Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working on a wide range of projects and collaborating with talented professionals from whom I’ve learned a lot. This project is a great example of how I can contribute across different disciplines, even though my main focus is character animation.
I took on multiple roles, including 3D Character Animator, Motion Graphics Designer, VFX Artist, and Sound Designer. While I can’t take credit for everything created for this campaign, I’ll break down my specific contributions in the making-of.
I also worked on various adaptations to support A/B testing of characters and features. This involved creating intro variations highlighting each hero’s personality, designing attacks and special abilities to simulate gameplay, animating sequences in Maya (both from scratch and using assets from the project library), and developing a new set of VFX in After Effects.
Bruno is a hero who heals and protects his troops. To present him with a cinematic and stylized look, the first step was to create the environment in Unity3D and animate the camera in Maya, intentionally having the character cover an exaggerated distance quickly to make the animation feel more dynamic and visually striking.
I animated the initial sequence in Maya without worrying about foot sliding, tweaking certain details to ensure each pose looked good from that specific camera angle. The in-game character animations, however, had to look natural from all 360-degree views, so I couldn't take the same liberties there. Most of these animations were created from scratch, though I incorporated some segments using library assets made by other animators who worked with a simpler version of the rig.
Next, I integrated the animations into Unity3D, added post-production effects, and used particle systems to avoid manually animating every arrow. I lit the scene and exported an image sequence for final compositing in After Effects.
I was also responsible for designing all on-screen graphics using Illustrator and Photoshop, starting with a variety of existing assets from the project. Finally, I animated those motion graphics in After Effects, added VFX to achieve the final look, and handled the sound design in Adobe Audition.
Maia is a ranged hero with formal military training, but her free-spirited and creative personality makes her a more fierce and unpredictable warrior compared to a traditional trooper. I’d like to note that I was responsible for all the animations in this video, except for the part where she adjusts her hair after landing.
Dante is a fierce warrior built for melee combat. While some of his animations were pre-existing from an earlier version of the rig, I refined and polished them for this project. I also created several new animations from scratch, including the intro and different variations of his death animation.
The project also required adaptations that focused on showcasing how players could strategically position their troops on the battlefield and watch them clash with the enemy army instead of attacking a training dummy. The workflow for this adaptation was similar to the previous one, so I contributed to the design, 2D animation, 3D animation, VFX, and SFX.
The biggest challenge of this shot was undoubtedly creating a believable choreography to simulate gameplay.
Mel is a highly skilled warrior. Equipped with a shield and a long spear, she’s perfect for breaking through enemy lines. I also experimented with an alternate version of this character, featuring a more ferocious personality and Wolverine-like claws for melee combat, but that concept was ultimately shelved.
Bea belongs to a tribe that protects the creatures of the forest, using lethal and precise long-range attacks to defend them. Her strong connection with nature helps her aim with perfect accuracy, making her a powerful fighter on the battlefield.
Warlord Orc is an incredibly strong and intimidating creature, though somewhat slow. His animations are more stylized than those of the previous heroes. As part of the project's exploration, they use techniques like smear frames, sometimes breaking the rig to emphasize arcs or exaggerate impact frames, helping direct the viewer's attention to his powerful strikes.
The old Orc Shaman is wise and draws his powers from his staff. The biggest challenge I faced with this character was pushing my back to the limit while recording reference footage running around like some kind of orangutan, and explaining to my wife why I broke a broom while acting out his special attack.
If everything is over-the-top, nothing truly stands out. With that in mind, the focus was to make the hero animations as exciting and dynamic as possible while still giving the weaker troops clear, readable movements that fit their roles. I exaggerated key poses to ensure units like the Blue Order Archer, Royal Cavalier, Speargrunt, and Elder Shaman remained visually distinct and easy to follow, even though they appear smaller on screen. This balance helped keep the heroes in the spotlight without making the supporting troops feel unimportant.
