Andrew Weldon

During my time contracting with the Unknown Worlds team on Natural Selection 2, I helped build the section of level that featured in the game's teaser trailer released in May of 2009. My responsibility on the level was building the scene in Hammer—the incredible Spark editor was not yet ready at this stage—and setting up some of the camera work and scripting in the early cinematic timeline editor. The scene was based off a concept/storyboard by NS2/UWE art director Cory Strader.

The timeline-style cinematic editor allowed for an impressive amount of freedom in scripting the cinematic; all elements including the first-person camera were animated using this tool. I used this functionality to add a Skulk darting under the floor grating to the left near the start of the cinematic, and to hand-animate the wobbling vent pieces as the Onos smashes the door at the end of the corridor.

Astute Natural Selection mod fans will observe the door at the end of the corridor is labeled F4: this is a direct nod to the original mod's key binding for "Return to Ready Room," and a commonly meme'd cry of defeat among Marine players when an Onos charged into their command center.