ART DIRECTION / DESIGN / ANIMATION
ART DIRECTION / DESIGN / ANIMATION
Borderlands is one of my favorite game series of all time, so I was beyond excited to work on 2K and Gearbox's massive Fan Fest event to reveal their groundbreaking work on the
4th installment of the Borderlands series. Borderlands 4 is set to be their most ambitious undertaking yet with major updates to their graphics, gameplay, and loot mechanics. Blue
Coast partnered with 2K and Gearbox to curate fan event that matched the scale of their new game. The event was built by fans for fans and extended invitations to iconic Twitch
streamers as well die-hard fans.
I oversaw the entire creative process of key features of the event including stage/live stream graphics, signage, activations, and event wearables. Some of the key event visuals
I designed were the Fast Travel Tunnel activation, animated UI screens for the central tower, signage and plinko game boards, and event branded shirts/lanyards.
One of the most iconic visuals of the Borderlands series has been the wormhole-esque Fast Travel animation players travel through when moving from one area of the map to another.
Blue Coast pitched the idea of capturing the surreal motion of moving through the Fast Travel tunnel in a fully immersive LED tunnel that attendees would walk through upon
entering the Fan Fest event.
I collaborated closely with the amazing team at SoCal Rentals to design and plan the physical installation of the massive 25 foot long, 10 foot high LED tunnel. I went through various
iterations of designing the tunnel in 3D using both Cinema 4D and After Effects to bring the tunnel to life. Once the tunnel was designed, I animated it in C4D and used camera
techniques to unwrap the full animation to lay out for final mapping in After Effects.
A central installation in the Borderlands Fan Fest event was the ominous tower extended to the height of the entire venue. Echoing the visuals of the Timekeeper's control over the city
of Kairos, the tower featured visuals of propaganda as well as highly stylized UI screens. Partnering again with SoCal Rentals, we planned several key animated screens to map over
the face the 25 screens scattered across the tower. The animations were done in After Effects using the visual language of Kairos' futuristic world.
A large part of the Borderlands Fan Fest event involved both the live stage announcements and the live stream presence of the event on streaming platforms like Twitch.
The stage screen was a massive 4K LED installation that featured an animated version of the key art that brought the stage to life. Randy Pitchford himself delivered his keynote
speech and overview of Borderlands 4's new features and story in front of these animated screens. In addition I also developed a live stream package that featured lower thirds
and overlays for live streamers to be featured on Twitch and the main stage.
I led a small team through the design and animation phase to develop the graphics package. Although the main key art and visual elements were minimalistic, we pushed
the envelope and modeled full 3D elements like debris and chains to accompany the onscreen visuals. The final approved design were animated by Billy Huynh.
