HAZARD AND THE PHREAKS
A cinematic heist trailer featuring Cyberpunk characters set in the Overwatch universe? Yes, please! We were honored to partner with Blizzard Entertainment to help bring the characters of Hazard and his team of Phreaks to life for the small screen. We put it all on the table with this one, to bring all the action and cool moments to the fans of the game. Featuring a blend of 2D and 3D character animation, trippy design, and that iconic illustrated style that Blizzard is known for – we really had to nail every step of the process, from script and storyboarding all the way to compositing.
Design played a huge part, not only in applying a cohesive feel throughout the spot, but also in adding a fun, powerful touch to the transformation of Hazard. We were given a lot of freedom to just go wild for the transformation – and we really brought our A game for it. Overall we had a blast bringing these characters to life and can’t wait to see where Hazard goes next!
MIXING 3D and 2D
The goal was set at the very beginning of the project – we needed to hit that iconic illustrative look Blizzard origin stories are known for. The catch? Hazard will be fully animated and rendered in 3D to give us the flexibility we need to bring his character to life – everything else from his teammates to the environment will be completely 2D illustrated and brought to life in After Effects animation and compositing. This required a bit of look development to get the lighting and shadows on Hazard to match what the illustration team was outputting. A particular challenge was getting the shadows on Hazard so didn’t feel like he was a 3D character with 3D toon shading, which often feels jittery and distracting.
2.5D ACTION
Our 2D animation team really had their work cut out for them on this one – and they delivered every step of the way. Creating 2.5D head rigs for the characters helped to hide the fact these are just flat illustrations of the characters. As a result we had the flexibility to really amp up the action and movement of all the characters, helping give this a more iconic anime feel through the piece.
VANADIUM INFUSED
Towards the end of the spot, Hazard makes the tough decision to inject himself with the Vanadium. This is ultimately how Hazard becomes the character players will play in the game – so it’s an important moment, to say the least. The objective was simple: go nuts. Using our main motif of digital glitches we created a breadth of elements layered on top of each other to really hit home the chaotic and disorienting nature of the transformation that Hazard is going through, while also showing the power of his new form.
STYLEFRAMES
Towards the end of the spot – Hazard makes the tough decision to inject himself with the Vanadium. This is ultimately how Hazard becomes the character players will play in the game – so its an important moment to say the least. The objective was simple: go nuts. Using our main motif of digital glitches we created a breath of elements layered on top of each other to really hit home the chaotic disorienting nature of the transformation Hazard is going through but also the power he now has in his new form.
ENVIRONMENT ILLUSTRATION
We partnered with our friends at Mad Boogie to help us craft the illustrations used throughout the project, from environments to characters. One important part was to bring the map of Oasis University and lab to life. This entailed various matte paintings both exterior of the outside city, to the corridors and hallways within the university and lab.
STORY TO SCREEN
Bringing it all together – below is showcasing a little before and after images to highlight the process of going from a storyboard image to final finished product.
THAT ONE SCRATCHED
THE PAINT
We had an absolute blast bringing this trailer to life. It really helped us continue to show our power in 2D animation while also allowing us to flex our 3D animation skills, which we love to do. We are proud of how this came out and excited to continue pushing ourselves to new places in the type of work we take on!
