00:06I've always loved medieval history.
00:08I've always wanted to do something that was in this space with nights and fire.
00:13Something that was dark, that combined magic.
00:16Something of the classic horror storytelling elements,
00:20but something that was very different for me.
00:22The original concept was never tainted from start to finish.
00:26It was made by a Dark Souls fan, Eli Roth himself.
00:29We had a lot of creative freedom on this project.
00:31It was really fun to do something different and do something really bold.
00:35This project is championed and featuring Eli Roth and Dark Souls.
00:40It's just a dream project for us.
00:51The guiding point for us was to tell a great story.
00:53We left it to Namco to tell us when we were going too far outside of the Dark Souls universe.
00:58They weren't telling us the secrets of the game.
01:00They just said, Dark Souls 3, this is what happened in 1 and 2, go ahead.
01:03It's about a knight who's searching for something and things go south pretty quickly for our hero.
01:10The battle is finished.
01:11Fire is still smoking.
01:12The ashes are still smoldering.
01:14And then he comes in and he sees these three witches.
01:17They invite him to sit down and they say, drink.
01:20And he steps in.
01:21As soon as he steps in, that's his mistake.
01:24Right out of the bat, Eli pitched his concept.
01:26It was dark.
01:27It was creepy.
01:28It was this rule.
01:30I came in, sat down, pitched the idea.
01:32And they went, wow, great.
01:33We love it.
01:33This is exactly in the tone of Dark Souls.
01:39To get into the Dark Souls universe, you've got to play the game.
01:41So we played a lot of Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 2, just to kind of get into the world
01:46and try
01:47and interpret some of the design elements of like buildings, architecture, hallways.
01:51Overall, look for the piece.
01:53We had a lot of reference from Namco.
01:55We tried incorporating that with Eli Roth's aesthetic.
02:08He's had some great input, reference for backgrounds, reference for characters.
02:12The animators are really down to collaborate.
02:14As soon as they said, what if Crow's pecking out the eyes, everyone did in the sky and then
02:18coming down.
02:21That's always the funnest stuff to animate.
02:23I love working with a team.
02:24It's not just, hey, I have this idea, everybody execute it.
02:27It's you have an idea and you have to inspire a team of artists all serving this one bigger
02:31story.
02:34To see Eli's vision come to life every aspect of the way, it's been a very rewarding process.
02:39First designs, and you're excited about the designs, and then you get to see them move
02:44and their sound effects, and then you're excited about that, and then you're putting the finishing
02:47touches.
02:47At every stage, we've been more and more excited, and that's such a good sign.
02:51You know, I've never had this kind of experience before, and Namco is just amazing.
02:55I mean, they really, really wanted to do something cool and innovative.
02:59The pencil mileage alone was pretty intimidating, but we rose to the occasion.
03:04Being a fan of the franchise myself, I think the fans are really going to enjoy this.
03:07We were able to really come up with whatever aesthetic we wanted.
03:10We tried to steer to feel like it was in the Dark Souls universe.
03:13It's a game that I love, and now that I've done this and it's gone so well, I really want
03:17to do it more.
03:17It was really, really fun.
03:30Thank you.
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