Wii is a Senior Designer joining us from New York and London based digital agency, Last Exit. Some interesting facts about Wii: Besides sharing his name with a popular video game system, Wii is an avid snowboarder (obvs). While he’s traveled far to places like Whistler and Nagano, he claims Snowbird, Utah is his favorite place to shred. Wii also enjoys filming and editing on his spare time, you can check out some of the documentaries he’s made here.
Welcome Wii!
Thanks to Gilt City Treats in Transit, a few of us took a stroll to the Van Leeuwen truck for some free ice cream! Gilt City’s site is launching off quickly with all the best deals from exclusive concert tix and pilates classes to luscious spa treatments and broadway shows for pennies out the door. Follow their tweets to find out the next treat!
It’s that time of year again. No, not Ramadan, silly. The Annual Rokkan BBQ! Just before the summer says its goodbyes, we hopped on a bus and headed up to West Nyack for a full day of relaxation. Soaking up the sun all day can work up quite an appetite. Luckily, we had enough bacon to keep us afloat.
After a long day of grease fires, excessive hot dog consumption, and relay races involving impossible feats, we made the long journey back to the city for some major R&R over the weekend. A big thank you to our COO, Chung Ng, for providing us with such a great time and delicious foods.
Check out more photos of our BBQ on our flickr.
As promised here’s a closer look at the creation of the Civ 5 front of box. We had about a month and a half from concept to completion.
On the Rokkan side there was myself, Charles (ECD/Lead Artist) and Matt Burniston (CG Director). On the other side we had creative and product leads from 2K, and Trailer Park who created the leader renders. Rokkan’s job was to come up with concepts and composite the final illustration.
Structurally 2K decided the box would be an O-card – PC game boxes that open up in the front. Instead of creating different panels for each part of the box, we wanted to create a seamless piece (front to back) that would encapsulate the history of mankind from medieval times, through industrialization, and finally to the space race. For lack of a better term, this had to be epic!
Rokkan’s Civ 5 artwork was blown up to gigantic proportion at 2K’s GamesCom booth this week. We’re super excited to finally see the artwork printed and super large no less. Shout outs go to the guys at 2K for letting us work on the illustration for such an awesome game and to Trailer Park for helping with the renders of the leaders. Stay tuned for a follow up post on the creation of the illustration and how we resolved on the final box art. Hit the image for a larger view.
Also, if you gamers haven’t already done so…check out the Mafia II demo on XBL and PSN. Not only is it an awesome demo, you’ll also get to see our intro animation prior to the start screen. Fresh.
Remember those long summer days in the meadows, galloping across the field like Gandalf and Shadowfax, listening to the cadence of your horse’s hooves riding off into the sunset?
If not, you’re in luck. The folks here at ROKKAN have created a fun 3D world called the Equestrian Neightion Riding Academy. Here, you can experience all the great things about owning a horse without ever stepping foot on a ranch, from learning basic equestrian terms, to what types of gaits and strides you need to learn while riding.
Our in-house 3D team used Maya and Modo for all the modeling and animation and even customized our own little version of Away 3D to get the horse’s head and tail movement just right. We learned a whole lot about horses on this project, but one thing is for sure -they’re tough to maintain (even in virtual reality).
Check out Equestrian Neightion Riding Academy and big thanks to Rob Ford and the folks at The FWA for awarding us with The Site Of The Day. You Guys Rock!
Akiko is the newest member of our Information Architecture team. Originally from Tokyo, Akiko has been living in New York for the past 7 years (that makes her a New Yorker now, right?). When she’s not creating labyrinth-like user flows and structures, she’s coding her little Japanese heart out using openFrameworks and Max/MSP and saving the world on Final Fantasy V. Don’t let the puppy picture fool you. She’s fierce!
Welcome Akiko!
Footy fans got a little glimmer of hope for the future of soccer in America this past Sunday. Pelé, soccer legend and former New York Cosmos superstar, made a rare appearance at Corona Park to announce the long awaited return of the New York Cosmos.
Let’s drop a little knowledge here for those who don’t remember how the Cosmos kicked it (pun most definitely intended). Founded in 1971 based in New York City, The Cosmos were the strongest North American Soccer League franchise both competitively and financially, most famously known for signing the great Brazilian player, Pelé, and German superstar Franz Beckenbauer.
Before there was ever a billboard with Beckham’s scantily clad bod in briefs (though, I’m very appreciative), or Messi’s striped jersey hanging all over Chinatown, the Cosmos took the city by storm, winning 5 national championships and making soccer, well, for lack of better words, cool in America. Fast forward 30 years, Pelé is now the Honorary president of the team, with one goal in mind: To inspire, develop and field world-class players.
ROKKAN had the awesome opportunity to work with our friends at Anomaly again with the launch of the new NYCosmos.com – the official destination for the legendary soccer club. Stay tuned for more news about the team and the recently acquired COPA NYC tournament.
We managed to get a hold of this TMZ cut of the paparazzi giving poor Jen a hard time. Thankfully, Ms. Aniston found shelter from the chaos in Rokkan’s former office building on Lafayette. Check out our Senior Creative Technologist, Andy Prondak’s moment in the limelight on frame 01:26!
Thanks for the press everybody, but you heard the man -”the sidewalks have a right to be cleared.”
ROKKAN on TMZ from ROKKAN on Vimeo.
The newest member of our creative team. Prior to ROKKAN, Haley was an Art Director at Toronto based agency Grip Limited, working on a wide range of brands including Honda, Expedia, Johnson & Johnson and Canada’s very own, Labatt Beers. Speaking of Canada, Haley has lived in 2 states provinces, which means she’s lived near the world’s largest cross country skis AND the worlds largest tomato! When she’s not pushing pixels and creating great designs she’s crewing sailboats and hanging out with her dog. Oh, and eating delicious, delicious burgers.
Welcome Haley!
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