SPOV: Call of Duty

Posted on November 22, 2012 by michael

London based creative design and moving image house, SPOV, have created all of the cinematic scenes for the latest Call of Duty title – Black Ops 2. With a storyline set in both the 1980s and in 2025, Spov developed two distinct art styles and production routes to clearly differentiate between eras.

Spov began working with Activision and Treyarch almost 18 months ago, conducting initial design research and producing early concept art and animation
tests.

The narrative sequences were designed to tell the 1980s backstory and give context to the 2025 sequences as they evolve in realtime for the player. Spov used a mixture of live action, motion graphics and archive footage to tell a compelling visual story with a historically accurate core. Spov also worked closely with Treyarch’s in-house cinematic team to ensure the narrative was delivered seamlessly as the single player mission unfolds.

Current commercial and military technology prototypes were used for inspiration to develop screen graphics depicting how the world might be viewed in
2025. From this emerging technology, Spov created a technical vision through
which the global narrative could unfold as the player tries to make sense of tangled events and prevent an emerging catastrophe, put in motion by the game’s
calculating villain, Raul Menendez.