Interview with Clément Lescalet: Cinematic Lead on Battlefield 6
- Vanessa
- Jan 27
- 12 min read
To wrap up January’s theme on attitude and character identity, I wanted to give the floor to someone who approaches this topic from a different angle than gameplay, yet with the same commitment to coherence.
Clément Lescalet is a Lead Cinematic Animator at EA Motive.
We worked together a few years ago on Assassin’s Creed Dead Kings, and I’ve kept the memory of a solid, grounded animator who was always ready to support the team and move things forward.
What I appreciate most about him is his ability to navigate constraints, narrative needs, and team leadership without ever losing sight of what matters most: the character.
I chose to end the month with his interview because a character’s identity is never built within a single department.
Gameplay and cinematics have to align, communicate, and sometimes work around very different constraints to animate the same hero with the same intention.
Clément brings a complementary, clear‑sighted, and grounded perspective on this essential synergy.
A fitting way to close out January, before opening in February a new chapter dedicated to silhouette and gameplay readability, where we’ll focus on posing, lines of action, and movement clarity , all through a distinctly game‑oriented lens.
Could you tell us about the career path that led you to the role of Lead Animator?
After graduating from ESRA (Sup’Infograph), I started out in the film industry on Renaissance. I didn’t really animate on that project, but it introduced me to the professional world and to production.
After that, I trained in motion capture and worked on TV series such as Skyland.
Eventually, I found my way into video games at Ubisoft.
Pretty quickly, I realized that my mind naturally gravitates toward anticipating problems, taking on responsibilities, expressing ideas, and making sure others have what they need to animate well.
So barely four years after starting in the industry, I became a Lead Animator.
Throughout my career, I’ve alternated between going back to my roots as an animator , to keep improving , and taking on leadership roles (Lead and Assistant Animation Director).
Because that’s the tricky part when you’re in a leadership position: there’s very little time left to actually animate.
“I see several ways to grow as an animator:refining your craft, wanting to teach or pass things on, and wanting to take on leadership.
Of course, you can do all three.
I started with refining my craft.”
Which projects have had the biggest impact on you or helped you grow the most in your career, and why?
Hmm, I’ll mention three, even though of course almost every project leaves its mark in one way or another.
Ubisoft Montpellier, Assassin’s Creed Unity – Dead Kings DLC.
On a personal level, it was significant because I was living in Quebec at the time, and I had to return to France as my father was ill. Since he lived near Montpellier, the opportunity was perfect.
Professionally, it had been a long time since I’d worked in video games where my only focus was animating , and on top of that, animating cinematics.
The tools worked well, we had a director who was a former animator, available and fully involved, and an amazing team that I integrated into very quickly and really enjoyed working with. And Émilie was constantly fighting to make sure we had everything we needed to work in the best possible conditions.
All in all, it’s an experience I often describe as the best of my career.
The second one was shortly after I became Assistant Animation Director, when I was given the mandate to deliver the historical stations and crowd life for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
I wasn’t entirely sure at first, but I quickly saw the potential of working on it. We collaborated with a historian to understand how things functioned in Greece at that time, then we listed all the stations we wanted to implement in the world, figured out which props we needed, how to structure our intro/loop/outro cycles, planned the mocap shoots, divided the work between the local animators and outsourcing, and handled the integration.
We’re proud of the result , especially knowing that our work is now used by schools to teach how life actually worked there during that period.
And the last one is Battlefield 6, which we just delivered. I don’t think I’ve ever worked that much in my entire career.
It took more than a year and a half to produce that many cinematics in an environment that wasn’t really prepared anymore to support a solo campaign. Quite the challenge. Ten to twelve hours a day, some weekends, answering messages during vacations and keeping track of how things were progressing. It was really intense.
I chose to invest myself that much , EA never asked us to. I wanted us to deliver the best we possibly could despite the massive workload. Of course, it’s not sustainable in the long run, but I learned a lot, and I wore several hats throughout the process.
But in the end, every experience teaches you something , and it’s mostly the people you work with who make it truly formative.
“It can feel intimidating at first to work with people who are incredibly skilled, but you quickly realize that, almost unconsciously, their talent lifts the whole project , and if you approach it with openness and a generous mindset, you’ll benefit from it too.”
Which part of cinematic work do you enjoy the most: staging, acting, camera framing, or animation polish?
There are two parts I particularly enjoy:
– The early‑project previs phase, where we explore how to translate what’s in the script using our creativity while working within our constraints.
