A Game of Thrones Intro Inspired Graduation Project

For our master graduation project we produced a Game Of Thrones Intro inspired video as a tribute to Italy and to all GoT fans.
With the use of computer graphics and 3D modeling softwares, we recreated 6 of the most famous and loved italian cities.

The aim of our thesis is to analyze the impact of new technologies and social media on the diffusion of tv series-related contents produced by fans.

CHIARA SAPIO, MANOJ ROLLO

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The project was inspired by the famous TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ title sequence produced by Elastic for HBO.

 

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAME OF THRONES OPENING CREDITS

In the original intro, we explore the places that we will visit during each episode in Westeros and Essos, the fantasy world where all the events take place.

The basic idea was to create something never been seen before, not just a simple and flat map, but a world inside a sphere that had to look as if it had been hand-made by a craftsman in the time of the story; that’s why a great source of inspiration were Leonardo da Vinci’s machines, full of interlocking cogs.

The focal point of each location is the family crest “that becomes the main cog that triggers the animation, so the model of the place emerges out of the floor of the map and comes to life” – says Angus Wall, Creative Director at Elastic, in an interview to The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/secrets-game-thrones-opening-credits-179656)

Furthermore, the creators didn’t want just to build something visually interesting and captivating : the sequence, with all those cogs beneath and above the surface of the map working together, is a metaphor for the machinations of the most powerful families in the series, fighting for the throne, which is something that we can find in every age and place.

The team of 24 professionals and experts worked for 8-9 months before they got to production – as reported by CG Supervisor Kirk Shintani on a recent interview on Area Autodesk website (http://area.autodesk.com/customer-stories/a52-game-of-thrones-title?linkId=24473223) while the actual production lasted for about 4 months – Kirk Shintani on ART OF VFX (http://www.artofvfx.com/game-of-thrones-kirk-shintani-superviseur-3d-a52-elastic/)

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GOT ITALY – THE PROJECT

The idea of the project came from prof. Riccardo Antonio Silvio Antonino, who had always wanted to create something similar to GOT intro since the series’s first episode aired in 2011.

We decided to go back in time when Italy was still divided into several kingdoms just like the world in the novel by GRR Martin ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’.

Taking   the following map (http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1861b.htm) as reference, we chose one or two cities for each of the most powerful kingdoms our country was made up between 1820-1848:
– Regno di Sardegna –> Turin (Savoy)
– Regno Lombardo-Veneto –> Venice (Habsburg)
– Granducato di Toscana –> Florence (Habsburg-Lorraine)
– Stato Pontifico –> Rome (Papal States)
– Regno delle due Sicilie –> Naples and Palermo (Bourbon)

Each city was built examining old maps as a reference to place every house; for each location some of the most famous monuments and buildings were recreated in the most detailed way possible.

Every single element is animated: domes, columns, roofs, and other architectural details come out of the floor driven by lots of interlocking cogs.

As in GOT title sequence, each city’s sigil seal becomes its main cog as a symbol of its political and economic power and its influence in the history of Italy.

We also decided to stay faithful to the original intro taking it as a model for our animations and camera movements:for example the coin of Florence is very similar to the one of Braavos, St.Peter’s dome reminds us of  The Eyrie’s dome, most of the roofs have the same animation as those in Riverrun, CastelNuovo Bridge looks like The Twins’one and so on.

The final effect we wanted to achieve was that of handmade models made of different kinds of wood, stone, paper and metal.

As in GOT opening credits we created an Astrolabe inspired by the original concept – the so called Dyson Sphere (link) : in the middle of the of the sphere there’s the sun and all around the sun there are bands with relief sculptures taken from the Trojan Column in Rome, representing some important events of our past history.

This is a low-budget project. Our team, made of three students and a fresh Nemo Academy graduated artist, worked for about 4 months with only their own notebooks with normal hardware specifications. For example these are Chiara and Manoj’s computer specs: – i7 2.3/2.6 GHz; – 8/16 GB RAM; – GTX 650m/GTX 960m; – Windows 8/10 OS Nothing else, just passion and good will!

This video was created as a tribute to Italy and to all Game of Thrones fans, with a special dedication to the staff of Game of Thrones – Itay FB page.
It will take you on a journey through six of the most famous and loved italian cities, completely built with the use of 3D modeling softwares.
The Team was made by 4 young italians, aiming to work in the computer graphics world.
Chiara Sapio
Manoj Rollo
Filippo Silvestro
Mara Guarneschelli

For more info about the project visit our website :
http://got.fronteffects.com/
Prof. Relator : Riccardo Antonino
Graduation Project at Polytechnic University of Turin

Game of Thrones Italy FB Page :
https://www.facebook.com/GameOfThrones.IlTronoDiSpade
Game of Thrones Italy official website :
http://www.gameofthronesitaly.it/