Turkish Championship League (TCL) promo cinematic we've produced for Riot Games on their widely popular title League of Legends for the league premiere.
We've handed the keys for the project after creating the concept, doing narrative, production design, story-telling and animation and lastly getting together a wild music score and edit. This turned out to be real cool project and community showed how much they care for this league if some stuff gets done right.
We've handed the keys for the project after creating the concept, doing narrative, production design, story-telling and animation and lastly getting together a wild music score and edit. This turned out to be real cool project and community showed how much they care for this league if some stuff gets done right.
Director: Furkan İlbay — Work: Ash & Dust - TCL'23 Promo —Year: 2023 — Client: Riot Games —Partner: Ninja Company
The Story
The story for this particular cinematic came from the roots of the brand. If you remember, TCL lastly rebranded into a new look, changing their logo, theme and the other assets they have. This is a result of the Riot Games' efforts to unite the EMEA region and moving Turkish Championship League into the EMEA Masters category and removing the Worlds and MSI slots that the league has resulted in a very determined, kind of angry community. We wanted to showcase that we're not here for long and we'll take back what we used to have, so the all story collapses around this theme: "TCL deserves much better and we'll show it to you."
The story for this particular cinematic came from the roots of the brand. If you remember, TCL lastly rebranded into a new look, changing their logo, theme and the other assets they have. This is a result of the Riot Games' efforts to unite the EMEA region and moving Turkish Championship League into the EMEA Masters category and removing the Worlds and MSI slots that the league has resulted in a very determined, kind of angry community. We wanted to showcase that we're not here for long and we'll take back what we used to have, so the all story collapses around this theme: "TCL deserves much better and we'll show it to you."
While revolving around these theme, we emphasized these 3 key-words:
Unapologetic — We’re here to stay we will take what belongs to us. We deserve our place amongst the best.
Determined — We’ll keep our legacy standing We’ve come a long way and we will keep our heritage alive, so that Turkish pride keeps flowing in our fans heart.
Evolutionary — We’re on a journey to greatness. We will work hard to always reveal new talents, new teams and to constantly evolve in the ERL scene.
Other linear concepts followed as:
Determined — We’ll keep our legacy standing We’ve come a long way and we will keep our heritage alive, so that Turkish pride keeps flowing in our fans heart.
Evolutionary — We’re on a journey to greatness. We will work hard to always reveal new talents, new teams and to constantly evolve in the ERL scene.
Other linear concepts followed as:
Unapologetic — Bold — Daring — Fearless — Determined — Proud
Passionate — Firm — Evolving — Dynamic — Advancing — United
In the end, the voiceover and theme script that we want to create got shape:
They think we’re in the shadows, they think we’re behind.
But we’re more than a minor region, we’re a major opponent.
We’ll forge ourselves by turning our spark into a flame,
We’ll forge ourselves by turning our spark into a flame,
And then our flame into a great fire.
With this fire, we fuel our legacy, and blaze a trail for generations to come.
Blazing our own way: TCL.
With this fire, we fuel our legacy, and blaze a trail for generations to come.
Blazing our own way: TCL.
The Concept
The story set up us for the feel of the movie, but how does it look? In terms of concepts, our talented artist Güliz created beautiful atmosphere arts and provided us with everything we need from A to Z. We were heavily inspired by the universes of Lord of the Rings, Blade Runner, Dune and other sci-fi cults that affected the world. This movies not only provided us a way to showcase the darkness and edginess but made us remember this themes revolve around being in super-wide landscapes with tiny tiny people and objects. That's what we've tried to replicate to get the same feeling while designing our 3D and IRL scenes.
The story set up us for the feel of the movie, but how does it look? In terms of concepts, our talented artist Güliz created beautiful atmosphere arts and provided us with everything we need from A to Z. We were heavily inspired by the universes of Lord of the Rings, Blade Runner, Dune and other sci-fi cults that affected the world. This movies not only provided us a way to showcase the darkness and edginess but made us remember this themes revolve around being in super-wide landscapes with tiny tiny people and objects. That's what we've tried to replicate to get the same feeling while designing our 3D and IRL scenes.
When we finished with the storyboarding, we've set up our story to represent actual humans and teams from the game, so we've identified each player with a champion of their own that made a legacy, and we've used these specific champions in every scene and made them feel right.
The Shoot
Shoot is somewhere passed within the expectations, yet we've prepared for it much much longer. We've adjusted the camera angles from the movies that we inspired from and tried to squeeze them into our burning planet, by creating a feel that players who're on the planet feels as in they're in atmosphere. Every player were shot like a game-character asset creation sprite, where they walk towards us, camera, and other angles. This reference walks and stands made it easier for us to put them on compositing and blend with animation. This process were real hard as both players and crew didn't know what the image will look like until it's composited. We flipped the coin. Got tails.
Shoot is somewhere passed within the expectations, yet we've prepared for it much much longer. We've adjusted the camera angles from the movies that we inspired from and tried to squeeze them into our burning planet, by creating a feel that players who're on the planet feels as in they're in atmosphere. Every player were shot like a game-character asset creation sprite, where they walk towards us, camera, and other angles. This reference walks and stands made it easier for us to put them on compositing and blend with animation. This process were real hard as both players and crew didn't know what the image will look like until it's composited. We flipped the coin. Got tails.
The Computer Generated Imagery
Upon finishing the shoot, we've moved with CGI part of the film where it all gets together. The story that we've built on, the voiceover that we've created, the frames that we prepared, all came together on this part of the journey. We've experimented with several different angles on film and movements. Because we wanted to keep the atmosphere fearful and bold, we've kept the animations minimal, made the land-scapes wide enough to make viewer feel like they're drowning in the picture. Berke did a good job on these and got ourselves really neat looking CGI.
Upon finishing the shoot, we've moved with CGI part of the film where it all gets together. The story that we've built on, the voiceover that we've created, the frames that we prepared, all came together on this part of the journey. We've experimented with several different angles on film and movements. Because we wanted to keep the atmosphere fearful and bold, we've kept the animations minimal, made the land-scapes wide enough to make viewer feel like they're drowning in the picture. Berke did a good job on these and got ourselves really neat looking CGI.
We've used Cinema 4D, After Effects, Houdini, Marvelous and some other programs to get the looks that we want.
The Teaser
When you're working on a movie like this, you need hype. To be able to create it, we've discussed with out partner Ninja and published a 2-version (vertical and horizontal) versions of the movie on Twitter and Instagram without any music or effects, showcasing the atmosphere. This ended up being the spark we needed to be able to publish the movie in hype.
The Trade
This 3-week project both made the viewer happy in terms of concept and executing and settled a new dimension for a new brand like Turkish Championship League (TCL). This also was a first part of the series in brand story, so ever if we continue, you'll see the story progress through movies and start the understand the lore in this trio.
This 3-week project both made the viewer happy in terms of concept and executing and settled a new dimension for a new brand like Turkish Championship League (TCL). This also was a first part of the series in brand story, so ever if we continue, you'll see the story progress through movies and start the understand the lore in this trio.
We should thank everyone that made a little impact for our project from Riot Games, Ninja Company to our other partners such as our production studio and others. Don't forget the follow 1337 for another round of this.
Credits as follow:
Director: Furkan İlbay
Director: Sami Can Altınçınar
Brand Manager: Dilay Ertürk
Storyboard/Concept Artist: Güliz Öncü
Production Partner: VSG Production
Brand Partners: Ninja Company, Riot Games
3D Graphics: Watuzzzz
OST: Desert Warrior - Titan
