One of the highlights of last night at BlizzCon 2015 was getting to see the Legion Cinematic. Blizzard continues to surprise us time and time again with its improved cinematics. Now, in addition to the interest that they arouse in our history, obviously, we must also recognize the great work carried out.
If you have not seen the cinematic yet, do not miss this moment, and even if you already saw it, what the hell! It can be repeated. What did you feel when you saw the Legion Cinematic? It's hard to describe right? However, it is clear what emotion, that conspiratorial look between Silvanas and Varian ... the moment when it seems that Varian is sinking hopelessly ... the next moment in which he resurfaces from the sea and fights and of course .... it's final BY AZEROTH!
Here is a summary of the highlights of the Legion Kinematics Panel, in which the development of the same was discussed. The artists have done a great job and were proud of it.
Legion kinematics
- Cinema needs an emotional hook, so the team looked at war movies.
- Inspired by them and the scenes in which farewell letters were written to families, the idea of Varian writing to Anduin came up.
- There were thick clouds and they wanted to use rays of sunlight to illuminate the characters.
- The ship was not going to be featured in the game, so in the cutscene the team was able to customize it at will. They lengthened the ship and opened the bow to make it heavier than the front.
- The combat helicopter model was very detailed. 7 million faces, 3.000 of the maps 4000 × 4000 texture, raytracing. It takes 4-6 hours to render each frame.
- They used 18th century ships as a source of inspiration.
- They also looked at older planes with sheet metal and rivets.
- The original cockpit was supposed to be a lot bigger, but it felt better smaller, allowing it to be just a backdrop for the character.
- Some of the items on the desktop are reused from previous cutscenes.
- The compass is inherited from Llane Wrynn.
- The team was inspired by all the different versions of Varian art that already existed.
- Capturing the art character proportions for the 3D model was challenging.
- Varian's texture maps are based on real people. Photos of 40-year-old white males who worked in the office were used for reference. These detailed shots are used to make Varian's look and true skin.
- Much of the variation on her skin is from reference photos, not painted.
- There are as many texture maps in Varian as there are in the entire gunship.
- Varian has a lot of hair!
- It took Varian to make 4-6 hours per frame and 20-30GB of memory.
- The lens makes a difference in how Varian's facial features appear.
- Later in the process, the team picks up the f-stop / focal length, trying to keep the look result realistic.
- Lens distortion and chromatic aberration help to make it look like a real lens is being used. Making the 3D look realistic involves adding artifacts back to the video.
- Lots of reference videos were used to give Varian realistic facial movements. Motion capture was not used!
- There were over 50 assets on the deck in the first big shot on the deck, which helps make it look completed and realistic.
- The team can use a motion capture camera to walk around the 3D deck to capture camera movement, adding the smaller movements and swings that come with using a real camera.
- Motion capture is used to animate some of the other movie characters, such as the soldiers on deck.
- The effects team does some really important in the water, using reference footage of a person in a pool.
- There is a little goblin tugboat in one of the intakes.
- Some of the ships were recycled from other cinematics, such as the ship that was destroyed in Booty Bay or the ships from the Mists of Pandaria cinematic. Although they had to add more detail to the ships.
- The reference to the Horde ship coming through the clouds was older Viking ships. It was less detailed than the Alliance ship, with most of it close to Sylvanas from her close shots.
- Sylvanas being a resurrected High Elf was something the team wanted to be properly reflected in the movies.
- A little more armor has been added to Sylvanas's stomach.
- It is difficult to get the subtle facial detail for younger women to be correct. The team had some photographic references of the women's faces, projected it onto the model, and went to work from there. The detail of the pores is from real people.
- The team added the illusion of red blood flow into their ears with the lighting.
- The team worked with Anna Maltese to capture reference images to make sure Sylvanas moved one realistically.
- Fel Energy was used as a team color, appearing on all enemies.
- The ultimate fighting shot uses hundreds of reference video shots to make it great.
- There is a lot of effort put into the lighting and composition to make it amazing!
P&R
- Illidan's model from The Burning Crusade was updated for the Legion.
- If the team reuses the assets, they usually have to update and add more details.
- Orc skulls are reused in various cutscenes.
- About 50% of environmental assets were reused from previous jobs.
- Cataclysm zeppelins are also in the background of the Legion cinematic.