Find out how creative production studio Mi produced eye-popping intro cinematics for Sony’s suite of Augmented Reality games for the new Vita console
Manchester-based creative production studio, Mi, created the spectacular CG intros for the Vita console launch.
Each film sets the scene for each Augmented Reality game, and alludes to the way the games are played, in a fun way.
The intros feature a pair of rival houses, a cool-looking character diving off a kitchen table, and some football teams who can’t move properly due to their plastic bases!
We caught up with Gareth Thatcher, Technical Director and Adam Dickinson, Production Director to discuss the project and ask them about the challenges they faced in creating the intro films.
3D World: How did the brief come about?
Mi: The senior Sony producers were aware of our work and had worked with our Production director before, they knew we had what it took to take the intros from conception to final quality, the prior working relationships cemented our reputation for excellence and punctuality, thus overwhelmingly convincing them we were the right people for the job.
3DW: What was your company responsible for?
Mi: Creating five animations to introduce and set the scene for the Sony Vita AR release titles.
3DW: What 3D software did you use?
Mi: We used Maya, 3ds Max and V-Ray
3DW: What was the most useful piece of software and why?
Mi: Maya was the most useful piece of software due to being able to reference in the character rigs into each scene, I would also say the FBX plugin too as it was quicker for our Max artists to model and export to Maya and vice versa for the Maya artists.
3DW: What was the most impressive technical aspect of the project and how was it achieved using 3D software?
Mi: The most technical aspect was faced when having to create the fireworks house animations without any houses. We weren’t going to be receiving the models until a later date and we really needed to push ahead with the animation due to the already tight deadline. We came up with a rig solution which drove a series of controls which would in turn deform any geometry within them. When we received the final house models we replaced the proxy geometry, tweaked the animation and still had time to spare!
3DW: What did you learn from the production? Did you do anything wrong?
Mi: Due to the tight timescale we couldn’t afford to get anything wrong, we spent more time at preproduction planning every detail, the games were launch titles so it was critical to make the deadlines.
See the Fireworks intro via the Mi website
The Fireworks were created in 3ds Max, Mi used Particle Flow and FumeFx for the fireworks and rockets, and it was all rendered with V-Ray
Cliff diving was created and animated in Maya and also rendered with V-Ray
The intro film for the Table Football game features some footballers who can’t move properly due to their plastic bases!
Thanks to Gareth Thatcher, Technical Director and Adam Dickinson, Production Director for granting us this interview
Posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2012 at 2:41 pm under Commercial, Showcase. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Tags: Augmented Reality games, Friday Animation Fun, launch intros, Mi, Sony Vita, Vita console
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