Intel ® Visual

world of warcraft*: cataclysm*
Gregory said that for the in-game cinematics,
at some point during the production of Cataclysm,
the development team saw an opportunity
to have a couple of movies play within the
gameplay experience. The team’s goal was to
introduce Worgen and Goblin, the game’s new
playable character races.
“We were tasked with making sure these were an
appropriate introduction to the characters,” said
Gregory. “We wanted it to draw upon their entire
kit, their mood, and their environment. The game
introduces new places in the world never before
seen, and we wanted to establish very succinctly
in a cinematic art form what these races were
like in those worlds and how they feel, so people
would know what they had gotten into.”
To bring those goals to life, Blizzard relied on
an in-game pipeline that has evolved over the
past six years. The technology was originally
developed to produce game trailers and gameplay
footage, but in recent years the team has
received additional support and tools from
the gameplay team.
“New tools have helped us make things more
cinematic in the game through the use of
cameras, as well as the control and manipulation
in real time of actors that we can work through,”
said Gregory. “It’s a different world working with
the game itself, instead of just 3D. Being able to
walk around the environment as if you’re on a
set with the actors, and really have a feel of the
space as you move them around was important.
We even had people piloting the characters
around so it was like working with talent, instead
of just working with objects.”
These new advances have allowed the team
to improve the visual fidelity of the characters
in cinematics. Improved facial animation was
just one element that brought more believable
characters to life in the game. And Gregory said
technology is constantly evolving, which means
the next round of cinematics will push the bar
even higher.
The Future of Cinematics
The ultimate goal of Blizzard’s cinematic teams is
to get the player emotionally involved with the
characters that they’re interacting with as the
intel visual adrenaline no. 10, 2011 27