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The Making of the WAR Cinematic Trailer – Part One: The Catapult Sequence
Step One: Scripting the Movie The first step in creating the video was coming up with a script and we had ambitious goals. We wanted a massive battle to get across the idea that “war is everywhere” in the game. We wanted to feature all six armies locked in combat according to their RvR racial pairings (though we realized creating three different battlefields would be a bit too excessive so we settled on a single location). Finally, we wanted to showcase some of the more interesting and unique characters from the Warhammer universe. The video had to appeal as much to Warhammer fans (who would be seeing some of their favorite miniatures brought to life for the first time in all their CG glory) as to those new to the fantasy world (looking for something to get excited about from another fantasy MMO).  As you can read in our first script, we had some grand plans... that would have completely bankrupted the company! (These videos are not cheap to make!) After talking over our plans with Blur Studio, the Venice, CA based animation house we hired to create the trailer, they worked to scale back the scope of the video. Their revised script dropped the massive (and expensive) battle in favor of a more intimate take on RvR combat. We just needed to swap out several of the characters in favor of ones that were more representative of the Warhammer world. Step Two: Storyboards Once the script was approved, Blur moved forward with storyboarding the action. This series of drawings helped us to visualize the scenes, map out the action, and gave us a general idea of camera angles.  Step Three: Concept Art With the game so early in production, we didn’t have a lot of concept art to share with Blur. Luckily, there was about 25 years worth of Warhammer material to use as reference. With direction from our art team, Blur was able to concept the Orc camp for the video.
Step Four: Video Animatic Based on the storyboards and concept art, Blur next created a very rough first pass of the video. The goal was to bring the storyboards to life to make sure the action and camera angles worked as planned. There was zero character animation but the Orc hitting the wall was already funny. The placeholder Orc models came from earlier work Blur did on the Warhammer 40,000 video.  Step Five: Character Models Before the video could be animated, the character models had to be created. In building these models, we were faced with the challenge of translating the 2D imagery from the Games Workshop source material and the exaggerated 3D imagery of the miniatures into realistic representations of the characters for the video. There was definitely some back in forth regarding the length of the Orc’s legs, their posture when moving, and the exact placement of the head and neck before we got them right.
Step Six: Video Round Two While the characters where being finished, the rough work-in-progress models were integrated into the video along with first pass animations. The catapult’s model was almost complete, but the rest of the environment was still a work in progress. With this version, we were able to finalize all cuts and camera angles.  Step Seven: Animation Tests To get the physics and effects in the video just right, the team at Blur did all manner of animation tests on everything from clothing and armor movement to arrow trajectories. You’ll notice the Gates of Ekrund in the background as the Orc flies through the air.  Step Eight: Video Round Three The completed models and animations were added to the video for final approval. The more realistic the flying Orc became, the funnier it was to watch him hit that wall. The completed environments and special effects would be added when the video was rendered in full detail.  Step Nine: Final Render In this last version of the video, the environments are completed, special effects are in place and the great little details in the world (like a dead orc with an arrow through his eye) are seen for the first time. Final sound is added and the catapult sequence is complete.  To learn more about the making of the WAR cinematic trailer, check out the Warhammer Alliance interview with Jerome “Jed” Denjean, CG Supervisor, and Leo Santos, Animation/Layout Supervisor, from Blur Studio.
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