"I'm going to let you in on a little secret... I wasn't always the friendly, carefree guy you see today."
Once again we were honoured to collaborate with Blizzard Entertainment on more 2.5D animated cinematics, this time bringing some of the newest heroes from Overwatch 2 to life.
In this origin story, we’re introduced to Mauga, a soldier of the terrorist organisation Talon. Wielding two powerful chainguns, “Gunny” and “Cha-Cha”, Mauga is a formidable enemy in close combat. He switches between the lighter and darker sides of his personality quickly, as does the tone for this cinematic; from chaotic violence to laidback yacht scenes.
“The Mauga cinematic was amazing fun to be a part of. He's a larger-than-life character with a crazy backstory! Our artists absolutely nailed the vibrant, lively and chaotic feel that was needed for this cinematic, and it was such a pleasure to witness their excitement as they worked together to produce some killer art."
We love any chance to flex our expertise in 2.5D. Each project tends to follow a similar workflow depending on our level of involvement. On this occasion, we received all of the juicy details from the client including a brief, script, storyboard, references and an animatic. However, on other projects, we will handle these stages, too!
If you’re not familiar with animatics, this is a rough version of the final animation, created by combining storyboard images, rough sketches and temporary audio. Animatics communicate the director's vision to everyone involved, providing a shared reference and visualisation of how the final animation will flow.
An Art Director and Project Manager are assigned to the project, two key roles in ensuring a successful delivery for the client. Responsible for overseeing all visual aspects of a project, the Art Director is on hand to provide any feedback, answer questions and guide the artists where necessary.
"Blizzard definitely knows how to create epic characters with lots of storytelling. Being part of telling that story is a dream come true for any artist. This really shines through in the quality of these illustrations. A mix of a hyper-motivated team and Blizzard's thorough direction were the perfect ingredients for this magical result.”
The project manager oversees the overall planning and execution of the project, keeping consistent communication between the team and client and ensuring deadlines are met.
"I'm a dedicated day-one Overwatch player, so it meant the world to me to have a chance to be a part of this piece, with both our team at Mooncolony and the brilliant team at Blizzard - who are a constant provider of thoughtful feedback, support and direction.”
Time to get started on the layout. This stage visually arranges all of the shots in more detail, establishing composition and building the foundations of consistency. Once approved, the team can get started on colour keys and line art.
Lead Artist Sergey Gurskiy worked on the colour keys, a crucial visual reference that establishes the color palette, lighting and mood for a particular shot. At the same time, artists Rafael De Guzman and Thomas Michaud began to work on the line art for each shot. Unique to 2.5D animation, great care must be taken for each layer to be separate to be animated later.
Once the colour keys and line art have been approved, the rendering is assigned to the relevant painting artists: Gabriel dos Anjos, Eric Xie, Bo Xun Lin, Enrico Camerra, Mattia Rangoni, Santiago Parra and Shawn Lee. We pay close attention to ensure this is done in a collaborative way, as there naturally is some cross-over in individual styles. This way we can unify to create the most polished and consistent final product.
“It was really great and thrilling experience. My favourite part is usually painting faces and the effects. For this one, I painted almost all of the explosions, around 25-30. Even though they appear for just a few seconds in the final animation! The team was amazing and I learnt a lot watching how other artists work.”
Towards the end, a final polish pass helps to refine and enhance the illustrations to achieve a higher level of detail, smoothness, and polish. Then it’s finally time to move on to animation. Using our carefully layered illustrations and camera manipulation, 2.5D animation blends elements of 2D and 3D to create the illusion of depth and dimension. Watch the full final animation in the video below.
He’s spent his whole life fighting.
Now he’s ready to have some fun.
Mooncolony Team
Sergey Gurskiy (Lead Artist), Thomas Michaud, Gabriel dos Anjos, Rafael De Guzman, Eric Xie, Bo Xun Lin, Enrico Camerra, Mattia Rangoni, Santiago Parra, Shawn Lee, Joris Dewolf (Art Director), Katie Millar (Project Manager) and Amy Paterson (Production)