Kena: Bridge of Spirits is one of the most anticipated games by PlayStation fans for the impeccable visual design of the game by Emberlab, a studio that comes from the animation industry. Its launch is scheduled for the end of this month of September and, today, the development team has revealed new details and curiosities about character design of the game.
Through the PlayStation blog, Emberlab Animation Director Hunter Schmidt comments that the original character designs They are the work of Wanchana “Vic” Intrasombat, a “close collaborator in our commercial projects in the past, but this time I had a blank canvas and we can see much of his charming and unique worldview in all the character designs. “
To bring Kena to life they had the support of Rodrigo Gonçalves, who “built the prototype model and then continued to refine and explore techniques in real time for various details such as her hair. We also collaborate with Carlos Ortega, whom many revere for his wonderfully clean 3D character work. “
As a curiosity, Schimdt comments that initially Kena’s model was younger, but it had to be given a more mature appearance to better fit the role of his character. Another very important detail of Kena’s personality are their expressions, a complex section where the character needed “more variety and emotional depth” as the project grew. “With many animations throughout the game, we created a library of expressions and other details like hand and hair poses. This provided a quick way to refine and unify the animations and ensure that Kena always felt inhabited by the same soul from start to finish.
Finally, the last details that refine the animation of the game are Kena’s clothes and hair and its reaction to the movement of the wind. It is “just like one more cloak to invoke the feeling of being in a spirit-inhabited village or on top of a mountain.” A detail that the creative comments on and is seldom taken into account is that, although it is the physicists who interact dynamically, “All aspects” of Kena’s animation have been done by hand.
Kena Bridge of Spirits will go on sale next September 21st for PS4, PS5 and PC, exclusively for the Epic Games Store. If all goes according to plan, it might even have a movie.
▪ Release date: 09/21/2021