In anticipation of the November 19 wide release of Battlefield 2042, the groundbreaking first-person shooter set to revolutionize the modern multiplayer sandbox, Electronic Arts has unveiled the
Battlefield 2042 "Hazard Zone" trailer, which showcases the all-new, high-stakes, squad-based game-type.
EA’s Game Capture team played a key role creating this visceral trailer, which closely follows the movements of six squad members and drives home the raw intensity of playing the game. They were also instrumental in creating EA Sports’ NHL 22 official gameplay trailer that launched this summer.
Watch
Battlefield 2042 "Hazard Zone"
here.
Game Capture Artists are a unique, unsung breed of creators who bring a passion for gameplay, artistry and technical knowledge to their work. They are responsible for selecting and perfecting the in-game scenes, flowing them seamlessly into scripted animations seen in trailers and screenshots. Game Capture artists have backgrounds in photography and cinematography, graphic design, compositing, editing and coding.
“Raw gameplay is the soul of any game,” said Sam Goncalves, Game Capture manager, EA. “It is what makes the game enjoyable. It’s very rewarding to inspire and excite so many people around the world who play our games.”
Jeff Aho, Game Capture lead at Electronic Arts, explains the Game Capture process. “Before we get into any capture, we have a creative alignment meeting to ensure we have the creative vision for the projects. We also brainstorm with our creative and dev partners on location scouting and action blocking for the shots.” Once they hit production full-force, the team follows a fairly regular workflow.
The start of the day usually consists of communication with the dev partners to ensure the Game Capture team is working off the most up-to-date build. From there, the leads will meet to align on a plan of action for the day's shots; they’ll discuss the specifics of each shot and convey any notes or direction from partners, which areas of a map to shoot in, and what weapons/gear/vehicles are ready to be highlighted. They’ll formulate their general plan of action for the team and meet with the full group in the early afternoon to share everything with the full team online.
According to Aho, the group’s first pass is nearly always a blocking pass, as the leads will give each member of the team specifics on what their goal is for the shot. “Sometimes it is very specific — ‘hit a mark here and shoot player X’ — and sometimes it’s more general — ‘get into this area and fire around player Y.’ The times when it’s more general is for our team to experiment on the fly to find what looks cool,” he explains. “We plan our time pretty specifically throughout the day to ensure our capture time is more creative and free-flowing. A lot of times we’ll get into a shot and discover what we had planned doesn’t make sense in an edit, or doesn’t read right for the viewer, so we take the time while working in the shots to fine-tune things as we go.”
After all their shots are done for the day, the leads will get together to review dailies — the multiple takes for each shot they got done for the day — and will make their selections and upload them to Frame.io for review with their partners. Once uploaded to Frame.io, the leads will also go through shots and mark up any capture notes the group may have for their consideration. “As we get closer to final throughout our capture, we scrutinize each shot down to its most minimal detail to ensure we are reaching the quality expectation that has been set forth across our AAA titles,” says Aho.
