The setting for animation was concocted at a brainstorming session we had with SCEE and the games developer. We agreed that a boot camp would be the perfect setting and we introduced a robot sergeant character to serve as a narrator. We also scripted training activities that the Robots are attempting to complete in the intro.
From a styling perspective we took inspiration from children’s cartoons, including some of the retro cartoons from the 1970’s.
Our Animation Director, Chris Fenna scoured the game levels and selected a number of scenarios that would be visually dynamic and give the audience a real flavour of the game. At this stage Chris explains “the script almost splits into two sections, the first being the arrival of the new recruits at boot camp and seeing them failing at the tasks set by the sergeant. The second stage moves on to show the recruits demonstrating that practice makes perfect and mastering the tasks.”
The storyline was certainly the biggest challenge and one of the most time consuming parts of the project as there was a lot of action to squeeze into just 60 seconds. A firm storyboard was developed, and once approved by the SCEE, it enabled our production team to create an animatic of the entire animation, giving everyone a clear understanding of the shots, pace and flow of the sequence.
The animation relied quite heavily on ensuring the cartoon timing and styling was correct, however this meant that the pace was quicker than with previous Buzz! intros and we could fit in all the required action into the 1 minute time frame.
RealtimeUK Managing Director Tony Prosser comments “The joy of doing this sort of project was that it felt like a mini-movie because it has a start, middle and end and as such works independently from the game. It is also a great boost for the team here at RealtimeUK that SCEE have such confidence in our creative abilities.”
