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

2d animated flat illustration of a blue rocket powered car

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.

Reference images from the goofy movie - jumping down some stairs on a skateboard and max jumping off a car on a skateboard

Stylistically we wanted a warm, friendly, cozy atmosphere that reminded us of 90's Nicktoons, Sesame Street, Do The Right Thing, etc.

screenshot of twitch.tv streaming the animation Kirk made with a million views

3,122,968 Views on the stream.

The reception on the intermission animation was exceptional from client and viewers.

Image of a rocket league car grinding down a railing switching from a green paint to fire orange

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.

rough storyboard designs of the animation.

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.

Cartoon comic strip with scenes of a car adventure. A yellow car dodges obstacles on a highway, launches into the air, navigates through a cityscape, and finally lands in a stadium on a sports field. The strip includes directional signs, a building, another car crashing, and a pixelated glitch effect.

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?"

animated gif of a flat rocket car jumping across rooftops

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.

reference sketches and imagery of the final rocket league car design
process gif of the first frame of the animation from rough sketch to final color illustration
Concept art featuring a Rocket League-inspired scene with stylized cars and a large ball on a vibrant stadium field. The artwork includes rough sketches above and a detailed colored scene below, showing a crowd in the background and a futuristic sports arena setting.
various city assets and buildings illustrated to be used in the backgrounds of the animation
wide image of the rocket league car driving through some watermelon carts. flat 2d animation and illustration style.

MORE WORK

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MORE WORK ✱

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Stylized illustration of a blue sports car with flames coming from the rear, indicating speed and motion.
Abstract character with large eyes, a red circular nose, a rectangular black hat, and a triangular white base, on a white background.
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Got a Project?

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