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FinalBossTV Interview with Marc Messenger, Director of "Lost Honor" Cinematic
Blizzard
Posted
2018/11/10 at 10:43 AM
by
perculia
FinalBossTV interviewed Marc Messenger, Director of the "Lost Honor" cinematic, at BlizzCon 2018. Most BlizzCon interviews take place with game developers, so it's a real treat to hear from the Cinematics department, especially with the increased focus on cinematics and cutscenes in this expansion.
Below are some highlights from the interview and cinematic reaction:
Messenger has primarily worked on WoW cinematics, starting with Deathwing leading into Cataclysm.
There are several teams involved in cinematics--the team that works on the high-fidelity cinematics like "Lost Honor," the in-game cutscenes, and the 2.5D movies like Warbringers.
A 3 minute cinematic in the style of "Lost Honor" roughly takes a year to go from concept to launch.
By animation studio standards, Blizzard does not have a gigantic crew.
Production on "Old Soldier" started around the time of Battle for Azeroth's creation, while production on "Lost Honor" started halfway through "Old Soldier."
The increased amount of high-fidelity cinematics in Battle for Azeroth came as a request from the WoW game team.
"Old Soldier" was only finished a month before the community saw it.
Making a human in CG is a very difficult challenge, and they feel Anduin "works" because he is an appealing character.
The boats seen in the opening shot have a funny story. The model originated in the Cataclysm cinematic, when you see Booty Bay with the tidal wave. It was based on the Maiden's Fancy, but left mostly incomplete, as it was built to be seen at a distance. Then, a boat was needed in MoP, so they uprezzed the back of the same boat model. Then, it was needed again in Legion, so they uprezzed the front. They almost have a full boat now!
The cinematic team thought carefully about the placement of light and shadow, as Anduin is a creature of the Light, a priest, but he is conflicted and torn.
Some shots are reminiscent of "Old Soldier" and the dark lighting in the dungeon allowed for effective shots of characters popping out of the darkness.
Anduin and Saurfang are mirrors of each other asking hard questions. Saurfang is basically admitting that he needs the help of a kid, while Anduin is confronting someone that could easily kill him. They both realize they need help in order to succeed.
With the increased production of high fidelity cinematics in Battle for Azeroth, the team can get increasingly-comfortable animating characters like Anduin and Saurfang. As the character sees more use, the animations are easier to make, with more nuance reflecting personality.
Animators attend recording sessions with the voice actors to capture videos of them recording lines and to learn more about the personality of each character.
Battle for Azeroth is the first time Blizzard is going all-out with this sort of cinematic pacing, and there's a lot of passion for making this sort of content.
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Comment by
Quadram
on 2018-11-11T10:51:02-06:00
A 3 minute cinematic in the style of "Lost Honor" roughly takes
a year
to go from concept to launch.
Makes you wonder what they're all working on already in terms of the expansion coming after BfA. I mean, no doubt they already are, right?
This is probably partly why they seem so disconnected form the rest game.
Comment by
Quadram
on 2018-11-11T11:28:17-06:00
Sylvanas : Doesn't mind killing her own troops and reanimate them as mindless corpse if it can buy her some time while ploting to destroy life itself out of anger.
Saurfang : Would not kill his troops unless forced to, and would never raise them as undead, while trying to gain a better life for his hordies; even if it means using diplomacy.
"SaUrFaNg Is A tRaItOr AnD tUrNeD aLliAnCe ! LeT's HaTe HiM !"
Unless you main Death Knight or Undead, I don't see how you can trust that kind of leader over one who compromise to HELP his people, and not turn them into mindless slaves...
( But I main Death Knight so... >:D )
Sylvanas:
Will use what ever means necessary to ensure the Horde survives.
Saurfang:
Has now killed more Horde troops than Alliance in-game in BfA. Only care's about "Honor", and are fine with people under him dying if he can keep it. Actively works with the Alliance to cause even more Horde death.
He embodies the saying "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"
Yeah... why would anyone dislike what the writers done to Saurfang?
Today smoke rises up from da campfire. Smoke tells Ogmot good story.
Ogmot sees lady wrapped in dark swirlies. She leads herd of blind sheep.
Da sheepies follow her everplace she go. Do everthin she say. Never doubt lady.
She guide dem over tall cliff! SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT! Stupid sheepies!
Da crows get fat eatin da sheepflesh. Da lady laugh as crows eat!
Ogmot laugh too!
What does Aleria/Azshara have to do with this?
Comment by
Lehane
on 2018-11-11T11:59:23-06:00
Sylvanas : Doesn't mind killing her own troops and reanimate them as mindless corpse if it can buy her some time while ploting to destroy life itself out of anger.
Saurfang : Would not kill his troops unless forced to, and would never raise them as undead, while trying to gain a better life for his hordies; even if it means using diplomacy.
