EA’s “Pirates of Skull Cove” Trailer

I’m not sure this trailer was ever seen. It was produced for E3, but at the last minute play-testing intervened and the lead character got suddenly redesigned (a decision I totally agreed with, in spite of the negative effect on showcasing our work). Basically she got changed from a rather homely female pirate to a more attractive one. (And I think the title became “Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat” or something like that.)

On the plus side, I did get to work with some talented stunt folks and directed motion capture at Westwood Studios Las Vegas, which was quite fun and exciting. Though this was a LittleBeast venture, much of the CG work on this was sub-contracted out with me directing, and there was much consternation with mo-cap data and various 3D pipelines. Though it was eventually sorted out, our ever-tightening schedule meant the final images never quite got up to my standards in terms of look and lighting. Some of this was probably due to limitations in the original models (like the ugly swashbuckler), and some blame probably went elsewhere. (Needless to say, blame passing is something that happens a lot in the industry, and this one had more than its fair share.)

Ultimately, I was responsible for storyboarding, the pitch, initial animatic and editorial, type design, fight choreography, and overall direction. For those I shall claim full responsibility. Everything else was someone else’s fault.