Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak has been a massive success for Capcom. It not only expanded the main story for the title by taking players to new lands and giving them new characters to interact with, but it also gave them a score of new monsters to fight. Plus, they’ve been giving out free updates to expand further what players can do in the title. In the midst of all that, it’d be easy to forget that there are cutscenes in the game that are rather jaw-dropping. Capcom hasn’t forgotten, though, and on their website, they interviewed one of the people behind the game’s cutscenes.
Daisuke Wakahara is the man to thank for the scenes introducing the monsters and all the other cutscenes in the game. If you’re curious about how a cutscene gets made for the game, he was happy to break that down:
“First, I have to gather information from all members of the dev team and then determine what kind of cutscenes will be required for the game. From there, I start creating the designs for each cutscene as soon as they’ve been okayed for production. This means I first start by creating a design document, and then I hammer out the details by talking to the cutscene artists, everyone involved with other elements regarding cutscene production, and finally the Director. Once the structure and content of the movie has been decided, the actual production starts.”
In terms of the “production timeline,” he noted that it starts with storyboards, then heads to the animatic phase. After that comes the start of the animation and the camera work that goes into the scene. Then, finally, the lighting, VFX, and sound elements are added.
By Wakahara’s admission, a single monster intro scene can sometimes take about six months from start to finish. The catch is that they work on multiple cutscenes at once, allowing them to get more done in that six-month timespan.
Another thing you might have noticed is that Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak’s cutscenes have a different feel than other titles, including the original game that it’s expanding. The reason for this is the style of the content. The original game was based more on Japanese folklore, while Sunbreak has more of a “Western-style” meant to be “more impactful.”
So when you dive back into the title and check out the cutscenes, make sure you appreciate all you’re seeing because many people worked hard to make everything.
Source: Capcom
