into close-quarter combat in ancient Athens, we crafted quite a homage to the already legendary stories while diving head-set first toward the future of the series in VR.
THE APPROACH
CINEMATIC DEPICTION
When tasked with recreating the gameplay experience, we worked closely with the development team at Ubisoft along with the incredible team at Woodblock to translate their game’s vision and art direction into a cinematic trailer that captures the essence of the gameplay.
When shaping the narrative of the announcement trailer, we paid close attention to the three main gameplay pillars: Stealth, Parkour, and Combat and how they relate to each assassin’s storyline and personality traits: Connor embraces the shadows when trailing a target, crawling behind barricades for the right time to attack. Kassandra showcases how fluid, raw, and aggressive the combat can be, translating beautifully to a VR experience.
As we reach the final arc in Venice, we witness the reveal of the legendary Ezio as he freely traverses the skyline using iconic parkour movements. Being a fan favorite and seeing him return to the franchise in VR is the highlight of the piece.
RESYNC
A Tear in Reality
Here, we make it personal and embrace the first-person transportive experience of Assassin’s Creed in VR. Staying entirely in the game world, true to the first-person POV, we resync to the new timelines seamlessly within the action of the spot. This is about harnessing our need for excitement, exploring other places and times, and unleashing the assassin inside us all.
Inspired by the abstract constructs seen in “Memory Corridors” across the franchise, we designed a transitional element to transport our player between the timelines of the three Assassins we play as in Nexus, such as freezing time in the American Revolution and then resynchronize our player to a similar moment in Ancient Greece. For a short moment, the worlds bleed together as digital shards deconstruct one timeline and piece together the other.
THE SHOOT
Robots and Lights
We shot live-action segments with a state-of-the-art, programmable robot arm to connect the CGI cinematic cameras seamlessly with our high-speed live-action plates. Our team first animated the camera moves in pre-viz. That data was then fed into the motion control rig, resulting in a 1:1 sync that allowed us to perfectly blend all of the live-action footage, gameplay reenactments, and VFX.
THE PAYOFF
A New Perspective
Of all the gaming franchises out there that could make the leap to VR, Assassins Creed is one of the most apt. Its core gameplay conceit is about one’s awareness of their surroundings while embodying different personas through the ages; granting full immersion into wildly different realities.
For a little extra fan service, we’re nodding to the past reveal trailers of each assassin we’ll play as in AC Nexus. Astute fans will notice the moves from each, reworked to lend itself to the narrative of Nexus. Connor mid-air releasing an arrow into a captain, Ezio falling to the floor in the view of his opponent, to the choreography between the fierce battles of AC Odyssey. All lovingly recreated in first person perspective.
