Posts with tag cranius

We waited until after Thanksgiving to start celebrating the winter holidays. But now that the turkeys have been nommed, it's time to slip on our pointed ears and white beards to celebrate Winter's Veil!

Let's get this party started with GreatFather Winter by Cranius. I wonder if the neighbors will notice when the Gray family uses this song for caroling. I guess we'll find out who in the neigborhood is a WoW player.

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Folks who enjoy the World of Warcraft musical scene probably already recognize the names Cranius and Sharm. Individually, these two people have each created huge swaths of music that've inspired WoW players for year. That's why it's so exciting that the two of them are teaming up to release a duo album.

The album will consist of entirely original work -- no parodies, riffs, or mere covers of other people's songs. The pair had tried to make the collaboration work while Sharm was in the U.K., but things weren't working out so well. What to do? Sharm jumped on a plane and flew out to Seattle, where Sharm and Cranius will spend the next few months recording the album.

Here's hoping everything goes smoothly and quickly. We can't wait to hear the results! And while it's exciting that the album is entirely original, we wouldn't hate a fresh cover of Darrowshire with some duet action.

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Do you remember The Story? It was one of Cranius and Legs' more somber pieces. The video was a testament to both Cranius's vocal guns and Legs's peerless eye for visual story. Isn't it a shame we don't hear from them more often? That's what we thought. And then this weekend, something huge happened.

The Story 2. Without getting into the inevitable Coldplay argument, Fix You is a favorite song for inspirational and sad videos since the dawn of exercise transformations. I'm super happy to see Cranius and Legs give it a makeover, but I'm even more happy to see Cranius and Legs. I am excitement.

[Thanks to the dozen people who sent me this tip!]

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Let's take a moment and jump in the Wayback Machine. Back in the day, boats were perilous things. They would disappear out from beneath you, leaving you stranded in the middle of Azeroth's oceans. In short order, you would die a horrible, fatigued death.

Enter Captain Placeholder. While Blizzard took the boats offline for some needed upgrades, Captain Placeholder teleported players around the world. When the boats were ready to return ... Captain Placeholder disappeared.

Given Garrosh's many failures, I think it's time for a new Warchief ... and Captain Placeholder is the man for the job. Think about it! He's one of Azeroth's most vaunted heroes. Bigger than Bolvar. Bigger than Vol'jin.

Captain Placeholder is the Warchief the Horde deserves, though maybe not the Warchief it needs right now.

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I was leveling a druid over the weekend when I encountered one of the most tragic figures in WoW lore: Pamela. I had mixed feelings about seeing her. First, I had hoped that her story would be advanced further and that we would see greater closure for the young Redpath. On the other hand, Pamela's story is nearly legend, and I think WoW would suffer without its poetry.

I was also reminded of Darrowshire by Cranius, for obvious reasons. While the video covers an older version of the quest, it still captures the basic essence of Darrowshire's story. Cranius does a brilliant job of relating the spirit of the quests in his own lyrics, so it's more than worth a rerun for anyone who might be new to machinima.

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Ulduar came up in the comments last week. Since Ulduar is a classic machinima and a strong staff favorite, it's completely worth another visit. Ulduar is performed by Summergale and Cranius, while the video was created by the infinitely amazing Legs.

Ulduar is the story of star-crossed lovers. Cranius portrays the role of a PvP player who feels out of place in raids. Summergale, by comparison, is an experienced raider who is bored with contemporary content. There's just not much to be done until Ulduar is released. Like many star-crossed lovers, the two characters have nothing to do but sing to one another about the predicament.

Like many of the best machinima, Ulduar has stood the test of time, even though the World of Warcraft itself has moved on. The vocal performances and animation quality are so well done that the final work feels just as relevant now as it ever did.

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BSTV is Baron Soosdon's offering regarding his time in the Cataclysm beta. While there, he took copious amounts of footage from both the goblin and worgen starting areas and then coalesced it into this guided tour. With a little assistance from machinima friends like Legs, Cranius, Olibith, and Paus, Baroon Soosdon has created a fun, amusing romp through some of Cataclysm's best features.

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Happy Place was the entry into the BlizzCon 2010 machinima contest from Cranius and Legs. It tells the story of a rogue herbalist who usually wants nothing more than to chill out in his happy place picking flowers. As an undead rogue, everyone expects him to simply be a vicious, violent jerk. He eschews these traits, preferring the more peaceful life alongside his loved ones. Of course, given enough provocation, even this kind rogue gets a little rowdy.

This video just goes to show how stiff the competition was this year in the machinima contest. Cranius and Legs definitely represent some of the top tier of talent in the WoW machinima world. Happy Place is a great song with a brilliant machinima. Of course, that's kind of what you get from these two, but their videos have become a treat for the WoW audience. Here's hoping we get to see more before next year's contest.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.

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Mathew here, checking in on Moviewatch once again. Gray sent me a text ... something about a ransom and some Russian mobsters and maybe even a bank heist. Look, who do you think I am, Gray? The Monopoly Man? Scrooge McDuck? What am I, made of money?

