ISP Chess Tournament
This was a promo for a schools on-line Chess tournament.
The tournament took place during the Covid lockdown, the school wanted to give the students a way to interact with each other even though they were all forced to stay at home.
They gave me a reference video which had a look and style that they liked.
It was a 3D animated chess board, but the Chess pieces were fighting with machine guns and flame throwers. They wanted the same look but without the violence.
I made the model of the chess board, the chess pieces and all the animation in Cinema 4D.
It was challenging to think of things for the pieces to do to each other that were not violent, but still have the feel of the reference video.
The film also had to pass inspection by a Chess expert since the school couldn’t show the students Chess moves that were incorrect or broke the rules.
To solve the problem I found a classic match on YouTube and re-created every move in my animation. This gave me a full match played from start to finish and all the Chess moves would pass inspection.
For each different shot I needed, I could move the camera around the board and try to find a cool angle or interesting camera move to match how the pieces were moving.
The tournament was a huge success for the school and they now run it every year. They still use the film to promote the event.