– The assembly and polish phase, which speaks to my ‘mercenary’ side , the moment when we know exactly where we’re heading, and it’s ‘just’ about getting the work done. It’s the most interesting part of animation for me: building the piece and refining it.
What is the most common technical challenge you encounter when working on AAA cinematics?
The seamless transition to and from gameplay, without a doubt.
I have so much admiration for the systems used in games like Uncharted, where the transitions work beautifully no matter the angle you enter the cinematic from.
Most of the time, you don’t even realize you’ve slipped into a cutscene.
One day, I’d love to work on a highly narrative game like Uncharted or The Last of Us.
What do you look for first when recruiting a cinematic animator — technical skills, portfolio, or soft skills?
I’m actually recruiting at the moment. We’re looking for a senior/principal cinematic animator.
The way I approach it is as follows:
I start by listing what we need in the short term, then in the mid‑term, and finally how I envision the team evolving over time.
That usually gives me something like: experience with mocap, facial animation, military‑style games, knowledge of MotionBuilder/Maya, interest in growing into a lead role, willingness to share knowledge with less experienced teammates, autonomy, etc.
Once I have that list, I begin searching. I look at their LinkedIn, the type of experience they have, and whether it matches what I’m looking for.
Then I review their demo reel with the same mindset , I look for clues that align with what I need: the quality of what’s shown (mocap cleanup, facial polish), and I take notes on questions that come to mind as I watch.
I make my selection, HR meets them first, and then it’s my turn.
I’m the kind of person who likes to put candidates at ease , we chat, we relax a bit, then we introduce ourselves.
From there, I have two options: either I ask questions without any support, or I review the demo reel with the candidate.
“It’s hard to find a demo reel that actually contains all the information we need:
– The date (to understand when the work was done)
– What the candidate did exactly, and in what form (this character in keyframe, that character in mocap with facial keyframe, etc.)
– And even the little anecdotes behind the shots.
I really appreciate when people include timecodes with this kind of information in the video description.”
And I either finish with HR‑type questions or sprinkle them throughout the interview:
– During production downtime, how do you use your time? Give me some examples.
– When you’ve faced a stressful situation in the past, how did you react? And how do you react now?
– What’s the part of your job you enjoy the most? What would your ideal role look like?
– If you had to pick just one scene with the strongest emotional weight that you’ve worked on, which one would it be?
Of course, it would be different for a junior.
So to answer your question: it’s a mix of everything , experience, demo reel, the way they respond, and their personality all matter.
As a lead, how do you help your animators grow toward more responsibility or specialization?
What I do first is simply talk with my animators , to understand what they enjoy doing and which part of the work is their favorite.
“There are three things to take into account: the animator’s aspirations, the needs of the project, and the diversity within the team.”
If nothing overlaps, that’s perfect ,it’s the ideal setup for everyone. But if, for example, I have two animators who both want to specialize in facial polish and we don’t actually have any facial animation to do, then it becomes tricky. :P
Let’s stick to the ideal scenario so I don’t end up writing pages and pages about it.
From there, we work together to set short‑ and mid‑term goals: gathering documentation or reference videos on the topic, creating a small demo, etc. On my side, I keep their specialization goal in mind and make sure to involve them in anything related to that area.
We do regular check‑ins and set realistic metrics.
If I find , or they find , relevant paid training, we talk about it and submit it for budget approval.
At Motive, we really support people in growing within their craft.
What matters most is follow‑up, support, and creating all the conditions they need to succeed.
At what stage of development do you usually get involved — right from the scriptwriting phase, or later on, once the gameplay mechanics are defined?
I’d say it depends on the project, but right now I’m involved as early as the scriptwriting phase , and I absolutely love it.
It’s really important for me to be part of that process, whether passively or actively.
It’s very different from receiving a fully finished script and just working from there.
Being involved early gives you insights, details, and the reasoning behind why a scene is meant to play out a certain way.
And honestly, it’s also much easier to digest than having to read the entire script in one go!
As the cinematic lead on the Battlefield 6 single‑player campaign, how did you work to maintain coherence between narrative, cinematics, and gameplay, while collaborating with the other EA teams?
It was quite a challenge, I’ll tell you that :p
Co‑developing a game across four studios — two in North America and two in Europe , is definitely not ‘child’s play’ when it comes to coordinating everyone.
So, a lot of communication!
I was responsible for the cinematics of four missions in the BF campaign, and for each of them (except Mission 1, which was a collaboration with the marketing team), I organized meetings with the narrative, level design, VFX, and level art leads to discuss their needs, what we envisioned for the cinematic, confirm the gameplay entry point, the gameplay release point, which weapon the player can have equipped, where the enemies are, etc.
