For those of you who don’t know what Embers is, here is an explanation/fact sheet:
Synopsis
Now living in a cozy Tuscan villa with his wife and their two children, Ezio Auditore spends his time enjoying the company of family, old friends and cultivating his vineyards. The life of this former Assassin Mentor will not stay quiet for long. One day a mysterious Assassin shows up at Ezio’s door quite unexpectedly, begging for Ezio’s aid. Will this old assassin’s fire die out before he can save the ones he love, or will it burn brightly one last time?
Who? How?
As Assassin’s Creed Revelations is Ezio’s last game, we felt the need to have closure with this great character. That is why Assassin’s Creed Embers tells the story of an older Ezio, 10 years after the end of Assassin’s Creed Revelations. The epilogue of Ezio’s tale cannot be told through a game medium.  Given the fact that Ezio was now a father, his memories were no longer accessible through the Animus by Desmond. The Animus allows you to relive your ancestors’ memories…. until that ancestor’s DNA is transferred.
UbiWorkshop developed and produced Assassin’s Creed Embers at Ubisoft’s Montreal Studio.
Starting with the original concept, to the final piece, Embers is a remarkable piece of team work.
Louis-Pierre Pharand, the Film’s Producer & Head of Ubiworkshop, worked closely with the Assassin’s Creed Brand Team to push the original concept and story so that the project could begin.
The script was written by Darby McDevitt (Assassin’s Creed Revelations Scriptwriter), and the film was directed by Laurent Bernier, a Ubisoft UBIK director.
Conceptualised, written, produced and developed over a period of 6 months, the production team consisted of 40 dedicated people who came together to give Embers a great visual style and quality.
All post-production was also done on site at the Ubisoft Montreal studio, using our talented staff and great facilities.
The movie was developed using an internal production pipeline that bridges the gap between Video Game Making and CG Film Making. That pipeline allows us to use all of the different environments that players had the pleasure to see in the games. The city of Florence, as seen in Assassin’s Creed II, is the back drop to Assassin’s Creed Embers. Using this pipeline, we can also integrate in-game characters and their animations. The fact that the look & feel of the visuals in Embers is different than the games is part of the technological advancement this pipeline allows. We use the same environment assets as the game, but we are able to automatically generate a different aesthetic to them that gives us a unique feel. In Embers, this applies to environments, crowd characters and animals. Only the main characters have been created & animated using a more traditional approach.
To maintain consistency and the highest quality, the actors are the same that are portraying the game characters, so for example Roger Craig Smith (Ezio Auditore) really invested himself in what would be his last performance in his most famous video game role. Anna Tuveri portrays Sofia, Ezio’s wife, a role she reprises from Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Angela Galuppo jumped on the great opportunity to portray Shao Jun, the new Chinese Assassin. The great music of Jesper Kyd, written for different Assassin’s Creed titles, was an intricate part of the process – his grandiose themes have sometimes been translated into simple but beautiful notes on the piano to give the film its unique mood. Â
Assassin’s Creed Embers will debut and have its world premiere at the Montreal Festival of Nouveau Cinema. The film will be distributed for purchase on XBOX Live & the Playstation network. It will also be available with different Assassin’s Creed Revelations Collector’s Editions depending of the territory.
