VALORANT
GAME CHANGERS CHAMPIONSHIP 2022
For the first-ever VALORANT Game Changers Championship, a tournament series aimed at women and gender-marginalized E-Sports players, I worked in collaboration with Scholar and Riot Games to explore a wild anime-inspired hype trailer based around the theme of breaking and changing norms. My role in the team included art direction, character design, storywriting, and cel animation.
CREDITS
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
DESIGN PROCESS
CHARACTER DESIGN
First Pass
When we first received the pitch, I was thrilled to explore the character design direction and hone our interpretation of the featured pros’ personalities. The theme of our pitch was wild, loose, and in-your-face. I pushed for a sketchy, expressive style inspired by impact frames.
Second Pass
Our second iteration of characters took a much more mature and refined approach. Here I also explored the graphic, poster-inspired color palettes that we would later carry into the final look.
Production
As we went into production, we brought on Aivy Nguyen to create sheets for the animators’ reference. She designed the characters’ outfits and brought them to a new, refined level for animation.
AND MORE
