Real Time Worlds provided us with a very detailed shotlist & storyboard, however, the only in-game assets available were models of the cops. Everything else, like the gang members and customised cars, had to be designed and built by us from scratch.
The animators at RealtimeUK started by producing a basic animatic from the 2D storyboard to demonstrate the timings and camera angles of the animation. Once the cameras were pinned down the next stage was to build up the visible sections of the city, adding detail only where required. This made the process much more efficient and cost effective, as no time was wasted building parts of the city that would never be seen.
Once the animatic had been approved it was passed to the team of character animators and vehicle motion specialists to fine tune before adding the finishing touches such as tyre smoke, skid marks, gun flashes and even animated litter. Utilising client provided concept art RealtimeUK also created animated intro titles and outro sequences for the trailer.
The animation was turned around quickly considering there were very minimal assets to start with. RealtimeUK’s previous experience working on other projects within the games sector gave the client the confidence that RealtimeUK would be able to deliver the required quality sequence in time for E3.
