Well, you know that bit from Helldiver 2’s now-iconic opening cutscene? One minute everything is fine and the next a poor man is screaming because a terminator is killing his family right next to him? Well, you can now enjoy hilarious ultra-close-up motion capture of the scene, thanks to a new behind-the-scenes video from the company that created the sequence.
Yes, it’s a workday and we casually suggest that you take some time out of your day, a few minutes out of your life that you’ll never get back, and watch a man wearing one of those slightly silly outfits for the camera scream. Modern games, movies, and shows require it. Look, it’s kind of funny, okay? I promise.
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To see this scream, you’ll need to watch a new behind-the-scenes video just released by Goodbye Kansas Studios, the Swedish VFX studio that worked with Arrowhead to create the game’s intro. It’s not too long, but provides some interesting glimpses into the motion capture and modeling that brings the introduction to life in a stylish way rather than just people wearing funny suits holding guns Props are everywhere.
As far as I’m concerned, the best time happens around 50 seconds. You can see a lovely double shot where actor Craig Lee Thomas realizes his character’s family is about to be attacked by a bug, then panics and screams the iconic “No, sweet freedom, no.” Oh oh oh oh”. What really makes this version of the scene fascinating is that two of the shots in it are, first, a super close-up of Thomas’ face, from a little camera mounted on his motion capture hat, which really allows you to see his face on all moves. As he unleashes all his emotions, the second is a wider shot of just a few other people in the studio sitting cross-legged behind him with completely blank expressions.
To be fair, I don’t blame the poor studio guys for looking like it was just their usual Tuesday, because that’s certainly what it would be, but they did form with Thomas’ incredible and appropriately top-notch performance An interesting contrast.
You can also see the actors bringing some of the iconic scenes from the introduction to the camera in motion-capture form, while more are just chilling in the background, doing their jobs, and not getting excited about Super Earth. Additionally, the footage shows how the Helldiver scenes in combat came about, with some people running around with gun props, and some models becoming less fancy as they get closer to the final product.
So, yeah, it’s a nice little distraction from, you know, fighting the massive force of robots that just returned to the galaxy.