Late last year we were honored to be part of this amazing project commissioned by RIOT GAMES through RUMBLE ROYAL and Charess. Part of my job is to lead our team of creatives to pull off the project within 2 weeks including the post-production. It was a huge honor for our team since this is the first Filipina character to be in the Valorant game that showcases our culture as modern Filipinos. With that in mind we gave it our topmost priority, especially in the creative side.
We started doing some pre-production meetings as early as mid to last week of November where we created mood boards, storyboards, and shot lists. We also had several team meetings over at our discord channel whenever we received an update since the character is also still in development at Riot Games. One of the biggest challenges for us during this stage is that we have no idea at this point what the effects would look like since there were no references for animation yet. We did our best to interpret the character description with the help of some pop-culture references.
Behind the scenes
As for the shoot itself, it was one of those most enjoyable shoots I have ever done. Most of it is because everyone on the team has been friends for years and we enjoy doing stuff together. Charess is also one of the most versatile people we know and we've been really good friends for quite a while though we never really had a chance to do a project together until recently due to our schedules. The shoot is physically demanding especially for her since the poses are so dynamic as it conveys motion and speed but Charess handles it like a champ! Also very grateful to Nica and Danielle for assisting Charess on the shoot.
During the post-production stage, Cebu was badly hit by Super Typhoon Odette(Rai) leaving us with most of our homes destroyed, no access to water, electricity, and internet for almost 3 weeks. We know by that time that we cannot make it on time with the release and luckily Riot gave us an extension for the project where we nailed the project on clutch time! The most challenging part of the post-production is the visual effects. The process is very tedious and would eat the majority of my time in a day but the results are so satisfying that you can't help yourself but hit that replay button.
NEON LIVE ACTION CINEMATIC
Our VFX timeline on After Effects
There we're also different versions of the image before we arrived on the final images that was approved by RIOT Games.
This project serves as a huge milestone for our careers as creatives. For us, it's our passion for creativity and perseverance that lead us here. We are eternally grateful for the people who trusted us and believed in us. Please continue to support us and join us in our next journey.
Cinematographer | Nicko Marcon N. Wong - WongBros (TVPS)
Photographers | MacVan Dihayco / Andy Go
Creative Director & editor | Archie Abong / DigitalArch
Assistant Director: Gunslinger Dirge
Behind the Scenes | Danielle Deutsch / Nica Takishima
Propsmaker | Shocross Neko
Costume Maker | Ding Parado Cantos - Solibeau, The Seamstress
Wig Stylist | Ran Chii
