Reality Fracture

REALITY FRACTURE

Magic: The Gathering

For Reality Fracture, the new Magic: The Gathering expansion, Unit Motion Design created a 90-second, fully CG cinematic trailer exploring the fractured mind, painful past and transformation of Jace Beleren, one of the most iconic characters in the Magic universe.

To tell this story, we designed and created four monumental stained-glass murals entirely from scratch, turning them into living narrative pieces.

Each fresco reveals a different chapter of Jace’s journey: his traumatic past and the events that shaped him; his evolution toward Jace, the Theorist; the growing influence he exerts over the Planeswalkers; and finally, the confrontation between the original Planeswalkers and their Echoed counterparts, as they fight to resist the replacement of reality itself.

More than environments, these stained-glass murals were conceived as a visual storytelling system. Architecture, characters, light and symbolism are woven together into vast compositions that progressively reveal the story as the camera travels through them.

The entire film unfolds through a mysterious and dramatic continuous mise-en-scène, combining highly detailed CG imagery, intricate stained-glass craftsmanship, cinematic lighting and sophisticated VFX. Fluid camera movements connect each chapter into a seamless visual journey, building tension and scale as Jace’s reality begins to fracture.

The result is a dark, emotional and monumental cinematic piece, an intimate character story told on an epic scale, exploring the choices of Jace Beleren and the consequences they unleash across the Magic: The Gathering universe.

A project that brings together what lies at the heart of Unit Motion Design’s approach: narrative-driven CG, strong visual concepts, high-end craft and immersive cinematic direction.