Posts with tag legs

Legs and Cranius go great together. It's hard to put it much simpler than that. The Story hit the streets back in 2009 and, like many things, has stood the test of time. If ever there were a finer pair of collaborators, then I don't know them. Sit back today and enjoy a song from yesteryear. They managed to make it even better than the original, and that's saying something.

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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 moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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While the song is most famous for its presence in Lost Boys, Legs turned it into the soundtrack for Black Angel in 2008. For all that it's full of gothic imagery and moody images, I still love the vision of 3 blood elf angels floating in mid-air. Call me a sucker, but it's still one of my favorite tiny bits of machinima. All that being said, this video is 5 years old. It's just amazing how time flies.

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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 moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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We covered Here Without You yesterday, one of the classics of machinima. The Forsaken lovers theme is a popular one, though relatively few machinima artists have really done it justice. It is no surprise that another great example is Wrought, created by Legs based on a song by Peratus.

Not only is the machinima amazing but the song is pretty good, too. I grump a tiny bit that it devolves into garbling by the end of it, although I'll admit that technique aligns well with the storyline in the video.

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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 moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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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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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 moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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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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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 moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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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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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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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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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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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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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 ..

I am, in general, a pretty big fan of Legs's body of work. This WoW music video take on Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" is one of my favorites, even though it was first released a while back. The video is titled I'm no good, as it's very much a direct carry-over of Winehouse's song.

As the video's story goes, it's about a couple who are having some "faithfulness" issues. The scenery and action does a good job of mirroring the song's lyrics. Legs's costume work is, of course, very strong. And while I've long admitted I'm a little burned out on the Blood Elf thing, the singing belf chosen by Legs is actually a pretty good fit for Winehouse's persona.

I think this is some of the best "band" footage I've seen in videos. L70ETC lends itself to "Hard rock montage!" Legs, however, has managed to create a soulful and almost "fun" vista in which the boys can operate. I think some of that might be the music soundtrack, but I could almost expect to see these guys in my local coffeehouse.

If you haven't seen this one before, here's hoping you enjoy it.

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

Previously on Moviewatch ..

The holiday season is behind us, and we're pretty much done with the holiday movie extravaganza. However, I wanted to take one last moment and enjoy a beautiful piece by Legs, titled "A very northrend christmas: Out in the cold." I'm not sure how we missed it before now, but I didn't want to let it be ignored this year.

The music is gorgeous, of course. Compared to the more hard rock Christmas videos, Legs's piece really brings out the beauty and elegance of the holiday season. I like the way the young Orc child stares around with wonder, and the serenity displayed by the Blood Elf angel. The music is suitably haunting and harmonious, synching very well with the crystalline imagery of the video.

This is the last of the holiday videos for this season. But, like I said, I wanted to make sure Legs got her due, considering the beauty of this piece. Click here to see it yourself!

[Via Machinima.com, thanks to Lindi for the tip!]

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

Previously on Moviewatch ...

Wrath is out! It's time to celebrate! We can all dance in the Tundra with this music video by Legs, called Route 440.

There's no story here. Legs warns us that there is no coherent narrative to speak of, and we're pretty well suited to believe him. I will say, though, that I felt the gnome action was a little dramatic, and I felt bad for the critters when they were laid low. Why people always gotta be so rough on gnomes? And while that wasn't a story, per se, it definitely felt like narrative to me.

That being said, I really loved the way the imagery works. Legs admitted right up front that it's all pretty random, but the variety of scenes and sets came together fairly cohesively. The music was strong for its pacing, and I liked the use of current graphics (pre-Wrath) to help motivate the "not-story."

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

Previously on Moviewatch ...