Psyop Crafts A Comical 'Clash Of Clans'

The ubiquitous proliferation of handheld devices has turned us into nations of gamers – be it the simple delights of Words With Friends, the devious challenge of Flappy Bird or the addictive headlock of Candy Crush, nary a commute or a spare moment can be endured without a quick playthrough. However, communicating the appeal of an on-the-go game to a YouTube audience – particularly if the title in question doesn’t rely on flashy visuals – is a tough proposition. The answer? Go for laughs!

In creating ‘Anthem’, a trailer for Supercell’s game of strategic chaos Clash of Clans, production company Psyop and agency Barton F. Graf 9000 New York were challenged with the task of dropping viewers in the middle of an all-out war. Utilising the characters from the game, the CG spot expounds on their qualities, creating a cast of endearingly quirky warriors in a mere 30 seconds.

We were won over by the hilarious combatants, so chatted to Psyop director Fletcher Moules about the concept, the design process and the key to good slapstick.



How did you get involved in the project? What was the concept as it was brought to you? We imagine a script/idea from Barton F Graf 9000 must provoke a few chuckles.

Psyop was asked to pitch on a 60sec project with a handful of original 15sec spots. Barton F. Graf 9000 New York sent us a fun script that explored many characters in the Clash world. The brief from Barton F. Graf 9000 New York was more or less “think opening scene from 'Saving Private Ryan' but with Clash characters."

Barton F. Graf 9000 New York had previously established character descriptions that they used to formulate the initial draft of the script. Over the pitch process, we worked closely with them to expand on these descriptions. This further informed who the main characters were and how they’d be featured in the spots.

In order to find our visual style I asked the design team verbatim “What would this world look like if you were running alongside a horde of Barbarians? What would it feel like to be covered in their saliva?”

How much of the characterisation comes from you and how much existed in the character design of the games?

Supercell had explored the concept art of all the characters so Psyop's main focus was to interpret their 2D illustrations into 3D, adding texture and detail. Beyond the visual style of the characters was the task of defining their personalities and performances. From the earliest stages of the project we shared references and held lengthy discussions on each character — what made them who they are? how do they move? etc.



When it comes to spots like this, how much is your job trying to emulate the title’s gameplay and how much is it trying to capture the mood?

We were very conscious of the rules of the game play, but at the same time we were telling a Clash story from ground level. The Psyop team interpreted this as a film about the game, as opposed to trying to emulate the game exactly. We took a few liberties of the Clash game play in order to make for a more entertaining film, but this spot is really all about mood.

Do you work with the game company when creating the spot?

Yes, very closely. We'd have calls with both Barton F. Graf 9000 New York and Supercell’s game team in Helsinki and marketing team in San Francisco at least three times a week. Supercell, being an animation design company themselves, totally understood our process which was fantastic. We would share work during the early stages and they understood what they were looking at and knew how to respond which made for a great collaborative process from all parties involved.



How was the animation process? What element caused the most problems?

The animation was very smooth on this job with most of the heavy lifting completed in previs. I was adamant at the start of this job that the previs had to be detailed, and once finalized we would use it as blueprint and not stray from the concepts.

I think we created something like 88 shots in the previs stage which were eventually cut down to 20 for the final edit. It was a very fluid process for the CG team and being able to try many different cameras, actions and shots made it an exciting process.

Was there anything from the initial idea that didn’t make it?

In the previs stage we explored scenes that specifically focused on Wizards and Goblins. When we started blocking I thought visually they felt like separate vignettes. So instead, we worked together in the storyboarding and previs stages to build a stronger narrative thread and followed the story of the Wallbreaker. Initially there were many Wallbreakers but we decided on one so we could keep returning to him and follow his journey to the wall.

There were whole scenes of roughly animated goblins and wizards that never made the final, something like 13 versions of the barbarian getting hit by the cannonballs, arrows, mortars, less cannonballs, more cannonballs...it would be fun to edit them together for an outtakes reel.

All of this fed our animation team so they could really focus on the nuances of the characters' performance.



Did you have a favourite character to play with in the film?

The Barbarians — you can hit them with anything and it’s funny.

I can't overlook over the Giants, too. Originally this scene was with a Wizard shooting fireballs and doing magic tricks but it stopped the flow of the running hoard, so we added the Giants' scene instead during Previs. This became a favorite moment for me because not only are they funny, but they added the heart and warmth that the story was missing.


Slapstick violence has been a staple of animation since the beginning, and is represented well in the spot. What’s the secret to making the painful painfully funny?

Slapstick violence is mostly about timing, but also mixing it with some warmth and heart. The Wallbreaker's love for his bomb and commitment to his task is a great examples of this. As are the Giants.

Barton F. Graf 9000 New York Founder and CCO Gerry Graf was great on timing the gags. He was very specific on the cannonballs hitting the Barbarian — I think we killed that guy 24 different ways! Gerry's experience with comedy was a great advantage on this project.



The video grabbed a huge amount of views on initial release. Were you pleased with the response?

It was pretty amazing to see the response. We know that Clash has a large following but watching those numbers climb  was nothing short of unbelievable. I don't think any of us were prepared for it!

Would you say the spot has a particular Psyop sensibility?

Definitely. Humor driven character animation with unique visual style is what Psyop loves to produce. I knew the job had to be ours when the brief came in, it had Psyop written all over. I'm so glad that Barton F. Graf 9000 New York and Supercell could also see that!

What’s up next for you guys?

More of the above! More quirky, humor driven character animation. It's very exciting times at Psyop. We're all keeping busy and always looking forward to the next challenge. Stay tuned!