The Mill Chicago was approached to help promote the newest addition to the God of War game franchise. This was the second project, out of a handful for The Mill Chicago, and it used the in game element of the triptych.
The device is dominantly used for storytelling, helping players understand back story and context for each scene. The character we focused on was The Dead Stone Mason, one of the most epic enemies of the game.
The brief was brief. We received a single page PDF, a single image, and three paragraphs of text. The rest was up to us. If you've been in situations like this, it can be extremely liberating, but also create a lot of pressure.
We were given 5 weeks to produce 2 minutes of animation, with a budget that allowed for a 5 man team. Given that kind of pacing, we had to decide what kind of concessions needed to be made to deliver on time, but still produce a polished end product. The largest one for us was that the camera would have to do most of the work. We could pull off some smaller secondary character animation, but to finish on time, we had to be smart.
We lucked out with an amazing team on this one. I couldn't be happier and more proud with the level of texturing, lighting, cel animation pieces in the backgrounds, everything came together on this one.
The device is dominantly used for storytelling, helping players understand back story and context for each scene. The character we focused on was The Dead Stone Mason, one of the most epic enemies of the game.
The brief was brief. We received a single page PDF, a single image, and three paragraphs of text. The rest was up to us. If you've been in situations like this, it can be extremely liberating, but also create a lot of pressure.
We were given 5 weeks to produce 2 minutes of animation, with a budget that allowed for a 5 man team. Given that kind of pacing, we had to decide what kind of concessions needed to be made to deliver on time, but still produce a polished end product. The largest one for us was that the camera would have to do most of the work. We could pull off some smaller secondary character animation, but to finish on time, we had to be smart.
We lucked out with an amazing team on this one. I couldn't be happier and more proud with the level of texturing, lighting, cel animation pieces in the backgrounds, everything came together on this one.
Installation | PlayStation Experience
Credits
Client: God of War
Animation Company: The Mill+
Creative Director: Jeff Boddy
Art Director: Matt Darnall
Technical Director: Josh Van Praag
Producer: Tracey Kahn
CG Animators: Josh Van Praag, Michael Kislovsky, Zach Landua, Krzystoff Pianko, Andrez Aguayo
Modeling & Texturing: Riyad Hassan, Kathyrn Dougan, Zach Landua
Compositing: Matthew Darnall, Josh Van Praag, Michael Kislovsky, Zach Landua, Krzystoff Pianko
Animation Company: The Mill+
Creative Director: Jeff Boddy
Art Director: Matt Darnall
Technical Director: Josh Van Praag
Producer: Tracey Kahn
CG Animators: Josh Van Praag, Michael Kislovsky, Zach Landua, Krzystoff Pianko, Andrez Aguayo
Modeling & Texturing: Riyad Hassan, Kathyrn Dougan, Zach Landua
Compositing: Matthew Darnall, Josh Van Praag, Michael Kislovsky, Zach Landua, Krzystoff Pianko