Introduction
Welcome to a behind the scenes look at the Rise of Nations opening cinematic. Our tour begins back in July of last year when Microsoft's Doug Herring, MS Game Studios' Art Director, and Mike Mandel, MS Intern Program Manager, began brainstorming potential treatments and concepts. From those brainstorm sessions Doug constructed a series of animatics. An animatic is a preliminary movie composed of scanned photos, sketches, and/or stock footage set to placeholder music. The primary purpose is to provide an early glimpse of the pacing, transitions, lighting, and overall mood. Think of it as a detailed sketch before embarking on the master painting.
After completing the animatic Microsoft invited the Big Huge team in for further brainstorm sessions. Ideas and sketches were exchanged through numerous emails and phone calls, combining each of our own visions into a shared game plan. Here's a sampling of some of our early notes...
ˇEnding should be on a positive note, possibly not using military for the Modern Era
ˇAttempt to include as many nations as possible
ˇStrive for creative transitions between segments
ˇMore extensive use of wonders (one in each age?)
ˇMovie should be widescreen for epic effect
Armed with the notes and animatic Big Huge and Microsoft set out to find just the right animation house to deliver the final product. After pouring over mountains of demo tapes we chose the talented group at Blur for the task. Their extensive experience in game cinematics and polished production values were just what the doctor ordered.
The next step involved storyboards. Blur delivered a batch of sketches detailing each scene with extensive notes describing everything from time of day, intended movement, and potential costume and environmental details. After hanging the sketches on the playtest lab wall the MS/BHG team finalized revision suggestions and settled on what would be the final blueprint, paving the way for the character and environment modeling to begin. This is where it gets really interesting!
Every few weeks we'd receive a new batch of 3D still renders. Early peasants, a sprawling Greek city, WWI soldiers, and an ancient Asian dock were all part of the updates. In an effort to achieve historical accuracy we would pore over the renders agonizing over the most minute bit of detail. As an example here's a couple of snippets culled from the myriad of emails between Big Huge, Microsoft and Blur discussing the finer points of WWI weaponry and clothing...
"The line trooper is actually carrying a mace. These murderous cudgels were hand-made by the frontline troops from scrap. In the close quarters of hand-to-hand trench fighting such primitive horrors were vastly more effective than rifles or knives. I found a couple of extant specimens for sale by dealers. The entrenching tool is hanging from his belt- it's a short shovel carried in a leather "frog", as the military calls such things. As a side note, soldiers on both sides often sharpened their shovels to a knife's-edge for hand-to-hand- can you imagine the grisly combat?"
"A few observations about the renders:
1. The image 'blur2.jpg' shows a very late war (1918) helmet with camouflage, so it wouldn't apply too much for a 1916 scenario. In the sketch, it's a very late war helmet he's got on.
2. The bolts on the steel helmet in the sketch are too far forward and should be more on the sides of the helmet - see attached ref photos. To me, that was the first thing I noticed.
Apart from all that, I think it looks pretty good. He's definitely done his homework about the improvised weapon and I thought that was a nice touch."
Aaaaaah, nothing like a little back and forth banter on the intricacies of WWI weaponry. In the end though this attention to detail pays off as the scenes come alive with a striking level of realism and authenticity.
So without further adieu we present a behind the scenes look at the Rise of Nations opening cinematic...
Dave Inscore
VP Graphics
Big Huge Games
Intro | Storyboards | Sketches & Renders | Download Trailer
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