Filed under: Machinima

No sequel planned for The Craft of War: BLIND

by Michael Sacco Nov 3rd 2009 at 3:00PM

Uber-popular (and uber-cool) WoW machinima The Craft of War: BLIND has spurred more tipline emails than we can count, even after posting about it a second time, and rightfully so. Percula's work on the video was incredibly impressive and it was a joy to watch.

The bad news is that Percula recently updated the video's YouTube description to let everyone know that no, a sequel is not planned for the video. He says that he was laid off earlier in the year and had to quit WoW to focus on finding a job, and in the time since, his interest in the game has waned. That's the bad news!

The good news is that he still plans on making other animated videos, just likely not WoW-based ones. And for those interested in seeing what he's come up with between the release of BLIND and now, he says to look for upcoming Id Software releases, which he had a hand in.

Too bad about the discontinuation of the series, but at least this means that we won't get a hojillion tipline emails for BLIND II, right? A boy can dream.

World of WarCrafts: Flickpainting and a playtime playlist

by Lisa Poisso Oct 5th 2009 at 9:00AM

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

In the wake of the torrential magnificence of the cosplayers at BlizzCon and Dragon*Con in recent weeks, we're going to dial back the sheer creative force this week. Let's catch up with more humble creative efforts with a new take on an old favorite (yes, it's another take on fabric painting) plus a playlist of WoW machinima and songs designed especially as an accompaniment to your playtime.

Flickpainting

Serthida of US Bloodhoof-H sent us yet another fresh take on Sugarrat's wildly popular bleach shirt. Serthida has created a bandana, but the approach works equally well on tees and other fabric.

Blizzard announces official YouTube channel

by Mike Schramm Sep 30th 2009 at 6:00PM

To go along with their recently created Twitter accounts, Blizzard has now started up an official YouTube channel as well. Right now, the channel just contains animations and cinematics that we've mostly seen before (not that we mind watching that Burning Crusade cinematic for the umpteenth time), but we presume that in the future, we might see newly released videos, including possibly interviews with Blizzard staff, and maybe even some (gasp!) gameplay videos as well.

Whoever's in charge of social media over at Blizzard has really been working it lately -- we can't wait to see their Last.fm account (Most Played: the artists formerly known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain) or their OkCupid account (Adam Holisky & Alex Ziebart would be at least 87% friends with Ghostcrawler, no question). Definitely fun to see Blizzard, historically a very closed-door company, opening up a little bit to the various outlets where they can correspond with fans.

WoW Moviewatch: Grind

by Michael Gray Sep 29th 2009 at 12:00PM

It's been a little while since we've heard from Nyhm and Summergale, especially as a duo act. That made the tip that they've released a new video an incredibly exciting bit of news. The bonus to this news is that the video isn't just a song, but also includes a brief mock-commercial as the opening to the video.

The opening commercial is a parody of the Real Men of Genius spots by Budweiser. In the short segment, Nyhm and Summergale poke a bit of fun at the immense shoulder armor design favored by World of Warcraft. I wish I could say some of Nyhm's hypothesized designs were so far-fetched as to be laughable. But based only on a quick, visual scan, I could almost see Arthas dropping some of it.

The song itself is called Grind. It's a WoW-themed parody of Busta Rhyme's Break Ya Neck. I have to admit that Grind didn't appeal to me quite as much as other work from Nyhm or Summergale, but the video introduced a technique that I thought was a lot of fun. The chibi-like portrayal of the singers really lightened up the video, and made the entire production much more engaging. It was a cool thing to do, and I'd like to see Nyhm grow that technique more in future videos.

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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

A new animation for Feed Pet

by Mike Schramm Sep 28th 2009 at 9:00AM

Well I grabbed my own video of the new Feed Pet animation, but it turns out that Lougara on YouTube did it much better, so that's their video you can watch above. Yes, as hunters everywhere have noticed, Blizzard has added a brand new animation to the feeding of a hunter pet -- you can actually see your hunter toss a piece of grub to the pet, who then catches it and noms away.

It would be cool to see it go a little further -- maybe have the pet claw and chew away at it for a moment -- but then again with so many different types of pets out there, it's probably tough for Blizzard to make them all look good. Still, it's a nice little touch for immersion, and it has the added bonus of showing other players when you're tossing food to your pet as well. Of course, with Bloodthirsty as a pet talent or the Glyph of Mend Pet going, you may not even need to feed your pet any more, but if you do, that's what you'll see.

