That Blizzard anime from last week was one of the coolest video game clips I have ever seen, but it turns out it wasn’t the work of the company’s in-house cinematics team. Instead, it was made by two British studios, with help from some of the best video game artists in the business.




The Line (a studio based in London) and Axis Animation (in Scotland) are responsible for the trailer, which was directed by Wesley Louis. Helping out were some names you might be familiar with: Mathias Zamecki was art director and did backgrounds, while LeSean Thomas did the storyboards.

Below you’ll find some art that went into the clip’s creation.

To see the images in their native resolution, click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner.


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Here’s an example of the character work done for the mechs, transforming a HOTS character into something out of Gundam.

And here’s a piece of background art from the short, showing a Zerg ship done again in an anime style.

Full credits:

The Line:



Director: Wesley Louis

Exec Producer: Sam Taylor

Producer: Hanae Seida

Storyboard: LeSean Thomas

Additional Boards: Alvise Zennaro

Art Director/Layout: Mathias Zamecki

Animation: Jonathan Djob Nkondo Alvise Zennaro

FX Animation: Naoki Araiza Tokumasu

Backgrounds: Mathias Zamecki Igor Piwowarczyk

Additional Backgrounds: Bjorn Erik-Aschim Michael Shorten

Clean Up Artsts: Setareh Seto Francisco Magalhães Venla Linna, Bianca Howell, Reg Isaac, Walid Abou El Joud, Kelly Holmes, Jennifer Belobi


Compositing Supervisor: Max Taylor

Compositing Lead: Freddie Lewis-Wall

Compositing: Deborah Ho

Graphic Design: Max Taylor

Production Assistant: Leana Mae Felipe

CG Supervisor: Tom Flavelle

Modelling: Luke Gibbard Tom Flavelle

2D/3D Pipeline Development: Jack Straw, Lawrence Bennett

Compositing: Kye Dorricott: Tom Flavelle

Rigging: Simon Legrand

CG Animation: Luke Gibbard, Tom Flavelle, Simon Legrand

Axis:

Exec Producer: Andrew Pearce

Creative Director: Richard Scott

Producer: Laura McAllister

Production Coordinator: Sophie Robeson


Blizzard

Music: Blizzard Entertainment

BXFYS Audio

Sound Design: Box Of Toys Audio

BONUS: Turns out The Line are also responsible for this classic: