The latest Forged in Aeternum features the New World team talking about the process of adding 2.5d cinematics to the game in order to create additional opportunities to flesh out story and lore content.
The conversation this time features Creative Director Rob Chestney, accompanied by Principal Quest Designer Lula Lucent, Stuart Kim, Principal Concept Artist, and Associate Art Director Sojin Hwang.
Kim lays out the process from the art side. When an opportunity arises to tell some additional story, to flesh out some of the backstory of the world of Aeternum, They've been taking those where they feel like they would be a good fit. in deciding what the look of the particular 2.5d cinematics will look like, they need to start with the script, which will define what the location is, who is relevant to the scene, the story they're trying to tell, and what the environment backdrop and function of the cinematic will be.
Along with all of that, the art team would also work out specs like time of day and potential camera angles to start with a storyboard. Next, the art and writing teams would begin some more collaboration. Eventually, finishing touches like music.
In terms of the design,they want the animations to tell the story. They’re also careful to not make the emotions too exaggerated, which could be ‘silly’ and overdone. While the animations will tell a story, they want to show off the illustrations and packing in character and grit and emotion that is just enough to tell the story they're looking to tell.
Lucent, speaking from the writing angle, says that the process requires deciding what the emotions of the scene are that they want to convey, and in how many scenes. “I think we settled on seven. I don't know if we've ever strayed from that and so effectively, what are the seven interesting chunks that we can show the player” in acinematic.
Since even these seven scenes are a big, collaborative process, this video takes us inside something that allows for deeper storytelling without having to always go for highly technical high quality CGI. Not only is CGI very expensive, it's also something that takes long to create. Choosing to do the 2.5 D Illustrated cinematics gives the New World team an additional storytelling tool with some additional flexibility.
Watch the full video for a greater breakdown of the process, and head to New World for more.
