Total War: WARHAMMER III CINEMATIC TRAILER

Magic, monsters, intrigue, and epic battles – you can witness it all in the new trailer for Total War: WARHAMMER III that we had an opportunity to create.

Enter the world where each choice that you make will shape the reality-shattering conflict to come; from the mysterious Lands of the East to the daemon-infested Realms of Chaos. You will experience strategy gaming on a scale yet unseen in this epic culmination to the Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy.

Creating cinematic in the WARHAMMER universe is always a big challenge. We have to be aware of its history, unique creatures, and deities. Another important point is that WARHAMMER’s fanbase is demanding. We had to meet the challenge and create a cinematic that will picture this universe correctly.

In our trailer, you can observe new iconic races from the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. For instance the video-game debut of Kislev and Cathay alongside the factions of Chaos – Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch. In the game, players will wage war with the most diverse array of legendary heroes, gargantuan monsters, flying creatures, and magical powers that the series has ever seen. In our cinematic, you can see some of those creatures.

“Our vision, from the start, was to create a series that felt like an incredible journey through this world we all loved.,” said Game Director, Ian Roxburgh. “The enormous support of our players in ensuring the success of the first two installments has pushed our ambition to new heights, and we can’t wait for everyone to experience it.”

“First, we always have to respect the legacy of the creators of Total War: WARHAMMER and the vision of the customer – Creative Assembly. Millions of fans know every character of this universe and we must attempt to fulfill their expectations when bringing those heroes and monsters to life.” says the Director & Art Director Jakub Jabłoński. “The video is our tribute to the fans of WARHAMMER and the Total War series. It is also an attempt to present a strong female character from this universe. Katarin is not an ordinary warrior princess; she is the proud Tsarina and an adept of ice magic. We wanted this change and awakening to be tangible in the video. We aimed at showing the growing courage and might that will make her kick the butts of the entire enemy army.”

For the cinematic, we have created 16 character models and their variants as well as 7 environments and over 30 props. What is more, nearly the entire animation – apart from monster close-ups – was based on motion capture recordings. We spent two days on the mocap set working on the animations for Katarin, the Kislev soldiers, and the Chaos army. To make the director’s work easier, we used real-time preview, which made it possible to see the 3D scene immediately at the set.

“We tried to use as many elements from the game’s world as possible and to appropriately place them in the video. The events in the trailer fluently move from Katarin’s comfortable tent to the vast battlefield where two powerful armies are engaged in battle. The biggest challenge was the combination of various locations so that the seemingly different spaces and light situations created a unified image for the audience.” says Marina Borokhova, the CG Producer.

“The most difficult aspect of the project turned out to be the lighting for the army, arranged in such a way that it would show the fantastic atmosphere of Total War: WARHAMMER, a bit of realism, and light piercing the layer of falling snow. In the real world, we would probably be unable to see much during such weather and at this time of the day. Another challenge was the near-intimate introduction of Katarin to the internal world of the Dominion of Chaos, where we showed the four iconic deities of the Total War: WARHAMMER universe.” adds Jakub Jabłoński.

This is already the fourth large trailer that we created for Creative Assembly and the Total War series. Additionally, we were involved in creating several smaller cut-scenes and small productions. We can honestly admit that the WARHAMMER universe is something that we love to explore and have fun with.

Click here to read more about this project.

Credits