Our opening sequence for Blackstone

In order to promote the video game Blackstone by developer Odyssey, Jumbla decided to take things in an abstract direction…

Our animators embrace the opportunity to imagine new and novel concepts, especially if they also serve an important purpose.

In the case of Blackstone, its enigmatic nature rouses interest and intrigue in what the game is all about.

Envisioning an esoteric world

The cinematic tells the story of Blackstone being born on a sci-fi planet from a bolt of onyx crystal. It then creates high-speed havoc across this alien landscape. 

"This was one of four concepts we pitched to Odyssey, and the one they loved the most," said Jumbla Creative Director Oz Smith.  

“There’s something fluid and delicate about the surfaces of cars. I think the motif of onyx enabled us to draw out both those contrasting properties: shiny, yet solid.”

With freedom from the client to keep on pushing the concept, the finished product jumps from one arcane scene to the next.

“The project served its purpose really well. It visually impressed and roused lots of curiosity,” said Odyssey’s Product Manager Richard Burke.

Finding the right technique 

The harsh colour palette, featuring strong black and white contrasts, was chosen to add an extra layer of darkness to the world.

While this was an easy choice, creating the exploding onyx proved a tougher challenge.

“We tried a number of ways of doing this using dynamics, but ended up using the voronoi fracture, broken apart with effectors,” said Oz.

“We used a couple of 2D animators to get a sense of timing and pace and then recreated this in 3D.”

Most assets were created in Cinema 4D and rendered with Octane, with After Effects on hand to composite the surreal environments.