G-Force

2009

Publisher: SEGA. Developer: Eurocom.
Platforms: Wii, PS3, PS2, XBOX 360. My Contribution:
Motion Graphics, Compositing, Pipeline / RenderFarm Setup and 3D Animation.

I was responsible for all the pre-rendered cutscenes in the game. For this project I worked closely with engineers to create a render system to output layered images from the engine. At the Animation department I worked closely with the Cinematics Lead Artist.

G-Force is an action adventure game based on the Disney movie by the same name. The game is aimed for young audiences. You play as an FBI secret agent, who happens to be a Guinea Pig, trying to stop Leonard Saber, the evil billionaire and his “household appliances” army.

Fig. 1 Opening briefing of the game. (2 min. video)

Fig. 2 Compositing Workflow.

The images were captured from the engine (Euroland 2.0) in order to enhance them using compositing techniques. Since the captures did not had an alpha channel we had to come up with a system that would allow us to generate one from several passes. Using the green screen method I was able to create layered images and manipulate them later in Nuke or After Effects.

Fig. 3 Render-farm Directory workflow.

One machine was not able to capture all the material fast enough and for that reason we built a render farm using computers from across the company. The captures would be uploaded to a server and later I would fetch them to work locally. The system had to be build from scratch.

Fig. 4 Stereoscopic workflow for anaglyphic 3D view.

The game featured stereoscopic view using anaglyphic 3D glasses. In order to achieve this effect we had to replicate the channel displacement from the realtime game in engine. I created a workflow that would allow to output two type of images for every scene: one for normal view and a second one for stereoscopic.