A NEXT GENERATION MANGA UNIVERSE BUILT TO INSPIRE A COMMUNITY
To help the Omen China team create more authentic connections with gamers in their market, we tapped into the community’s passion for manga and created a mind-bending manga of our own.
Combining a source text written by Phil Gellat, the Emmy winning writer of Netflix’s Love, Death and Robots (the top performing TV series among gamers) with a cutting edge generative AI platform, we created an expansive 32-page digital manga called THE WAY FORWARD.
Inspired by Omen’s “Forever Forward” brand platform, the story follows three gamers who are pulled into a life or death transdimensional tournament called Ultra Maze. Using the skills they’ve developed through gaming, and of course an Omen, they must solve challenges, overcome all manner of crazy monsters and learn to work together if they’re to get out alive.
To create the manga, we collaborated with Lore Machine, a cutting edge company with a proprietary generative AI technology that allows them to turn source text into comic books and graphic novels. Among the many advantages of the AI process, including reduced timing and lower costs, HP owns all of the IP outright. Which means there are zero rights issues or needs to license anything.
Once we’ve trained the AI model on the visual style and look of our characters (under the direction of an illustrator), Lore Machine’s technology translates the source text into prompts, which in turn generate a storyboard. Ultimately, after a few rounds of revisions, the AI converts those storyboards into the images that make up the manga. All of which is laid out with help from a team of designers.
View the full manga here.
VOLUME 1 LAUNCHED AT BILI BILI WORLD, CHINA’S LARGEST GAMING CONVENTION
The moment included a social activation across all of Omen’s channels, key art and animations for the entire 30,000 square foot Omen booth, integrations with top Chinese gamers and a giveaway of five thousand printed copies.
The Omen China team tasked us with using the IP to create a :60 product launch film. Once again, we turned to our partners at Lore Machine to use a groundbreaking new generative AI animation technology to bring the script we wrote with Phil Gelatt to life. Everything in the film, including the music and VO, was made with AI.
The animated film works as an extension of Volume 1, picking up where the story left off.
The film premiered last month at the Omen launch event
VOLUME 2 AND BEYOND
Based on the outpouring of interest in volume 1 across Omen’s WeChat, where hundreds of fans spontaneously began posting what they thought should happen next in the story, we turned to the community for ideas. Unbeknownst to one lucky fan, we gave their story idea to Phil Gelatt and he used it as a starting point for volume 2.
One of the exciting things about the technology is the rapid speed at which it’s evolving. As such, Volume 2 includes an interactive “Choose Your Own Adventure” feature, which allows users to make choices that impact their experience as they move through the story.
Production Company: Lore Machine
Producer: Diana Frame
Executive Creative Director: Adam Groves / Zac Ryder