WoW Moviewatch: Unreleased WoW Cataclysm trailer

by Mike Schramm Sep 25th 2009 at 12:00PM

Sure, the Cataclysm trailer was cool and all, but did it seem like it was missing a little something? That little something may have been the Wowcrendor touch. Fortunately, Wowcrendor has remade the trailer in his own unique style (he says on the YouTube page that it's an early cut Blizzard eventually scrapped for obvious reasons), and you can watch the result above.

As with Wowcredor's other videos, the satire is piled on in heaps, from MS Paint-ed lava to a nice dig at rated battlegrounds, and a nice little coda about Barrens chat (given, that's a pretty big comedy target to hit, but Wowcrendor hits it anyway). Funny video, and proof that no matter how awesome Cataclysm sounds, odds are that we'll still be playing the same game with the same people.

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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

15 Minutes of Fame: Clint Hackleman of Myndflame machinima

by Lisa Poisso Sep 15th 2009 at 1:00PM

15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

The subject of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame has actually carved out many, many more than a mere 15 minutes on his own. Clint Hackleman is known to WoW fans as the force behind Myndflame, the team responsible for such wildly popular machinima as Illegal Danish: Super Snacks, Learn 2 Play and Epic Flight Form.

So who's a Myndflame fan? Blizzard, for starters. "How can something so familiar feel so foreign?" Blizzard asks rhetorically in a news update on its main site about the Illegal Danish III Prelude. "... If you're a World of Warcraft player who feels something is missing from the StarCraft universe, the creators of the Illegal Danish series have sensed your internal disturbance, bringing you a hilariously off-kilter redux of the StarCraft II cinematic trailer, now with 100% more Gnome action. It's about time!"

We thought it was about time, too, to go behind the scenes with Hackleman and get the story behind Myndflame's blazing success.

Breakfast Topic: Awesome animations

by Dominic Hobbs Sep 13th 2009 at 8:00AM

There have been some truly spectacular visual moments in Azeroth; scenes that make you gasp and glee. I'm thinking of occasions like the Scourge Invasion of Stormwind and Orgrimar or Kael'thas blowing up his room in Tempest Keep. Who can deny Wrathgate was incredible. However, there are also some awesome little animations that really add so much to the game. It's these little things that we can take for granted but sometimes jump out at us as something wonderful.

Even on a hard night of raid wiping in our guild, if someone chugs a stack of Pygmy Oil and /cower's it's bound to bring a laugh. Many a machinima has featured a /dance, from one race or many, with variously spectacular and humorous results.

Who's /flex is better, Draenei or Blood Elf? Have you ever left one of your characters alone for a while and then had their idle-animation surprise you? Are there any actions or animations you wish were in the game? What animations bring a smile to your face?

New WoW Model Viewer available

by Matthew Rossi Sep 8th 2009 at 4:00PM

Yes, I went out and made a screenshot of a Worgen with two wolf-headed fist weapons. I did this via the latest iteration of WoW Model Viewer, freshly updated this Saturday, September 5th to work for patch 3.2. While it has a posted warning use it at your own risk which I thought I should mention, I should also mention I've been using it for the past half an hour with no harm and no foul. I've even been able to play with Trial of the Crusader loot. Go behind the jump to see a Worgen dual-wielding a Justicebringer and Reckoning. Not that I'm obsess with Titan's Grip Worgen or anything. Okay, so I totally am. At any rate, so far as I can tell, this version of the Model Viewer is stable and working with all current models.

This update by Chuanhsing even fixed the issue I was having where all my models came out textureless. I have no idea what it was happening in the first place, but I'm glad to see it gone.

Cranius music available on Amazon

by Michael Gray Sep 8th 2009 at 9:00AM

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

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

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

WoW Moviewatch: Work Work, Zug Zug, Dabu

by Michael Gray Sep 7th 2009 at 12:00PM

Here in the United States, today is a beloved national holiday called Labor Day. While I could get into the specific history of the holiday, I'll simply summary by saying the holiday basically amounts to "a day off work for the people who work really hard." Oxhorn has released a special Labor Day video with that subject in mind, called Work Work, Zug Zug, Dabu.

