One thing I really loved was the symbolism when Thrall steps closer to Anduin and the blade touches the strap on his armor. You can see the blade is shaky and unstable, but then Thrall steps in and stabilizes it when pressing against it, implying that he is acting as a stabilizing/calming figure for Anduin. And then he says "I trust you" and we get to watch Anduin's expression as he is emotionally disarmed. Such incredible work by the team that made this cinematic.
There's a real life actor behind Anduin's face. I think they scan the actor's face with a bunch of cameras and capture the facial expressions, then overlay their CGI.
Another little thing that I love in that sequence is not only the pose, but the line that proceeds it, "my son", is also the first line of the WotLK cinematic. Really highlighting the Anduin / Arthas connection.
There's just so many layers to this cinematic, it's incredible. Not only Anduin doing the Arthas Lich King pose and all the call backs with that, but as my brother also pointed out, Thrall going down on one knee also reminisce of how Arthas goes down and wipes away the snow on the ice to reveal Sindragosa's dragon bones. Also the hands on the shoulders calling back to the raid cinematic with Varian and Saurfang. I loved how when Thrall steps into the sword steadying it, and then saying "I trust you", like implying that he's here to be leaned upon.
Graphically, this is perhaps the best video game cinematic ever made. I have never seen CGI look this good. Their ability to capture micro expressions elevates it to another level of realism. Incredible work from the WoW cinematic team.
Yeah this is mind blowing quality. The only thing that gives away the cgi aspect of Anduin is the mouth animation (which is pretty much impossible to replicate from humans), but other than that it's the best character cgi I've ever seen.
@@BernardoPC117 i think it's obivous they were using performance capture (which is replacing mocap, it's something WETA digital has kinda made an industry standard) to capture the faces and the movements; but painted over the top of them to add in all the tiny little details. The face of thrall is so close to metzens little micro expressions that they have to have some form of capture to at least go from.
@@BernardoPC117 i dunno if he lied or maybe wasn't being completely forthcoming, but go look at metzen talk from like the last blizzcon, watch his face, and then focus on thrall's face. That is Metzen 100 percent there is something he says when anduin asks him a question and he kinda pauses and looks off to the side in puzzlement, it's where anduin asks him who is doing it towards the end. That expression is 100 percent from Metzen's face. so I don't think we've gotten the full story on how it was made.
14:40 - "Let me know what he's done" Anduin was always a very Holy, rightous, noble and just generally "the good guy". It's him we see create that dome of holy light in the Battle for Azeroth cinematic (the first Warcraft Cinematic you watched on this channel). He's holy and good enough that he managed to assist in the resurrection of a person, something which lorewise in the game is not an easy feat. In the previous expansion, Shadowlands, he was captured and mindcontrolled the antagonist and last boss of the expansion. He was basically turned into the new Lich King against his will and in that state was forced to kill and order the army of the bad guy to do nasty stuff. Near the end of that expansion they released a short cinematic where Andiun speaks to Sylvanas (who's been captured and sentenced to find all the souls in the Maw, their version of Hell, so that they can have a second assessment if they are worthy of a second chance), and he ask her how it feels to be Undead, how it felt to her when Arthas (the dude in the Warth of the Lich King cinematic) dominated her mind and forced her to do bad stuff and how she's managed to accept the evil she was firced to do and live with it. He eventually reveals that deep down he realized that he enjoyed doing all that. He always thought he was a holy person, rightous and good. But now he realized that there's a massive shadow in him as well. He enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering and nw he's scared of what he actually is and what he will become, and if he will eventually start doing all that bad stuff on his own, by his own free choice instead of being dominated into doing it. Since the power of the Light comes from Conviction and Determination he is now afraid what will happen if he tries. Has the Holy Light left him? Is he now an actually bad person because of his feelings? In short a huuuge chunk of selfdoubt made Anduin hide and wallow in selfpity for several years (I think canonically there'll be 5-7 years since his talk with Sylvanas to the start of The War Within)
I would argue that he only _believed_ he "enjoyed" doing those things, because of a combination of the mind control techniques of Zovahl, and his PTSD. It's kinda like, on one hand, someone slips you a drug. The drug feels good, but you don't love drugs, except now you're confused. And on the other hand, like a woman who's been SA'ed, and questions whether she deserved it, whether she should have fought, (something which could get a person killed, in many cases,) or if she fought hard enough, and if not, maybe it meant that she _wanted_ what happened, and again, cycles back to, did she _deserve_ it? It's a nasty soup, and Blizz has captured it through Anduin really poignantly. The fact that it's _Blizzard_ and given their recent scandals, the irony isn't lost on me.
@@animeentranced1130 Yes, but this expansion is obviously after Dragonflight, so tack on another year. All that said, Chris was asking for some background information to fill in the blanks, so that's exactly what he got. Try to keep up.
My favorite part of the cinematic was the symbolism of Thrall stepping forward and pressing himself against Anduin's sword. In the closeup shot you see the blade moving sporadically bc Anduin's hand is trembling, and they established that w that other closeup of his hand and the hilt and how Thrall noticed he was shaking. But in the shot where he walks forward, his chest presses against the sword and stops it from trembling. It represents his trust, his friendship, stabilizing Anduin, just as he stops the blade from shaking. Such a beautiful and simple shot that says so much.
It's incredible how the cinematic team at blizzard has yet again achieved to produce something that is basically years ahead of whatever is the current standard in terms CGI and especially character animation.
@@jimmiekarlsson4458 Despite that being true, for a movie to have this quality in terms of CGI the current budgets your average movie gets would probably have to double or triple the amount. The budget for these cinematics is already insane in and of its own, and it's only mere minutes. Imagine what it would take for a full blown one and a half hour to 2 hour long movie.
@@jimmiekarlsson4458 To be fair they can go all out like that on a 5 minute clip. Making a whole movie is a way bigger undertaking. I'm not sure how their budgets compare.
I feel like the one of the weakest cinematics they're done. Too short, too vague, no message. Compare the first cinematic of WoW with this one.. the original still gives me goosebumps after so long..
The main thing to know about the lore for this cinematic is that Anduin, the human protagonist here, kinda turned to the dark side (was forced to) in the last expansion, and almost caused the end of everything, then he was able to come back. But of course this was very heavy on him. The pose he does holding the sword calls back to the cinematic for Wrath of the Litch King where Arthas, who fully turned to the dark side on his own will, did the same. But Anduin is not Arthas.
Anduin didn't really cause anything. He was a tool for a short time, but not really the most meaningful. On top of that he managed to break free before he could something really dark, but he explains very well to Sylvanas what his problem is: the a part of him had liked that feeling of power. That's why he doesn't trust himself anymore. Just like Arthas, which soul had been used to dominate him, he feels like he could fall. That's why Thrall's "I trust you" is so immensly important. Especially because it comes from a leader of the Horde, since man of the Alliance would just say that, because he is their King, but the Horde would be the very first victim of a fallen King Anduin. And yes, the sword pose is there to show the doubt of Anduin, that he could end like Arthas, but were Arthas' pose was one of power, Anduin is shivering, it exposes his weakness and his aggression is born out of this weakness, as he shoves Thrall away in fear not of Thrall, but of himself. Thrall also isn't confronting the blade - he stabilizes it and stops Anduin's trembling.
Very true. The key subtle difference between Anduin, and Arthas. When Arthas holds out Frostmourne, he is stoic, powerful. A pillar of Frost. His hand is steady, and Frostmourne is ever powerful. Then you look at Anduin. His hand is shaking, Shalamayne is bobbing slightly. Andiun is tired, in tormoil, and probably weak from lack of nutrient and meaningful sleep. Shalamayne is also seemingly depowered here.
@@talisredstar1543it should be noted that this is not the first time anduin took up this pose. last time was bfa's opening cinimatic just after he mass rez'd half his army. that time was a confident and rightious if not nieve anduin calling out "for the alliance"
What absolutely blows my mind about this cinematic is the fact that it ISN'T motion capture! They tried motion capture with the BfA cinematics, but for this one, they went back to their old method of having actors do reference shots and then hand animating everything themselves.
Holy crap. Is that true?? I immediately thought that this is motion capture, a really impressive motion capture with some hand animation on the side to add minor details. But THE WHOLE DAMN THING??
That is absolutely insane but at the same time makes sense of the level of realism. Motion capture can fluidly capture the major movements, but the micro expression is always missed and made obvious of the use of CGI. Hand animation requires ridiculous amount of hours of works and talents, but it will guarantee eve the miniscule detail to be displayed. Absolutely incredible piece of cinematography.