"SaUrFaNg Is A tRaItOr AnD tUrNeD aLliAnCe ! LeT's HaTe HiM !"
Unless you main Death Knight or Undead, I don't see how you can trust that kind of leader over one who compromise to HELP his people, and not turn them into mindless slaves...
( But I main Death Knight so... >:D )
Sylvanas:
Will use what ever means necessary to ensure the Horde survives.
Saurfang:
Has now killed more Horde troops than Alliance in-game in BfA. Only care's about "Honor", and are fine with people under him dying if he can keep it. Actively works with the Alliance to cause even more Horde death.
He embodies the saying "You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"
Yeah... why would anyone dislike what the writers done to Saurfang?
Today smoke rises up from da campfire. Smoke tells Ogmot good story.
Ogmot sees lady wrapped in dark swirlies. She leads herd of blind sheep.
Da sheepies follow her everplace she go. Do everthin she say. Never doubt lady.
She guide dem over tall cliff! SPLAT SPLAT SPLAT! Stupid sheepies!
Da crows get fat eatin da sheepflesh. Da lady laugh as crows eat!
Ogmot laugh too!
What does Aleria/Azshara have to do with this?
It has always struck me as Sylvanas. The others always felt like a stretch to me. Also Occam's Razor, she literally is doing the same thing Arthas did, more blatantly up front in her evilness, and people still cling to whatever rationale they can find to justify her actions.
Plus, putting things like that for clear raid bosses like Azshara doesn't make much sense in a narrative and they are neither showing nor telling us about Alleria being evil (and all the void elves were already on that path and had to be saved) while they keep showing and telling us about Sylvanas being evil. Direct and to the face even.
Comment by
Quadram
on 2018-11-11T15:45:50-06:00
It has always struck me as Sylvanas. The others always felt like a stretch to me. Also Occam's Razor, she literally is doing the same thing Arthas did, more blatantly up front in her evilness, and people still cling to whatever rationale they can find to justify her actions.
Plus, putting things like that for clear raid bosses like Azshara doesn't make much sense in a narrative and they are neither showing nor telling us about Alleria being evil (and all the void elves were already on that path and had to be saved) while they keep showing and telling us about Sylvanas being evil. Direct and to the face even.
Mainly, He's writing is always related to the void. Sylvanas is not.
Dark swirlies
would point it to either Aleria or Azshara, both connected to the void. Blizzard has started during these last year to differentiate "Shadow/dark/void" from "Death" so it would be strange if they suddenly started to refer to something Sylvanas does as "dark" magic again.
Splat
is a rather wet sound, pointing towards Azshara and how she offered her people to become "fishy".
It talks about her being happy at this sacrifice, which goes against Sylvanas in-game arc where she uses every tactic at her disposal to keep the Horde alive.
Comment by
Lehane
on 2018-11-11T17:19:29-06:00
It has always struck me as Sylvanas. The others always felt like a stretch to me. Also Occam's Razor, she literally is doing the same thing Arthas did, more blatantly up front in her evilness, and people still cling to whatever rationale they can find to justify her actions.
Plus, putting things like that for clear raid bosses like Azshara doesn't make much sense in a narrative and they are neither showing nor telling us about Alleria being evil (and all the void elves were already on that path and had to be saved) while they keep showing and telling us about Sylvanas being evil. Direct and to the face even.
Mainly, He's writing is always related to the void. Sylvanas is not.
Dark swirlies
would point it to either Aleria or Azshara, both connected to the void. Blizzard has started during these last year to differentiate "Shadow/dark/void" from "Death" so it would be strange if they suddenly started to refer to something Sylvanas does as "dark" magic again.
Splat
is a rather wet sound, pointing towards Azshara and how she offered her people to become "fishy".
It talks about her being happy at this sacrifice, which goes against Sylvanas in-game arc where she uses every tactic at her disposal to keep the Horde alive.
Differences of opinion, I still think the Boy King being tossed about is Bolvar cause as the Lich King he is by far the least of the Death entities. His quickness to anger and chasing them away was to cover for his second lie (that he had nothing to with Vol'jin naming Sylvanas to lead).
Unless blizzard is just throwing stuff out there randomly with some of it intentionally never having meaning then they aren't showing us anything with the Void Elves and Alleria. We aren't seeing the type of mindless devotion for Alleria that we are seeing with Sylvanas. Seriously consider everything she gotten the horde to go along with, they aren't Thrall's horde anymore.
The mystery of who burns Teldrassil didn't turn out to be a mystery at all. The simplest solution was the right answer. Blizzard literally put the answer up in the promotional art for the burning of the tree.
Also Sylvanas isn't trying to keep the horde alive, she is trying to keep herself alive. She has already shown she is ready to slaughter the horde when she started an all out war with the Alliance.
