WoW Moviewatch: Cloud 9 by Zimtower
But when I fired up the video and started watching, I was enthralled. Zimtower's work to animate the singer was astounding. Face and body movements are well-tuned and expressive. You can see her eyes behind her gnomish goggles. The soft glow of scenery and motion-capture are all beautifully done, giving the video an overall ephemeral quality.
The song itself fits perfectly. While it's not my genre of music by preference, the strong bond between visual and audio has cemented "Cloud 9" as something to live in my iPod. Zimtower said the video was about joy. I was skeptical, but the sense of serenity and peace during the movie really did bring that across. I admit, I thought the music video was, in fact, amazing.
If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
Previously on Moviewatch ..
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, WoW Moviewatch
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Vektorix Feb 19th 2009 5:33PM
While I normally like my techno a little more minimal, Cloud 9 is total win. It's not perfect - a few of the cuts are a bit sloppy and the point at which the background disappears is too close in and noticeable, but all of that is easily over-ridden by the mastery of the character animation and just the sheer exuberant fun of the video!
Definitely my favourite WoW music video since the classic "Frame of Mind/Cheyenne Line" from SlashDance...
Hugh "Nomad" Hancock Feb 19th 2009 5:40PM
Aha. Should have checked WarcraftMovies before I spoke.
This is not in-game - it's rendered using Lightwave and Messiah Studio (which is a lovely character animation tool, by the way). I agree - after Blink and this, it's going to be hard for Machinima work to get over the new bar, although some of the improvements we're hoping to make to the Model Viewer might help!
(BTW - technically this isn't Machinima, it's conventional 3D animation. Not that that really matters - what matters is that it's darn cool!)
Keyra Feb 19th 2009 7:29PM
Now I have the song stuck in my head...must...go...download!!!
Great video and definitely an artist to watch!