@@GiangNguyen-uc3yv Yeah, I was still wondering how many hours of work was put into Anduin alone when I thought it was motion capture with hand animation support. But with full hand animation I can't comprehend how much time and work was put into this. I know my way around animation, but this is another level damn
@@chihuahua0117 Yep, they talked about it in an interview at BlizzCon. It's crazy, they've always used hand animation and only had actors as references, but I thought the results of the BfA cinematics were quite good, so I thought they had made the switch. But apparently not. It's stupidly impressive. Hats off to Terran Gregory, he's truly talented and has an incredible eye for that kind of stuff!
What is interesting in this cinematic is that they used the same phrases that were used in the BFA cinematics (e. g. "We don't get to hide.", "What I've seen, what I've done..."). They also used similar pose with the sword as in the WotLK cinematic. And they actually referenced a community created joke "What sword?" by using the phrase "That sword". So not only it was perfectly animated, but also very cleverly written, especially for long time fans. Also I found randomly this video that basically explains what happened to Anduin to end up like he is in this cinematic, so have a look, if you are interested: ua-cam.com/video/4toKORT1KNo/v-deo.htmlsi=3-Rs9Wjg2crfToWz
Also worth a mention that touching his shoulder triggered PTSD and it was the same as his ghost father touched him to bring out of mind control, reminding him all bad stuff he made while being under Jailer's control.
I've read somewhere, that according to Chris Metzen, there was no mocap used in this cinematic. They just had 2 actors played out the scene and used that as reference for animations. But I know nothing about these things and can't find the source right now, so take it with a grain of salt.
It's very likely, but I cannot confirm, they used AI to match the animation with acted footage. I base this on my own anecdotes as I have friends in the industry, that AI is rapidly overtaking a lot of the more menial parts of animation. Also it makes sense to just shoot a scene with actors, and after some careful model sculpting with the appropriate node mesh for animation, let an AI determine how to orchestrate those nodes based on what it sees in some footage.
@@gandalf8216 That's possible. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't use mo-cap. Motion capture tends to add an uncanny valley that is better done by expert artists - but that's extremely more expensive.
@@ronhoward121 there is a new tech that WETA Digital(they're more or less the new industrial light and magic in terms of VFX) has kind of introduced to the industry which is performance capture, where instead of a camera taped to their face, they have these huge arrays of motion picture grade cameras that give a full 3d capture of an actors performance. my guess is they used percap, and hand animated over the top of that skeleton. cause the face for thrall was 100 percent metzen's face, and it had his microexpressions almost perfect.
you noticed that detail, when anduin points his sword towards thrall, he's trembling a lot and as soon as he touches thrall's chest where his heart is, it becomes calm and steady
2:16 is my favorite part. that animation of his mouth and headshake. as a lot say thats probably the best cinematic from a technical standpoint ever made. imo they jumped over the uncanny valley with this. thats the teaser for War Within. i look forward for the real trailer
There's a really cool detail in the scene where Anduin is pointing his sword at Thrall that a lot of people miss the first time. Notice how badly Anduin's hand/sword is shaking, but the second Thrall moves close enough to where the tip of the sword touches his chest, the shaking stops. Tells you a lot about these two's relationship, connecting physically with Thrall calmed him down somewhat after his emotional and hurt outburst. Absolutely beautiful.
@@slashzrPWN It`s both. In cinema, you often use practical occurrences to reflect the emotional meaning of the scene. They could`ve made Anduin`s hand steady, like how Arthas holds the same pose in his cinematic, but they decided to add this small realistic detail because it works well for the scene.
@@slashzrPWN I take it you've never had REAL bad shivering? The way he was shaking a little sword tip resting a bit on the leather straps on Thralls chest would NOT be enough of a physical obstacle to completely, COMPLETELY, stop the shaking like that. you'd still see the rest of the sword move in jittery shaky ways the further away from the resting tip you go.
@@slashzrPWN (Should probably preface this by pointing out that the phrase "touch a solid thing like a wall or Thrall" got a solid giggle out of me, so thanks for that) It depends on the type of sword, a lot of modern media portrayals of non-modern weapons are inaccurate to some degree (like how metal plate is seen as limiting to movement as a mech suit when really you can do some sick kickflips in a historically accurate armor). You could look at Shalamayne as either a longsword or two arming swords welded together by magic. I've never tried dual-wielding short swords irl (much less two in the same hand lol), but my spaghetti arms have had no issue holding a longsword steady (obviously not perfectly still, gravity still being a thing) even in one hand for longer than the time between Anduin brandishing Shalamayne and Thrall stopping against the tip of the blade
Another lore-related touch. The circular hole in the middle of Anduin's sword has always had a glowing orb in the middle showing the wielder's power or life force. The sword having no glow is a visual represenaton of how empty Anduin has become after getting his mind taken over and being forced to do horrible things.
Fun Fact: one of the directors said that there was no mocap used in the making of this, they had actors act out the scenes as a reference and then the artists used that to kind of guide them when making the cinematic.
From what I understand and have been hearing, no mocap was used, which makes the complex facial expressions all that much more incredible. Masterpiece.
Would be sick if we got another short film out of this sprinkled throughout the xpac(s). The Saurfang movie from BFA was already top notch quality. Hoping for something like this again.
I've been watching your channel off and on for a couple years now and I'm surprised your channel isn't massive. Your reactions are pretty on point and the production quality and editing you put in are really well done. On top of that the original Works to do with CGI special effects are really incredible. It's kind of shocking that your channel isn't 5x bigger. Great content bro hope you enjoy making the content
As you asked in the video, our protagonist right now, named 'Anduin' got mind-controled by the "Final" enemy of one of the last expansions called "The jailer" getting him against his own allies and in his culture they are so strict about whats nice or whats wrong, so, for him is like betray all the people who is around him, now he is free of that mind-control with the aid of the "hero's" ( the players) becouse they stopped him before it wents worst and defeating "The Jailer". PS: Sorry if my english isnt the best im not native, hope you caught what i wanted to say hehe.
If you remember the last WoW cinematic (the one will Sylvanas shattering the sky by destroying the helm) you will quickly understand why Anduin is acting like this. Sylvanas by her actions opened the way into the realm of death (Shadowlands) and was serving the Jailer (someone who was supposed to judge souls entering Shadowlands), but he betreyed his brothers and sisters and wanted to recreate the reality and for this he was banished to the Maw (the worst place soul can be put in after death a.k.a the hell). Sylvanas kidnapped Anduin (and some other important characters) and was convincing him to join the Jailer, he refused and was forced to do his, Jailer mind controlled him, forced him to kill many innocent and released him from the prison (because Jailer by himself couldn't espace the Maw) and basically Anduin became Jailer's weapon to achive his goals. Anduin with the help of heroes (us, players) and his father (the ghostly flashback where his father put a hand on his shoulder and talked to him) menaged to break out from being mind controlled and we stopped the Jailer. But Anduin was not the same after all of this and he was wandering alone for many years trying to recover from what happened to him
Don't forget that Sylvanas was also controlled by the Jailer the entire time, since she got killed by Arthas. People tend to get all emotional about Anduin and pity him but Sylvanas was also controlled and suffered a lot. But for some reason and anger everyone forgets about this part and that shocks me
@@lovesterika9079 she was not mind controlled, she was manipulated and thats the difference and also why you think i dont know about this? Chris was just asking about Anduin so i briefly explained it. And no, im not emotional about Anduin, he and Greymane are guys i hate the most from the alliance
I believe Blizz use a combo of MoCap and cgi....if you watch the "behind the scenes of Battle for Azaroth"..the have the actors all dotted up int hte 360 dome...then the animators take that film and "fiddle" with it :D In that they took a young actor called Goerdie Holibar (I don't think he's done it since) for Anduin and mixed in some VA Josh Keaton...this one I think is JUST Josh
To use Harry Potter references: He was put under the Imperius Curse, while aware of what he did, forced to do horrible things that went against his whole believe as a priest of the Light ("I have no Light"). There's also lots of small indications for the people who know more of the lore. - Thrall touching the sand, communication with the earth elements with his shamanic powers. - The light of the sword (1:25 the whole in the middle is empty and is usually filled with his light) - 3:46 The pose that is almost iconic of Arthas the Lich King. Which suffered the same fate as Anduin. (If you watch the WOTLK cinematic he does the same pose) - "I trust you" - Anduin doubting himself, who could ever trust him again after what happened - since he can't even trust himself anymore. Just a feast this one. I love it
This cinematic is all about portraying trauma and the result of losing body autonomy, it's crazy good. You can even see the the reflection of the sword in Anduins eyes, it's not even something youd notice or need to have reflected, but it's there just to be amazing.
