WoW Moviewatch: The Inevitable Cataclysm
by Michael Gray 
May 13th 2009 at 12:00PM
Today's Moviewatch is a production of FlyingCow Studios. The Inevitable Cataclysm is a trailer for an upcoming PvP film. These things just keep getting more and more finely produced, don't they? Even though it's a trailer, I'm pretty sure that the final video will come to fruition. We'll have to wait and see if it actually lives up to this preview.
What's interesting about this is the implication of a story driving the inevitable PvP footage. We've seen other authors do similar, but I think FlyingCow is being very upfront about its own tongue-in-cheek nature. Of course, the same could be said about Buddhist's work. But while I felt like Buddhist had a lot of commentary in the video, "The Inevitable Cataclysm" feels more obviously sarcastic. The opening monologue is pretty over the top, and the "coming soon" seals the deal.
If nothing else, though,"The Inevitable Cataclysm" might be worth a faint chuckle for its 90 second run time. They did a good job of keeping it short and to-the-point, and letting us hope for more.
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
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
stephen May 13th 2009 12:21PM
I recall seeing this before on here.
Keyra May 13th 2009 1:17PM
Not that I could find, and I went back over 8 months (I was searching old vids anyway).
Compulsive May 13th 2009 12:29PM
Was I really the only one who wanted to murder that voice over guy? I was wincing the whole way through.
zweitblom May 14th 2009 2:20AM
I found that voice simply hilarious. Nothing quite like a 17 year old trying to sound like a gruff man.
Shep May 13th 2009 2:53PM
Where would trailers be without 'In a world...' Don LaFontaine?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPMvj_xejg
Manic Soul May 13th 2009 4:46PM
I'm not trying to be a troll, however I have yet to find these movies to be "finely produced". There's obviously a lot of care put into these movies, but whenever I watch them I just see
4-year old character models usually doing the same emotes over and over again. I don't know, that just seems crappy to me.
I'm just saying, instead of making movies from this or even halo (sorry Red vs. Blue fans), why aren't these same people making and animating their own 3d models or flash cartoons? I'm sure they already have an understanding of how this works and I can't help but think that they'd be more satisfied with something they created from scratch than some crappy human with square hands or an undead with inexplicably pointy fingers.
I don't know... whenever I see these editors going on about how fantastic these things are I just think "uh, not really."
And now that I've said something negative and totally opinionated about something WoW related, let the flaming begin!
Agony May 13th 2009 5:05PM
FLAME ON!!!
Seriously, there is a huge difference between loading WoW Model Viewer, selecting and outfitting your character, choosing the movement/emote combination that would work best, setting the background color to chroma green or blue, loading up Fraps, capturing the imagery and then importing it into your video editing program (which all is easier than the write-up) than creating something from scratch with a 3D modeler.
Then there's the animation problem...studios like Pixar, Dreamworks Animation, etc. have teams of animators working full-time to create their movies, and even then it results in (on average) only 10 seconds' worth of rendered footage per week.
Creating something from scratch, or even just importing the models into a 3D animation program, you still have to manipulate a lot of it on a frame-by-frame basis (especially when we're talking about getting the mouth/facial movements in sync with dialogue).
Not everyone has the knowledge of these things (I don't, but I'm beginning to learn, yet I know all about WoW Model Viewer and my video editing software) and it's easy (and fun) to create an animated piece using characters from a game you enjoy playing.