With an infinite zoom through reimagined historic moments, creative director Chris Finn and the team at Scholar just launched the new Xbox grand strategy game Ara: History Untold with this monumental trailer.

From Scholar: “The course of history has been shaped by an infinite number of choices made since the dawn of time. But that’s the history we know… what about the history that could have been?

“Our goal was to capture the imagination of gamers by mixing contrasting elements from the past and future – Egyptian pyramids entrenched deep into an arctic landscape, a modern city celebrating the return of a Byzantine empress. In Ara, the possibilities of stories untold are limitless.

“Our visual development process began with environmental keyframes that defined each vignette. We focused on cinematic lighting, sweeping terrains, and a balanced range of color palettes.

“The infinite zoom camera allowed us to move seamlessly and quickly through each beat of animation and key moment in history. Carefully choreographed moments of character animation were incorporated to guide the viewer’s eye around the frame and accentuate historical figures.”
 

 
Publisher: Xbox
Developer: Oxide Games

Agency: gnet
Executive Creative Director: David Moodie
Creative Director: Laurel Miller
Associate Producer: Jake Kirk
Senior Producer: Brandon King
Head of Production: Shelby Hill

Production: Scholar
Creative Director: Chris Finn
Managing EP: Kirsten Noll
Head of Production: Nicole Smarsh
Art Director: Danni Fisher-Shin
CG Supervisor: Tim Hayward
Sr Producer: Christina Yiallouris
Associate Producer: Bella Bergeron
Storyboards: Jingjing Cao
Designer/Concept Art/Matte Painter: Tim Rodriguez
2D Animators: Susie Scheer, Andrew Tan
Model/Texture Artists: Ryan Kaplan, Eric Xu
Leg Specialists: Chaya Pictures
3D Animators: Han Hu, Stephen Van Wyk, Chris Meek, Melik Malkasian
3D Generalists: Brice Linane, Kevin Kolondinsky
Lighters: Jacques Clement, Micheal Lampe
Dynamics/FX: Tim Hayward
Comp Supervisor: Matt Lavoy
Compositors: Phil Massimino, Daniel Noren
QC: Adrianna McKinley

Voice Talent: Shohreh Aghdashloo