We teamed up with our friends at Blizzard Entertainment to break freedom fighter Vanessa VanCleef out of The Violet Hold prison in a new 2.5D Cinematic.
For centuries, the floating city of Dalaran has kept Azeroth's most devious criminals locked tight in this magical prison. It was built to be impenetrable; but every prison has a flaw. 🗝️😈
The cinematic is part of a promotion for their latest expansion: Escape from Violet Hold. In it, players will recruit the help of Hogger, Lord Godfrey, Aya Blackpaw, Milhouse Manastorm, King Togwaggle and many other lovable scoundrels to hatch their escape plan.
Mooncolony handled the entire production, all the way from initial scoping and storyboards through to animation, offering the full flight of our capabilities- only sound was handled externally.
This was an incredibly fun project to be a part of, with the team coming together to turn an idea into an irresistible adventure that will hype players up for yet another exciting addition to the Hearthstone universe! 💜✨
Noir Style
It couldn’t be a prison-break without a splitscreen or dramatic lighting, could it? We adopted a bold 70s noir style in the cinematic, whilst still maintaining the signature painterly Hearthstone aesthetic.
Deep shadows and striking silhouettes met with vibrant colours, big personalities, and a cartoon aesthetic to create an unmistakably Hearthstone escape story. We’re particularly proud of the void lord shot which uses gravity magic in a really fun way! Check out the shot below 👇
Animation Milestones!
This project was a major milestone in this process of expanding our animation department. It was the first Mooncolony cinematic where our newly appointed Lead Animator, Alan Maceachern, took the reins in this position, guiding the team with a confidence that exudes from the final piece.
We also transitioned from individual ownership of shots to departmental specialization in order to improve workflow consistency. The team successfully integrated character animators, background and composition specialists, 3D projectionists, and 2D effects artists into the pipeline for this expansion and we couldn’t be happier with the end results! 🎉🥳🎊
Lore Galore
It’s no secret that we’re a nerdy bunch here at Mooncolony. ☝️🤓 We don’t just work on projects- we’re real fans of the worlds and IPs we create artwork for, and Hearthstone is no exception!
Our deep knowledge of the Hearthstone lore, including its magic systems, helped us to inform artistic direction and decision making. For example, we took great care to ensure that we were depicting the security screens in a way that aligns with the technology and magic of the World of Warcraft universe.
How does surveillance work in this world? What would their UI and interfaces look like? For each shot, we interrogated our understanding of Hearthstone’s worldbuilding, asking questions like these to ensure our artwork was detailed, accurate, and even dotted with fun easter eggs for fans to spot. 🐰🐣
The Team
Direction: Denis Bouyer
Art Direction: Ekaterina Shapovalova
Lead Artist: Alexandre Leoni
Storyboards: Giovani Hirochi, Al K Teng
Art Team: Kate Ladon, Tristan Jolu, Mattia Rangoni, Kate Lischina, AJ Nazarro, Stefano Gil, Dmitry Khrapovitsky, Tulio Brito, Sergey Gurskiy, Etienne Savoie, Alexandr Pachin, Nikolay Andreychenko, Alex Alexandrov
Character Animation Team: Renato Roldan, Sylvain Couillet, Mathieu Lafay
FX / 2DFX: Bobby Donald, Renato Roldan, Alan MacEachern
Backgrounds & Comp: Gordon Howie, Reshad Malekzai, Greg Platt, Alan MacEachern
Production Manager: Meghan Hamilton
Producer: Rosealee Higgins
Production Assistant: Olivia Hall