Our brief from SCEE was to produce a high quality animation to equal that of the previous intro animations we had created. We needed to make sure it incorporated the same cheesy humour, like before, as well as ensuring that a glamorous look and feel was still achieved.
Pre-production played a vital part in this project because not only did we have new outfits to design but we also had a new character to create, the Floor Manager. We put together mood boards and concept sketches for the outfits and new character and once approved by SCEE, they were worked up in 3D. The pre-production phase also involved us creating a number of new environments from scratch.
The Floor Manager character brings a real sense of purpose and humour to the animation as he makes his journey to collect all of the contestants, whilst being subjected to a number of sporting injuries along the way! He entices each of them with a new contract, but does run into trouble with Buzz, who is adamant that he is going to win a £1 million prize for golf, but one sneeze from the Floor Manager puts an end to that dream. He is then able to deliver all the contestants, in true celebrity style aka by golf buggy, to the studio to be part of the Buzz! Sports Quiz game.
Chris Fenna, RealtimeUK’s Animation Director, commented that “as we had been lucky enough to have created a number of animations for the Buzz games, we had a really great understanding of the style and humour that needed to be injected into the animation. “
Compared to previous projects, SCEE had a lot more input and involvement from a storyline point of view, so our first step was to look at the script that they had put together, which ended up forming the basis of the animation. Chris Fenna then set about working on the script and introduced narrative and direction to the story.
In the intro you see each of the characters turn their hand to a new sport with varying results. The sport they are playing reflects their personality and characteristics, which people have become familiar with from the previous games. For example, Pelvis is unsuccessfully playing darts, whilst attempting to cram a giant burger in his mouth, and Gina is in a tennis court but is more worried about trying to look gorgeous.
