Sakurai explains how Banjo-Kazooie Smash Bros Video was made
CGI reveals are outsourced, but overseen by series director
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai has explained how the game’s popular CGI character reveal videos are made, such as those for Banjo-Kazooie and Dragon Quest’s Hero.
During the Nintendo Direct E3 livestream in June, it was revealed that the two new fighters will be added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as DLC later this year.
UPDATE: Nintendo has officially announced Banjo-Kazooie Nintendo Switch for its Switch Online subscription service.
”update”
Banjo-Kazooie is officially coming to Nintendo Switch
Writing in his regular Japanese Famitsu magazine column (translated by PushDustIn), Sakurai explained that the CG videos have been created by Japanese company Digital Frontier since the Wii U and 3DS instalments of Smash.
While Sakurai writes and supervises the videos, film maker Yohei Shimozawa – who has also worked on the Tekken series and Metal Gear Rising – directs them.
“The reasoning behind these trailers is to first provide something that fans will enjoy, and secondly to create some buzz,” Sakurai wrote.
First, Sakurai writes the script for the trailers, he explained, including each scene and camera cut.
From there, Digital Frontier creates a storyboard and elements such as audio, character models, scenery and animation are created and approved by Sakurai.
After adjusting things like music/sound, work is done on updating the character models and the scenery.
If character models were just imported into the CG movie, they wouldn’t feel right, so work is done on making everything feel cohesive.
Sakurai checks at every step, he wrote in Famitsu, concluding that he is “very thankful for the work that DF has done” as he is “very busy with working on the game”.
The director said he will discuss the gameplay elements of the recent Banjo-Kazooie and Hero videos in his next Famitsu column.
Sakurai has previously spoken of his satisfaction with the result of Grant Kirkhope’s Smash Bros. music.
In an earlier column, he claimed that securing Banjo-Kazooie for Smash Bros. was “quite easy”.
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