Maybe someone has offered her protection from the afterlife in exchange for the lives of the horde. You think she would hesitate to make that trade? Think Helya or N'Zoth wouldn't make such an offer?
Lastly all bodies make a splat sound when they hit after falling a great distance.
Comment by
Quadram
on 2018-11-12T08:20:31-06:00
Differences of opinion, I still think the Boy King being tossed about is Bolvar cause as the Lich King he is by far the least of the Death entities. His quickness to anger and chasing them away was to cover for his second lie (that he had nothing to with Vol'jin naming Sylvanas to lead).
Unless blizzard is just throwing stuff out there randomly with some of it intentionally never having meaning then they aren't showing us anything with the Void Elves and Alleria. We aren't seeing the type of mindless devotion for Alleria that we are seeing with Sylvanas. Seriously consider everything she gotten the horde to go along with, they aren't Thrall's horde anymore.
The mystery of who burns Teldrassil didn't turn out to be a mystery at all. The simplest solution was the right answer. Blizzard literally put the answer up in the promotional art for the burning of the tree.
Also Sylvanas isn't trying to keep the horde alive, she is trying to keep herself alive. She has already shown she is ready to slaughter the horde when she started an all out war with the Alliance.
Maybe someone has offered her protection from the afterlife in exchange for the lives of the horde. You think she would hesitate to make that trade? Think Helya or N'Zoth wouldn't make such an offer?
Lastly all bodies make a splat sound when they hit after falling a great distance.
Interesting theories. Never thought of Bolvar as the "boy-king" before.
With Aleria it seemed like it could be a metaphor. The Void elves falling deeper into the Void, using their powers more and more. They follow her to their own demise etc
True, at times. But Blizzard are also known to do some really random *!@# as well. I mean did you expect Saurfang to be a traitor?
If she only cared about herself, she wouldn't have started the war, she'd just return to Undercity waiting for the other leaders to chose a new Warchief and then just bunker up with so much blight that Alliance would never wanna attack, even when the war inevitable war broke out. NO, she cares all right, and uses every dirty and underhanded method to stay on top of things. Even sacrificing a few, and sacking her own city, to kill alot of Alliance troops.
The Legion bio-pic definitely pointed to her sacrificing herself for her people.
True, but many sound could have been used; this definitely paints a specific picture,apart from the obvious.
Comment by
Lehane
on 2018-11-12T10:41:53-06:00
Interesting theories. Never thought of Bolvar as the "boy-king" before.
With Aleria it seemed like it could be a metaphor. The Void elves falling deeper into the Void, using their powers more and more. They follow her to their own demise etc
True, at times. But Blizzard are also known to do some really random *!@# as well. I mean did you expect Saurfang to be a traitor?
If she only cared about herself, she wouldn't have started the war, she'd just return to Undercity waiting for the other leaders to chose a new Warchief and then just bunker up with so much blight that Alliance would never wanna attack, even when the war inevitable war broke out. NO, she cares all right, and uses every dirty and underhanded method to stay on top of things. Even sacrificing a few, and sacking her own city, to kill alot of Alliance troops.
The Legion bio-pic definitely pointed to her sacrificing herself for her people.
True, but many sound could have been used; this definitely paints a specific picture,apart from the obvious.
The problem with the Void Elves is they were already in too deep and on the verge of the Void devouring them when you aid Alleria in the Allied Race unlock instance. Why does Alleria need to lead them deeper so they become lost when they were doing that themselves already. The entire event was Alleria pulling them back from the edge.
On Saurfang being a traitor, do you mean a traitor to Thrall's horde or Sylvanas' horde? I don't see them as the same thing anymore, especially with the revelation it wasn't the Loa that directed Vol'jin into naming her. It is very much in Saurfang's character to betray Sylvanas (and Baine too).
She can't go bunker up in UC, her invasion of Gilneas saw to that, along with all the other acts she pulled in Cata. Without the Horde the Alliance will have justice on her. She needs the horde to destroy the Alliance with as much of the horde being destroyed as well. She can't stand on her own anymore.
Godfrey also showed her the problem with free will as he chose to splatter her brains across the ground. That explains to weird changes in the people she raises now. Sira and Delaryn siding with the one that destroyed Teldrassil and brought about their deaths. They should going following Godfrey's lead and trying to kill her.
The bio-pic seems misleading. In Legion she just ran off to persue a deal with Helya and to try to enslave Eyir. A plan that could have worked if she never invaded Gilneas. Now Eyir is pissed with her, amazing how she keeps racking up enemies. Remember Eyir was the one that knew what had happened to Vol'jin and why, but these were horde asking so no answers.
The only things that Arthas did that she hasn't is to kill a King of the Alliance and corrupt the Sunwell. Something tells me that Xal'atah's dagger will be covered in Greymane's blood when she tosses it into the Sunwell at the end of this X-pac.
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