Client: Call of Duty     Director: David Leitch    Production Company: Minted

To prepare for the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Activision have dropped a live-action trailer titled “The Lobby”, which features VFX + CG from Method Studios, led by Creative Director Vernon Wilbert, and colour grade by Company 3’s Jill Bogdanowicz.

Directed by David Leitch, who has worked on action-packed films like “Bullet Train,” “Deadpool 2,” and “John Wick,” the cinematic film follows character KillSwitch, an Operator, as he keeps his eye on other operators and prepares for action in Call of Duty’s lobby. Set to a new original track composed by 21 Savage (featuring D4VD and produced by Ryan Tedder), “The Lobby” celebrates the 20th anniversary of the much loved game and features appearances from musician 21 Savage, NBA star Devin Booker, and UK artist Central Cee. 

Chatting on what was required to bring this epic film to life, Vernon comments, “The overall challenge here was the breath of VFX work mixed with the aggressive schedule and the quality needed to support David Leitch's visuals known for his work from films Atomic Blonde,  Bullet Train and John Wick. From explosion enhancements, atmospherics, severed finger, fire, set extensions, and digital makeup enhancements, this work would touch every VFX department from Flame and Nuke to Maya to Houdini as well as foundational departments Tracking, Paint and Roto.”

One particular element in the film that required a lot of work was the Zombie hand scene. The team scanned, photographed and then modeled, rigged, textured, and animated the finger for the desired comedic effect. Vernon notes “Poyan Navid oversaw this workflow as well as the houdini FX used to enhance the virtual Game footage in the Portals. Bob Homani ran the Nuke Compositing team that developed the Live-Action look of the iconic Zombie eyes in the game. They also leverged 2.5d techniques along with Chris Sanchez who supplied all of the Digital matte Paintings for the show.”

When creating a campaign like this which has a creative environment mixed with celebrity talent, its key not to disrupt the flow with VFX restrictions. Therefore the team had to sieze every moment within the shoot to employ parallel VFX strategies. This allowed David and his long time collaborator DP, Jonathan Sela, more flexibility and room to be creative.

Vernon adds “One example of siezing the moment was the evolving set. The Lobby is peppered with dimensional gateways to various levels in Call of Duty called "Portals".  We needed to add CG doors with the proper Game Level graphics and for some, enhanced virtual game enviornments including an interactive explosion. Only three Portals were actually made and were moved around creatively along with many of the set to enhance the look of the shots. John Giffoni, our integration supervisor, used the Faro Laser scanner, between setups, for quick but detailed 3D captures that included textures of the entire set.”

Looking back on the campaign, Vernon recalls "For me, the key to the success of this work was Method's multi-experienced team that brought their broad skillsets from feature films, episodics, commercials, and product work. And they finished  a multi-pronged, Triple A project in 2 weeks. Simply amazing!”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 10 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and PC.

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