Mill+ director Robert Sethi and a battalion of VFX artists at The Mill hammer out a sweeping yet intricately detailed announcement trailer for Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road MMO role-playing game launching June 2024.

Lane Jolly, 2D lead artist at The Mill: “We did a lot of work with FX and hair simulations that really shined on this project, it leveled up the animation of the shots tremendously. Everything was lit and rendered in Houdini using Arnold, which was new to some of our lighters but once comfortable with the tools, the process became incredibly efficient.

“The project’s themes played a crucial role in the storytelling, requiring us to convey the look and feel in an authentic way, especially in the environments. Our artists engaged in extensive concepting upfront, laying a solid framework they could build upon. In the end, we crafted a trailer that maintained the desired vibe while introducing a distinct visual style that complemented the overall narrative.”
 
 

 
Client: ZeniMax

Agency: Ayzenberg Group, Inc.
Executive Producer: Jonathan Clark
Producer: Tara Pinley
Creative Director: Paul Wallace
Chief Creative Officer: Matt Bretz
Sr. Account Executive: Jordan Lofy

Production: Mill+
Director: Robert Sethi
Global Executive Producer: Elizabeth Newman
Executive Producer, Experience: Cassandra Robertson-reuter
Director of Photography: Adam Scarth (External)
Live Action Producer: Stephanie Werrell-Smyth
Copywriter: Bobby Lewis, Robert Sethi
Lead Technical Artist: Martin Thelwell
Technical Artist: Jack Chen, Marcel Wang, Jayleen Perez

VFX: The Mill
VFX Supervisor: Chris Bayol
Global Executive Producer: Elizabeth Newman
Producer: Nick Faidley
Technical Director: Jeff Willette
Real-time Technical Artist: Chris Satola
Associate Producer: Lachie Wappet
Production Coordinator: Kathia Salgado
2D Lead Artist: Lane Jolly
Animation Lead: Samir Patel
FX Lead: Daniel Soo
Creature Supervisor: Kris Costa
Compositing: Abigail Riegel, Kai Chun Tsai
Animation: Tommy Taylor, Sebastian Nino, Floyd Raymer, Jordan Harris, Gustavo Gonzalez, Katie Yancey, Jacob Bergman, Isaias Yetemegn
FX: Sparsh Kumar, Dan Bodenstein, Yang Wu, Ken Jones,
Lighting Lead: Nitesh Nagda
Lighting: Brendon Echsner, Lorena Cano, Tom Hearne
Modeling/Texture/Lookdev/Groom: Rafa Zabala, Dustin Leon, Brian Lesiangi, Brendon Echsner
Rigging Supervisor:Peter Christensen
Rigging: Pete Christensen, Olesya Gurezova, Navin Pinto, Daishi Takishima
Shot Sculpting: Kris Costa
Matte Painting: Itai Muller
Previz Lead: Matt Connolly
Previz: Jacob Bergman, Katie Yancey, Samir Patel
Concept Artists: Felix Bauer-Schlichtegroll, Gary Inloes
Storyboard Artist: Mark Yates
BLR Production Manager: Chitra Vinod
BLR Production Coordinator: Vinita Panwar
BLR Deputy HOP: Sanchit Soi
DFX Supervisor: Sudhir Verma
Assets Lead: Vikas Soni
Asset Artists: Karthikeyan M, Prakhar Kulshreshtha, Arnab Bhattacharya, Ragul Sundaramoorthy, Tushar Sethi, Madhusudan Patel, Pratik Bhade, Samir Solomon, Shaik Kaleem, Suraj Hariharan, Thirumoorthi Sivakumar, Kapil Singh Rana, Vivek Mayanglambam, Sanjaykumar H V
Assets Supervisor: Dakoju Shashi Kumar
Creature Supervisor: Sandeep VS
Animation Lead: Sandeep Kumar Goje
Animation: Devadathan K C, Aadepu Chandramouli, Naveen Ashok
Animation Supervisor: Sukanta Chakraborty
FX Lead: Rakesh Herurkar
CFX Leads: Ashutosh Shivdas, Rohit Kumar, Gleaces Juvilian, Jayasri S, Dilwinder Singh
FX Artists: M Kannan, Himanshu Solanki, Pinku Kumar Kashyap, Aliasgar Barodawala, Neehal Kumar, Akshay Kishor Asarkar
FX Supervisor: Biswajit Tarafder
Lighting Leads: Vishwajeet Sideshwar Nandagawle
Lighting: Ravikanth Raju, Manjunatha Chandrashekar, Chokkarapu Sai Pradeep, Pintoo Kumar
Lighting Supervisor: Aritra Sarkar
Compositing Lead: Hanuma Narasimha Hanumath Prasad Kondepi
Compositing: Gopinathan Sekar, Stevenson G, Rakhahari Ghosh, Ashique T, Anuj Bhandari
Compositing Supervisor: Mayank Shekhar Tiwari
DMP Supervisor: Gowri Velusamy D
DMP Artist: Sitaram Nilkanth Wankhede

Color: The Mill
Colorist: Paul Yacono
Executive Producer, Colour: Krista Staudt
Color Producer: Denise Brown
Color Assists: Daymian Mejia, Jacob Suffern

Editorial: The Mill
Editors: Ryan Burbank, Jack Pyland
Edit Assist: Yiqing Yu

Sound Design: Source Sound Inc
Supervising Sound Designer/Mix: Charles Deenen
Sound Mixers: Travis Prater, Mark Jasper
Sound Designers: Nick Martin, Nick Interlandi, Nick Spradlin
Sound Editors: Landen Belardes, Matt Severin
Assistant Sound Editor: Kelly Baffoni
Senior Producer: Daniel Lepervanche

Music Composer: Gordy Haab