The video is short, sweet, and fun-sized. This is one of the things I often love most about Oxhorn's short videos. He has a basic, great idea, and then crafts a video specifically towards that idea alone. His content is tailored and fitted to the short length, which means even the most casual audience gets a very high return on their investment.

The song is the centerpiece of this video, of course, and it's as much fun as any other Oxhorn music. The honest goblin singing his way to mercantile expression is wonderfully done. As usual, my hat's off to Oxhorn. The round robin medley between the three orcs (who I have to think are named "Work Work," "Zug Zug," and "Dabu" for obvious reasons) is brilliantly executed.

If you like this video, you should definitely take the time to cruise Oxhorn's website, and check out his other work.

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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

WoW Moviewatch: Azeroth Super Villains Episode 7 teaser

by Michael Gray Sep 4th 2009 at 12:00PM

Today's WoW Moviewatch is just a brief trailer. But it's a trailer than I know many, many people are going to be pretty excited about. Ian Beckman is returning to the beloved Azeroth Super Villains. In fact, this is the trailer for Azeroth Super Villains 7.

In the trailer, Ian's chilling out at home and eating some chips. That's when he notices an odd, blonde figure running up to him from the distance. Within moments, it turns out the blonde figure is Kael'Thas, who's here to remind Ian the same things many fans have been saying: it's time for another episode!

The new episode is due out in November. (Ian had originally been thinking December, but Kael'Thas warned him that he shouldn't wait that long.) This teaser is pretty early in that regard, but I thnk the brief appearance of Kael'Thas lets us know that Ian hasn't lost "his touch" at the series.

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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

WoW Moviewatch: Let's go retro with Codemonkey

by Robin Torres Sep 1st 2009 at 1:00PM

I'm hijacking Moviewatch today, so that I can spotlight one of my all time favorite machinimas: Codemonkey. Jonathon Coulton's song, the fact that he released it under the Creative Commons license and Spiffworld's movie-making skills combine to make this a fun video to watch.

Sure, Codemonkey is 3 years old or so, but it's fun to look back on the good stuff, right? And it's nice looking at a Booty Bay without all those wannabe pirates picking on the guards.

If you were to take over Moviewatch to play your favorite machinima, what would you choose?

WoW Moviewatch: In Memory: Retribution

by Michael Gray Aug 31st 2009 at 12:00PM

We covered the In Memory: Retribution final trailer back in May. At the time, we were impressed by the hints we could see in the trailer about the epic content of the final movie. But, as with many trailers, we were unconvinced that the final product would ever materialize. Thus, I'm incredibly happy to feature the final movie today. Click here to check out In Memory: Retribution by Necka.

This movie is huge. It's probably one of the longest and most thorough machinima presentations I can remember seeing. The camera work and voice acting are all perfectly suited to the story, and the sweeping narrative is thorough and world-changing. The story is based on the fall of Illidan, and I feel like the action really gets started when a troll sorrowfully admits his own part in the fate of the Betrayer.

This movie is definitely worth watching. Like I said, however, it's pretty long -- be sure to leave yourself an hour or so to watch it all. There are a few places you may need to back up, if your stream gets interrupted.

Click here to see it for yourself. This link provides an option to stream or download the video.

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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

WoW Moviewatch: A Day In the Life

by Michael Gray Aug 26th 2009 at 12:00PM

We've featured X-Cross more than once on Moviewatch, and he's often proven to be a fan favorite. With that in mind, we offer him our most heartfelt congratulations on winning the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest. His entry is titled A Day in the Life.

The movie was inspired by this comic by Keydar. Basically, a kobold goes through his daily routine. He wakes up, gets ready for work, and kisses the wife goodbye. He goes into the Elwynn Forest, and with a primal yawp, delcares that "You no take candle!" I won't spoil what happens from there. I found the scene of the kobold lighting the candle on his head adorable.

This movie was absolutely amazing. X-Cross brought the visual to life in a beautiful, compelling way. The voice acting was perfect. I truly believe this movie will stand the test of time, and will be something new WoW players will be laughing at years from now. Congratulations, X-Cross!

You can see more of X-Cross movies on Moviewatch by clicking here.

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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.

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