00:00Hello friends, I'm here at Infinity Ward to learn about the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
00:04We're going to talk to the Studio Narrative Director, the Campaign Gameplay Director,
00:07and the Studio Art Director of Infinity Ward to learn all about the new game.
00:15So when we started this game, we wanted to bring Modern Warfare back.
00:18We kind of looked at it like a Casino Royale or a reimagining of the universe.
00:22And we wanted to make it more relatable, something that you could kind of kind of take for granted
00:27because you see it every day, it should be part of our world today.
00:30So a very contemporary take on the Modern Warfare universe.
00:33In terms of representing that in a game then, how are you getting these visuals to make it look,
00:38you know, the way it actually looks in the real world?
00:41It's crazy, it's a process that started three years ago and we went heavy into photogrammetry.
00:48Photogrammetry is a process of taking hundreds of pictures of an actual physical object in the real world
00:52and then feeding those images into the computer, into some software,
00:55and it will kick out like a mesh, a model that represents that real world asset.
01:00We went from making things up, like actually looking at an object
01:04and then trying to interpret it by hand into the game,
01:08but now we're doing things like we have to make the design physically
01:12and, you know, dirty it up.
01:13Maybe it's a pair of old shoes, we would want to buy the shoes and then wear them out.
01:17And then you take that into the studio, we give it to our scan team, which we also had to
01:22develop.
01:22So it's a really, it's this insanely layered process of getting really good at reality capture
01:28and then getting really good at getting it into the game and making it look right.
01:33So what you get is a really believable, immersive environment.
01:37So one of my questions was then, if it is photorealism and that's how you've gotten to,
01:41how do you also make it artistic?
01:42Because it's your interpretation of what these things are at the same time, right?
01:46Yeah, I mean, it's as artistic as any prop designer or production designer would be in Hollywood.
01:52You know, it just comes down to what's the tone and taste of the story,
01:57the universe that we're creating.
01:59And, you know, you do tend to take some artistic liberties, you know,
02:02once in a while we'll embellish something on a costume because we want someone's face to pop.
02:07It's really fun to have physical restrictions of the real world and work within those.
02:11I think that's, that's when art reached its highest level, when you actually have some boundaries
02:16around you and you're having to be very creative.
02:18I think some of the best forms of art always kind of happen under a little bit of adversity.
02:23And for a game like Modern Warfare that's, you know, trying to rip from the headlines
02:27and trying to make it real and gritty, I mean, how important has it been to have that type of
02:30photorealism and have the technology to be able to do this now?
02:33It's crucial.
02:34You know, if we're actually going to make something new, but it's something that you know and love,
02:39you have to be able to really raise the bar.
02:42And we did that with the visuals.
02:43And I think that was key to actually delivering something that was really fresh and exciting.
02:47All right, Joel, we talked about a lot of this stuff, but you also have these beautiful monitors
02:51and all this awesome artwork.
02:52Is there any way you could show us some of the stuff you're working on?
02:54Yeah, actually, everything starts from a sketch.
02:57So there's usually, we do a lot, a lot of meetings.
03:00And when we're trying to figure out what to do, it's usually great just to kind of jot it down
03:06and then everybody starts agreeing with it. And then you can start building it.
03:10So what we have here is a place where the player can kind of put together their loadout and all
03:14the gear and stuff that they bring into their experience, like their multiplayer experience.
03:18So they can do it all here on this bench.
03:20And we started the process by just trying to figure out how would this process work?
03:25How would you look at it? And then you end up with a set like this.
03:29So this was the initial sketch here?
03:30Yeah, it was just one of the first sketches. So what we have here is, you know, the actual 3D
03:36set
03:37right here. And then when I punch into it, you can see that it actually rotates and moves.
03:41I can even punch in on the objects on the table and we can kind of zoom around.
03:46These packs right here are actually things that we built and scanned.
03:50We made this prop itself and scanned it. And actually, this is the result that you see right here.
03:55This is actually another set that we were working on.
03:57And it's a place where we go out to a real Hollywood set, we lit it, and we captured it.
04:03And it's a three-dimensional environment. This is where the player actually chooses characters
04:08to represent themselves in multiplayer or in other parts of the game.
04:12So they all have different personalities. We do a whole process of actually scanning their faces,
04:18scanning different phonemes and different facial expressions on them.
04:21You can bring it in here and we do all these different blends on their faces and things.
04:25This is actually the ghillie suit that we made, you know, 10 years ago.
04:29And we contacted our military advisor back then and he still had the ghillie suit.
04:36So we brought it back in and scanned it and there, you know, there it is. It's in the game.
04:40So it's an homage to the original ghillie suit that was in the game.
04:43One of the new things in this game is having this cloth simulation on this character.