I am notoriously picky about WoW machinima -- ask anyone here at WoW Insider. The War Room is usually abuzz with machinima that I enjoy but never tout. Cranius' songs coupled with Legs' videos, however, are high points in WoW machinima for me, as they are excellently produced, they're visually fun, and the songs are engaging.

Darrowshire is still my favorite Cranius song, but Don't Make Me Get My Main and ranks right up there. The song hurts my very soul, mostly because I started WoW as Horde on a server that was Alliance-dominated. Stranglethorn Vale was nothing more than an Alliance gank-fest, as dedicated Horde players would skulk in the shadows, waiting for just enough Alliance players to leave Hemet Nesingwary's camp so that they could turn in quests successfully. Dark days. Dark, dark days, that are happily behind me.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.

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The Cataclysm expansion is coming. This is going to be game-changing event. It's actually very exciting. A lot of the old world has gotten stale, and I'm eager to see it refreshed. However, if there's one piece of community lore that I will hate to see rendered not-as-relevant, it's Darrowshire.

Darrowshire is a defining moment both for characters in game and also for the WoW filk community. Darrowshire is one of the best pieces of WoW music out there, and the video that goes with it matches its sorrowful, determined tone perfectly. I don't think the song will lose much power after the reconstruction of Azeroth, but I do hope people can still be exposed to this beautiful piece of art by Cranius.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.

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It's occasionally a good thing to go back and look at selections from past Moviewatches. I try and avoid doing that too much, since there are always so many movies (good, bad, improving, all) to check out. But when a movie is frequently discussed in comments, such as Wrought, it's important to take a day and remind the population at large of what all the fuss is about.

The machinima was by Legs and Cranius, while the movie itself is by the band Peratus. Not only is the music compelling and interesting, but it complements the amazing skill that went into the machinima. Both the music and the video could stand alone on its own merits, and there really is a synergy created when the two elements are brought together.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.

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The 80s are over, and the fine art of making a mixed tape isn't quite the same as it used to be. Oh, sure, the roleplaying kids nowadays tell me they have their fancy-schmancy character playlists. They scratch down the name "Dudeguy McDudicus" across the top of their iTunes, and call that their mixed tape. It seems to my aged, patrician soul that the character playlist lacks the same validity as a hand-recorded tape or Compact Disc. That could just be me channeling High Fidelity, though.

Regardless of the media you use to keep track of the actual songs, I'm pretty sure that the idea of a character soundtrack has been around since Gygax first rolled some D&D dice. I've heard them also referred to as a character tape, playlist, CD, and even "character sketch."

Ultimately, the point is that the character soundtrack puts aspects of your player character into music. It's another way of communicating some descriptive themes, genres, and tunes. Hey, if it's not you cup o' tea, no big deal at all. But for the people who do get into creating a soundtrack, the proper selection and organization can be an incredibly custom art.

Let's take a jump behind the cut and talk about how to put together your character's own soundtrack.

I'm a Hunter was created by Fruity Loops, Frostheim, and Mike Hallenbeck. The video was also made by Frostheim. When Frostheim dropped me a note about the video, he definitely seemed to think the overwhelming demand for a Hunter theme goes as far back as Big Blue Dress by Cranius.

Whether or not I'm a Hunter stands up to being compared to that mage-themed masterpiece is up to each viewer. In my opinion, though, the song is still pretty catchy and amusing. The video does a great job of illustrating the facets of hunter life, as well as getting in some chuckles along the way. There's a lot of little loving touches that clearly shows the creators' love of the class, and I think it's suitable homage to the gun and bow toting crowd.

Thanks to Frostheim for the heads up, and congratulations on a fun song.

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'Tis the season to start revelling in the glory of Winter's Veil. To help create some classic music for us all to enjoy during the holiday, Cranius wrote and produced GreatFather Winter. While this video was originally created a year ago, it remains fresh and vibrant even today. I think that Cranius nailed his goal perfectly.

Cranius has a nice story about the final creation of this film. There were fierce snow storms where Cranius lives. He obviously wanted to get his Winter's Veil classic complete by Christmas, but was very concerned about losing power due to the snow. He was rightly concerned, as his electricity went out just as he was near finished. But, thankfully, it turned out to be a very short outage -- he was without power just long enough to get a few more inspirations for some final tweaks.

Let the holiday season begin!

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Cranius has built one heck of a reputation as a World of Warcraft fan songwriter. His music and video credits include Big Blue Dress and the incredibly moving Darrowshire. This year, he (and machinimator partner Legs) achieved the first place prize at the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest for their every-man video, Don't Make Me Get My Main.

All this background makes it awesome to point out that Cranius has released his music through Amazon, all collected on an album titled Big Blue Dress. The album is pretty cheap, coming in under $5.00. It includes downloads of Big Blue Dress, Darrowshire, and The Lament of Captain Placeholder, as well as his new pieces, Happy Place and Don't Make Me Get My Main. The only piece I felt was missing was Ulduar, but I can think of a few reasons it didn't appear.

At the cheap price, it's nice to be able to throw a little support at an artist who's brought so much music to the community. He's not been alone in this, of course, as both Oxhorn and Myndflame have released their music in one form or another. I think it's a wonderful opportunity, and something I support wholeheartedly. I obviously have purchased it, and am playing it on my computer even now.