Working with Riot Games, the team at Scholar created this short film showcasing some of the amazing e-sports players who would be participating in the very first Valorant Game Changers Championship. In my role as Animation Director, I primarily led the Cel Animators, ensuring that they captured the individual, badass essence of the competitors we portrayed, helped steer the 3D animation and previz to capture the CD’s vision, as well as offered QC checks on all stages of production. I helped create a bespoke pipeline that allowed us to emphasise the action-packed animation as well as allowing us the flexibility to regularly report back to the client. A particular challenge was finding time to animate a few shots between my other responsibilities, but I’m ecstatic with how this spot turned out.
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Brand Partner: Scholar
Story By: Riot Games, Macauley Johnson, Ana Chang
Creative Director: Macauley Johnson
Art Director: Ana Chang
Animation Director: Alex Bernas
Lead Compositor: Andrew Tan
CG Supervisor: Kevin Kolodinsky
Managing Executive Producer: Kirsten Noll
Executive Producer: Antonio Hardy
Head of Production: Nicole Smarsh
Senior Producer: Christina Yiallouris
Associate Producer: Bella Bergeron
Production Assistant: Jack Readman
Pitch Producer: Marcus Fussell
Lead Designer: Jina Kwon
Designers: Aivy Nguyen, Kiron Robinson, Cendan Claiborne, Jose Bernabe, Kyle Fewell, Siena Mae, Stephanie Stromenger, Tiago Calliari, Victorien Aubineau
Storyboards: Mark Yates
Cel Animators: Aivy Nguyen, Alex Bernas, Ana Chang, Danni Fisher-Shin, Zach Herdman, Barbara Benas, Billy Mpetha, Bruno de Mendonca, Deco Daviola, Laura Yilmaz, Michael Relth, Olivia Blanc, Romario Clarke
Media Manager: Adrianna McKinley
3D/ Previz Animators: Han Hu, Kevin Kolodinsky, Stephen Van Wyk, Derek Friesenborg, Sarah Wolfe, Steven Dvornik
Compositors: Kenny Kerut, Sam Bachman, Andrew Tan, Dylan Blau, Jip Jeong
2D Animators: Kiron Robinson, Zach Herdman
Editor: Dominic Strazulo
Telecine: RCO
Colorist: Derrick Yuen
Mix & Sound Design: Another Country
Mix & Sound Designer: Erik Widmark
Assistant: Cathryn Stark