Spirit of the North 2

Spirit of the North 2 was released on May 8th, 2025. Man of Motion was deeply involved in the development of the project since 2020, as the only animator and rigging artist on the team.

Responsibilities included:

Rigging & Animation:

• Rigging and animating all the animals in the game, including the Fox main character, the two Ravens (normal and giant), Ram, Stag, Bear, Wolves, Raccoons, the human Grimnir, and the Giant Turtle (DLC).

• Collaboration between game programmers and designers to design the animations within the parameters of the boss fights, including adjustments as the fights evolved.
• Developing technical animation systems to port legacy animal animations from Spirit of the North 1 into the new Spirit of the North 2 rigs.

• Developing a mocap and retargeting pipeline for Grimnir’s animations.

• Developing a character creator for the Fox that allowed sculpting of facial and body features within Unreal.

• Prototyping and developing cutting-edge animation techniques, such as native Motion Warping, brand new to UE5 at the time, for the Fox’s jumping abilities.
• Misc. Rigging and Animation of environmental elements like Rope Switches, Portals, Levers, etc.  LeverPull_F

Cutscenes:

• Responsible for animating and assembling most of the game’s key cutscenes in Unreal’s Sequencer, upwards of 30 minutes of content.
• Most of these cutscenes, light storyboard notes and requirements were given, and all the key decisions were made by us.

VFX:

• Created the water, flame and air geysers, with adjustable parameters by the level designers for puzzle and level design requirements, and adjusted to work during all times of day including low light.
• Created a Growing Vine and Thorny Vine environment set used throughout the game.
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• Implemented VFX into most key game cutscenes.

Fur:

• Researched and created the strand-based groom for the Fox’s Fur.
• Assisted another artist with structuring and compiling fur for all the other animals in the game.

Premise:

Unveil the mysteries of a beautiful ancient world in this breathtaking 3rd-Person Adventure, a sequel to the acclaimed ‘Spirit of the North.’ Take on the role of an isolated fox with a raven companion on a quest to restore the lost guardians and return home.