To add to what some others have said, the expansion name has a double meaning. The War Within is called that mainly because the planet is like an egg and has a soul inside that is growing into a Titan. (A planet sized being of incredible power that different forces in the cosmos want to corrupt and turn to their side). So she is the orange orb you hear briefly talking or giving to or giving visions to the characters. She needs help, so we will be going to the center of the planet to save her. Most of the expansion is under ground. The War Within. The other meaning, is that Anduin the MC is having a War within his own mind as well, and we will also help him deal with his trauma and PTSD, and hopefully help him find his light again.
I saw someone say on twitter that this was the first time a CGI person didn't trigger any uncanny valley feelings in them, and that's gotta be a high compliment, right?
"Not after what I've done" refers to in a previous expansion where he was kidnapped by, for all intents and purposes, the devil and mind controlled. Well, a leveled up mind control that basically changed how he himself perceived things and his alignment from good to evil. Then he was pitted up against his friends and other heroes and tried to kill them. Think of the player as someone he knows and him, in essence, slaughtering groups of heroes (He was a boss). After he came to his senses from help by his deceased father and deceased honorable (Which may have just been in his mind), he questioned himself. He admitted that while under the mind control, he was both horrified and exhilarated while not knowing if that was entirely his own feelings or not. He decided in that moment to step away from the throne (King of a human kingdom). As a hybrid Priest/Paladin, he was empowered by "The Light" which is basically light-aligned deities powering up his spells and abilities. He wasn't sure if he was worthy of that anymore afterwards, if he were to call on The Light, if it would answer.
I both feel incredibly sorry for Anduin going down such a painful road and also have deep respect for that awesome character writing/development of his! :D
Just a little background story: That sword you saw at the end, got there 3 expansions ago, at the last raid of Legion, Antorus, when we defeated Sargeras one of the titans, who at his last moments, put that sword aimed at our beloved world Azeroth. And we got no story since then, BFA had some stories to do with it but nothing major, Shadowlands and Dragonflight did nothing with it, but now something is happening. And as for Anduin, got corrupted by Sylvanas and the Jailer, since then, he was never the same.
There simply was nothing to do with it. It's mountain high sword. They did everything they could and just left it there, since what else should they do? WoW is a story told told about many years, soon going into the third decade. Of course you will always have such parts, which aren't at focus at this point. There was simply no reason to "let's find a way to go to the middle of the planet". Especially in the WoW lore you don't want to jus randomly do such things in the first place, that's very dangerous.
ALWAYS excited when a WoW cinematic reaction drops,you taught me filmmaker stuff and now I follow your analysis with no problem,I understand everything you say and point out
One thing shook me first, the fact that Shalamayne, the sword of defunct Varian and now in hand of his son Anduin, has lost it's light. It show how Anduin is in despair. Then... well... everything is perfect here, lip sync, texture, sound Design, music, animation (the facial expression is stunning). ALL of this without Mocap, hand made... omg it's another lesson from Blizzard. They have made HUGE mistakes thoses past years but holly crap they are still godlike on cinematics. 11/10
Let me be the first to tell you that this cinematic is Hand Drawn... Not Motion Capture. 😊 I Have grown up with both of these characters for 20 years..... This Cinematic is def a fan service.
IIRC, correct me if i'm wrong, there is no mo-cap tech used. They shot a reference footage with real actors, but then proceeded to animate it the old school way.
The ONE thing practically all blizzard fans agree on, the cinematics are god tier. Even if blizzard screws up their favourite game, the cinematics never disappoint.
I haven't followed the storyline much at all in the past years, but its just crazy impressive how drawn in and dramatic they can make this cinematic, just two people talking, that it holds it own with the most action packed examples of the past. Even without having any context, the emotion and severity of the situation immediately draws me back into the lore and has me invested in what is happening. Only a Blizzard cinematic could ever tempt me to come back to this game, almost two decades after its release, but it has me seriously considering it given the direction they're going in.
This is a powerful mix of emotions, technique and epic. Lots of Dune movie vibes with the colors and music, and a little bit of StarWars, Lord of the Rings.
The first WoW cinematic I've seen in 2005 was so great that I wanted to buy and play the game, 19 years later I'm still playing it 😁 great game, has all I'm looking for...
Fast Lore: First thing to know is this reaches all the way back to Arthas spirit being cast into The Maw at the end of Wrath of the Lich KIng. This is the point the The Jailer was able to capture Arthas' soul. Fast forward to Shadowlands. Anduin as a Priest is healing when the Jailer sees him and says, now I have all I need. Anduin then gets captured by Sylvanas causing Shalamayne (Anduin's sword) to be reforged, with domination magic, into a rune blade with Arthas's soul and called Kingsmourne. Sylvanas then uses Kingsmourne to dominate Anduin and turns him into a Deathknight under the Jailers control. At this point, Anduin still knows what is happening, but is not in control and is being forced. With this "domination", Anduin is forced to kill the Archon with Kingsmourne allowing all souls to be sent to The Maw for the Jailers use. Anduin then uses Kingsmourne to dominate the Oracle to opening a portal to the Sepulcher of the First Ones. He used Kingsmourne to separate heroes spirits from their bodies, in turn allowing the heroes to find the source of the Domination. The Jailer then forces Anduin to plunge Kingsmourne into the ground casting a fog/smoke around them. This action is also draining Anduins soul from his body. At this moment in time, is when Anduin's father Varian and Saurfang come to Anduins aide, (You see the beginning of this in the War Within cinematic flashback) letting him know the blade was forged in Valor and Honor, not darkness. Then with their help, Anduin is given the power to split the sword in half releasing Arthas soul from the blade and freeing Anduin of the Domination Magic and bringing him back to the light. So how does this impact Anduin in the Cinematic? First, notice that Shalamayne does not have the light. Shalamayne is imbued with the power of which the wielder possesses. That means the light is not with Anduin. Either Anduin is not accepting the light, or the light is not helping Anduin. I would guess the former and here is why. Anduin knows that the jailer used Anduins power against him and his allies. Anduin is deeply hurt and traumatized from this, that is obvious in the cinematic. But at the same time, it changed him... hardened him (hopefully the last of uncertain Anduin). Anduin needed Thrall to show up and show him trust, because time by itself heals nothing. You need others to heal. Lastly, the sword. At the end of Legion, Sargeras stabbed Azeroth with his sword as he was being sucked into his prison. Though not a killing blow to our world soul, certainly a wound. I don't want to dive into the lore of Sargeras right now, but just know that Sargeras was willing to destroy all life in the pursuit of the end of The Void and Old Gods. That said, and confirmed by Chris Metzen, a showdown between the Shadow and the Light is coming. Sorry if long winded, and I apologize if I made any lore errors. Hope it helps
Short lore summary to explain the cinematic: So the human King Anduin was captured in the previous expansion (Shadowlands) and was magically controlled against his will to harm others and to be the main villains companion. At the end, he was released from the control. As a priest getting so close to the magical force of death, he found himself disconnected from the light. He began to not trust himself and isolated himself. (Rewinding even further) In the end of the expansion Legion, a force of Chaos was at war with the champions of Azeroth, and their leader Sargeras aimed to destory Azeroth, as he was about to be captured by beings of Order, he managed to stab the world with his sword in an attempt to destroy the world or it's world soul. From what we currently know, something terrible is coming, and Azeroth is vital to its plans.
The quality is 11/10. I bet you show Anduin to multiple and they won't 100% tell its CG. Knowing its CG and making me question it. I always expect Blizzard to making good setting and moods for all there full rendered spots but his FAR exceeded there previous ones. His beard, his facial expressions and the scars showing, man has been though some stuff. Also this VA. Whoever did his voice, man needs a raise.
Anduin what he did was, he was dominated/mind controlled by death magic by this dude and was forced to kill and torture people. But he can remember all of it and he remembers the thrill and rush of that power.
Yeah, only movie that escapes the uncanny valley and fully makes me believe in what I’m looking at was the second avatar. There were a couple times in this cinematic where and in talking had that too-smooth animation to it that didn’t look perfectly real, but I can’t fathom what it takes to overcome that.
