Along with U.S. rep Psyop, the London-based studio collaborated on the short that welcomes VIP players and hosts arriving at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, ready for a supreme eSports event.
London-based studio Shotopop, via their U.S. rep Psyop, collaborated with Riot Games on an event film for the gaming company’s TFT Vegas Open, which ran December 8-10. A few months prior, the team crafted the visuals for the Masters leg of the 2023 Valorant Champions Tour (VCT), which took place in Tokyo.
For the occasion, Teamfight Tactics stars Pengu and Choncc got a Las Vegas makeover courtesy of the Shotopop team, who used Photoshop and, to a lesser extent, Illustrator for the characters and graphic design and illustration.
The studio’s stylistic challenge was to depict each player’s personality with unique entrances. To do so, brief moments of aesthetic shifts were created to highlight the players’ identities and individuality while also using those moments to accentuate TFT attributes and pop in some Easter eggs for the TFT community.
The team used Blender and Photoshop primarily for environmental design, with After Effects for compositing and motion graphics animation. They relied on Toonboom Harmony for most cel animation, with some also completed in TV Paint and C4D for additional 3D design.
The Shotopop team said, “We love collaborating with Riot. The team truly worked collaboratively with us, always aiming to bring more interesting solutions to the table to push the project forward.”
Shotopop focused on the details, from the character references to neons featured throughout, with careful consideration of all deliveries. The project took about four months to complete, including a month of narrative development commencing at the end of August 2023. The final film and cutdown deliveries were staggered from mid-November to early December.
“We love it when a client trusts us to bring the fun to a project, and Riot Games really gave us the freedom to play,” the team shared. “The good time we all had is clear in the final result. Alongside the film’s functional role in opening the show, we were conscious of also helping to craft an identity for the TFT Esports universe going forward. Through careful consideration of light and color, we created three distinct universes for the narrative: Choncc’s ‘real’ Vegas, the arena where Vegas Pengu is the emcee of dreams, and what we called the ‘backstage.’ populated by would-be competitors.”
The film celebrates, in 2D animated / anime-inspired panache, the 512 competitors who answered the call to compete in the wildest free-for-all of the game's eSports history. It sees TFT’s VIP players and hosts arrive at the MGM Grand in Vegas, ready for a one-of-a-kind, supreme eSports event.
Check it out here:
Source: Psyop
Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.
