Assassin’s Creed is one of the most well-known franchises in the video game industry. Recently the award-winning series has been spreading its wings beyond just the consules, building a whole world of lore for fans to explore, including a live action movie as well as a Titan Comic series.
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For the storyboard artists the transitions with these expansions into different avenues can be a curious one. In a recent interview with Jose Holder, a storyboard artist from Ubisoft Games and now the main artist on the comic series, gave a behind the scenes look.
Holder explained the differences of working on the comics compared to the games.
“I’d say the making of videogames is huge endeavor, involving the joint interactions of several key departments like Mission, Gameplay, and Narrative,” he said. “No one designs in a vacuum and every shot/concept is meticulously weighed for its production potential. Character designs have to work within modelling and animation parameters, storytelling for the cinematic and writing teams, concepts and camera have to blend seamlessly into the 3D space of the game.
“With comics, the aim is to support the writing team (Dan Watters and Alex Paknadel) with everything they need to flesh out their stories. With the hopes of bringing something fresh and new stylistically to the brand. I also have the added support of my editor and Assassin’s Creed’s Brand Art Director Raphaël Lacoste to make sure the visuals are spot on.”
Every storyboard artist does things differently, so what does the art process look like for someone with a videogame backround?
“As this is a team book I’m constantly doing character sketches to create muscle memory for the issues,” Holder said. “Otherwise, like most artists, it starts with a script breakdown with any notes I might have, follow-up emails with Editorial. Then a reference hunt for everything from clothing to cityscapes to vehicles, etc. Creating thumbnails for page layouts and blue lines for their full-size cousins. Then finally choice pencils and straight to inks!”
Jose also provided the process art for cover of the No. 1 issue of the new Assassin’s Creed Comic seen in the gallery below.
With the movie adaptation coming to theaters in December, and the new comics not far behind, the team believes that this is just the beginning, “Assassin’s Creed has always been an incredible franchise with a strong, passionate fan base, that’s about to grow leaps and bounds with the release of the film this year… Dan Watters and Alex Paknadel have woven an unbelievable story arc for these characters that’s going to set the Assassin’s universe on fire!”
Assassin’s Creed #1 is available on February 1, 2017