04:47Having that move naturally and float around like that.
04:49That usually looks really stiff and uninteresting and kind of fake, but you get these great results
04:54with this stuff. It's really fun. And then, you know, being able to really zoom in on the character's
04:59face and see these facial expressions. Really cool. I mean, you can get right down to the,
05:03you know, the patina on the boot and all these wrinkles. It's all captured and brought in here.
05:08We're, you know, trying to represent realism with these characters. We're not having characters running
05:13around in g-strings and like bathing suits and stuff, which I think is just kind of like cheap.
05:18Yeah.
05:18Uh, so we tried to, you know, look, we took a good look at how female operators are in the
05:24real world
05:25and what they look like and how they, you know, how they're represented. And it even takes us down to
05:31Farrah's character in the game, which is really crucial. It's the first time we've actually in
05:35Modern Warfare played as a female protagonist. I mean, when you see the characters in Modern Warfare,
05:41that's the actors and actresses. Like they're cut, they're doing their thing and we're capturing
05:45that. And then the characters look like them. It's a very interesting experience building this game.
05:51I mean, we've just gone and captured the real world and brought it into this thing to make it feel
05:55completely immersive. And it's, uh, it's come off pretty well.
06:01All right. Call of Duty Modern Warfare is back. I have played Modern Warfare as of most people on the
06:06planet at this point. What is different about this version? And then also what is
06:10familiar? Well, uh, it's been eight years since the, uh, last installation of Modern Warfare.
06:16Modern Warfare 3 came out and a lot has changed in the world. So Call of Duty Modern Warfare has
06:22always
06:22stood for being ripped from the headlines. It's always been relevant to the world that we live in
06:27today. And so this game is no exception, but a lot has changed in these last eight years.
06:32Modern Warfare today stands for clandestine operations being conducted in the middle of the
06:38night in city centers, uh, things like that, where the war has changed and the methods of the war
06:44have changed. And, uh, and our game sort of reflects that change. Additionally, from a gameplay perspective,
06:50when we look at, you know, just giving the player new experiences that they've never had in Call of Duty,
06:55being the underdog, making improvised weapons, uh, using the terrain and your knowledge of the
07:01environment to ambush the enemy. These are all, uh, types of experiences that really haven't existed
07:07in Call of Duty and are a huge part of what Modern Warfare is. So we also wanted to give
07:12the player
07:13all sorts of new gameplay experiences they've never had before. This new version of Modern Warfare also
07:18has, uh, I think you call them freedom fighters. And there's characters who are on, from the west,
07:22we might see as, uh, the opposite side of a conflict. Um, it's obviously a lot more nuanced than that,
07:26but you're giving us, um, a look and an embodiment of those characters. What was it like and how did
07:32you make sure you got those types of characters correctly translated into the game? Uh, well,
07:36we've worked with, uh, consultants. You know, we've always worked with consultants on, uh, Call of Duty.
07:40But, uh, for this, uh, iteration, we also worked with consultants who are experts in the Middle East,
07:46because we felt that to only show one side of war, which would be sort of traditionally western soldiers
07:53going over to a conflict zone, you know, thousands of miles away from where they are from. To only
07:58show that side of war, to only represent those stories, would be leaving out half of the story.
08:03I think when people think of the Call of Duty franchise, they think of lots of things. A lot
08:06of it is the gameplay, a lot of it is the multiplayer. Uh, but with Modern Warfare specifically, a lot
08:11of
08:11people talked about the story and how deep the story was and engaging the story was. How important is
08:15the narrative to, uh, not just Call of Duty, but for your version of Modern Warfare now, how much impetus
08:19was put on,
08:20you know, we need to tell a good story, we need to have an engaging narrative? I mean, it's, it's,
08:23it's
08:23incredibly important. You can't separate one from the other. I mean, Jake and I have been making
08:27games for a long time, um, where we believe that story is absolutely critical, but that it can't
08:33be separated from the gameplay experience. We are always trying to put our players in the shoes of
08:40these soldiers and to put them in situations where they can have empathy with them, where they can
08:45identify with them, and where the stakes for the player of actually completing a mission or getting
08:51through the game, uh, should feel as, as important as the stakes of that character getting what they
08:57want. Yeah, if you, if you just make cool gameplay that has no, uh, meaningful characters and story
09:03associated with it, um, there are no stakes. It doesn't feel like there's any reason for you to
09:08accomplish the goals. Uh, so developing a story that builds those stakes is really important. We believe
09:15that games is a powerful medium for having empathy because not only do you sometimes do you see
09:21these characters on the screen, but you can actually be those characters. So you can really
09:24walk a mile in their shoes, or in the case of modern warfare, kind of march a mile in their
09:29boots.
09:30Taylor, Jacob, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.
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