Rocket League
Animation
Collegiate Rocket League :30s animated intro
Intel gaming saw my Rocket League fan art from 2015 and asked me to animate an intro for their Collegiate Rocket League series event stream.
For those who don't know, Rocket League is a competitive soccer video game featuring supersonic acrobatic cars that can fly. A game Latham and I have played 100+ hours of.
CLIENT
Bento gg / Psyonix
ANIMATION
Latham Arnott
SOUND DESIGN
Jeff Guerra
Concept & Story
Our hero (a purple car), spends too much time selecting a hat to wear and has to rush off. The car passes various landmarks from the colleges and arrives to the stadium, ready to play.
I had a visual in mind from "An Extremely Goofy Movie" when Max is hurrying to class on a skateboard.
We were loving the urgency of grabbing a backpack, papers flying around, and dashing out to get to class on time. It felt very collegiate and nostalgic.
Stylistically we wanted a warm, friendly, cozy atmosphere that reminded us of 90's Nicktoons, Sesame Street, Do The Right Thing, etc.
3,122,968 Views on the stream.
The reception on the intermission animation was exceptional from client and viewers.
ANIMATIC
These storyboards served as a quick timing for us as we were held to 30 seconds.
The client was very open conceptually and stylistically.
Notice the pink line used as a focal reference
We used camera work to keep a dynamic feeling where the car is always a bit on edge, ready for another stunt.
We wanted to try to find a way to break the expectations of 2D Rocket League.
Psyonix has developed an identifiable visual language for Rocket League which is rich soil to get creative in. The question was, "How much can we bend the style while still having fans immediately recognize it as Rocket League?"
The client had a lot of trust with us in our vision for a flat, 2d, low frame rate style of the game.
We drew realistically first, keeping proportions on model and then started playing with perspective and stripping back details. Eventaully we focused on a strong silhouette and drifted as far as we could.
