Challenge
To combine the universe of Guy Ritchie's Snatch with the setting of World of Tanks Blitz, crafting a captivating story that seamlessly weaves these two worlds together. The ‘snatch’-catch? We had to do it using only a specific amount of material allowed by the copyright holders.
Story
A client throws an event called Battle Pass Special. Snatch the Diamond, drawing inspiration from the quirky characters in Snatch and creating special-themed camouflages. We had to cook up a trailer for the in-game event, whip up the key art, a bunch of visual assets, TikToks, memes and more. And we had to showcase the heroes – the camouflages – and the star of the show, the tank Charioteer.
Now, you might be wondering, what can these two worlds even have in common? Well, if you let your imagination run wild for a moment (as we let ours), you can notice that both are, in a way, movies. Every battle in the game is a small (but your own!) film. And when the diamond enters the scene? A hurricane action starts.
Let's talk more about the trailer. Sony tossed us some footage tied to Snatch's characters, and since Guy Ritchie stood out precisely for the unusual and bright presentation of his characters in the '90s, we ran with it. Taking inspiration from this peculiarity, we decided to create our movie trailer. Here's the twist – there are tanks participating in a diamond heist chase. They join the pursuit one after another, characters are introduced in true Ritchie style and they battle it out for the diamond. The chase ends with Charioteer, the main tank. He manages to get away from his pursuers. But for how long?
Production
We couldn't tweak a single frame from the movie, couldn't doodle or stretch it. That's why another challenge was to seamlessly blend those cinematic clips with Unreal Engine graphics. If you watch the video closely, you'll notice it's like a matchmaker's masterpiece, these subtle connections, where we piece together blocks to introduce Snatch characters and link them with tanks sporting their signature camos.
Now, let's talk tunes. We had the Snatch soundtrack, but we could only use a minute of it time. So, what did we do? We cranked up our creativity and adjusted several track snippets that hit the right notes.
To nail that Snatch vibe, we built London streets and constantly leaned on original movie frames. The video is practically a treasure trove of nods to the film. Spot the Boys and Tanks store? Rings a bell? There's so much in there straight outta the movie: a guitar here, some road signs there. Ever notice the part in the video where tanks are tearing through the woods, and there's a busted washing machine in the green zone? That's not just a random junk pile – it's a nod to the movie, where gypsy caravans had all that junk lying around.
And here's a sneaky Easter egg for you – graffiti. We created those with a Banksy twist, injecting our ideas that dive deeper into the gaming event and the stolen diamond tale.
Now, let's talk vibes – tone of voice, grading, and playing with colors. We drenched everything in a slightly murky English mist, adding that touch to sync up with the movie frames.
And there you have it – a dynamic, kick-butt tank chase with the main characters stealing the show.
