How Blizzard Created Warcraft III's Classic Cinematics

Blizzard Posted 2018/11/13 at 2:52 PM by Anshlun

month long coverage

Make sure to check the Full Interview on Game Informer.

This post is part of our coverage of Game Informer's Month of Warcraft III: Reforged. You can check all our recaps below.

Developer Insights

Concept Art, Story Interview with Christie Golden and Justin Groot

How Blizzard Created Warcraft III's Classic Cinematics

Highlights

The original Warcraft III announcement cinematic was first imagined as Orcs sitting around a campfire and suddenly being attacked by Humans. Later on, after brainstorming, the team working on it decided on story of the final version.

The cinematic was the first time Blizzard filmed reference footage of the fight before creating a cinematic.

The team recreated the reference footage when remaking the fight, since the original one, recorded 20 years ago, was long lost.

Their main goal was to re-enact the classic cinematic to "faithfully replicate what they love", but now with modern tools to enhance it.

The original team working on the cinematics of Warcraft III was composed of 12 people by the time it was completed.

Most of them were hungry artists that fed off each other's work and were very passionate about what they were creating, working almost every waking hour into that project to get it right.

The cinematics from Warcraft III really show their age to the team that created them.

Only the announcement cinematic was remade for Warcraft III: Reforged. Other cinematics from the game will just be resized and enhanced as they still have their original uncompressed footage.

Chris Metzen wanted the Infernal for the new cinematic to look like a football player in proportions.

Screencaps

Comment by LostelfNo other cinematics are being redone? That’s a real shame.

Will they at least be turning Arthas/Illidan into a cinematic as it was originally intended to be?Comment by ItacolomiNo other cinematics are being redone? That’s a real shame.

Will they at least be turning Arthas/Illidan into a cinematic as it was originally intended to be?Comment by evilmark443No other cinematics are being redone? That’s a real shame.

Will they at least be turning Arthas/Illidan into a cinematic as it was originally intended to be?Comment by ahunter8056Why on earth are they now half-assing this, and not bothering to remake all of the cinematics? It's misleading to remake the opening cinematic, and then a week later say "oh yeah, we're not going to remake any of the rest". They didn't bother remastering any cinematics with Starcraft: Remastered, and I was hoping they would do the job that Warcraft III: Reforged deserved. They absolutely should be remaking every single cinematic. Raise the price if they have to. I don't mind if they have to push release back a year, or double the price. I want to see remastered cinematics. The guy even said that the Warcraft III cinematics "really show their age". Is that not reason enough to remake them?Comment by Easo"Only the announcement cinematic was remade for Warcraft III: Reforged. Other cinematics from the game will just be resized and enhanced as they still have their original uncompressed footage."

Now that is a dissapointment. After the announcement/intro cinematic it seemed logical that others would be remade too.Comment by Hii488At least the quality of the cinematics will be better, they just wont be quite that much better

:(Comment by Dragonwraith76Ork?Comment by FistonladinThey're already pretty good even with that much years in difference to be honestComment by AlakeiThancanWAIT WHAT? So we're not getting Terenas' murder in 2018 graphics? Neither will we get the rise of the Lich King? Illidan calling the Naga? Archimonde being destroyed? Goddamnit Blizzard...Comment by Aspros1stOnly the announcement cinematic was remade for Warcraft III: Reforged. Other cinematics from the game will just be resized and enhanced as they still have their original uncompressed footage.so go there and ask Jeff Chamberlain to make the cinematics god damnComment by angeleyedI have no problem at all with using old cinematics. I still find them amazing!Comment by KainserThe frozen throne cinematics still hold up but the vanilla WC3 cinematics look preeetty rough when you see them now.

No other cinematics are being redone? That’s a real shame.

Will they at least be turning Arthas/Illidan into a cinematic as it was originally intended to be?Comment by GrievlockeWow. Gotta say I am disappointed and glad I haven't pre-ordered yet. The cinematic being redone was a huge selling point for me. I think it's a bit shady as far as marketing goes that they would lead with a redone cinematic and then not say anything about the rest of them. It's a case of Schrodinger's honestly, they were both equally going to be redone and not redone until Blizz said something, which do you think people assumed? Their marketing department knew. Glad I know now.Comment by muticereMost of the cinematics from WarCraft 3 still hold up alright in my opinion, so none others being redone is fine. Non-issue. The upgraded in-game graphics are a big enough sell for me.Comment by GrievlockeMost of the cinematics from WarCraft 3 still hold up alright in my opinion, so none others being redone is fine. Non-issue. The upgraded in-game graphics are a big enough sell for me.Comment by BReal85I'm not buying the game because of the cinematics.Comment by NekroFenixso?

ill pre-order anyway, its not the cinematics that im after, im sad but not disapointed

plus, those probably arent cheap to makeComment by ZeroFighterI was reeeeally hoping they would redo all of the cinematics :(
Hope they change their mind about that...Comment by rhostamOh. $%^& that's a huge disappointment. I can tolerate the mess of stat squish and the class mess in general of WoW, but this? Come on. This feels bait and switch-y, even if they never explicitly said all cinematics would be redone. Oh. I guess I still have the actual game and a meat wagon mount to look forward to.Comment by rhostamso?

ill pre-order anyway, its not the cinematics that im after, im sad but not disapointed

plus, those probably arent cheap to make