The trailers for the Assassin’s Creed series have always
been beautifully done and were to me, the best of the best when it
came to video game trailers.
Though I had probably done things in the wrong order by playing the video games first before even seeing them (Yes, yes, I am slow), it was watching these trailers later on that made me appreciate the action-adventure stealth series a whole lot more.
Who was behind them?
DIGIC Pictures is an award winning Hungarian 3D animation studio that was founded in 2002, they specialize in game cinematics (Clearly), commercials and VFX.
They have done a pretty long list of notable projects, you have to be living under a rock to not have even heard about one of the games they worked on (Please don't hit me), but anyway to name a few: they have worked on trailers for many well known games, such as Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Halo 4 and another personal favorite of mine, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
The subject matter of these trailers have always been to basically introduce the main character, as well as give a feel of the atmosphere, settings and storyline, I believe these trailers have all done a magnificent job in doing so, without having to truly shove gameplay features down the targeted audiences' throats (Though no one probably minds that).
DIGIC Pictures is an award winning Hungarian 3D animation studio that was founded in 2002, they specialize in game cinematics (Clearly), commercials and VFX.
They have done a pretty long list of notable projects, you have to be living under a rock to not have even heard about one of the games they worked on (Please don't hit me), but anyway to name a few: they have worked on trailers for many well known games, such as Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Halo 4 and another personal favorite of mine, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2.
The subject matter of these trailers have always been to basically introduce the main character, as well as give a feel of the atmosphere, settings and storyline, I believe these trailers have all done a magnificent job in doing so, without having to truly shove gameplay features down the targeted audiences' throats (Though no one probably minds that).
How they did do it?
DIGIC owns their own state of the art motion capture studio, based in Budapest, their capturing equipment consists of 16 mocap cameras of 16 megapixel VICON T120 cameras, capturing up to 2000 frames per second.
They pay extremely close attention to the smallest of details when it comes to their animations, one of favorite details in particular are their beautifully done lightning mechanics from the warm, soothing glow of venetian lights to the brief flashes of fireworks in a lively (If not dreamy) street carnival.
The realism and fluidity of the subjects' movements have always been one of my favorite parts when it came to their works, at times it almost seemed like an live-action trailer than an animated one, with just some VFX thrown in.
So do you want me too look it up or are you going to show me something?
Absolutely! I would not want you to walk away without watching something from this text heavy post.
So I present to you "The Life and Times of Ezio Auditore da Firenze" (AKA the trailers for ACII, ACB and ACR):
DIGIC owns their own state of the art motion capture studio, based in Budapest, their capturing equipment consists of 16 mocap cameras of 16 megapixel VICON T120 cameras, capturing up to 2000 frames per second.
They pay extremely close attention to the smallest of details when it comes to their animations, one of favorite details in particular are their beautifully done lightning mechanics from the warm, soothing glow of venetian lights to the brief flashes of fireworks in a lively (If not dreamy) street carnival.
The realism and fluidity of the subjects' movements have always been one of my favorite parts when it came to their works, at times it almost seemed like an live-action trailer than an animated one, with just some VFX thrown in.
So do you want me too look it up or are you going to show me something?
Absolutely! I would not want you to walk away without watching something from this text heavy post.
So I present to you "The Life and Times of Ezio Auditore da Firenze" (AKA the trailers for ACII, ACB and ACR):
Assassin's Creed 2:
The camera directing for this trailer was amazing, especially when we were looking through the eyes of one of the guards who is charmed and lured in by a courtesan, we could almost feel the blissful state that was taking over the man as he danced with her... poor thing.
And again as said earlier, the lightning for the candles, lamps, fireworks and the rising sun is absolutely fantastic.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood:
Nicely introducing the now matured Ezio's growing Brotherhood of assassins, DIGIC did an amazing job in the cinematography of this trailer. The usages of red, white and silver made for an incredibly stunning setting, whilst both opposing groups are attired in white and dark silver consecutively, both groups were also dressed in clothing and accessories of red, which perhaps bears a hidden message about the two enemies... (Which is perhaps still too early to comprehend in this game)
Assassin's Creed Revelations:
Possibly my favorite out of all the AC trailers, in spiritually reintroducing Altair (From the very first game) as he mysteriously appears in the midst of the dark, cold, snowy battlefield, the first assassin's white attire created an almost angelic glow to his entire being, creating a beautiful juxtaposition to the aging Ezio's own dark attire and the grim situation he is presently in.
The fight sequence was once again well done with the right amount of of slow motion put in between to enhance certain painful blows to enemies and the dramatic unsheathing of weapons, their movements are as fluid as ever, I particularly adore the way Ezio climbed his way up to the top of a small mountain (Even though probably one of the simplest motion captures they did for it).
I also adore the trailer's featured song far a lot more than I should (For I am presently playing it on Itunes for the thousandth time).
Since Assassin's Creed 2, DIGIC has carried on dishing out trailers for its consecutive installments, I always look forward to any trailers done by them.
While many other studios have indeed been catching up to them in terms of quality, DIGIC will always be one of my favorite 3D animation studios.
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