Tigar Hare Studios has created nine minutes of cinematic animation for GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT, developed by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation2, Nintendo, Xbox and GameCube platforms.
Tigar Hare also created a :60 3D-animated theatrical trailer for HALO 2, Microsoft Game Studios record-breaking game title developed exclusively for Xbox by Bungie Studios. In its first 24 hours, HALO 2 sold 2.4 million units, or $125 million worth in North America.
Tigar Hares mission for the 007 action game, GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT, was to create game cinematics involving 137 shots in just 10 weeks. Many indoor and outdoor environments were created, achieving a high level of quality and diversity.
It was a real challenge to create a good deal of original material, said Dave Hare, creative director of the studio. EA gave us a lot of creative leeway and we essentially worked around the clock to deliver the package.
The outdoor environments were largely created from scratch and include scenes above and below water (including underwater complexes, floating buoys, submerged mines and submarine vehicles), mountain terrain with deep snow footprints and blowing snow effects as helicopters and aircraft maneuver overhead, island landscapes and a sequence set at the Hoover Dam. Animation naturally included the expected signature assortment of Bond hi-tech weaponry, gadgets, explosions and buxom women.
The Hoover Dam sequence was strategically storyboarded avoiding wide-angle shots and using isolated scenes with high detail and photoreal lighting. Layers were carefully broken out and composited.
Meanwhile, armed with original 3D model game assets, Tigar Hare took the highly recognizable main hero of HALO 2, Master Chief, and boosted the resolution to HD feature film quality, creating full frame close-ups and headshots while being true to the look and feel of the game. Atmospherics were designed to show Master Chief against a picturesque space background composed of a nebula and a field of stars, a future planet Earth with continents aglow and the HALO 2 logo encompassed by smoke and fire.
Our challenge for the trailer was to both faithfully re-create as well as re-imagine the Master Chief character and the atmosphere of the game, said Hare.
The HALO 2 trailer can be downloaded in HD on Media Player. Animation for both HALO 2 and GOLDEN EYE: ROGUE AGENT was created using Discreets 3ds max 6.0. Compositing was done on Eye-ons Digital Fusion 4.0.
Tigar Hare GOLDENEYE: ROGUE AGENT credits:* Creative director: Dave Hare* Effects dupervisor: Michael Tigar* Producer: Frank Foster* 3D crew: Nic Camecho, Rifaat Dagher, Charles Hu, Fred Haro, Scott Jenkins, Edmund Kozin, Randy Kreitzman, Lisa Lavender, Christopher Dennis Lindsay, Silva Uchida Littlefield, Joe Mangione, Aaron Powell and Daniel Sands
Tigar Hare HALO 2 credits:* Creative director: Dave Hare* Effects supervisor: Michael Tigar* Producer: Frank Foster* Character animation: Silva Uchida Littlefield* Technical director: Todd Sheridan Perry
Tigar Hare (www.tigarhare.com) is a Sherman Oaks, California-based 3D animation, visual effects and graphic design house.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
