Crusader: No Remorse – Intro
– 1995
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genre:
length:
format:
status:
logline:
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sci-fi PC game
1:35
3D animation – 320x160 @ 15fps
produced for Origin Systems
"An elite soldier
of an oppressive empire discovers just how disposable he is and begins to
question his loyalty to his masters."
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writing:
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The Crusader team was wrapping up
production of the game and under the gun. Under the art direction
of Beverly Garland, the team had already created a climactic sequence
for promotion material, but the lack of story ideas to give it meaning
prompted a request for help from artist Denis Loubet and myself.
My challenge was to write and direct an
opening that propelled the player into the game. I was given an
existing ending sequence and very tight schedule. Several drafts
later, we had a script I hoped would be compelling, avoid the "info
dump" syndrome of so many game intros, and could be produced with the
limited resources at hand.
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dir: |
My small bit
of experience with the narrative form and editing tools dovetailed
neatly with Denis Loubet's experience with the core animation tool – 3DStudio Release 4. While Denis handled the animation tasks, I
took responsibility for voice over direction, framing, pace, and montage
as well as any compositing and vfx needed.
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vfx: |
Lacking the
sophisticated production tools of the day, I cobbled together
multi-layered elements with Premiere, including a stock fireball and a
cracked lens effect created by a custom image deformation plugin.
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edit: |
I created an
initial animatic from Denis' thumbnails, and recorded stand-in voice
overs. From this, I created a dope-sheet for Denis and guide track
for the final voice talent, recorded later. (Since there was no
lip-sync to worry about, we locked the timing of certain emphasized
words and syllables to preserve continuity between the animation and the
final voices.) As shots were
roughed out and finished, I progressively refined the edit, maintaining
our initial timing throughout. I had Denis render an extra second
at the top and tail of each cut to give me some elbow room in the edit.
Sound design, Foley, and mixdown were
performed by Origin's in-house audio production staff.
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tools: |
animation
– 3DStudio R4
compositing/edit
– Premiere 4.1
vfx –
Premiere 4.1 & custom plugins
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read the script – 1st draft (pdf)
read the script – production (pdf)
watch the short
9.3MB
(quicktime)
credit
roll
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