Riot Games – VALORANT

Brief Riot Games came to us with a passionate brief: to create a trailer, much like a love letter to…
Riot Games "VALORANT"
Case Study

Brief

Riot Games came to us with a passionate brief: to create a trailer, much like a love letter to fans that transported gamers into the next fierce and visually beautiful chapter of VALORANT.

Approach

Riot wanted to dedicate the chapter as a gift to the player universe. With creative audaciousness at the heart of Riot's philosophy, we had licence to design a global film that was gender fluid and with diversity casting. By storyboarding episodic shots and telling the story of each character, we were able to dive into the realm of VALORANT by employing our smorgasbord of creative capabilities. From top level traditional VFX production, creating otherworldly full CG cities, to rocket FX simulation and CG character integration, there were an intimidating number of scenes and transitions to develop. We had a lot of fun and colourful creative problems to solve, and these projects don’t come around that often so we relished the opportunity.

Impact

The trailer was a global masterpiece that excited fans across worldwide and generated a buzz on the VALORANT Twitch channel of 10.5 million loyal followers.

2m+

YouTube views

641

Retweets

130k

YouTube likes

We embarked on designing an intoxicating and overflowing film, with ‘eyeball breaking’ results. Collaborating directly with the visionaries at Riot was a joy, they allowed us space to express, but kept us in check to make sure that the VALORANT IP was pitch perfect and Easter egg laden. Seeing them light up with excitement as the work in progress developed really spurred us on. 

Pete Hodsman, Joint Head of 2D at The Mill

Among VALORANT’S loyal fan base and avid gamer was American music producer DJ Zedd, who was one of the many influencers filmed playing the game across the globe. DJ Zedd also remixed a song for a section of the trailer featuring shadow figure Omen.

Carl stated “The film utilises all the modern technology of The Mill and its global community, with influencers shot across the world, live action being filmed in Bulgaria, written and directed in London, to being produced in LA” - a true global masterpiece.

Credits
Credits

CREATIVE PRODUCTION
Creative Production: The Mill
Director: Carl Addy
Cinematographer: Menno Mans
Creative Development Producer: Holly Dyroff
Directors Assistant: Alfie Johnson
Script Writer: Bobby Lewis
Script Consultant: Josh Moore
Executive Producers: Elizabeth Newman, Dougal Meese
Live-Action Producer: Elliot Tagg
Live-Action Production Manager: Stephanie Werrell-Smyth
Live-Action Production Assistant: Nadine Leswi
Live-Action Producer: Danika Casas, Theresa Marth
VFX Supervisor: Pete Hodsman

VFX
VFX: The Mill
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Newman, Dougal Meese
Senior Producer: Erin Hicke
Producer: Kate Ryan, Agrata Hitendra Idnani
Production Coordinator: Aubrey Bang-Guerin
2D Lead : Peter Hodsman
2D Artists: Adam Arnot, Alfie Vaughan, Dan Adams, Georgina Ford, Jay Bandlish, Stefan Susemihl, Mahesh Mane, Navin Kumar Nukala, Badrinath Chinimilli, Nithin Babu, Tarun Kemtur, Venkatesh Srinivasan, Arunraj T Asaithambi, Pushpendra Singh Bhadauriya, Sathya Sagar Kolli, Abhrajit Ganguly, Avinash Sapale, Dibin Dharmendran, Dipika Salunke, Dumpala Surender, Manavi Saikrishna, Narendra Kumar, Nilesh Kale, Noti Malakondareddy, Pratheesh Ancheriyil, Ravi Naik, Romishbhai Sindhi, Saloni Mehta, Saurabh Patankar, Selvakumar Somasundaram, Shrikant Jadhav, Vignesh Rajendran, Washim Hasan, Pranay Ambolkar, Rakesh Gharti, Vijesh Sharma, Anilkumar Chauhan, Harish Kumar, Jyoti Nikam, Prasad Thorve, Gareth Parr
Online: Philip Ineno, Holly McLean
CG Lead: Alan Williamson
CG: Andreas Graichen, Gabrielius Burokas, Hannah Bahyan, Joao Pires, Joshua Curtis, Paul Tempelman, Roman Vrbovsky, Tatjana Ljubimtseva, Tony Atherton, Vicky McIntyre, Rachel Ward, Risto Puukko, Adem Suleyman, Arunkumar Akavaram, Vikas Shinde, Aatish Ranjan1, Arpit Gangrade, Indrajeet Kumar, Manoj Ravi, Sathyaraj A, Showber Shadik, Upasana Choudhary, Verru Ramesh, Vinayak V, Subhankar Mazumdar, Agnimitra Sarkar, Vudatha Sai Krishna, Amal Arjun J P, Aritra Kumar Sarkar, Bhavesh Budhkar, Gauri Razdan, Girish GR, Krantikumar Rawat, Naveen Srinivasan, Sri Lahari Valmikam, Arnab BhaCacharya, Pradeep KaCa, Sudhir Verma, Vijay Mohan, K Yashwanth Deepak, Balamurugan-l, Bhushan Ghurade, Dongili Varaprasad, Nirgun Gawade, Santosh Ambre, Vivek Shedge, Daniel Stern
Design Lead: Will MacNeil
Design Team: Jessica Gaynor, Filiberto Chiarinelli, Ewan Davidson, Raquel Fernandes, Sam Singleton, Henry de Leon, Maxim Goudin

COLOUR
Colourist: Oisin O’Driscoll
Colour Assist: Cassie Benedict, Jonathan Brandenburg, Billy Dawson, Cristina Giribets, Megan Lee, Rory Leighton
Colour Producer: Cameron Aper

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