Snapdragon
Game Design + VFX Compositing
TITLE: Snapdragon
ROLES: Game Design, Animation, and Compositing
AGENCY: Brand and Deliver
CLIENT: Snapdragon
Description:
Ben Gallop, CEO of Brand and Deliver, called and asked, ‘Do you fancy making a computer game?’
Obviously, I said yes. Then he explained the premise behind the comedy short, which was to mock real game developers who create exciting-looking free games, only for the end user to discover that what they’ve downloaded is a poor imitation of what was advertised. Crazily - this works, as 1% of those who download these games spend money, and when over 100 million people download them. There is some money to be made!
PROCESS
This project required a slightly different approach than usual. I began by creating the game itself, designing assets that were simple enough to generate a full horde. The main challenge was figuring out how to spawn the horde and ensure they exploded convincingly once shot.
To handle the heavy lifting, I used Maxon Red Giant Particular for the spawning system. The game footage was then composited into the screen using Mocha Tracking in After Effects. From there, I carried out the usual rotoscope work to cut around fingers and added a touch of lens blur to help match the shot.
I applied the same technique in the second shot, this time featuring various app screens, including the music app with the new artist Ghostlloop. Who will obviously take the world by storm as soon as they’ve completed their album!
