Our team was asked to create a promotional video and titles for the 2015 Game Awards event in Los Angeles. Our approach was based on the theme "How do you play?" Viewers are taken along a gamer’s electric pathway through our mechanical labyrinth to illuminate & empower the core of the 2015 Game Awards statue. We implemented a mixture of practical FX, CG animation and multi-media motion graphics. The score was also created using a variety of synthesizers, vocoders, percussion and abstract sound recordings.

PROMOTION VIDEO

PROJECTION TEXTURES

My main role on this project was projection and lighting design, so to give life to the props I tried to develop a unique glitch language that added a bit of an organic feel to the cold circuitry. Combining our color palate with layers of animated noise patterns rendered in C4D, the final compositions where combined in After Effects using a variety of feedback effects to give it a naturally glitchy feel. Below are a selection of stills from the projection animations:

TEXTURES PROCESS

The creation of each projection texture started in Cinema 4D, and ended in a multilayered composition in After Effects. I started by creating a library of raw materials in Cinema. This meant making a variety of animated noise patterns and B&W mattes I could use as masks in After Effects:

Next I took all these layers, tinted the blacks & whites to colors within the video's color palate, and combined them using multiple masked layers. The glitch grain was added by using the same library of animations as maps for time + position offset.

PROJECTIONS EDIT

Here is a quick compilation of select moments from the various animation files we used on this project.

TROPHY

The Game Awards 2015 Trophy was the centerpiece of the promo video. Designed by the talented crew at Weta Workshop, this stoic figurine is brought to life by a variety of lighting techniques, notably using the above projection animations.

CIRCUIT BOARDS

Using a combination of dismantled computer circuitry and television hardware we created an environmental platform on which to create some unique practical lighting effects. After carefully transferring masses of glow-stick liquid into larger containers we where able to use gravity to funnel the liquid through the scene with clear surgical tubing. This became a practical lighting element as well as an animation / design tool.