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The Making of the WAR Cinematic Trailer – Part Three: Elf Fight
Following the Orc vs. Dwarf sequence, we continue the ongoing battle with our next Realm vs. Realm™ pairing – the Dark Elves vs. the High Elves. Our goal for this fight was to feature the use of magic and a female character (both important elements of any MMO). We figured that a Dark Elf Witch Elf would be more impressive than a female Dwarf so that character’s choice was a bit of a no-brainer. That left the High Elf as the combatant wielding the magic. It somewhat limited our choice of characters, but worked within the framework of the video.
Step One: Scripting the Movie This battle was the one that gave us the most trouble and went through the most changes before completion. The original script features several Dark Elves mounted on Cold Ones and High Elves mounted on white horses. It had female characters and magic, and its scope was way beyond anything our budget allowed. We were able to pare down the action to a one-on-one battle in the revised script but we lost our only female character in the video. We added two very iconic warrior classes and had them whipping spells around during combat. Very cool, but definitely not in line with the Warhammer IP. Step Two: Storyboards As you can see from the storyboards, we took another crack at the action, this time featuring a Dark Elf Sorceress (female character, check! Magic, check!) and High Elf White Lion (Cool warrior class, check!). All looked pretty good, except we went a bit too far by giving the White Lion a cool new ability – the Lion’s Roar - that we could not guarantee would be in the game (or guarantee Games Workshop would approve) So we scratched that battle and finally settled on the Witch Elf vs. Mage pairing.  Step Three: Concept Art Next, work began on the concept art for the characters. As the development team was focused on Greenskins and Dwarfs, there was very little game reference to share with Blur. Thus we turned to Games Workshop for their original reference material and input. It took a couple of passes to get the Witch Elf just right. She had too much hair and her skin was too dark in the original drawings. Remember: Dark Elves are not dark skinned, just dark in demeanor! )
Our original High Elf Concept was not far off the mark, but it need to be tweaked to add the appropriate man-jewelry and lengthen the robes (he is a mage after all).
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. It was the bald head versus the bullet head!  Step Five: Character Models )
The first model of the Witch Elf (above) has issues with the face, ears, hair, and headpiece. She also looked a bit too clean to be in the middle of a battle. These issues were addressed in the next version of the model (below).
The cheek bones of the High Elf were too full in the initial model (below left), and we had to slim them down in future versions (below right)
We then went and “dirtied” the model up quite a bit to show the ravages of war, but were told to nix this by GW. Apparently, High Elves don’t get dirty. Ever. That is how proper and superior they are to the “lower” races. Thus, the Elf in the final video looks like he just stepped out of a dinner reception for a quick fight.
Step Six: Video Round Two While the characters where being finished, the rough work-in-progress models were integrated into the video along with early animations. The first pass showed the characters “miming” the action without weapons (below left), the second added placeholder weapons to the battle (below right).
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 cloaks to jumps to kicks.
Step Eight: 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 video (like the blood on the Witch Elf’s lips) are seen for the first time. Final sound is added and the Elf battle is complete.  “Making of” Compilation Videos Check out these special compilation videos showing the “making of” process from start to finish.
To learn more about the making of the WAR cinematic trailer, check out the Catapult sequence, the Orc vs. Dwarf battle, and the Warhammer Alliance interview with Jerome “Jed” Denjean, CG Supervisor, and Leo Santos, Animation/Layout Supervisor, from Blur Studio.
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