New Legends Will Rise

‘New Legends Will Rise’ trailer for the hotly anticipated Destiny 2 video game by Bungie and Activision. Framestore partnered with ad agency 72andSunny, Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and RSA Films to create the visually intricate trailer, mixing live-action with cinematic CG and visual effects, based on the characters and worlds created by Bungie.

In Destiny 2's heroic live-action two minute trailer Cayde-6 rallies three Guardians (‘Do it for the puppies!’) into a battle to defend Earth against the evil invading Red Legion, all set to ‘Sabotage’ by Beastie Boys.

cg animated action characters mid battle

Destiny 2

Destiny 2 is a first-person action game and the evolution of its award winning, internationally acclaimed predecessor, Destiny.

In Destiny 2, humanity has fallen to an overwhelming invasion force, led by Ghaul, the imposing commander of the brutal Red Legion. To defeat the Red Legion and confront Ghaul, Guardians must reunite humanity’s scattered heroes, stand together, and fight back to reclaim our home.

The live action trailer connects today’s world with the Destiny 2 universe, by having the audience imagine themselves in a situation like the Guardians’ own experience.

animated action scene shadows and silhouettes

Environment Extensions

Brilliantly scripted and strategized by ad agency 72andSunny, Framestore was responsible for bringing the CG and visual effects elements to the level of a cinematic feature trailer. The project was a huge undertaking led by Framestore’s Los Angeles facility. In addition to some background replacements for the live-action scenes, the visual effects pros worked with Bungie to produced digital doubles, full CG characters, environments and compositional elements like explosions as well as lots of particle and destruction work.

In the opening scene where Cayde-6 rallies his three guardians Titan, Hunter and Warlock, Framestore created a street aesthetic to sure a futuristic dystopia with a combination of neon signs and ruined architecture using a 2.5D matte painting projection technique. The team extended the entire street scene to add depth and the caged ‘Traveler’ in the background with red accents to showcase the enemies’ master plan at work. In the background Framestore detailed additional battle space ships, explosions and atmospheric considerations like smoke, embers and ash using a combination of Nuke, Maya and Houdini renders.

Space scenes were completed by Framestore’s New York facility including the intro sequence and a fully CG space environment where the new villain of Destiny 2, Dominus Ghaul, is detailed whilst his ships descends into action.

Weapons and Effects

As fans will know each gun in Bungie’s Destiny produces unique flairs and qualities such as the new Wardcliff Coil rocket launcher, which produced drunken missile flair. Framestore also converted the original 3D assets from Bungie into high resolution CG characters and weapons for the cinematic film. Environment effects like ash and embers add depth and atmosphere.

animated fighter with a sword that is ablaze

animated characters fighting off laser beams

CG weapons, effects and volumetric muzzle flash libraries for each gun were created to correlate with the game character’s weapons of choice, including a fully CG Psion character and gun. Framestore designed CG versions of Hunter’s staff, Warlock’s sword, Titan’s shield and a fiery sword at the end. During the live action production these weapons were represented by LED lights with specific colors. This ensured accurate interactive lighting and reflections during the shoot to facilitate the integration of the CG weapons in post-production. Other weapon effects included CG lasers and speakers in addition to the continual aesthetic of smoke and embers.

cg animated futuristic soldiers holding up guns that are shooting out laser beams

CG Villains and Digital Doubles of Guardians

Framestore created digital doubles of the Guardians Titan, Hunter and Warlock based on motion capture. In concert with Bungie, the villains and quadruped beasts were drafted from Destiny 2’s 3D assets. Framestore married two live action plates for another complex sequence that included a digital breakthrough moment for Titan.

My favourite sequence is the backlit melee. I love the coherence of the sequence, with action taking place across multiple floors, linked by characters across these divides. But in particular I love the silhouettes against the LED screen.

Alex Thomas

Creative Director, Framestore

cg animated fight scene of shadows and silhouettes

Framestore’s ever-evolving creative solutions included the crafting of new pipeline and plugin tools specifically for Nuke software to deliver the cinematic quality lens effects needed for this film. There was a high emphasis on creating and reproducing the optical and photographic qualities of anamorphic lenses during the shoot. As digital cameras become more and more perfect, filmmakers are looking for VFX and old, vintage lenses to add character, imperfections and charisma to their images.

The colour grade was completed in-house at the Los Angeles office as well. Colorist Beau Leon created a unique and distinctive look under the director’s discerning eye.

cg animated fight scene. two characters mid air charging towards each other

From the beginning we were very excited at the prospect of working on the Destiny 2 launch trailer, and this only increased once we spoke with Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. His vision was ambitious, and larger than life, so Framestore wanted in.

Alex Thomas

Creative Director, Framestore

Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Live-Action

Destiny isn’t just one of the biggest names in gaming, it’s also one of the biggest names in entertainment. For the upcoming release of Destiny 2, Activision has teamed up with creative agency 72andSunny, production and direction from RSA Films and visual effects from Framestore to launch its first live action trailer titled ‘New Legends Will Rise’.

To produce the theatrical live-action trailer, Bungie, Activision and 72andSunny enlisted Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Framestore’s VFX team. Vogt-Roberts, who has worked in comedy, dramas and action-packed blockbusters, purposefully approached the production as a feature film which was shot in his hometown of Detroit. The Beastie Boy’s, ‘Sabotage’ was added as the track to the live-action trailer bringing added entertainment and raw energy to the film.

'Jordan is a very hands on director with a strong vision, who understands the VFX process thoroughly,' states Framestore's Creative Director Alex Thomas. 'Being able to discuss VFX methodology with him in detail makes it much faster to arrive at a solution to any problem.'

a cameraman sitting on rubble recording a scene

Working with Framestore was a dream for me. I've been a fan of their work for a long time and it was a joy to finally collaborate.

Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Director

RSA Films and Framestore captured LIDAR scans on set during the live-action production affording the ability to scale accurately and know exactly where to cast elements within the frame. Additionally Framestore produced motion capture with professional stunt people to form the basis of animation. 'Capturing LIDAR for each environment proved invaluable for this level of detail,' states Alex Thomas. 'Similarly, motion capture gave our animation crew a solid foundation on which to build performances.'

Roberts framed live-action plates to consider the significant amount of visual effects and CG overlays that would be included within the film. Framestore completed 75 complex shots combining live-action with CG including fully CG villains fighting real-life characters whilst hand animating chase scenes. Roberts states, 'I look forward to many future collaborations with Framestore in which my persistent note will be 'more flares, more sparks, more ash, more ember, more tracers!' and they will take the stupid things that come from my brain and make it into something at once beautiful and badass.'

The dedication from every member of their team spoke volumes about their commitment and professionalism. All of this is made even more impressive by how quickly they turned around all of these shots and helped me realize the vibrant world of Destiny 2.

Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Director