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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzCon 2010: Warcraft cinematics panel
by Michael Gray 
Oct 24th 2010 at 12:00PM
CATACLYSM WARNING: There are spoilers here.
The BlizzCon 2010 Warcraft cinematic panel took place Sunday morning and featured the answers to some of the most common questions about Cataclysm cinematics.
Of course, you might have seen the big news about the amazing worgen cinematic. This video is intended to take place in the in-character timeline right as you learn your character's fate in Gilneas. It provides you vital information about how your character was captured after joining the furry crowd and how it came to be in stocks in the middle of the town square.
The cinematic is fantastic. It's leagues different from the goblin cinematic. The goblin story is fast-paced and action-packed. The worgen story, by comparison, is moody and dark. It highlights the humanity of the worgen and sets the genre away from simple, raw adventure into something deeper and meaningful.
One of the most interesting explanations about the video is that everything in the video is created entirely from in-game models. Lord Godfrey's cloak, for example, is actually the same one worn by Arthas. Godfrey's glasses might be recognizable as the ones Ozzy wore in his Prince of Darkness clip. The cage in which the worgen is caged is built from board, nails, and bars found around the player experience. While obviously the animation is created using more advanced techniques, every visual piece is taken from somewhere in game. This is intended to help keep the cinematic feeling real and like something that could happen in the World of Warcraft.
Two other bits will also prove to be especially interesting to WoW players everywhere.
The panel spoke about why goblins and worgen don't appear in the Cataclysm trailer. The simple answer is that the video was intended to be Deathwing's story. The trailer is about Deathwing's torture, rage, and emergence. Splicing in scenes about the new playable races felt like it distracted from that meaning. They could have included tiny little orcs falling out of the towers, for example, but that would have left the video feeling silly.
The team did want to feature a player character montage but without taking away from the amazing Deathwing visuals. To do that, the cinema folks focused on different recognizable locations within Azeroth. By using these familiar places, the team was able to nod to player action without distracting from the big, bad dragon. Everything in the video would be real and somewhere players could actually inhabit.
This leads us to the second important emphasis from the panel. Don't take Deathwing's flight across the world too literally since it is part of an artistic montage. That flight path wouldn't make much sense in a "real world" sense, but was meant to convey the awesome power of Deathwing soaring across Azeroth.
The panel also discussed the technical methods they used to create the videos. I think the important part to convey is how experienced the massive cinematic team has become. They use every tool at their disposal to constantly expand the quality of their animation. These videos are an important part of the WoW experience, since it helps the whole thing feel real and part of a story. I always look forward to hearing what these guys have to say.
BlizzCon 2010 is upon us! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. We're bringing you liveblogging of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
RogueJedi86 Oct 24th 2010 1:24PM
What about the part in the cinematic where Deathwing erupts north of Darkshore? They could've fit Darkshore into the montage elsewhere, but for some reason they show him exploding out somewhere East/Northeast of Teldrassil and North of Darkshore. Doesn't he come out of the Maelstrom, or is that simply the player entry point? I'd love to know what little island he shattered when he came out up there. Though it does explain why Auberdine was wrecked when it was on the other side of the continent from the Maelstrom, the previously thought entry point.
Suzaku Oct 24th 2010 1:27PM
He's just flying through a mountain pass, not erupting from underground.
nonzer0logic Oct 24th 2010 7:41PM
It takes them a year to make the cinematics, they couldn't do the Maelstrom eruption because Blizzard changed Deathwing's exit after the cinematic has already gone underway.
RogueJedi86 Oct 25th 2010 3:52AM
Errr, but a year ago wasn't the plan for him to come out of the Deathwing Scar place just north of Stormwind? Still doesn't explain the Darkshore eruption. Maybe they toyed with the Darkshore idea internally just long enough for the cinematics team to start doing him erupting there in the cinematic.
Cetha Oct 24th 2010 1:49PM
If they had added the faction leaders responding to the destruction or something like that, it would have elevated the cinematic. As it is now I am left as underwhelmed by it as I was by the one for Wrath. I love the classic and BC ones, they seem to relate more and be more inclusive of the game itself.
Snuzzle Oct 24th 2010 5:07PM
This is just the cinematic for worgen players when they get bitten. The cinematic about Deathwing destroying Azeroth is thataway --------->
Dreyja Oct 24th 2010 1:58PM
What they did emphasize is that every single frame of that cinematic would be equivalent to hours worth of downloading time from a cable modem. EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL FRAME!
That really helped me understand the technical limitations of really good CGI. As much as I'd love to see more from this team than these cinematics... the tech is limiting. There is just SO much DATA.
You never know what'll come around the corner, processing wise, in just a few years though.
Aruhgulah Oct 24th 2010 2:48PM
"The goblin story is fast-paced and action-packed" while the worgen story is "deep and meaningful"??
Hello? We're talking about the goblin trailer that shows the boat ferrying goblin refugees (tricked into being sold into slavery) into the middle of an Alliance/Horde gun battle, right? With all those trapped goblins drowning? That's HORRIFYING, and the truly scariest, "oh my god those poor people" moments I've ever seen.
Pollux Oct 24th 2010 6:04PM
You raise a valid point, but I think -- and this is just me -- what is meant by "deep and meaningful" refers to Crowley's big question about how much humanity is left in the player's worgen. It underscores an issue that is always raised in fiction with werewolves and all other sorts of deformed, unnatural people: what does it mean, precisely, to be human? are we as humans sometimes no more civilized than beasts?
The goblin cinematic was very touching, certainly, but this one is simply much more focused on kindling introspection, as well as raising questions about human nature.
Pollux Oct 24th 2010 6:08PM
*Godfrey's big question
Bulliwyf Oct 24th 2010 5:15PM
Spoiler? Really?
So there are players are surprised when it turns out their human character, whom they designed as a worgen, eventually becomes a worgen?
Shock! Who could have expected it ?!?
steelvoltage Oct 25th 2010 11:41AM
Why does it seem like Gilneas is set in the "19th century" and the rest of the human world, especially Stormwind is in the "15th century?" I'm talking about clothing and feel Blizzard has given them. If anything, Gilneas should be further behind Stormwind as they've isolated themselves for years. Stormwind has been at the forefront of trade and mingling with other races with advanced technology and magic, like the dwarves, gnomes and draenei.
Pollux Oct 25th 2010 11:29PM
The fact that Gilnean clothing and architecture is more advanced than Stormwind's would bother me, if the evolution of Azeroth's fashion was designed to mirror Earth's.
We just have to accept that their development isn't on the same timeline as our own. For example, in Azeroth, helicopters were invented before motorcycles. To me, it follows that an isolated nation in Azeroth might completely skip what we understand to be centuries of natural design progression.
Pollux Oct 25th 2010 11:47PM
This video gets me massively excited to play through the Worgen starting zone. The more I watch it, though, the more I start to think that part of the script is a little awkward.
"Do you even remember what you did to your friends? Your kind... haunting the wilds, unchecked, until we found you."
It's just... the connection between those two sentences is kind of vague. Or maybe it's the second sentence alone that seems weird to me. I just can't put a finger on it.