What matters most is planning as much as possible as early as possible, so we have all the data we need for mocap and can achieve the best possible GP → cine and cine → GP transitions.
After that, it’s all about information sharing and follow‑up.
And even then, surprises can still happen!
So again: communication and efficient problem‑solving.
Can you give us a concrete example of a moment when you had to find a creative solution despite a technical or narrative constraint on Battlefield 6?
There were quite a few, honestly, because the engine was no longer ‘wired’ to cleanly integrate cinematics into gameplay after the adoption of the tech that selects the best animation to transition into.
For a long time we were confident we could improve the transitions, but eventually we had to accept that we wouldn’t have time to solve it 100%, so we had to find workarounds.
For example, since the game is in first‑person view, we used the camera to hide NPC transitions , same for the player’s weapon. As long as we justified a camera movement, we could mask a bad transition.
In another moment of the game, the player’s car falls into a road fissure. VFX, level art, and destruction didn’t have enough time to deliver a proper visual solution within the schedule, so we went for a cut to black and relied on SFX to make the player feel the impact of the crash.
And elsewhere in the game, we were supposed to have a moment with exotic gameplay. It was promising, but again, due to time constraints, we had to remove it. Narratively, though, we still needed a way to move the squad from point A to point B, so we introduced a pre‑rendered sequence as the solution.
“These aren’t always decisions we make gladly, but we have to keep moving forward and find the best solution that helps everyone deliver.”
How do you handle the integration of cinematics into the engine?
At Motive, we have an excellent team of technical animators and cinematic designers.
The animators export their animations, and the integration is handled with the support of the TAs and the cinematic designers.
From there, it becomes a collaborative effort between all of us to refine the transitions
In a military game like Battlefield, how do you find the right narrative tone between realism and spectacle?
I’d say it’s definitely a challenge!
We run tests, and we also work with military consultants who help us ensure accuracy , and sometimes we take a bit of artistic license to justify why a certain action isn’t fully authentic.
Then everything goes through validation with the narrative and art directors to make sure we’re aligned with the tone they want for the game.
It takes some trial and error at first, but once we find the right balance, we establish a set of pillars that we apply to all the following scenes.
In Battlefield, where characters are often seen from a distance, in motion, and in intense situations, how do you build a soldier’s identity and attitude so they remain recognizable and credible? What animation choices allow you to differentiate the various factions, even without facial expressions or close‑ups?
The first thing we try to determine is whether it’s even necessary for the player to recognize a soldier from a distance.
Context helps a lot, then the dialogue, and if there’s still any ambiguity, we fall back on one of the fundamental principles of animation: silhouette readability.
The main characters in the story already benefit from strong, distinctive work by the character designers, so our job is to bring that characteristic silhouette into the animation itself.
To wrap up, could you share a piece of advice, a technique, or an approach you would specifically recommend to cinematic animators? Something you wish you had known earlier in your career, or an important lesson you learned when transitioning from film/TV to AAA video games.
It’s hard to give a piece of advice that would work for everyone, so instead I’ll share an anecdote that really changed the way I work once I understood it.
The moment I learned to step back far enough to see my work as something that no longer ‘belonged’ to me, I became able to critique it honestly and push it to another level.
We don’t realize how many cognitive biases kick in when we look at our own work.
When you manage to take that distance, analyze what’s happening in your head, and move past it, it’s incredibly rewarding.
For example, I noticed that when I reviewed my scenes and saw things that didn’t work or didn’t feel smooth, I would unconsciously make excuses for them, or anticipate how much work it would take to fix them , and that would discourage me.
It was all happening beneath the surface.
I also realized I was working to get the lead/director’s approval instead of working to deliver the best I could possibly deliver.
Practicing mindfulness helped me a lot with that.
Thanks for thinking of me for one of your interviews, and all the best with this wonderful project!
A huge thank you to Clément for the time he dedicated to this interview, and for the transparency with which he shared his experience.
With more than fifteen projects under his belt, Clément has built up a rare level of expertise, and his perspective on character coherence is all the more valuable for it.
What stands out from our conversation is the vision of an animator who has learned to make narrative, technical constraints, team responsibilities, and production demands all speak to one another , without ever losing sight of the character’s integrity.
It’s a pragmatic, grounded approach, where every decision serves both the player and the story, and where cross‑team collaboration becomes a creative driver rather than a source of friction.
A powerful reminder of how, together, we build believable, living characters in a AAA environment.
To explore his career in more detail or follow his work, you can find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clementlescalet/
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