yU+co. accomplished the task of visualizing the futuristic
virtual world of Gamer using motion graphics applied as
visual effects.
Designing and executing over 568 shots and elements, this ambitious
undertaking became one of the most elaborate motion graphics projects
committed to film.
Set in a dystopian future where the worlds of entertainment and
gaming have merged, humans play other humans to inflict pain or to
experience pleasure. In the mutli-player online game ”Slayers,” players
control death-row inmates, manipulating them as living avatars in
deadly combat. There’s also the game ”Society,” the non-lethal but no
less de-humanizing game world where real people are controlled in
gameplay filled with hedonistic scenarios limited only by the gamers’
imagination.
For a futuristic film that revolved around videogames, motion
graphics became an extremely important narrative device. ”’Gamer’
provided a perfect opportunity for us to incorporate our skills using
motion graphics to help the filmmaker tell the story,” says Creative
Director Garson Yu. To enhance the storytelling, yU+co. created a
visual look where none existed before, designing environments,
billboards, commercials, logos, and graphic user interfaces that
characters use to play
games and interact with each other.
Both the film’s directors, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, have a
spontaneous and impulsive shooting style, so only minimal green screen
and live special effects shots were created during the filming. After
shooting was completed, James McQuaide, Lakeshore Entertainment’s Sr.
VP of Production and Executive Producer/VFX Supervisor of ”Gamer,”
brought the project to Garson Yu who he had worked with in the past on
several other films.
”With ”Gamer,” it became apparent from page one of the script that
motion graphics were going to be an enormously important component for
both telling the story and explaining the world,” says McQuaide. ”They
certainly needed to look great, but they had to be absolutely
believable. Having worked with Garson many times over the years, there
is a brilliant simplicity and, most importantly, an absolute
authenticity to everything he does.”
Continues McQuaide, ”Even though yU+co had never done anything quite
like this before, we were confident that they could provide the same
for the mountain of motion graphics ”Gamer” would require. Needless to
say, Garson and his team hit it out of the park.”
yU+co. pre-visualized ideas using the existing footage that the
filmmakers had just shot and created original motion graphics to fully
realize the directors’ vision of the future. Within the film, computer
graphics and interfaces are integral to the story and carry important
story information. Additional graphics serve as set-design, painting a
more complete futuristic picture than what the raw footage portrays.
‘Although ”Gamer” takes place in the future, we didn’t want to make
the film too dramatically removed from the context of contemporary
life,” says Yu. ”We began with current popular culture and through our
graphics, envisioned the future by building on existing technology.”
Slayers and Society
For the game ”Slayers,” in which death row inmates are played as
avatars, yU+co. created in-game graphics that provide context to the
onscreen action. ”We wanted the basic look to be recognizable to the
audience so we adopted a familiar game structure seen in the top
videogames of today,” says yU+co. producer Carey Michaels Keeney.
”Because it also needed to reflect gaming in the future, we had to
imagine just what that would look like.”
The other gaming world featured heavily in Gamer is ”Society,” a
life-simulation game similar to ”Second Life” or ”The Sims.” Where
”Slayers” embodies a grim, violent world, ”Society” is a virtual world
filled with bright, vibrant colors displaying avatar tags, signage and
advertising.
‘The idea was to create an environment in which people indulge in
their excesses, protected by the anonymity of using an avatar,” says
Art Director Synderela Peng. ”Conceptually we were drawing from the
early 90’s underground rave scene. Projecting into the future, those
excesses are amplified and paraded in broad daylight by advertising
pleasure-inducing products on signage and billboards.”
The Gina Parker Smith Show
For the TV talk show set of The Gina Parker Smith Show, yU+co. created
the content for a giant video wall with constantly changing images, all
without the aid of any green screen shots. The video wall is used to
illustrate the controversial game ”Slayers” and later a motion graphics
sequence to show how nano-technology turns humans into playable
avatars. yU+co. also created the graphics package and logo for this
fictitious TV show.
The other major design undertaking was creating a computer operating
system for Simon’s room that encompasses the entire room from floor to
ceiling. It is from here that the teenager Simon, the super star gamer
of ”Slayers,” controls all the gameplay with the prison inmate Kable.
yU+co. created all the content and applications for this enclave that
is in itself a depiction of future technology.
”Our prediction is that the interface is not limited to the desktop
but is a virtual world that surrounds the user,” says Johnny Ellsworth,
yU+co’s resident game guru. ”The interface is a fully immersive
environment with graphics spread out in 3D space. The 360º walls house
games, music, photos, video, chats, everything a teenager would access
from his computer — like a giant 3D iPhone except it’s an iRoom.”
For yU+co., ”Gamer” provided a great opportunity to envision what
the future will look like if we continue with current technology and
cultural trends. ”In the future the lines will be blurred between
games, films, television, and the internet. The four platforms will
merge into one,” says Yu. ”Motion graphics is a storytelling medium
that works for any digital platform and it will not be limited to just
one. Whether it’s for commercials, films, television or gaming, we have
been and will continue to design digital content that can be applied
across all of them.”
yU+co. also recently designed and directed 60 minutes of game
cinematics for Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 . Other upcoming work includes
the graphics package for the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards being produced
by Don Mischer Productions for a live broadcast on September 20th.
Source: yu+CO