Each episode begins with a short 3D rendered scene which serves as an introduction to the backstory segment. The backstory segments are digitally painted, 2D parallax-style animations.
Here's the entire video, consisting of 5 parts:
Each episode has it's own story and characters, focusing on different aspects of the Warcraft lore/history. The episodes each have their own mood and style, using different colour palettes to keep things varied. The illustration style is maintained throughout each short, while a huge variety of shots and dynamic angles keep the movement fluid and diverse.
To say there's a lot for me to learn from this animation is an understatement... all the questions I had previously, regarding how best to portray movement and dynamism in my own work, can be answered here. This is my bible now, and should teach me just about everything I need to know in order to get a good result from my own animation.
I watched the whole series yesterday and began making some notes, trying to narrow down what gaps in my skillset need to be addressed immediately, so I know where to focus my studies. Today I took a few screen grabs from the first episode to see what kinds of techniques are used here, that might benefit my work later on, or even during the planning and storyboarding stages.
This shot's a pretty straightforward slow pan, lasting 4 or 5 seconds. There's nothing much happening in terms of movement, but the camera does have a nice little shudder effect applied to it, breaking up the simplicity of the pan and adding some realism to the shot.
When I was working on my last project, I thought the best way to approach this style of animation was to treat each image/shot as a still moment in time, through which the camera was the only thing moving - as if the viewer was moving through the still image. The problem with this is that despite the movement that comes as a result of the camera motion, there's still a static quality to the finished animation that I wasn't too happy with - I wanted a bit more motion from each scene.
I wasn't sure how to properly go about bridging the gap between these still 2D images and traditional animation styles (cartoon animation, for example, which I can't do) without fearing that I might be doing it "wrong", but this example shows that there is way to do it that maintains the still illustration style while getting some extra motion in there.
By simply drawing the hand in an extra couple of positions and fading in and out between each (which in slow-mo, or frame by frame, reveals a subtle onion-skinning transition effect between positions), the simple movement works effectively, without it appearing as a cheap gimmick (I don't think).
The 4-step movement above occurs over 5 seconds, with a very slow, shuddering camera zoom added to the shot for good measure. In my opinion, it works great: it maintains the feeling of 2D still images, with extra motion where it's needed. This is something I'll definitely be applying to my own work.
Same deal here, but a shorter shot - this one's only 3 seconds long. The camera moves in on the finger and the tearing fingernail occurs quickly, before cutting to the next shot.
This 10 second shot uses simple fades to cut from long shot to close-up, then to change location and lighting entirely. Very smooth, very effective.
These 8 shots occur over 15 or so seconds, to set the scene of the gladiator location. Each shot lasts between 1 and 3 secs, with subtle camera motion, parallax effect, camera shudder etc.There's plenty of variety from shot to shot: lots of different angles and points of focus, lighting, depth... it all adds to the scene-setting.
When I went back to check these shots out frame by frame, I noticed that there were no fades between each shot (in my last animation, between each shot, I used a black screen fade-in and out to make a 2 or 3 second transition between each image). I initially thought that the only reason they didn't do something similar here was to maintain the speed of this scene, cutting between shots quickly. When I looked through the rest of the episode to check this theory, it turns out they don't use transitions at all - each shot cuts quickly into the next, regardless of the scene's pace. So I guess I've been doing it wrong all along! Although in my own animation I think it was actually quite handy, maybe because there weren't many images to work with, so the pace wasn't as swift as this animation.
This fast zoom occurs over 3 seconds, during which there's some camera shudder as it moves along it's path toward the warriors. The parallax style takes effect here, much like my previous work used it. There's also some very subtle motion coming from the arms of the fighters - I think they used the puppet warp feature in After Effects to do it. It's barely noticeable, but would be even more noticeable if there was no such motion at all.
Fast action pan here, uing the onion-skinning technique mentioned in some of the earlier shots, to provide a smoother motion to the action.
Same technique here, in a very quick static shot, but with the motion effect to make it an effective addition to the scene.
Conclusion
These examples just show a little of what this series of shorts has to offer. There's so much more to learn from the animation, and if I can pick up some of these skills and apply them to my own work, the end result should be all the better for it.
In the near future I'll be studying from the other episodes, to analyse the techniques and see how they use colour theory and lighting to improve the scenes.
In the near future I'll be studying from the other episodes, to analyse the techniques and see how they use colour theory and lighting to improve the scenes.
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