VALHEIM Hearth and Home Cinematic trailer
General introduction/basic plot
When we were asked to create an animated cinematic trailer for the success story game Valheim by our friends at Iron Gate Studio, we were not late to jump on the (Viking) boat with our full enthusiasm. A dream came true when we got to behead a dragon and hide from giant blue trolls in a vast fantasy world. All this in an anime style.
In the game trailer, we get to follow our hero Ragnar on his long journey home to his warm little cottage. Just like in the game, it is at least as big of an adventure to get home from a quest as it is to get there.
Brief
During the last year, the game has taken the gaming world by storm, and the trailer was to catch the essence of the game and still create hype towards their new content patch, Hearth and Home.
The brief we got was to show our hero, Ragnar, on his way back home after exploring the harsh world of Valheim and show the contrast when he gets back to his warm and cozy home.
Two challenges we were faced with were; How do we show that our hero is on his way back home and not towards something? And how do we keep the trailer engaging if someone is just walking home? Jumping straight into the end of the Moder dragon fight helped us set the context of finishing a quest and getting an engaging intro to the trailer. The details in the different environments Ragnar then faces on the way back gave us an almost Lord of the Rings kind of feel, which worked great with the intense intro and as a build-up to revealing the warm home.
Animation
All the characters and visual effects are made frame by frame.
Working on a big scene with many characters and elements requires a tidy project setup. Here in Node View in Harmony.
Backgrounds are made in Photoshop with layers divided considering the depth and light. Some scenes are better solved using 3D. The sea and the moving boat would be hard to make in another way. The character is animated frame by frame and connected to the boat with nulls exported to AE.
Exploration
Early in the process, we sent three style frames. Two different takes on the main character and one of the environment. The guys at Iron Gate thought we nailed the style but wanted to convey a more harsh feeling than the sunset environment.
The result ended up being even better than we hoped. The team spent a lot of time and gave the project a lot of love. (It's not every day you get the chance to make a Viking anime with a hint LOTR, slaying dragons, and drinking mead.) The great collaboration with Iron Gate Studio and the trust we were given was also key to end up where we did.
The trailer was released at Gamescom 2021 and received a lot of appreciation from fans.
Credits:
CLIENT: Iron Gate Studios // Valheim
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Brikk
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Brikk
CREATIVE DIRECTION: Brikk
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Brikk
DIRECTOR: Philip Engström, Brikk
STORYBOARD: Sonya Filimonova, Mariyam Aulbekova
BACKGROUND ILLUSTRATIONS: Sonya Filimonova, Mariya Aulbekova
2D ANIMATION: Redoad Syed Emil Börner, Mariya Aulbekova, Darya Skripka, Sergey Krasin, Kyrylo Novikov, Kseniia Chikunova, Caroline Leibel, Toni Sala
Sound design: Ghostwood Empire (Inez Kontio & Dennis Filatov)
Music: Ghostwood Empire (Inez Kontio & Dennis Filatov)
Breakdowns
