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Recently, billion-dollar fantasy RPG strategy title RAID: Shadow Legends unveiled an expanded, animated universe which was about to unfold in the original animated series RAID: Call of the Arbiter. Created by mobile-first publisher Pixel Unlimited and Ukraine-based developer Plarium, the 10 x 5′ weekly series fleshes out the game’s core characters with deeper, more immersive stories and cinematic animation.
The series takes place in the gods-forsaken land of Teleria, from whence an ancient guardian called the Arbiter must summon a team of unlikely champions to light her path back to the world. Their origin story adventures have been fleshed out with the help of producer Eric Rollman, CEO of Rollman Entertainment and former Marvel Animation president; showrunner Jay Oliva, Founder & CEO of Lex + Otis animation studio, lead writer Kendall Deacon Davis (Lex + Otis; ARK: The Animated Series), composer Jesper Kyd (Assassin’s Creed) and leading European toon house TeamTO.
Jay Oliva, whose many high profile animation credits include directing a dozen Marvel and DC animated projects, including The Dark Knight Returns and Young Justice, and currently showrunning multiple series including Trese for Netflix and ARK: The Animated Series, featuring Russel Crowe.
Jay Oliva: The beginnings of this project started about three years ago. My involvement happened a little over two years ago, when I was approached by Eric Rollman to come up with a pitch to translate the RAID: Shadow Legends mobile game into an animated series. I spent a week playing the game and we came back to him with a pitch that eventually led to Plarium giving the green light to this limited animated series. We started pre-production in the spring of 2022 and we are wrapping post production right before it airs in May.
What do you love about RAID the animated series?
What I love most about RAID: Call of the Arbiter is that we were able to delve deep into this amazing world that the mobile game exists in and create personal and emotional backstories to these champions that players around the world have been using over the last four years. I’ve adapted many IPs in the past and there’s usually some baggage you have to navigate around in the form of decades worth of story and character arcs. With RAID: Call of the Arbiter, while we had some strong themes, characters and big ideas, we were starting with a huge mandate to build the lore out further.
What do you think makes it stand out in the highly competitive animation field?
I think RAID: Call of the Arbiter stands out in the highly competitive animation field because of the unique art designs of the original mobile game, the amazing animation by French studio TeamTO and, finally, the various unique backstories of the champions we follow in the limited series. The mobile game has over 700 champions in the game so far, and it doesn’t look like they are slowing down. We cover only a small fraction of those characters in the series, which leaves a lot to still explore for future stories.
Can you tell us a bit about the visual style and inspiration for the animation?
We took our cue from the RAID: Shadow Legends mobile game for the overall look of the series. We did some tweaks to stylize it slightly, but I wanted it to still be very recognizable to the fans around the world.
The world of Teleria is where we were able to really expand upon, since most of the locations you see in the mobile game are backdrops for the champions to fight in. In the series, we were able to really bring to life unique locations like the Sacred Orders’ gigantic fortress monastery or the elegant and beautiful High Elf palace of Aravia.
We knew early on that the best way to translate the game was to take a page from their super successful marketing campaigns and produce the show in CG. I love the look of using 2D hand-drawn effects over 3D characters and sets. I’m a huge fan of classic fantasy stories, and I wanted to capture that feeling of wonder and epic-ness with each location.
Where is the animation produced and about how many people worked on it?
The overall production was handled by my studio, Lex + Otis Studios, in Glendale, California. We worked closely with the creative team at Plarium on all of the pre-production (casting, actor records, character and background designs, storyboards) as well as post-production (editing and compositing). Our partner studio TeamTO in Paris, France, was responsible for the animation production. They brought in the most talented animators and modelers, and effects artists onto this very ambitious project.
There was probably about 500-plus people in total who worked on this project. Even though we were only producing animated shorts, each episode was like a mini movie that had its own challenges that needed to be overcome before the next episode could be produced.
Which animation tools were used to produce the animation?
We use quite a few animation tools to produce the series. On the pre-production side, we of course use Adobe Photoshop for many of the character and background designs, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro for the storyboards, editing was done in Final Cut Pro and visual effects was done in After Effects. We also used Maya and SketchUp throughout the process. The animation was primarily done using Maya. I’m not sure what the overseas studio uses to composite the 2D animated effects onto the 3D footage but they did an outstanding job blending the two.
What were the biggest challenges in bringing this franchise to an animated series format?
I think the biggest challenge in bringing this franchise to an animated series format was just figuring out where to start! The world is huge with multiple factions and 700-plus champions, so finding where and who to focus on was key. I’ve been playing the game for almost four years and I wanted to focus this limited series on the four starter champions that a new player gets to pick from. There are many fan favorites who make an appearance, but we wanted to focus on the starting champions as well as introduce some new characters that will be part of the game in the near future.
Of course, the biggest challenge is meeting the expectations of the fans.
What is it about the franchise that seems to intrigue fans worldwide?
I think what is intriguing the most to fans worldwide about the franchise are a few factors. Number one I think is the art design and unique look of every champion in the game. Two would be the very deep gameplay of putting together the best team of champions and gear for the various dungeons and monster bosses the game offers.
Finally, I believe that the biggest factor is the viral marketing campaign. The game sponsors so many channels on YouTube that it’s a meme that everything is sponsored by RAID: Shadow Legends. I remember watching some historical video about Ancient Greece when I noticed that it too was sponsored by the game. It’s hard not to find an ad about the game. The ads themselves are very well done and funny as hell.
What is your take on the fast-changing global animation scene in 2023?
My take on the fast-changing global animation scene is that we are at the cusp of an animation boom where we will see more and more stories utilizing animation in various genres. Animation has grown past being considered just “cartoons” and for kids. The kinds of stories that have come out in animation in the last 10 years runs the gamut of every film genre, from horror, comedy, thriller, action adventure, fantasy and everything in between. Animation, whether it’s hand drawn or CG, is a very powerful story medium that we are only just now seeing what is possible.
I see animation following in the steps of video games, where it was at first considered only for kids but now has a very robust mix of games for young and old players.
RAID: Call of the Arbiter will roll out weekly on the RAID: Shadow Legends YouTube Channel.
