Meta introduced its VR game Asgard’s Wrath 2 with a rampaging animated campaign including this visceral trailer from director John Likens who teamed with VFX super Ivan Guerrero and the post team at Method Studios.

John Likens: “It’s not every day you get the opportunity to work on a project that encompasses all the things you’re truly passionate about. These films checked a lot of boxes for me. I got to direct the live-action, VFX, and animation teams and bring them together. This, to me, is the sweet spot.
 

“It’s not every day you get the opportunity to work on a project that encompasses all the things you’re truly passionate about.”

 
“Integrating these various tools, which historically do not play well with each other, and forging ways for them to work seamlessly is the future of filmmaking. It’s something we are heavily focused on at Method.”

Ivan Guerrero: “We were provided an incredible array of game assets and references from the Asgard’s Wrath 2 development team. Part of our job was to take those game assets, increase their detail level in the models and textures, and push them to a photographic level. This enabled real-time CG supervisor Michael Ferraro and his team of Unreal Engine artists to focus on character animation, lighting, look development, and world-building.”
 
 

 
Client: Meta

Agency: BBDO
EP: Bruce McDonald
Producer: Michael Woodall
CD: Joe Fox, Ricky Bowry

Production: Method Studios
Director: John Likens
MD: Jesse Kurnit
EP: Hayley Wallach, Julia Paskert

Live-action production: Standard Production
Team: Chris Gabello, Sid Kreitzer, David Simpson

VFX/post: Method Studios
ECD: John Likens
DOP: Byron Kopman
VFX Super: Ivan Guerrero
Real Time Executive Producer: Karina Partington
Senior Producer: Aiste Akelaityte
Senior VFX Producer: Christopher Lewis
VFX Producers: Kyle Fader + Joseph Hobaica
Senior CG Supervisor: Brian Dinoto
CG Supervisor: Christina Faraj
FX Supervisor: Tomas Slancik
Art Director / FX Artist: Danil Krivoruchko
Technical Supervisor: Michael Ferraro
Lighting Supervisor: Claire Chang
Flame Leads: Chihcheng Peng + Rob Walker
Comp Supervisor: Theodore Wirtz
CG Generalists: Mark Yagos + Yang Hu
Senior Rigger: Rick Fronek
Unreal Rigger: Justin Barcellos
Senior Lighter: Irene Kim
Lighter: Jan Habib
Unreal Lighters: Rj Draper + Mark Lavania
Integration Supervisor: Fabio Zapata
Integration Artist: Rachan Chirarattanakornkul
FX Artists: Alejandro Echeverry, Pamela Saad, Gregory Ecker + Jason Simmons
Senior Unreal Generalist: Eugene Floramata
Unreal Environment Artists: Jeffrey Scott
Unreal Generalist: Adam Butler
Realtime Producer: Fan Yu
Senior Realtime Production Coordinator: Tracey Carpenter
Senior Production Coordinator: Juliann Barbella
Production Coordinators: Olivia Vitagliano + Ethan Samuel
Executive Creative Director: Johnny Likens
Creative Director, Games: Sam Mcglynn
VFX Supervisors: Ivan Guerrero
Asset Artist: Cemre Esen
Concept Artist: Marco Iozzi
Storyboard Artists: James Randolph + Keith Morange
Animators: Daniel Patterson, Bradley Morris, Brad Hayes + Isai Calderon
Unreal Animators: Andres Asperin, Andrew Chranowsky, Robert Yau + Stephen Mann
Lead Unreal Artist: Mateus Kurzhals
Lead Unreal Animator: Greg Bekken
Unreal Artist: Seiji Anderson
Senior Nuke Compositors: Frank Fieser, Dan Giraldo + Ting Hsu
Junior Nuke Compositor: Sabrina Chan
Compositors: Rickey Verma, Sam Chen, Tati Bozinovski + Nic Kim
Senior Designer: David Weinstock
Matte Painter: Christopher Sanchez
Unreal Technical Director: Warren Wang
Flame Artists: Margolit Steiner, Bilali Mack + Larry Merrill
Junior Flame Artist: Jeremy Lloyd-Styles
VFX Assists: Thomas Karras, Trevor Brashich + Sergio Segovia
Senior Editor: Ryan Todd
Editor: Marcus Mcsherry
SFX: Charles Deenen

Color: Company 3 NY
Colorist: Sofie Borup

MOCAP Stusio: Animatrik

Sound: Source Sound