Posts with tag cranius

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.

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Wrought is an exciting new machinima created by Cranius and Legs. As the story goes, a Human warrior and a Blood Elf woman fall in love. Clearly, this relationship is scorned and forbidden by the Sindorei. The Blood Elves attack the woman, and the human is killed in a vicious ambush. The warrior returns to life as Forsaken. He learns that his lover has been imprisoned, so he flies to her rescue. I'll leave the rest unspoken, so that I don't spoil the story for you.

This video is absolutely amazing. Cranius and Legs managed to get the WoW models to show an incredible depth of emotion. The entire storyline is shot with such precise framing and flow that you can't miss what's happening. The authors have really raised the bar in narrative music videos, and I desperately hope they tackle another project together.

The music itself is by a band called "Peratus." It fit the story well, and I really liked the song. My only disappointment in the music was at the end, when it spiralled into some harsher growling and vocal grinding. While I might just be an old fogey, I felt like that disrupted the overall harmony of the piece. Excepting that ten seconds or so, though, I really loved the song. It's actually inspired me to try and find their albums.

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Machinima's a pretty big topic. Depending on who you talk to, "machinima" could include story-based movies, PvP footage, boss kills, music videos, and even videography of altered in-game landscapes. There are uncounted thousands of videos about World of Warcraft roaming the internet, so it can be very difficult to know where to start.

In honor of the ticket queue for BlizzCon 2009, Moviewatch presents seven machinima movies and machinimators you should know. Certainly, these aren't the only 7 movies or authors you should know, but they do include some of the most popular staples of the art. If you find yourself chatting it up with a machinima enthusiast around the BlizzCon water cooler, you can probably be certain they've seen these shows.

We went for variety in this selection, choosing videos with different styles and subjects. They certainly aren't listed in "countdown to the best" format, since trying to rate these videos like that would be dang near impossible. Instead, they are simply listed alphabetically, according to the creator of the movie.

Check out the selection behind the cut.

This has been a week with lots of collaborative videos released. A new collaboration just hit the streets, and it's one that I was excited about the second I got the email from Cranius. Yeah, that Cranius. You know, Cranius of the Big Blue Dress? He's gotten together with Summergale and Legs to issue a new music video, called Ulduar. You should already know Summergale from her work in Hard Like Heroic, and Legs is the machinimator who created Route 440. I couldn't expect anything less than greatness from this crew, and greatness is exactly what they delivered.

According to Cranius, the video is about a pair of genre-crossed lovers crossing playstyle boundaries in WoW. Summergale sings the part of a PvE raider who is well-geared, and highly skilled in her arena. Cranius sings as a PvP fighter, who not only enjoys the dark avenues of player combat, but is a little bit of a punk and rebel. They're each trying to draw one another across the fence to try "the other side."

The music is excellent. Summergale's voice is gorgeous and compelling, while Cranius nails each lyric with convincing fervor. Legs built an energetic, riveting video for the song, creating a frenzied, hypnotic stage on which the singers perform. This is an incredibly professional piece, and one which I think sets a high standard for WoW music video.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ..

Depending on how long you've been playing World of Warcraft, and which faction you play, the subject of The Lament of Captain Placeholder will require either no explanation, or a lot of explanation. I'll sum up. Back in the days of yore, the boats of Menethil Harbor were tricksy things. As you rode them into the distance, the boats could suddenly disappear out from under you. Stranded in murky waters, you were unable to swim to safety before Fatigue overwhelmed you, and you drowned. This was, obviously, a pretty rough state of affairs. The solution was Captain Placeholder, a man of such fame and skill that people still miss him. While Blizzard repaired the boats, Captain Placeholder simply teleported you across the ocean for free.

Eledainn of Graystar long ago penned the words to "The Lament of Captain Placeholder." Now, Cranius has taken it a step further and created a music and video to commemorate the good Captain.

I was floored by this piece. The music is absolutely fantastic. I was impressed by not only the music's composition, but the talent and skill of the singer. The tone and singing style do a lot to bring about a proper WoW feel. The video itself is perfect for the song and soundtrack. The footage is there to provide visual counterpoints and compliments to the music, and that's exactly what it does. With a piece like this, you really want your audience focused on the sound, anyway. I think the transitioning credits did a great job complimenting the style of the song, giving the entire piece an effective classic feel.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

What is it about Darrowshire and stunning machinima? This is the second video in about a month to come of the Eastern Plaguelands quest line. Last month, we featured the work of Cranius and his musical talents. Now we're pleased to feature a star-studded film by Firebolt Productions, Acolyte 1.5. You may recognize them from their second place win in the Warcraftmovies Christmas Spirit Contest, Ugly Goblin's Christmas.

Acolyte 1.5 is not without faults, as it feels like half of the video has ads for websites. However, what we are finally presented with is an engaging storyline full of action and excitement. Don't miss the voice acting by Clint Hackleman, Drewbie, and Olibith, as well as the musical composition by Nathan Allen Pinard!

[Via Warcraftmovies.com]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

The reception to Darrowshire has been so great that I wanted to highlight Big Blue Dress, the Warcraftmovies recommended film with over three million views on YouTube. Cranius didn't need a fancy Model or Map Viewer program. He was able to capture footage in-game that conveyed what he needed to for the scenes over two years ago, yet the movie is still popular to this day.

If you liked this video, you can download it on Filefront or get the song from the Collective Order website. An interesting tidbit to note is that Olibith responded to this video with his first ever machinima, Olibith the Urban Spaceman!

[Via Warcraftmovies.com]

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

When I woke up today, I promised myself that I wouldn't practice sabotage, espionage, or anything ... "age." Therefore, I've decided to post something amazing in contrast to yesterday. Cranius, creator of the popular Big Blue Dress, has blessed us with a little musical ditty, called Darrowshire.

One of the greatest things about this machinima is that he based it around a quest in the Eastern Plaguelands. It's not every day that you can actually relive the path of a machinima. If you'd like to know what Cranius is up to next, check out his blog.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

[Via Warcraftmovies.com]

Previously on Moviewatch ...