Tactile Design
Client:
Supercell OY
Brand:
Boom Beach
Agency:
Barton F. Graf
Barton F. Graf and Supercell Oy came to us to help bring life and personality to the characters. The challenge was to make identical characters have unique personalities so you felt that it was an army of the individual soldiers though they looked like clones. To accomplish this, the characters required finesse and an understated performance.
To illustrate our unique creative process of exploring and developing character for narratives, we're sharing the process used for Boom Beach.
The humor of the situation played strongest. These soldiers had been battered time and time again because of questionable tactics and strategies that the gamers have used. Regardless of the hair-brained strategy, they are convinced that their commander is a genius and they are excited to jump back into the fray.
Kirk Kelley: “I love it when people make jokes and relate to particular characters...like Johnson...even though he is physically identical to all the soldiers around him. That's when you know you've breathed real life into the animated characters.”
The HouseSpecial creative team was lead by CD/Director Kirk Kelley who is an expert in CG animation for short productions. He is the man behind the M&M’S animation and is also a gifted stop-motion director. His tactile approach enhances the tangible humanity integrated into memorable character’s design with subtle humor.
In the initial pitch, we took original CG designs and made five characters tangible and real in our tactile world. We scuffed them up, added bandages, gave them weapons – made them look as if they were straight off the battlefield.
We think in tangibles and believe in a tactile-sensory approach, so taking this approach first is natural for us. Sculpting in clay also allows us to add subtle, purposeful imperfections that convey a true human-ness necessary to gauge an audience – be believable.
A clay sculpt of the "Rifleman" was modeled from the a character design created with creative at Barton F. Graf 9000 and Supercell.
When our digital modelers take the helm, they have something real to translate into a CG space. Riggers can also plot out how the characters should move before the modeler even begins.
The spots:
Boom Cannon :15
Speech :60
Flamethrower :30
Great Plan :60
Sniper Tower :30
Grenadier :30
