Avid Powers ‘Star Citizen – Squadron 42’s Galactic Editing
By Jim Bask
Avid Powers ‘Star Citizen – Squadron 42’s Galactic Editing
by: Avid
Challenge
To cut, edit, assemble, control and access massive amounts of performance capture footage and dialogue for the latest iteration of the Star Citizen video game series.
Solution
Embrace Avid Everywhere by deploying the entertainment industry’s most powerful editing and storage solutions for professional video and audio production: Avid Media Composer, Pro Tools and NEXIS storage.
Products used
Video games with Hollywood style visuals are fast becoming the norm, and like blockbuster films, can now command top acting talent for voiceover and performance capture work. One of the biggest such endeavours is Star Citizen from Cloud Imperium Games (CIG) and Foundry 42, created by legendary game developer and film producer, Chris Roberts.
This massive multiplayer online title, which also aims to encompass first-person shooter, space trading and combat simulator elements, is a mammoth creative and production effort on a galactic scale. Key elements include thrilling space combat in a massive play area, first person battles, planetary exploration and the ability to fly and travel in multi-crew ships – with the participation of 1 million-plus “citizens.”
Recognized by Guinness World Records as the top crowd funded game, and incidentally the top crowd funded project, in the world, it has gathered more than $100 million to allow it to command the best actors, and the best technology, to further the development of its sci-fi simulation.
The latest development, Star Citizen – Squadron 42, is a single-player campaign that takes place within the Star Citizen universe. With ground-breaking cinematic techniques and best-in-the-industry game design, major stars such as Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson and Andy Serkis have provided performances and voices for CG characters in the mission driven game.
A fully equipped development team, based at the Foundry 42 studio in Manchester, is responsible for creating this new experience for the Star Citizen gamer, which has a production pipeline that shares much with a Hollywood movie. Top of the line editing of cinematic visuals, story elements and pro-level audio are enabled by a collaborative workflow that embraced Avid Everywhere and is powered by the Avid MediaCentral Platform.
Key elements of the Avid Artist Suite, such as Avid Media Composer and Avid Pro Tools, combined with Avid Storage Suite components such as the powerful Avid NEXIS, have been deployed across a network which spans four production studios, in California, Texas, Germany and the UK. Together they bring the next iteration of Roberts’ first person universe to life.