The team at Blur Studio explain how they created this epic cinematic trailer, which brings this caped crusader back to the world of videogames.
The brief to create the trailer for the next instalment of the of the Batman video game fell to American visual effects, animation and design company Blur Studio. It needed the foreboding and action that has become synonymous with the Batman franchise. As Blur Studio created the previous version, it was the obvious studio for Warner Bros to approach.
"Warner Brothers enjoyed our treatment for the previous Batman: Arkham City instalment of the game franchise, so they came to us again asking for us to contribute another cine for their latest, Arkham Origins," says CG supervisor Kevin Margo.
The four-minute trailer sees Batman return to the world of gaming with force
"Blur executed in its entirety the four-minute trailer, from script to mastering. The project took about four months to complete and roughly 30-40 people contributed their skills. 3ds Max and V-Ray continue to be Blur’s core modelling and rendering tool set. V-Ray’s high-quality surface shaders, GI lighting, and overall artist centric integration into 3ds Max proved invaluable.
“Creating realistic snow accumulation on all exterior surfaces proved challenging. We used the subsurface scattering shader typically intended for skin on the snow surfaces to simulate the light scattering into the snow.
The Blur team relied heavily on the use of instancing proxy objects on this project
"Modelling the exterior shipyard with hundreds of shipping crates would’ve resulted in unacceptable RAM usage. Instead we relied heavily on the use of instanced proxy objects.
"Batman: Arkham Origins was a rather typical Blur project. However, one notable difference was the immovable delivery deadline that had us working on editorial and output up to only a few hours from its online release. Typically there is at least a few days buffer between our delivery and when it is released online - just not in this case."
“Batman: Arkham Origins was a rather typical Blur project," comments CG supervisor Kevin Margo
This article originally appeared in 3D World issue 173.
