Giants / League of Legends

In early 2019, we were invited to collaborate with Riot Games on a music video for “True Damage,” a virtual, global hip-hop collective composed of characters recast from the League of Legends universe.

/ Behind the line

Director
Max Taylor Tim McCourt Wesley Louis
Client
Riot Games

3:18

THE LINE © MMXXIV

Play

/ OVERVIEW

Their debut song, “GIANTS,” would feature the vocal stylings of Becky G, Keke Palmer, Soyeon of (G)I-DLE, Duckwrth, and Thutmose. Despite the fact that all the characters in the film are animated, we knew we needed to bring a layer of realism and believability to the world, so we decided to approach it as if it were a live action music video.

/ THE STORY

Each champion in the video inhabits a different location within a sprawling urban city. As we travel from location to location, we learn more about our crew and the places that make them who they are.

/ Character Design

Model Sheet

/ MEDLINE FANTASY AND REALITY

We worked closely with Riot to develop a piece of work that would seamlessly weave together real and fantasy elements while feeling authentic to both the game and the musical genre. Despite the fact that all the characters in the film are animated, we knew we needed to bring a layer of realism and believability to the world, so we decided to approach it as if it were a live action music video.

We teamed up with choreographer Suzette Brissett to create a library of performance reference that would help our animators bring the characters to life as authentically as possible. To represent League of Legends' groundbreaking partnership with Louis Vuitton, we included the Prestige version of Qiyana, designed Nicolas Ghesquière, Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director of Women’s Collections, to further bridge the gap between fantasy and reality.

/ ART DIRECTION

Colour Script

/ EPIC SCALE

The project was directed at The Line in close collaboration with Riot. We brought together a team of over 70 artists and production staff from around the world to make the film a reality, making use of 2D animation, 3D animation, VR cameras, hand painted backgrounds, as well as live action footage, shot in Paris—the site of the League of Legends 2019 World Championships.

/ Behind the curtain

The Crew

● Production Company / The Line in collaboration with Riot Games ● Directors / Wesley Louis / Max Taylor / Tim McCourt ● Executive Producer / James Duveen / Sam Taylor ● Producer / Hanae Seida ● Production Managers / Billie Segal / Isobel Stenhouse ● Editor / Max Taylor ● Storyboards / Mohamed Fadera / Tom Fox / Louis Kynd / Venla Linna / Tim McCourt / Gervais Merryweather / Michael Schlingmann / Ditte Wad ● Art Director / Antoine Perez ● Concept Art / Bjorn-Erik Aschim / Richard Anderson / Mohamed Fadera / Igor Piwowarczyk ● Character Design / Phil Bourassa / Chase Conley / Chris Copeland / Yino Huan / Venla Linna / Wesley Louis / Jules Rigolle / LeSean Thomas / Ditte Wad ● 3D Generalist / Tom Flavelle ● 3D Layout / Luke Gibbard / Neal Petty / Paul Rice ● VR Camera Setup / Simon Legrand at The Mocap Studio ● Animation / Bruno Cohen Castelnuovo / Maxime Delalande / Yino Huan / Amanda Jespersen Holm / Venla Linna / Wesley Louis / Léa Rey-Mauzaize / Diego Porral / Pierre Rutz / Michael Schlingmann / Andrea Simonti ● FX Animation / Hozen Britto / Sam Taylor ● Animation Assist Lead / Denise Dean / Setareh Seto ● Animation Assist / Liam Engels / Francisco Moutinho de Magalhães ● Shadow Animation / Ludivine Berthouloux / Ryan Fairbanks / Pam Hansel ● Colour Assist / Victoria Budgett / Skye van der Walt ● Cleanup & Colour / Amix ● Backgrounds / Antoine Perez / Bruno Mayor / Igor Piwowarczyk ● Compositing Lead / Freddie Lewis-Wall ● Compositing / Tom Flavelle / Valérie Guichard / Victoria Jardine / Gabrielle Locre ● Nuke Compositing / Kye Dorricott ● Motion Graphics / Skye van der Walt ● Live Action Production Manager / Samia Ahmed ● Production Assistant / Skye van der Walt ● Studio Manager / Sophie Bhutta ● Choreographer / Suzette Brissett ● DOP / Carlos Catalan ● Live Action Editor / Robert Rafalat ● Colourist / Lewis Crossfield ● Grading Facilities / Time Based Arts ● Live Action Services / Bullion Productions ● Live Action Producer / Joel Spencer ● Focus Puller / Frankie Napoli ● 1st AD / Luke Goodrich ● Gaffer / Pearce Crowley ● Production Manager / Jack Filtness ● Performance Reference DOP / Ben Marshall ● Reference Performance / Suzette Brissett / Regina Eigbe / Rai Quartley ● Performance Reference Runner / Conor O’Hagan ● Special Thanks / Time Based Arts / Kristian Antonelli