Mortal Kombat combines two deep loves of our animators here at Powerhouse: storytelling and fighting games. We recently had the opportunity to work with NetherRealm Studios on the newest installment of their franchise, Mortal Kombat X. After a hot, gory mess of fights culminating in the defeat of a super powered Shinnok, our beautifully rendered motion comics reward players with what happens in their fighter’s life post-battle.

For the motion comic process, we started off with the character designs and the script for the post-battle scene. We created rough sketches and developed color keys first to give us a good feel for each scene and its framing. Below are some examples of our early paintings for the final scenes.

Next, we fleshed out each script into a visibly dynamic animatic.

In the last part of the process, we finalize paintings for each piece of the script. Then we add special effects and animate each painting in After Effects.

We’re proud to say that only the toughest contenders get to see the complete versions of our victorious final sequences. But be wary, sometimes winning comes with a steep cost.