Frank and Drake: Discovering Artistic Cohesion in Variety

The Problem of Mixing Completely different Worlds

The foundational concept of Frank and Drake was with the ability to characterize how our distinctive various identities can discover a widespread floor of understanding by totally different ranges of communication and empathy. That precept is legitimate for the characters themselves and their relationship with out bodily contact, however it goes past that. Nearly unconsciously, it affected all of the layers of the event, with a peculiar environment on account of using combined arts.

Artwork and Animation: a Collage of Kinds in Concord

The world of Oriole Metropolis is offered largely through illustrated backgrounds that current an correct – but stylized- structure the place nothing is distorted or out of proportion. Our lead artist Romina Correa outlined along with her model this layer of “actuality” in juxtaposition with the rotoscoped protagonists, that dwell within the spectrum of surrealism. However different situations of the sport present totally different methods, similar to tough pencils in black and white (flashbacks), ball pen drawings (journal sketches), stencil and graffiti (partitions of the streets), and even imitations of oil portray (murals in sure areas). Working with not solely totally different however versatile artists allowed us to create this visible melting pot inside the boundaries of the lore.

This multi-disciplinary inventive method additionally affected the visuals in movement. The rotoscoped animations stand out for apparent causes (and are probably the most time consuming, with over 8,000 frames drawn!), however there are many different frame-by-frame animations with out footage as a reference that help the narrative, and even 3D fashions, very handy in complicated rotations or interactions.

Music: the Rhythm of Gentle and Darkish

We knew Kai Engel properly from his work within the soundtrack of our earlier recreation keep. The objective in Frank and Drake was not solely to supply each day and night time a singular setting, but additionally mission the way in which each characters expertise their actuality. By opposing the hip hop rhythms of Frank with the jazz vibes from Drake, you get a stupendous distinction that helps you navigate between characters and to totally really feel the emotional impression of each tales.

Narrative: Two Voices, One Large Thriller

Crafting a narrative with twin protagonists was a brand new problem for our author and Narrative Designer, Ana Monteiro. Some guidelines wanted to be adopted to make it work: outline distinctive voices with respective personalities and views, in order that they couldn’t react to battle in equal methods. They wanted to have character arcs revealing a change of beliefs and behaviors as proof of non-public development, too. And all these inside conflicts needed to conflict in opposition to an exterior conspiracy, one thing that may make their destinies merge in some unspecified time in the future.

Finally, Frank and Drake tells a narrative that embraces the facility of group: how an odd (and sometimes weird) place like Oriole Metropolis can change into the house for a lot of people, normally tagged because the outcast of society, and the place variety of realities coexist respectfully. The place magnificence will be discovered within the sudden, and variations are accepted in a supportive, cooperative method. We tried to maintain that actual essence with the mixture of a number of artwork kinds all through the sport. The objective was to not try for perfection individually, however to discover a cohesive nature within the sum of this trustworthy, fragmented id.

We hope you get pleasure from discovering the story of Frank and Drake.