Axis Studios unveil the animation behind Magic: The Gathering’s new viral trailer
Skwigly
The hugely popular trading card game Magic: The Gathering has gone viral with a cinematic trailer marking its latest highly anticipated card set. Developed in partnership with Axis Studios, the Throne of Eldraine trailer is a tragic, action-packed love story with fairy tales . . . that fight back! With over eight million views on YouTube to date, the trailer peaked at #3 on trending worldwide 24 hours after its debut.
The Throne of Eldraine trailer is an emotional, romantic, tragic roller-coaster ride about a gingerbread cookie. Axis Studios was sold on this storyboard from the beginning. We wanted to change what fans expect from a trading card game like Magic: The Gathering, introduce the latest visual technology, offer a fresh take, and continue to build on our work creating cinematics for War of the Spark.
-Stuart Aitken, Producer at Axis Studios
Centering the story around two gingerbread cookies, Axis Studios originally set out to create a 90-second character introduction. In the end, a three-minute-long animated love story came to life.
Set in a fairy-tale castle kitchen, all hell breaks loose when fan-favourite character Garruk enters and begins battling the guards. The two gingerbread cookies flee for their lives, narrowly escaping the perils of breaking china, milk tsunamis, and an evil-looking cauldron of boiling soup.
Magic: The Gathering launches at least four new card sets every year, with the upcoming Throne of Eldraine focused on fairy tales. As such, Axis Studios set out to build a fitting aesthetic. Initial concept art was drawn of a Gothic, Flemish feast overcrowded with food. Naturalistic lighting was later added to complete the look.
Axis Studios wanted to create something a little different for Magic: The Gathering—something different from our typical guns-blazing, swords-clashing video game portfolio. We wanted a heart-wrenching cinematic experience about what happens when fairy tales go wrong.
-Nicole Anderson, Producer at Axis Studios
Throughout the trailer, iconic fairy-tale references are revealed— poison apples, three roasted pigs, three bear heads mounted on the wall, a golden egg, and more.
Axis Studios began production by evolving the story behind a single gingerbread man card by asking: “What happened to that cookie? How did it get so deformed?” More than 25 different character concepts were created and considered before the main design was finalised. At the modelling stage, an unprecedented amount of detail went into perfecting the facial expressions of the gingerbread people, from the tiny twitches of his eyebrows to her vengeful roar.
But Axis Studios’ work wasn’t done yet. Midway through production, the team at Axis and Wizards of the Coast realized another opportunity to provide a modern twist on fairy-tale tradition: turn the damsel in distress trope on its head. The focus shifted to the female gingerbread cookie as the hero of the story, fighting to avenge the consumption of her sugary paramour.
Altogether, the Throne of Eldraine trailer provides a delightful glimpse into the fantastical world of Magic: The Gathering, using immersive cinematics to further expand the beloved universe for fans.
See more of the work of Axis Studios at axisstudiosgroup.com