The Mill and Mill+ continue their collaboration with Neversoft and Infinity Ward for the Outro to DLC 4 - Exodus in Activision's 'Call of Duty Ghosts: Extinction Mode.'
Creative director Paul Mitchell of Mill+ spoke to us about the inspiration for the DLCs: "They're all based on the game itself. The creative drive for each DLC came from Neversoft and Infinity Ward. It was a very close collaboration to meet the overall vision of the game."
In the final sequence, swarms of gargoyles surround a space shuttle as it launches with Dr. Samantha Cross inside. A view of earth from outer space shows the planet's rapid destruction. Mitchell and 3D lead artist Felix Urquiza of The Mill led the CG animation and design teams.
Mitchell comments: "This was the last DLC and we wanted to give it a big creative push. To that end, we pushed every aspect of the project. We wanted to really define the story and got a really good cinematographer to shoot the motion capture, which involved quite a lot of choreography to make it as seamless as possible. The team spent a long time storyboarding to ensure it had a cinematic sensibility to it. We also pushed the dramatic lighting and effects with the gargoyles.
"We stepped up the game when it came to texturing: the gargoyles were repainted and their facial rigs were changed, giving them that high-end look. Extensive amount of effects work was done for the gargoyle when it attacks. Overall, there was more detail - a bit more ambitious."
Urquiza adds: "With every DLC we've done, we always try to raise the bar of the game's quality. With small teams it can be difficult but for this last installment we set some high standards and worked with a bigger team to end strong. The team did an excellent job throughout the process in making sure quality control was never lost, and with our limited timeframe we still achieved a quality we're all really proud of. The goal was simple: let's go out with a bang!"
View more Extinction DLCs here.
Editing Company: Mill+
Editor: Luke Kraman, Victor Jory
VFX & Design: The Mill
Executive Producer: Kim Wildenburg
Director & Creative Director: Paul Mitchell
Senior VFX Producer: Will Lemmon
Art Directors & Lead Compositors: Eugene Gauran, Ed Laag
3D Lead Artist: Felix Urquiza
Storyboard Artists: Brian Yang
Lead Animator & Pre-vis Artists: Blake Guest
Matte Painter: Rasha Shalaby
Graphic Animator: Justin Demetrician
Compositors: Eugene Gauran, Ed Laag, Victor Duncan
Effects Artists: Hartwell Durfor, Denis Gauthier
Lighting & Rendering: Robert Chapman, Kenzie Chen, James Ma, Felix Urquiza
Modeling & Texture: Felix Urquiza, Maggie Toh
Rigging: Fabian Elmers
Animators: Tracey Cotta, Blake Guest, Billy Vu, Juan Zavala
Smoke Artist: Tim Robbins
Production Coordinator: Antonio Hardy
Developer: Neversoft, Infinity Ward
Publisher: Activision Publishing Inc.
Director: Scott Pease, Peter Day
Cinematic Director: Sylvain Doreau
Story: Brad Santos
Audio: Stephen Miller, Charles Deenen