Long story short, and basically: He was a holy priest (think superman level goodness). He was kidnapped and forced against his will to murder people and commit atrocities by very evil undead enemies. They were literally controlling his body against his will. It broke him, making him totally question his faith and lose his light. Fun Fact: Something a lot of people seem to miss... his father's sword is supposed to have an orb of light in that circular area. It's gone. Further symbolizing the loss of his light, or perhaps the loss of his faith in himself.
they definately used percap for some of this, i see people say they use performances as reference, which I think confirms my suspicions, percap is a newer tech that is taking over mo-cap because the face of thrall is so similar to Chris Metzen's that it has to be involved at some level, there was an expression from thrall's face right near the end when Anduin asks him who it is where thrall has suspicions but does not know who it is that are straight from metzen's performance. They say they hand animated it; and they probably did; but the faces at least had to come from some form of capture, the emotion in the eyes are too on point if they were using performance capture and painted on top of it, that would make a ton of sense, from their own answer on how this was made.
Not sure if someone already mentioned this, but the voice calling out is the Titan Azeroth, buried within the core of the planet. Everything points to it. It's quite obvious actually, just pointing this out for (non-warcraft nerds) and Mr. Connor, not any avid Warcraft fans who saw this and it clicked instantly.
so chris us nerds have noticed it obviously but have you noticed how he looks very similar to Arthas in lich king cinematic when he draws his sword? I mean posture of course the way he stands.
I just caught the longer WoW trailers you did the reaction to, with the Battle of Azeroth. Here's the sequence for the Anduin saga. Some were in the other video, but not all. I'll try to get some timeline for the Sylvanas story for you too. I've been playing since 2008 and I'm a huge fan of the lore of the game, these cinematics are just so awesome. Everyone else has given a good narrative of the story that leads up to this particular cinematic. I went through the files and got the actual visuals for the story. World of Warcraft has done a great job of going back into these and pulling out the story for the new The World Within cinematic. There are 12 of these, I’m giving the title, the name of the channel that has it, and the length of each. Where needed, I also give a quick name to the characters involved. These are not totally in order, there is a change in the in-game order for the Battle for Azeroth cinematics because Old Soldier actually comes before the announcement cinematic in chronology. World of Warcraft Legion Cinematic Trailer-World of Warcraft 4:05 (photo of Anduin as a child in the compass of his father. The big gray worgen is the King of Gilneas, Genn Greymane) Death of Varian Wrynn: World of Warcraft Legion-Tom’s Hardware 4:07 (the man at the end is Genn) Patch 7.2 In-Game Cinematic: A Found Memento: Raising a King-World of Warcraft 2:51 (Anduin is seeing the memories of his father’s death) Sargeras Impales Azeroth Sword Cinematic/Illidan’s Sacrifice-Athelarius 3:35 (how the sword happened-the Titans deal with Sargeras) Cinematic: Old Soldier-World of Warcraft 6:21 (set-up for the war and Anduin’s friendship with Varok Sarfang, the troll is Zekhan) World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Cinematic Trailer 4:39 (Sylvanas, Genn, Anduin using his priest powers) Cinematic: “Lost Honor” World of Warcraft 3:18 (Anduin, Genn, and Sarfang) Cinematic: “Reckoning” (spoiler) World of Warcraft 4:12 (Sarfang and Thrall. Thrall is a shaman and the retired Warchief of the Horde) Anduin Finale Cinematic/Shadowlands Patch 9.2 Eternity’s End-LeystTV 3:52 (the end of the raid where Anduin finally breaks the Jailer’s hold on him) Sylvanas Windrunner & Anduin Epilogue Cutscene World of Warcraft Patch 9.25 LeystTV 2:45 (Anduin has to go find himself) Which is then connected to this one, the War Within Announce Cinematic that you commented on. Each of these has elements that are echoed in the War Within. It covers 2016 to 2023. Hope this helps.
Anduin was mind controlled by something like a God an he killed lots and nearly destroyed the world while in that state. He remembers both what he did and how he felt while doing so.
All the subtle movement in the eyes, the twitching eyelids and so much more just make them feel more alive than anything I've seen before, they really paid attention to the little details in this CGI short.
Yeah, you could say Anduin has been through some stuff. He was Controlled by the big bad of the Shadowlands into committing atrocities and it weighs heavily on him. Also if you want to know more about the Giant Sword that is definitely hasn't been sticking out of Azeroth for 3 expansions now, you should check out the Legion Sargeras Defeat Cinematic.
I read 20-30 comments and didn't see this yet. But WoW takes place in a world called "Azeroth" which most people think of as just a name. But it was revealed 3 exp ago (Legion) that there is actually a BEING ... a physical entity ... ++INSIDE++ of the planet!!! That being is named "Azeroth." The premise is that this "being" has been asleep and/or akin to the planet being its womb. And that "Azeroth" is waking up. The millisecond cutscenes you see (nightmare clips) are this being, Azeroth, trying to reach out and talk to Anduin and Thrall. That voice .. is Azeroth. The fantastical sword you see at the end, was thrust into the planet to try and kill Azeroth. There are A LOT of unknowns about this, even after 6 years since her reveal. But this is the future of the game. This is largely what this cinematic is about. The present is the dynamic between Anduin and Thrall. The future ... is Azeroth.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Another Wow cinematic... heck yeah!
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blizzard said they didnt use mocap for this at all.
One thing I really loved was the symbolism when Thrall steps closer to Anduin and the blade touches the strap on his armor. You can see the blade is shaky and unstable, but then Thrall steps in and stabilizes it when pressing against it, implying that he is acting as a stabilizing/calming figure for Anduin. And then he says "I trust you" and we get to watch Anduin's expression as he is emotionally disarmed. Such incredible work by the team that made this cinematic.
I hope mr.Chris react Lost Ark cinematic ! ua-cam.com/video/U00Zwz1Gds0/v-deo.htmlsi=Zx8lPVvWe0Pe8xpG
There's a real life actor behind Anduin's face. I think they scan the actor's face with a bunch of cameras and capture the facial expressions, then overlay their CGI.
@@emilfilipov169 A lot of people think that, but not in this case. This was not a face scan or motion capture.
The lich king pose, the look in his eyes, the music, the way the trembling hand/sword gets steadied by pressing into his chest
Masterpiece
Another little thing that I love in that sequence is not only the pose, but the line that proceeds it, "my son", is also the first line of the WotLK cinematic. Really highlighting the Anduin / Arthas connection.
There's just so many layers to this cinematic, it's incredible. Not only Anduin doing the Arthas Lich King pose and all the call backs with that, but as my brother also pointed out, Thrall going down on one knee also reminisce of how Arthas goes down and wipes away the snow on the ice to reveal Sindragosa's dragon bones.
Also the hands on the shoulders calling back to the raid cinematic with Varian and Saurfang.
I loved how when Thrall steps into the sword steadying it, and then saying "I trust you", like implying that he's here to be leaned upon.
@@TigonIIIAlso the fact that Anduin says the exact same as Saurfang did to Zekhan. "What I've seen, what I've done."
He's also repeating Saurfangs words twice
Graphically, this is perhaps the best video game cinematic ever made. I have never seen CGI look this good. Their ability to capture micro expressions elevates it to another level of realism. Incredible work from the WoW cinematic team.
Agreed
If it wasn't for the Orc, I would have assumed this was shot with real actors.
@@JessiBear I actually thought that was a live action trailer aswell until Thrall showed up.
Damn technology got crazy over the past years
this was epic. Another close one is The Call from league of legends
Yeah this is mind blowing quality. The only thing that gives away the cgi aspect of Anduin is the mouth animation (which is pretty much impossible to replicate from humans), but other than that it's the best character cgi I've ever seen.
That's the thing about Blizzard. You can say about that company what you want but they KNOW how to do cinematics.
Ye they probably always been the best in the industry at that
The wotlk cinematic was unmatched for years, in quality
@@TheHighborn The Wotlk cinemtic still beats most other companies 10 years after its release.
@@TheHighborn warcraft 3 cinematics were unmatched for years
@@Startrance85 event the first cinematic from 2004 beats some game companies up to this day lol
According to Chris Metzen, this was all hand animated. No motion capture was used and real people performing the shots were only used as a reference.
But why? Maybe for Thrall it could make sense because he's not human, but Anduin? did the animators wanted to punish themselves? 😄
considering this is t he most impressive cinematic for facial animations ive ever seen, I'd say it paid off@@BernardoPC117
@@BernardoPC117 i think it's obivous they were using performance capture (which is replacing mocap, it's something WETA digital has kinda made an industry standard) to capture the faces and the movements; but painted over the top of them to add in all the tiny little details.
The face of thrall is so close to metzens little micro expressions that they have to have some form of capture to at least go from.
@@ExarchGaming So he lied...
@@BernardoPC117 i dunno if he lied or maybe wasn't being completely forthcoming, but go look at metzen talk from like the last blizzcon, watch his face, and then focus on thrall's face. That is Metzen 100 percent there is something he says when anduin asks him a question and he kinda pauses and looks off to the side in puzzlement, it's where anduin asks him who is doing it towards the end.
That expression is 100 percent from Metzen's face. so I don't think we've gotten the full story on how it was made.
14:40 - "Let me know what he's done"
Anduin was always a very Holy, rightous, noble and just generally "the good guy". It's him we see create that dome of holy light in the Battle for Azeroth cinematic (the first Warcraft Cinematic you watched on this channel). He's holy and good enough that he managed to assist in the resurrection of a person, something which lorewise in the game is not an easy feat.
In the previous expansion, Shadowlands, he was captured and mindcontrolled the antagonist and last boss of the expansion. He was basically turned into the new Lich King against his will and in that state was forced to kill and order the army of the bad guy to do nasty stuff.
Near the end of that expansion they released a short cinematic where Andiun speaks to Sylvanas (who's been captured and sentenced to find all the souls in the Maw, their version of Hell, so that they can have a second assessment if they are worthy of a second chance), and he ask her how it feels to be Undead, how it felt to her when Arthas (the dude in the Warth of the Lich King cinematic) dominated her mind and forced her to do bad stuff and how she's managed to accept the evil she was firced to do and live with it. He eventually reveals that deep down he realized that he enjoyed doing all that.
He always thought he was a holy person, rightous and good. But now he realized that there's a massive shadow in him as well. He enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering and nw he's scared of what he actually is and what he will become, and if he will eventually start doing all that bad stuff on his own, by his own free choice instead of being dominated into doing it.
Since the power of the Light comes from Conviction and Determination he is now afraid what will happen if he tries. Has the Holy Light left him? Is he now an actually bad person because of his feelings?
In short a huuuge chunk of selfdoubt made Anduin hide and wallow in selfpity for several years (I think canonically there'll be 5-7 years since his talk with Sylvanas to the start of The War Within)
canonically, there was five years between Shadowlands and Dragonflight
He's also got mad PTSD which is why he freaked out when he touched his shoulder in the same way his soul splitting moment happened
I would argue that he only _believed_ he "enjoyed" doing those things, because of a combination of the mind control techniques of Zovahl, and his PTSD. It's kinda like, on one hand, someone slips you a drug. The drug feels good, but you don't love drugs, except now you're confused. And on the other hand, like a woman who's been SA'ed, and questions whether she deserved it, whether she should have fought, (something which could get a person killed, in many cases,) or if she fought hard enough, and if not, maybe it meant that she _wanted_ what happened, and again, cycles back to, did she _deserve_ it? It's a nasty soup, and Blizz has captured it through Anduin really poignantly. The fact that it's _Blizzard_ and given their recent scandals, the irony isn't lost on me.
@@NinjaFlibblebut this isn't dragon flight. This is the new expansion.
@@animeentranced1130 Yes, but this expansion is obviously after Dragonflight, so tack on another year. All that said, Chris was asking for some background information to fill in the blanks, so that's exactly what he got.
Try to keep up.
My favorite part of the cinematic was the symbolism of Thrall stepping forward and pressing himself against Anduin's sword. In the closeup shot you see the blade moving sporadically bc Anduin's hand is trembling, and they established that w that other closeup of his hand and the hilt and how Thrall noticed he was shaking. But in the shot where he walks forward, his chest presses against the sword and stops it from trembling. It represents his trust, his friendship, stabilizing Anduin, just as he stops the blade from shaking. Such a beautiful and simple shot that says so much.
exactly what I was getting from that
It's incredible how the cinematic team at blizzard has yet again achieved to produce something that is basically years ahead of whatever is the current standard in terms CGI and especially character animation.
Ye, they even beats the shit out of Hollywood movie cgi that has a shit ton of money for budgets
@@jimmiekarlsson4458 Despite that being true, for a movie to have this quality in terms of CGI the current budgets your average movie gets would probably have to double or triple the amount. The budget for these cinematics is already insane in and of its own, and it's only mere minutes. Imagine what it would take for a full blown one and a half hour to 2 hour long movie.
@@jimmiekarlsson4458 To be fair they can go all out like that on a 5 minute clip. Making a whole movie is a way bigger undertaking. I'm not sure how their budgets compare.
I feel like the one of the weakest cinematics they're done. Too short, too vague, no message. Compare the first cinematic of WoW with this one.. the original still gives me goosebumps after so long..
@@Dirtyhealz It does feel like they are just flexing the graphics on this one.
The main thing to know about the lore for this cinematic is that Anduin, the human protagonist here, kinda turned to the dark side (was forced to) in the last expansion, and almost caused the end of everything, then he was able to come back. But of course this was very heavy on him. The pose he does holding the sword calls back to the cinematic for Wrath of the Litch King where Arthas, who fully turned to the dark side on his own will, did the same. But Anduin is not Arthas.
I thought the very same thing about the sword pose
Anduin didn't really cause anything. He was a tool for a short time, but not really the most meaningful. On top of that he managed to break free before he could something really dark, but he explains very well to Sylvanas what his problem is: the a part of him had liked that feeling of power.
That's why he doesn't trust himself anymore. Just like Arthas, which soul had been used to dominate him, he feels like he could fall.
That's why Thrall's "I trust you" is so immensly important. Especially because it comes from a leader of the Horde, since man of the Alliance would just say that, because he is their King, but the Horde would be the very first victim of a fallen King Anduin.
And yes, the sword pose is there to show the doubt of Anduin, that he could end like Arthas, but were Arthas' pose was one of power, Anduin is shivering, it exposes his weakness and his aggression is born out of this weakness, as he shoves Thrall away in fear not of Thrall, but of himself.
Thrall also isn't confronting the blade - he stabilizes it and stops Anduin's trembling.
Most importantly, he said he was afraid that he liked what he was doing while under control
Very true. The key subtle difference between Anduin, and Arthas. When Arthas holds out Frostmourne, he is stoic, powerful. A pillar of Frost. His hand is steady, and Frostmourne is ever powerful.
Then you look at Anduin. His hand is shaking, Shalamayne is bobbing slightly. Andiun is tired, in tormoil, and probably weak from lack of nutrient and meaningful sleep. Shalamayne is also seemingly depowered here.
@@talisredstar1543it should be noted that this is not the first time anduin took up this pose. last time was bfa's opening cinimatic just after he mass rez'd half his army. that time was a confident and rightious if not nieve anduin calling out "for the alliance"
"Being in the shadow rather then the light" such a great observation. Actually ties in to what Anduin has been through
What absolutely blows my mind about this cinematic is the fact that it ISN'T motion capture! They tried motion capture with the BfA cinematics, but for this one, they went back to their old method of having actors do reference shots and then hand animating everything themselves.
Holy crap. Is that true?? I immediately thought that this is motion capture, a really impressive motion capture with some hand animation on the side to add minor details. But THE WHOLE DAMN THING??
Holy mother of god I didn't know that. That's absolutely phenomenal
That is absolutely insane but at the same time makes sense of the level of realism. Motion capture can fluidly capture the major movements, but the micro expression is always missed and made obvious of the use of CGI. Hand animation requires ridiculous amount of hours of works and talents, but it will guarantee eve the miniscule detail to be displayed. Absolutely incredible piece of cinematography.
@@GiangNguyen-uc3yv Yeah, I was still wondering how many hours of work was put into Anduin alone when I thought it was motion capture with hand animation support. But with full hand animation I can't comprehend how much time and work was put into this. I know my way around animation, but this is another level damn
@@chihuahua0117 Yep, they talked about it in an interview at BlizzCon. It's crazy, they've always used hand animation and only had actors as references, but I thought the results of the BfA cinematics were quite good, so I thought they had made the switch. But apparently not. It's stupidly impressive. Hats off to Terran Gregory, he's truly talented and has an incredible eye for that kind of stuff!
"But time by itself heals nothing" paired with the rising strings is incredible.
What is interesting in this cinematic is that they used the same phrases that were used in the BFA cinematics (e. g. "We don't get to hide.", "What I've seen, what I've done..."). They also used similar pose with the sword as in the WotLK cinematic. And they actually referenced a community created joke "What sword?" by using the phrase "That sword". So not only it was perfectly animated, but also very cleverly written, especially for long time fans.
Also I found randomly this video that basically explains what happened to Anduin to end up like he is in this cinematic, so have a look, if you are interested: ua-cam.com/video/4toKORT1KNo/v-deo.htmlsi=3-Rs9Wjg2crfToWz
Also worth a mention that touching his shoulder triggered PTSD and it was the same as his ghost father touched him to bring out of mind control, reminding him all bad stuff he made while being under Jailer's control.
The fear on his face as he reacts to Thrall's hand on his shoulder is so incredible. You feel it right down into your core.
I've read somewhere, that according to Chris Metzen, there was no mocap used in this cinematic. They just had 2 actors played out the scene and used that as reference for animations. But I know nothing about these things and can't find the source right now, so take it with a grain of salt.
It's very likely, but I cannot confirm, they used AI to match the animation with acted footage. I base this on my own anecdotes as I have friends in the industry, that AI is rapidly overtaking a lot of the more menial parts of animation. Also it makes sense to just shoot a scene with actors, and after some careful model sculpting with the appropriate node mesh for animation, let an AI determine how to orchestrate those nodes based on what it sees in some footage.
@@gandalf8216 That's possible. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't use mo-cap. Motion capture tends to add an uncanny valley that is better done by expert artists - but that's extremely more expensive.
@@ronhoward121 there is a new tech that WETA Digital(they're more or less the new industrial light and magic in terms of VFX) has kind of introduced to the industry which is performance capture, where instead of a camera taped to their face, they have these huge arrays of motion picture grade cameras that give a full 3d capture of an actors performance. my guess is they used percap, and hand animated over the top of that skeleton. cause the face for thrall was 100 percent metzen's face, and it had his microexpressions almost perfect.
you noticed that detail, when anduin points his sword towards thrall, he's trembling a lot and as soon as he touches thrall's chest where his heart is, it becomes calm and steady
The team made this has stated that no motion capture was used, this was all CGI done by hand.
2:16 is my favorite part. that animation of his mouth and headshake.
as a lot say thats probably the best cinematic from a technical standpoint ever made. imo they jumped over the uncanny valley with this.
thats the teaser for War Within. i look forward for the real trailer
"That sword was aimed at someone" is such a powerful and scary line man, you seriously have no idea what expects us deep inside the heart of Azeroth.
"Champion! They're pulling Azerite from the world's open wounds!"
to me this cinematic is an art piece, i even think this is my favorite now
I agree with u
There's a really cool detail in the scene where Anduin is pointing his sword at Thrall that a lot of people miss the first time. Notice how badly Anduin's hand/sword is shaking, but the second Thrall moves close enough to where the tip of the sword touches his chest, the shaking stops. Tells you a lot about these two's relationship, connecting physically with Thrall calmed him down somewhat after his emotional and hurt outburst. Absolutely beautiful.
bro its simple physics, you can't keep a long sword stable with straight hand unless you point or touch a solid thing like a wall or Thrall with it
@@slashzrPWN man can people like you be positive about something once in your life?
@@slashzrPWN It`s both. In cinema, you often use practical occurrences to reflect the emotional meaning of the scene. They could`ve made Anduin`s hand steady, like how Arthas holds the same pose in his cinematic, but they decided to add this small realistic detail because it works well for the scene.
@@slashzrPWN I take it you've never had REAL bad shivering? The way he was shaking a little sword tip resting a bit on the leather straps on Thralls chest would NOT be enough of a physical obstacle to completely, COMPLETELY, stop the shaking like that. you'd still see the rest of the sword move in jittery shaky ways the further away from the resting tip you go.
@@slashzrPWN (Should probably preface this by pointing out that the phrase "touch a solid thing like a wall or Thrall" got a solid giggle out of me, so thanks for that)
It depends on the type of sword, a lot of modern media portrayals of non-modern weapons are inaccurate to some degree (like how metal plate is seen as limiting to movement as a mech suit when really you can do some sick kickflips in a historically accurate armor). You could look at Shalamayne as either a longsword or two arming swords welded together by magic. I've never tried dual-wielding short swords irl (much less two in the same hand lol), but my spaghetti arms have had no issue holding a longsword steady (obviously not perfectly still, gravity still being a thing) even in one hand for longer than the time between Anduin brandishing Shalamayne and Thrall stopping against the tip of the blade
Another lore-related touch. The circular hole in the middle of Anduin's sword has always had a glowing orb in the middle showing the wielder's power or life force. The sword having no glow is a visual represenaton of how empty Anduin has become after getting his mind taken over and being forced to do horrible things.
Fun Fact: one of the directors said that there was no mocap used in the making of this, they had actors act out the scenes as a reference and then the artists used that to kind of guide them when making the cinematic.
Notice the subtle dimple in the leather when Anduin's blade touches Thrall's strap. Such attention to detail is what made me get into animation.
When Anduin pulls his sword it's the EXACT same pose as the LIch King did in his cinematic. Gave me chills.
From what I understand and have been hearing, no mocap was used, which makes the complex facial expressions all that much more incredible. Masterpiece.
Damn this is the one reaction I've been waiting for!!
Would be sick if we got another short film out of this sprinkled throughout the xpac(s). The Saurfang movie from BFA was already top notch quality. Hoping for something like this again.
Anduins theme is just so good I can always remember it.
I've been watching your channel off and on for a couple years now and I'm surprised your channel isn't massive. Your reactions are pretty on point and the production quality and editing you put in are really well done. On top of that the original Works to do with CGI special effects are really incredible. It's kind of shocking that your channel isn't 5x bigger. Great content bro hope you enjoy making the content
As you asked in the video, our protagonist right now, named 'Anduin' got mind-controled by the "Final" enemy of one of the last expansions called "The jailer" getting him against his own allies and in his culture they are so strict about whats nice or whats wrong, so, for him is like betray all the people who is around him, now he is free of that mind-control with the aid of the "hero's" ( the players) becouse they stopped him before it wents worst and defeating "The Jailer".
PS: Sorry if my english isnt the best im not native, hope you caught what i wanted to say hehe.
If you remember the last WoW cinematic (the one will Sylvanas shattering the sky by destroying the helm) you will quickly understand why Anduin is acting like this. Sylvanas by her actions opened the way into the realm of death (Shadowlands) and was serving the Jailer (someone who was supposed to judge souls entering Shadowlands), but he betreyed his brothers and sisters and wanted to recreate the reality and for this he was banished to the Maw (the worst place soul can be put in after death a.k.a the hell). Sylvanas kidnapped Anduin (and some other important characters) and was convincing him to join the Jailer, he refused and was forced to do his, Jailer mind controlled him, forced him to kill many innocent and released him from the prison (because Jailer by himself couldn't espace the Maw) and basically Anduin became Jailer's weapon to achive his goals. Anduin with the help of heroes (us, players) and his father (the ghostly flashback where his father put a hand on his shoulder and talked to him) menaged to break out from being mind controlled and we stopped the Jailer. But Anduin was not the same after all of this and he was wandering alone for many years trying to recover from what happened to him
Don't forget that Sylvanas was also controlled by the Jailer the entire time, since she got killed by Arthas. People tend to get all emotional about Anduin and pity him but Sylvanas was also controlled and suffered a lot. But for some reason and anger everyone forgets about this part and that shocks me
This is what happened to Anduin.
@@lovesterika9079 she was not mind controlled, she was manipulated and thats the difference and also why you think i dont know about this? Chris was just asking about Anduin so i briefly explained it. And no, im not emotional about Anduin, he and Greymane are guys i hate the most from the alliance
@@Mackoztl Why do you hate Anduin and Greymane? 😕
I believe Blizz use a combo of MoCap and cgi....if you watch the "behind the scenes of Battle for Azaroth"..the have the actors all dotted up int hte 360 dome...then the animators take that film and "fiddle" with it :D
In that they took a young actor called Goerdie Holibar (I don't think he's done it since) for Anduin and mixed in some VA Josh Keaton...this one I think is JUST Josh
the trembling sword being steadied when thrall makes contact with it is so beautiful
I am genuinely surprised how close Anduin got to passing the uncanny valley barrier. I wasn't expecting Blizzard of all people to achieve this. Bravo
To use Harry Potter references: He was put under the Imperius Curse, while aware of what he did, forced to do horrible things that went against his whole believe as a priest of the Light ("I have no Light").
There's also lots of small indications for the people who know more of the lore.
- Thrall touching the sand, communication with the earth elements with his shamanic powers.
- The light of the sword (1:25 the whole in the middle is empty and is usually filled with his light)
- 3:46 The pose that is almost iconic of Arthas the Lich King. Which suffered the same fate as Anduin. (If you watch the WOTLK cinematic he does the same pose)
- "I trust you" - Anduin doubting himself, who could ever trust him again after what happened - since he can't even trust himself anymore.
Just a feast this one. I love it
Will there be any black Friday sale for digital VFX assets from your website
yes 50% off filmmaker pass and skull pack box is live!
not only facial expression, but it also connects with Arthas story, the pose him holding the sword
Would love to see a live action recreation of this!
This cinematic is all about portraying trauma and the result of losing body autonomy, it's crazy good.
You can even see the the reflection of the sword in Anduins eyes, it's not even something youd notice or need to have reflected, but it's there just to be amazing.
Blizzard continues to prove why they are the king of animation
I never watched your videos before but it was very cool to see you react to this cinematic. It really seemed to inspire you! Great passion.
Its insane how real this looks
Glad to see you're alive!
That's a very OK thing lol
To add to what some others have said, the expansion name has a double meaning. The War Within is called that mainly because the planet is like an egg and has a soul inside that is growing into a Titan. (A planet sized being of incredible power that different forces in the cosmos want to corrupt and turn to their side). So she is the orange orb you hear briefly talking or giving to or giving visions to the characters. She needs help, so we will be going to the center of the planet to save her. Most of the expansion is under ground. The War Within. The other meaning, is that Anduin the MC is having a War within his own mind as well, and we will also help him deal with his trauma and PTSD, and hopefully help him find his light again.
The best thing is no they didn't use mocap, it's all keyframed animations which makes the video even more insane🤩
I saw someone say on twitter that this was the first time a CGI person didn't trigger any uncanny valley feelings in them, and that's gotta be a high compliment, right?
Same feeling as well. When I first saw it, I thought I am seeing a live action scene in the first seconds. The quality is crazy.
Word is they didn't use mo-cap and instead had actors act out the scene and used that as a reference for animating it by hand. Absurd.
Thats sick, my god the animators at Blizzard that does cinematics is on another level
"Not after what I've done" refers to in a previous expansion where he was kidnapped by, for all intents and purposes, the devil and mind controlled. Well, a leveled up mind control that basically changed how he himself perceived things and his alignment from good to evil. Then he was pitted up against his friends and other heroes and tried to kill them. Think of the player as someone he knows and him, in essence, slaughtering groups of heroes (He was a boss). After he came to his senses from help by his deceased father and deceased honorable (Which may have just been in his mind), he questioned himself. He admitted that while under the mind control, he was both horrified and exhilarated while not knowing if that was entirely his own feelings or not. He decided in that moment to step away from the throne (King of a human kingdom). As a hybrid Priest/Paladin, he was empowered by "The Light" which is basically light-aligned deities powering up his spells and abilities. He wasn't sure if he was worthy of that anymore afterwards, if he were to call on The Light, if it would answer.
2:17 bruh you can literally see his lips kinda stick together from them being dry, the level of detail is actually unreal
I both feel incredibly sorry for Anduin going down such a painful road and also have deep respect for that awesome character writing/development of his! :D
Just a little background story: That sword you saw at the end, got there 3 expansions ago, at the last raid of Legion, Antorus, when we defeated Sargeras one of the titans, who at his last moments, put that sword aimed at our beloved world Azeroth. And we got no story since then, BFA had some stories to do with it but nothing major, Shadowlands and Dragonflight did nothing with it, but now something is happening. And as for Anduin, got corrupted by Sylvanas and the Jailer, since then, he was never the same.
There simply was nothing to do with it. It's mountain high sword. They did everything they could and just left it there, since what else should they do?
WoW is a story told told about many years, soon going into the third decade. Of course you will always have such parts, which aren't at focus at this point.
There was simply no reason to "let's find a way to go to the middle of the planet". Especially in the WoW lore you don't want to jus randomly do such things in the first place, that's very dangerous.
ALWAYS excited when a WoW cinematic reaction drops,you taught me filmmaker stuff and now I follow your analysis with no problem,I understand everything you say and point out
Always happy to see you back doing reactions.
One thing shook me first, the fact that Shalamayne, the sword of defunct Varian and now in hand of his son Anduin, has lost it's light. It show how Anduin is in despair.
Then... well... everything is perfect here, lip sync, texture, sound Design, music, animation (the facial expression is stunning). ALL of this without Mocap, hand made... omg it's another lesson from Blizzard. They have made HUGE mistakes thoses past years but holly crap they are still godlike on cinematics.
11/10
Let me be the first to tell you that this cinematic is Hand Drawn... Not Motion Capture. 😊
I Have grown up with both of these characters for 20 years..... This Cinematic is def a fan service.
IIRC, correct me if i'm wrong, there is no mo-cap tech used. They shot a reference footage with real actors, but then proceeded to animate it the old school way.
The second I saw that cinematic I was excited for this react video
The ONE thing practically all blizzard fans agree on, the cinematics are god tier. Even if blizzard screws up their favourite game, the cinematics never disappoint.
I haven't followed the storyline much at all in the past years, but its just crazy impressive how drawn in and dramatic they can make this cinematic, just two people talking, that it holds it own with the most action packed examples of the past. Even without having any context, the emotion and severity of the situation immediately draws me back into the lore and has me invested in what is happening.
Only a Blizzard cinematic could ever tempt me to come back to this game, almost two decades after its release, but it has me seriously considering it given the direction they're going in.
This is a powerful mix of emotions, technique and epic. Lots of Dune movie vibes with the colors and music, and a little bit of StarWars, Lord of the Rings.
ANDUIN SKYWALKER
No matter what else happens in WoW the art team always delivers hard on the trailer and cutscenes.
The first WoW cinematic I've seen in 2005 was so great that I wanted to buy and play the game, 19 years later I'm still playing it 😁 great game, has all I'm looking for...
Anduin looks like Stephen Amell- Arrow
I had the same reaction to this animation, and for a few seconds, I doubted whether it was CGI.
Finally! I was waiting for your reaction since the trailer came out. 🙌🏽 Way too crazy that cinematic. 😮💨
Fast Lore: First thing to know is this reaches all the way back to Arthas spirit being cast into The Maw at the end of Wrath of the Lich KIng. This is the point the The Jailer was able to capture Arthas' soul. Fast forward to Shadowlands. Anduin as a Priest is healing when the Jailer sees him and says, now I have all I need. Anduin then gets captured by Sylvanas causing Shalamayne (Anduin's sword) to be reforged, with domination magic, into a rune blade with Arthas's soul and called Kingsmourne. Sylvanas then uses Kingsmourne to dominate Anduin and turns him into a Deathknight under the Jailers control. At this point, Anduin still knows what is happening, but is not in control and is being forced. With this "domination", Anduin is forced to kill the Archon with Kingsmourne allowing all souls to be sent to The Maw for the Jailers use. Anduin then uses Kingsmourne to dominate the Oracle to opening a portal to the Sepulcher of the First Ones. He used Kingsmourne to separate heroes spirits from their bodies, in turn allowing the heroes to find the source of the Domination. The Jailer then forces Anduin to plunge Kingsmourne into the ground casting a fog/smoke around them. This action is also draining Anduins soul from his body. At this moment in time, is when Anduin's father Varian and Saurfang come to Anduins aide, (You see the beginning of this in the War Within cinematic flashback) letting him know the blade was forged in Valor and Honor, not darkness. Then with their help, Anduin is given the power to split the sword in half releasing Arthas soul from the blade and freeing Anduin of the Domination Magic and bringing him back to the light.
So how does this impact Anduin in the Cinematic? First, notice that Shalamayne does not have the light. Shalamayne is imbued with the power of which the wielder possesses. That means the light is not with Anduin. Either Anduin is not accepting the light, or the light is not helping Anduin. I would guess the former and here is why. Anduin knows that the jailer used Anduins power against him and his allies. Anduin is deeply hurt and traumatized from this, that is obvious in the cinematic. But at the same time, it changed him... hardened him (hopefully the last of uncertain Anduin). Anduin needed Thrall to show up and show him trust, because time by itself heals nothing. You need others to heal.
