I am not talking about the content of the cinematic or the general art style, but purely about the technical side of it…and let me clarify i actually liked the cinematic as a whole.
The whole thing just looks kinda bad.
Actually I take that back, the cinematic looks fine for modern day standards but it looks bad compared to usual Blizzard cinematic standard.
I don’t know enough about computer graphics to be able to pin point exactly what’s wrong but I think the whole thing just looks kinda flat and lifeless (the irony of playing a death teamed expansion).
At the beginning it actually took me a couple of seconds to realize that this weren’t in-game graphics but an actual cinematic. The lighting in the Kyrian part looks so flat and the actual Kyrians look marginally better than their in game models.
The Ardenweald is especially bad. The figures running in the background look like they belong in the TBC era cinematic and there is something very…ehm…OFF with Winterqueen. Her face looks so weird. It looks like someone photoshoped a face on an existing model…badly.
Maldraxus part is the “best” looking one since its so dark and chaotic but even here those smoke effect look like something from the TBC era.
But the worst one is jailer. His face, the ambiance, lighting…everything about this part looks so cheep.
Dude I don’t know what you’re smoking but once I saw that cinematic it brought me back instantly to the old vanilla/bc cinematics with all the nostalgias and it was like a trip down memory lane with those models
But yea, could be lower quality to match the old cinematic art style
I think you are tripping, i absolutely loved it.
These shots were also from different cinematics (most likely) put together into one trailer. Atleast no more Sadfang cinematics, these seem to be way more interesting.
Its easier to knit the video into the flat lifeless game engine that is Warcraft. Took me a while to adjust again to the ancient looking style of the game after playing other games. I do like the more realistic cinematics but I understand they cost a lot to create.
I wasn’t at all engaged by the cinematic. It did not encourage me to buy into the new expansion. The whole thing feels like a BfA sequel and I can almost guess right now what the base content is going to be like. I’m kinda sick of the Sylvanas story and I really hated BfA. What is worse is the Lich being dragged across the coals again what with this scourge remake. Bout time we had some new stuff to play that was actually… er new.
I agree by the way. I thought the cinematic was dreadful and dull, flat and lifeless. But hey maybe that’s what they were going for.
To be quite honest, I am still in stitches after watching Anduin getting kited off by some armored Val’kyr in the middle of his heavily guarded city. It was like watching a bizarre comedy skit.
This is the first cinematic since the TBC one, that didn’t have a real story, but served more to show the new locations. I liked it. Blizz is using some common shortcuts used in many movies even high budget ones. Ardenweald relies heavily on matte painting, not real 3D models for the trees and the stuff in the distance. I’m pretty sure huge parts of the Castle Nathria… castle are also drawn, not modeled in 3D. Their perspective doesn’t really shift with the camera. But it still looks so damn sweet.
The same shortcuts are taken in all of the BFA cinematics, as well as the Legion one. I’m not sure if they’re there in the prior ones, but they probably are. I also noticed them in the Sylvanas vs Bolvar cinematic. There’s nothing bad about optimizing labor.
The Jailer’s face is pretty high quality. He even has subsurface scattering on his ears. I’m happy with his face. It stands out from other WoW faces and that’s a good thing.
Generally, I don’t see a drop in quality, but the cinematic lacked a WOW factor. Most of the other cinematics have some giant action scene, something dynamic going on. Even TBC had action. This one was more focusing on showing the new content and telling a more subtle story of each of the factions. Overall, it’s WoW’s least dynamic release cinematic.
The cinematic was as always brilliant, but it felt kind of lacking in " finishing touches " and I guestimate this is probably due to working from home.
A few things stood out to me. Because it is different. Subtly so, but still.
The backgrounds lean toward being art paintings than dynamic scenes where stuff happens.
You really don’t have a lot of movement in a frame besides the animated characters as the camera focuses or zooms in on them.
A lot of Blizzard’s earlier cinematics have more stuff going on at any point in time.
The hyper-realism style that Blizzard have pursued a lot recently has definitely reached a new high. Especially The Jailer is super realistic in appearance. It doesn’t seem applied equally in all the shots though. The Bastion part is a good example. The Kyrian are a bit more stylish and simple in their appearance, as is the Winterqueen’s face.
So it makes for a weird mix all-together.
Some of it also seems to be because the scenes are so different. And I’m kind of suspecting that some of the scenes hide entire cinematics of their own. Like Battle for Azeroth’s launch cinematic eluded to the Lost Soldier cinematic. I think we’ll get more with Shadowlands as well. They don’t make the Winterqueen model from scratch just to show her for a total of 2 seconds. Same with the Jailer.
The new cinematic is amazing. Has strong vanilla cinematic vibe and I’m super hyped for Shadowlands after seeing it. It does feel a bit shorter than usual but the quality was as high as usual.