The Minds Behind the Uncharted Commercial Speak
Curious about what went into that rad commercial for Uncharted? Mmkay.
Published: December 7, 2007
One of the cooler parts of seeing the whole ad process for a game is finding out who actually contributed to the creation of said commercials -- especially when they're as visually arresting as, say, the Ratchet & Clank Future trailer by Blur or, more to the point here, the Uncharted: Drake's Fortune commercial by Perspective Studios and The Mill's New York branch.
If you haven't seen it yet (and honestly if you digest any TV aimed at the late teen early 20s demographic, we'd be rather surprised if you haven't -- to say nothing of the MTV crowd), the trailer has the ever-lovable Nathan Drake (played by motion capture and voice artist Nolan North) tumbling through the jungle, leaping over a massive waterfall and surreptitiously stumbling upon a group of pirates before a burst of walkie-talkie chatter blows his cover. If you haven't seen it yet, seriously check it out.
The trailer is almost completely CG (though for once the actual game nearly matches much of what you'll see in the trailer), but rendering out what happens in the game actually allowed Perspective and The Mill to not only pull Nolan North into a mocap suit again (he did spend plenty of time running around with all those little reflective balls as Nathan Drake at mocap studio House of Moves, after all), but get his input into the character.
The result is a trailer that nails the mannerisms and situations that you'll see Drake in while playing the game -- even if they don't quite play out in such a cool fashion as in the trailer. Even still, the guys and gals at Perspective and The Mill seemed to like their time on the project.
"Being able to work with Nolan North has allowed us to maintain authenticity in the TV spot," explains Joshua Merck, lead animator of The Mill New York. "Access to North was crucial in our efforts to create realistic body movements, and working with Perspective Studios enabled us to capture the finer details of his performance."
"It was a remarkable opportunity to apply our expertise towards the creation of a commercial for such a highly-anticipated title," adds Keith Robinson, SVP Animation Production at Perspective Studios. "The Mill New York has done an amazing job re-creating the environments with great detail and realistic feel."
Okay, fine, so it isn't a lot in-depth exploration of the whole process, but it's still interesting (and a welcome advancement) that North was brought in to reprise his role for a little 24 second spot. The result, we think, speaks for itself, as the Uncharted commercial is easily one of the coolest ones we've seen yet for a game, and hopefully gets more people into Naughty Dog's little jungle adventure.
If you haven't seen it yet (and honestly if you digest any TV aimed at the late teen early 20s demographic, we'd be rather surprised if you haven't -- to say nothing of the MTV crowd), the trailer has the ever-lovable Nathan Drake (played by motion capture and voice artist Nolan North) tumbling through the jungle, leaping over a massive waterfall and surreptitiously stumbling upon a group of pirates before a burst of walkie-talkie chatter blows his cover. If you haven't seen it yet, seriously check it out.
The trailer is almost completely CG (though for once the actual game nearly matches much of what you'll see in the trailer), but rendering out what happens in the game actually allowed Perspective and The Mill to not only pull Nolan North into a mocap suit again (he did spend plenty of time running around with all those little reflective balls as Nathan Drake at mocap studio House of Moves, after all), but get his input into the character.
The result is a trailer that nails the mannerisms and situations that you'll see Drake in while playing the game -- even if they don't quite play out in such a cool fashion as in the trailer. Even still, the guys and gals at Perspective and The Mill seemed to like their time on the project.
"Being able to work with Nolan North has allowed us to maintain authenticity in the TV spot," explains Joshua Merck, lead animator of The Mill New York. "Access to North was crucial in our efforts to create realistic body movements, and working with Perspective Studios enabled us to capture the finer details of his performance."
"It was a remarkable opportunity to apply our expertise towards the creation of a commercial for such a highly-anticipated title," adds Keith Robinson, SVP Animation Production at Perspective Studios. "The Mill New York has done an amazing job re-creating the environments with great detail and realistic feel."
Okay, fine, so it isn't a lot in-depth exploration of the whole process, but it's still interesting (and a welcome advancement) that North was brought in to reprise his role for a little 24 second spot. The result, we think, speaks for itself, as the Uncharted commercial is easily one of the coolest ones we've seen yet for a game, and hopefully gets more people into Naughty Dog's little jungle adventure.