Blizzard have released a behind-the-scenes video showing what went into making the “Cookiewatch” stop-motion animation.
Cookiewatch was the Christmas-themed sequel to “Trace and Bake”, the first stop-motion animation Blizzard made in celebration of the game’s two-year anniversary, which featured Overwatch characters Tracer and Reaper.
As in Trace and Bake, Cookiewatch sees the pair of figurines come to life when nobody’s watching, and this time Tracer is trying to prevent Reaper from stealing cookies intended for Santa. The video also features Doomfist, who shows up at the end with a meteor strike right onto the cookies in question.
The creation of Cookiewatch was led by Justin and Shel Rasch, who, as with the first animation, created the set in their own home.
The behind-the-scenes video offers another fascinating insight into what it takes to produce the final product, explaining some of the clever tricks that were used to capture practical effects – including shooting Christmas tree decorations to film the explosions.
After the success of Trace and Bake, Blizzard also offered Rasch additional support in creating Cookiewatch, enabling the animation team to provide some special finishing touches with digital effects.
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Fortunately for fans of the stop-motion videos, Rasch says that he thinks they’re “going to be doing this again, and hopefully for a while.”
The original Cookiewatch animation:
