Welcome to the Petaverse

1. Business Context & Objective

When gaming studio DOGAMÍ (backed by Ubisoft, Animoca Brands, and The Sandbox) approached Alt-Studio to produce its debut announcement trailer in 7 weeks, the project started from a visual blank page: the Petaverse universe existed only as written intentions on paper. The business objective went far beyond delivering a single trailer: it meant co-creating the franchise's complete visual identity to rally a global player community and power the game's launch.

That first successful sprint sparked a two-year creative partnership working hand in hand with the Dogamí teams. Acting as a long-term partner studio, we built a core library of 3D assets engineered from day one for long-term reuse: art direction of the famous Box Opening, second release trailer, gameplay trailer, international co-branding campaigns (GAP, The Sandbox, Purina), event Prints, and dozens of social media (SNS) deliverables.

2. Art Direction & Technical Challenge

The first artistic challenge was inventing the entire visual lore of the Petaverse: shaping the nocturnal, mystical mood of a bioluminescent forest, designing the astral sky, creating the interdimensional portal, and defining the visual signature of the cosmic “Gamma” energy linking each Starborn companion to its human partner.

The second challenge was a crucial production trade-off required to hit the 7-week deadline and protect the project's financial sustainability over two years: how should the dogs' coats be handled in 3D? Rather than using heavy dynamic hair/fur grooming, we made the strategic decision to bypass grooming in favor of detailed ZBrush sculpting, normal maps, and anisotropy maps. This technical choice delivered a major double benefit:

1. Staying much truer to the stylized look desired in-game, avoiding any jarring disconnect between cinematic trailers and the mobile game.
2. Preventing the client from sinking into a financial and render-time black hole, keeping the characters fast to animate, light, and adapt across dozens of videos and print posters.

3. Deployed Pipeline (3D CGI / Motion / Hybrid AI)

Our collective deployed a full 3D production pipeline built around Maya, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Houdini, Redshift Render, and Nuke:

1. 3D Environments & Forest: we built an entire mystical, bioluminescent forest by alternating custom 3D models and reworked 3D scans, complemented by dedicated architectural sets such as the DogaHouse.
2. Characters, Sculpting & Shaders (ZBrush, Substance Painter, Maya & Redshift): modeling of the dog breeds, sculpting of coat volumes in ZBrush, baking of normal maps and anisotropy maps in Substance Painter to catch stylized directional highlights across the fur, rigging and acting animation in Maya, and rendering in Redshift Render.
3. Heavy Houdini FX & Nuke Compositing Mix: the creation of the interdimensional portal, the astral sky, the Gamma energy particles, and the Box Opening sequence relied on a tight combination of Houdini simulations and advanced Nuke compositing (energy glows, optical distortions, atmospheric integration).
4. Motion Design & Gameplay: dynamic editing combining in-game capture, motion design graphics, and 3D assets for the gameplay trailer and brand collaborations (including textile lookdev on the hoodies for Dogamí × GAP).

4. Production Cadence & Methodology

This project illustrates the synergy between a Signature Mode launch and a Partner Mode (2-year) retainer:

• Phase 1 — Founding Trailer in 7 Weeks: visual lore development, 3D layout and animatic, creation of the forest (custom models + 3D scans) and hero dogs, Houdini/Nuke portal FX simulations, and delivery of Trailer #1 Welcome to the Petaverse.
• Phase 2 — 24-Month Partner Support: capitalization of all 3D assets created (rigged dogs, accessories, forest and DogaHouse sets, Redshift lighting rigs, and Nuke templates). This living library enabled us to rapidly produce the Box Opening, the 2nd release trailer, the gameplay trailer, and all marketing campaigns while significantly optimizing production budgets.

5. Delivered Formats & Adaptations

Over two years of partnership, this shared pipeline delivered:

• 2 Full 3D Cinematic Trailers (16:9 — 4K) and 1 Gameplay Trailer blending game capture, 3D, and motion design.
• Art direction and animated sequences for the “Box Opening” companion reveal experience.
• International co-branding campaigns (Dogamí × GAP, The Sandbox, Purina): video teasers, 3D Key Visuals, and large-format Prints.
• Dozens of visuals and short-form videos for social media (SNS — 16:9, 9:16, 1:1) supporting community events and live-ops.