crownfall 4th act cinematic

Client

valve / lost cosmonauts

created by

valve corporation

What we did

environment – 2d matte painting

Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game in which two teams of five players compete to destroy a large structure defended by the opposing team known as the “Ancient” whilst defending their own. As in Defense of the Ancients, the game is controlled using standard real-time strategy controls, and is presented on a single map in a three-dimensional isometric perspective. Ten players each control one of the game’s 124 playable characters, known as “heroes”, with each having their own design, strengths, and weaknesses. Heroes are divided into two primary roles, known as the core and support.

Bringing backgrounds to life

In collaboration with Lost Cosmonauts we took part in the creation of the environments & matte paintings for the 4th Act Cinematic for Valve. To create those stylized environments, we mixed different technics such as layout and 3D environment in Unreal, 2D paint over and nuke projection.

To narrow down the look of the background we first had to focus on the story timeline. The whole scene had to evolve from dawn to sunrise. Starting much darker, before the sun starts hitting the mountains and the characters. Which meant the time of day had to evolve through out the cinematic. Therefore, we used those wider establisher shots of the worlds to set the mood variation of the overall sequence lighting. Working closely with the team at Lost Cosmonauts helped us narrow down their need for the overall sequence lighting/rendering setup.

A fully dynamic lighting setup

Each shot was built in Unreal, re-using existing models but also creating new ones to have more architecture variations. Then the elements were rendered separately with different lighting scenarios to keep the final mood fully flexible in compositing. This allowed us to paint over on the different lighting passes and the albedo. We also used gobos to animate the shadows of the clouds across the pillars to bring these backgrounds to life. This also let us art direct the pools of light on the landscape.

37Dgrees Crownfall Cinematic Environment
37Dgrees Crownfall Cinematic Environment
37Dgrees Crownfall Cinematic Environment
37Dgrees Crownfall Cinematic Environment

1 setup across multiple shots

For the sky we used as a base the Dynamic Sky in Unreal. This really helped us set the tone before getting into the stylization of the clouds. We ended up painting the sky as separated layers to add some parallax between the clouds and the sky.

Finally, to support the rest of the sequence we created 2D elements for the team at Lost Cosmonauts to use directly in Unreal. We also provided an animated sky latlong which was covering the full spectrum from dawn to sunrise. This way, they could pick a frame with the right lighting and rotate the sky around. This enable them to art-direct the background without having us involved on each iteration.

37Degrees Crownfall Cinematic Environment