Lastly, the sword. At the end of Legion, Sargeras stabbed Azeroth with his sword as he was being sucked into his prison. Though not a killing blow to our world soul, certainly a wound. I don't want to dive into the lore of Sargeras right now, but just know that Sargeras was willing to destroy all life in the pursuit of the end of The Void and Old Gods. That said, and confirmed by Chris Metzen, a showdown between the Shadow and the Light is coming.
Sorry if long winded, and I apologize if I made any lore errors. Hope it helps
Its getting real close to real life now 😮
Short lore summary to explain the cinematic:
So the human King Anduin was captured in the previous expansion (Shadowlands) and was magically controlled against his will to harm others and to be the main villains companion. At the end, he was released from the control. As a priest getting so close to the magical force of death, he found himself disconnected from the light. He began to not trust himself and isolated himself.
(Rewinding even further)
In the end of the expansion Legion, a force of Chaos was at war with the champions of Azeroth, and their leader Sargeras aimed to destory Azeroth, as he was about to be captured by beings of Order, he managed to stab the world with his sword in an attempt to destroy the world or it's world soul.
From what we currently know, something terrible is coming, and Azeroth is vital to its plans.
The quality is 11/10. I bet you show Anduin to multiple and they won't 100% tell its CG. Knowing its CG and making me question it. I always expect Blizzard to making good setting and moods for all there full rendered spots but his FAR exceeded there previous ones. His beard, his facial expressions and the scars showing, man has been though some stuff. Also this VA. Whoever did his voice, man needs a raise.
It's been confirmed by Blizzard that no mo-cap was used for this. Entirely done by their graphics experts and artists :)
Thrall voice such amazing. so epic!
Opening shot would be a perfect wide screen screenshot
I was waiting on your reaction 😂
imagine a full movie/animation with this team....
Did you spot the teardrops forming in Anduin's eyes after Thrall said "I trust you" ?
Most of us players had only seen Anduin as a child or young teen. After this came out, a lot of people called him "Manduin" 😊
Anduin what he did was, he was dominated/mind controlled by death magic by this dude and was forced to kill and torture people. But he can remember all of it and he remembers the thrill and rush of that power.
From interviews we know they didnt use ANY mocap
From what i heard, most of this is handdrawn in some way or another, no mocap as u said
So Anduin was mind controlled to do terrible unspeakable things. He was rescued but the pain of what he did has hit him hard.
man the second monitor by side thingy was so original :(
Absolut peak graphics in gaming cinematics!
oh man i've waited for your reaction :D btw what is the watch you're wearing? it's beatiful!
Yeah, only movie that escapes the uncanny valley and fully makes me believe in what I’m looking at was the second avatar. There were a couple times in this cinematic where and in talking had that too-smooth animation to it that didn’t look perfectly real, but I can’t fathom what it takes to overcome that.
Long story short, and basically: He was a holy priest (think superman level goodness). He was kidnapped and forced against his will to murder people and commit atrocities by very evil undead enemies. They were literally controlling his body against his will. It broke him, making him totally question his faith and lose his light.
Fun Fact: Something a lot of people seem to miss... his father's sword is supposed to have an orb of light in that circular area. It's gone. Further symbolizing the loss of his light, or perhaps the loss of his faith in himself.
I waited this video, thank you
they definately used percap for some of this, i see people say they use performances as reference, which I think confirms my suspicions, percap is a newer tech that is taking over mo-cap because the face of thrall is so similar to Chris Metzen's that it has to be involved at some level, there was an expression from thrall's face right near the end when Anduin asks him who it is where thrall has suspicions but does not know who it is that are straight from metzen's performance.
They say they hand animated it; and they probably did; but the faces at least had to come from some form of capture, the emotion in the eyes are too on point if they were using performance capture and painted on top of it, that would make a ton of sense, from their own answer on how this was made.
When the World soul of Azeroth is asking for help, some serious things are about to happen.
No uncanny Valley effect here, incredible and amazing from Blizzards part, because that is very very hard to pull off.
the cinematics has come a long way, you could really feel the raw emotion of Anduin in this trailer, Blizzard outdid themselves again :)
Not sure if someone already mentioned this, but the voice calling out is the Titan Azeroth, buried within the core of the planet. Everything points to it. It's quite obvious actually, just pointing this out for (non-warcraft nerds) and Mr. Connor, not any avid Warcraft fans who saw this and it clicked instantly.
so chris us nerds have noticed it obviously but have you noticed how he looks very similar to Arthas in lich king cinematic when he draws his sword? I mean posture of course the way he stands.
I really wish they did an animated show about WoW with the same details and stuff i would love that!
I just caught the longer WoW trailers you did the reaction to, with the Battle of Azeroth. Here's the sequence for the Anduin saga. Some were in the other video, but not all. I'll try to get some timeline for the Sylvanas story for you too. I've been playing since 2008 and I'm a huge fan of the lore of the game, these cinematics are just so awesome.
Everyone else has given a good narrative of the story that leads up to this particular cinematic. I went through the files and got the actual visuals for the story. World of Warcraft has done a great job of going back into these and pulling out the story for the new The World Within cinematic. There are 12 of these, I’m giving the title, the name of the channel that has it, and the length of each. Where needed, I also give a quick name to the characters involved. These are not totally in order, there is a change in the in-game order for the Battle for Azeroth cinematics because Old Soldier actually comes before the announcement cinematic in chronology.
World of Warcraft Legion Cinematic Trailer-World of Warcraft 4:05 (photo of Anduin as a child in the compass of his father. The big gray worgen is the King of Gilneas, Genn Greymane)
Death of Varian Wrynn: World of Warcraft Legion-Tom’s Hardware 4:07 (the man at the end is Genn)
Patch 7.2 In-Game Cinematic: A Found Memento: Raising a King-World of Warcraft 2:51 (Anduin is seeing the memories of his father’s death)
Sargeras Impales Azeroth Sword Cinematic/Illidan’s Sacrifice-Athelarius 3:35 (how the sword happened-the Titans deal with Sargeras)
Cinematic: Old Soldier-World of Warcraft 6:21 (set-up for the war and Anduin’s friendship with Varok Sarfang, the troll is Zekhan)
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Cinematic Trailer 4:39 (Sylvanas, Genn, Anduin using his priest powers)
Cinematic: “Lost Honor” World of Warcraft 3:18 (Anduin, Genn, and Sarfang)
Cinematic: “Reckoning” (spoiler) World of Warcraft 4:12 (Sarfang and Thrall. Thrall is a shaman and the retired Warchief of the Horde)
Anduin Finale Cinematic/Shadowlands Patch 9.2 Eternity’s End-LeystTV 3:52 (the end of the raid where Anduin finally breaks the Jailer’s hold on him)
Sylvanas Windrunner & Anduin Epilogue Cutscene World of Warcraft Patch 9.25 LeystTV 2:45 (Anduin has to go find himself)
Which is then connected to this one, the War Within Announce Cinematic that you commented on.
Each of these has elements that are echoed in the War Within. It covers 2016 to 2023.
Hope this helps.
Anduin was mind controlled by something like a God an he killed lots and nearly destroyed the world while in that state. He remembers both what he did and how he felt while doing so.
All the subtle movement in the eyes, the twitching eyelids and so much more just make them feel more alive than anything I've seen before, they really paid attention to the little details in this CGI short.
The flinch when Thrall touches his shoulder, just amazing.
@@mrsthehotdogdance exactly, wish we could get a whole CGI movie in this quality. Would be amazing to watch.
Chris metzen, the OG wow maker, is the voice of Thrall (green guy)
Yeah, you could say Anduin has been through some stuff. He was Controlled by the big bad of the Shadowlands into committing atrocities and it weighs heavily on him.
Also if you want to know more about the Giant Sword that is definitely hasn't been sticking out of Azeroth for 3 expansions now, you should check out the Legion Sargeras Defeat Cinematic.
I read 20-30 comments and didn't see this yet. But WoW takes place in a world called "Azeroth" which most people think of as just a name. But it was revealed 3 exp ago (Legion) that there is actually a BEING ... a physical entity ... ++INSIDE++ of the planet!!! That being is named "Azeroth."
The premise is that this "being" has been asleep and/or akin to the planet being its womb. And that "Azeroth" is waking up. The millisecond cutscenes you see (nightmare clips) are this being, Azeroth, trying to reach out and talk to Anduin and Thrall. That voice .. is Azeroth. The fantastical sword you see at the end, was thrust into the planet to try and kill Azeroth.
There are A LOT of unknowns about this, even after 6 years since her reveal. But this is the future of the game. This is largely what this cinematic is about. The present is the dynamic between Anduin and Thrall. The future ... is Azeroth.