by Magistrate - 8 years ago     show comments

In case Blizzard followed up the release of Legion‘s cinematic reveal at BlizzCon today with a panel specifically on the art of bringing it to life.

The panel featured many of the specialists involved with the project, including Lead Animator Ricardo Biriba, Senior Previs Artist Vince Lee, Supervisor and Surfacing/Look Dev Mike Sandrik, Environment Modeling Supervisor Seth Thompson, Chris Thunig, Marc Messenger, and others.

As mentioned in the opening ceremony, Legion‘s cinematic differs from other World of Warcraft cinematics in that it directly plays into the narrative of the expansion. Sometimes, the cinematic artists are left to their own devices, but the Legion team had a very specific idea for it this time around.

The idea was to simulate war movies and tropes in the context of Azeroth’s greatest and most brutal invasion ever, as we learned at Gamescom that this Legion invasion is the largest the world has ever seen. They considered the theme of figuring out what’s worth fighting for and how to go about it, war and peace, and the idea of “letters from the front,” like messages from common foot soldiers to their families.

That narrative eventually led to the idea of King Varian Wrynn writing about his struggles and inner demons as his airship approaches the Broken Isles, the landing point for the Legion invasion from the Tomb of Sargeras.

Varian struggles with the concepts of war and peace, a never-ending debate between him and his son, who we learned a great deal about in the legendary questline for Mists leading up to the Siege of Orgrimmar.

With the heavy ideas of war and peace, an imminent invasion, warships, and strong emotion, the team moved forward sketching out the storyboard through numerous iterations. Once the game team agreed with the direction of the cinematic’s story, they moved forward with other complexities.

One of those issues was realistically creating an flying airship. From previous games and art, the Alliance airships (and Horde ones, which we also saw) have a very specific look. To root the ship in the concrete and familiar, the team looked to inspirations such as 18th century frigates and World War II bombers. This helped them get details like rivets, bolts, anti-aircraft cannons, retractable cannons, armor plating, and other clutter.

This attention to detail also brought in subtle but powerful details, like Varian’s compass. On it, we can see the initials “LW,” standing for Layne Wrynn, with the implication that it’s an artifact passed down from king to king. This has powerful implications for the developing relationship between Varian, who is more war-ready, and his son Anduin, who often favors peace.

Both the ship and Varian, himself, took roughly 4 to 6 hours to render, after working through 7 million polygons, 3000 x 4000 pixel texture maps, ray tracing, and other technical processes.

For both Varian and Sylvanas, who shows up later in the cinematic, they chose to go with a more mature and weathered look for each, giving them more chiseled looks and working on details like veins, pores, scars, and pockmarks. All of this and more was to show more visually the different hardships and struggles each of these pivotal characters have undergone.

Animations for the human figures, including Varian, reference human actors, who were studied through recordings, put into different environments, and tracked with face cameras for expressions and emotions.

To see the full Legion cinematic, check out the reveal article on BlizzPro.