The first part of the shooter “Tom Clancy’s The Division”, developed by Massive Entertainment and Red Storm Entertainment and published by Ubisoft, was released in 2016. In this game, an epidemic breaks out in New York City, the so-called dollar flu. Many people die from it, life in the city comes to a standstill after just a few days and chaos reigns. The Strategic Homeland Division, or the Division for short, is activated to deal with the situation. This secret special unit, consisting of sleeper agents, becomes active when all other state institutions and measures fail.
Part 2 begins seven months after the action of the first part: Despite the antidote found for the dollar flu, social order is still threatened with collapse. In Washington, D.C., numerous factions such as the Hyenas and the True Sons are fighting for power in the capital. Only the Division agents are well enough equipped to counter this threat and protect the remaining civilians.
Two trailers, two targets
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 was released in March 2019 for Windows, Xbox One and Playstation 4. Ubisoft had two trailers developed for the announcement of the game: Platige Image created the official cinematic trailer and Antibody realised the “Washington D.C. Aftermath” trailer.
This one uses motion graphics to give viewers a lot of information about the events that took place before the gameplay. Both trailers have different goals – Eric Moutardier, Brand Director at Massive Entertainment, knows what they are: “The goal of the film trailer is to create emotion by giving viewers an incentive to want to fight for our game heroes. In the trailer, we focused on the changed situation and conditions of the game world and placed its unique atmosphere at the centre. The motion design trailer, on the other hand, is embedded in the context of the game and conveys facts about Washington, D.C. It should also create a mysterious feeling around the Division story.” Creating an immersive gaming experience is hugely important to Ubisoft in its games. To achieve this, it is crucial to take the logic of the game world seriously. With the help of the information and statistics shown in the trailer, this logic can be transferred to gamers. It is also a narrative trademark of The Division games: Ubisoft already released a trailer of this kind for the first instalment.
It all depends on the right artist
The design studio Antibody was responsible for the motion graphics trailer. The team worked on the realisation for a total of four months – from the first call for the job to the delivery of the final film. The main software used was Cinema 4D for the animation and After Effects for the compositing. However, the team also built the 2D and 3D assets using other programmes such as Maya, ZBrush and more. The crowd simulations were created with X-Particles. The rendering was realised with Octane and a solid GPU rig.
When it comes to the pipeline, Antibody is not focussing on the technical tools. Instead, the team follows the maxim: the right artist for each element. Once this has been found, they can work with the tool they feel most comfortable with.
Lots of red and smooth transitions
The previs phase was very thorough: the artists spent several months working on the storyboards, which they all drew by hand. In these, the team defined the transitions and the tempo. “In this way, the ideas lead the technology and not the other way round,” says Patrick Claire, Creative Director at Antibody. Antibody then developed the design frames and the boardomatics. Finally came the CGI previs, in which the shots were replaced with and by final shots.
The reference for the design of the look was the “Division” game itself. Claire and his team looked at the rich colours of the game world, and together they repainted American icons such as Washington, D.C., the presidential statues, cemeteries, etc. “I’m obsessed with the colour red. That’s why there are many different shades of red in the trailer, which are technically very close to each other, but trigger completely different emotional reactions in the audience.” As motion design films rely on excellent colour design to create an impressive whole, the team invested a lot of time in this: “In the design scheme, we let an all-time complex orange dominate, which we combined with pink and red tones to give the orange and amber more depth and interest.” For the bespoke look, the team took Normal and Reflection maps and coloured them in a specific way. They also added a lot of simple colour mattes and used depth passes to create fog effects in some areas.
Because the narrative pace of the trailer had to remain moderate and the communication clear, the script was the biggest challenge in the development process. To find the right pace, the team imagined it as a conversation with the audience. “The pace of the narrative voice determines EVERYTHING. In this way, we engage the audience through the spoken language and the information on the screen becomes secondary,” says the Creative Director. The transitions between the various images and scenes in particular give the trailer its aesthetic speciality. According to Patrick, the style of the video resulted in this in a very natural way. “We stuck closely to the script and the ideas and developed the transitions in such a way that they match the flow of the narrative and don’t hinder it. Because story is king!”
Simulated collapse
The scenes in the trailer are based on 3D objects with numerous 2D details. The team found the design of the collapsing city to be the most interesting part of the project: “We developed crowd behaviour that simulates how a riot could break out. The finished video doesn’t focus on this, but there are layers over the map of Washington, D.C. that show how fear spreads through a crowd,” explains Patrick.
The symbols represent police, civilians and aggressive rioters. In the simulated riot, a conflict breaks out in a certain zone, to which the police react, causing the crowd around them to panic. Some icons then symbolise “die” and turn into X letters, indicating the civilian victims. “It was interesting to think about how to visualise the mass panic and violence that can occur during an epidemic in a crowded public space,” says the Creative Director.
The motion design category will once again be part of this year’s animago AWARD. We will know who will receive the trophy on 2 November. That’s when the 2019 AWARDS ceremony will take place at the Alte Kongresshalle in Munich.
