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Watch how VFX artists crafted Disney's 'The Lion King' remake
Nothing in Disney's divisive Lion King remake was real. Simba, Scar and the sprawling Pride Lands -- all of it was created digitally. To convey this gargantuan effort, visual effects studio MPC Film -- the same company behind The Jungle Book and countless other Hollywood blockbusters including Blade Runner 2049 -- has released a short breakdown on YouTube. It shows the various steps required to build young Simba, adult Nala, and some of the film's iconic scenes including The Circle of Life. If you want to know more about how the movie was made, including its VR-assisted cinematography, read our 'making of' feature from last year.
Watch the evolution of Titanfall's DLC map 'Swampland'
Respawn Entertainment's first DLC pack for Titanfall is due this month, and offered insight on the creation of the game's new multiplayer levels. Designer Chris Dionne elaborated on the development of one of the Expedition levels called "Swampland" in a recent blog, which features a large cluster of redwood trees in a murky area. The developer also included a video showing the stage's (over)growth since its inception, seen above. The concept for the level first came about in the summer of 2011 while Titanfall was still in development, and was tabled for nearly two years before being considered again as a multiplayer DLC stage. Dionne said Swampland started out "almost completely flat with yellow fog and towering redwoods," which became crucial to its overall design. At one point, Swampland was overrun with IMC buildings, temples and a massive infrastructure, which caused it to lose some personality, as the designer put it. The focus shifted to the towering trees as playtesters found it enjoyable to bounce off them as pilots and dodge around them as titans, leading to the decision to place the trees in the center of the action. Announced last month, the Expedition pack includes the "War Games" and "Runoff" maps and will cost $9.99. Those that pick up the $25 Titanfall season pass will receive Expedition in addition to two other map packs down the road. [Image: Respawn Entertainment]
Champions Online dev blog goes behind-the-scenes of the Lemurian Invasion
Last week, Champions Online's Lemurian Invasion event hit the live servers, and since then players have been valiantly fighting to defend the world against the alien forces. But as the latest Champions devblog notes, "an invasion force like the Lemurians doesn't come out of nowhere." With that in mind, Cryptic has released a brand-new devblog that takes players behind the curtain for a look at the making of the Lemurian invasion. In the post, Champions Online's new Live Producer, Tom "Lord Gar" Edwards, takes players on a brief tour of the process behind creating a live event. Edwards details all of the hard work that went into the Lemurian Invasion, from the event's initial conception to 3-D models, animations, and playtesting. But perhaps more importantly, he takes a few paragraphs to talk about the future: "[In] the first half 2013, [Cryptic's] plan is to release several story arcs of a similar scale to the Lemurian invasion." He adds that "each arc will have a lockbox, some smaller missions, and then a larger mission at the end." According to Edwards, each mission will " have its own themed rewards and new items [that will] sometimes focus on character improvements, and some on vehicles." Champions' next arc will involve "gladiatorial combat" and will focus on the aforementioned character improvements. Edwards promises that more info is coming soon. Until then, how about heading over to the Champions Online devblog for all the tasty Lemurian Invasion details? [Thanks to Matixzun for the tip!]
Go behind the scenes of the God of War Super Bowl ad
This video shows the folks at Quantum Creation FX creating Kratos for the God of War: Ascension live-action Super Bowl commercial. If you're sick of eating buffalo wings after watching the finished ad, kick back, grab a burrito and watch this trailer and the other making-of video.
Making Halo 4 Spartan Ops with the group behind the Dead Island trailer
The Halo 4 Spartan Ops episodes don't just magically appear; they're painstakingly crafted by Axis Animation, the same studio that created that memorable, heartbreaking trailer for Dead Island in 2011. Take a peek at the process in the above video.
Learn about the races and cultures of Defiance
Defiance is continuing its march to release with another making-of video. This time, the subject is the culture, makeup, and languages of the inhabitants of Defiance. While this deals with the town of Defiance in the TV show Defiance, it has some bearing on Defiance the MMO. You're not likely to have to learn an alien language to fully enjoy the game, but a little insight into the lore and world-building is always a good thing, right? Skip below the cut to learn about the different races and how to say "that's all folks" in a made-up, alien tongue.
Trion releases Defiance feature video, details 'transmedia' synergy
Trion has released a new making-of featurette for Defiance, its "transmedia" property that includes a sci-fi shooter MMO and a Syfy television series. Defiance the game takes place in the bombed out ruins of a post-alien-invasion San Francisco, while Defiance the TV show is set in and around St. Louis, Missouri. Despite the location differences, Trion says that the events of the virtual world will affect those of the show and vice versa. How so (and how much)? That remains to be seen, but Shacknews has a game preview that sheds a little light on the subject. In a nutshell, characters on the show might namedrop a gamer avatar who completes a particular mission or makes an impact on the game world in some way. Syfy president Dave Howe also told the website that he's hopeful that gameplay events will have a more significant impact on season two of the television series. Head past the break to view the full video feature. [Source: Trion press release]
Of myths and 41-megapixel sensors: Nokia looks back on the 808 PureView (video)
It's a tale as old as the introduction of the 808 PureView, itself. Something about a bar and Tokyo and scribbling ingenious ideas on a napkin -- you know, the same 'ol humble origin story that seems to surround every impactful creation. Spoon-fed mythology aside, Nokia's decided to shift things into meta mode by composing a making of mini-doc for its hump-backed Symbian Belle cameraphone shot entirely with that much-ballyhooed 41-megapixel sensor (insert feigned amazement here). If you haven't heard Espoo spin this yarn before, settle in for an eight minute, accented tribute journey that takes navel-gazing and self-congratulations to an uncomfortable level. We get it, guys, the camera's good. Really, really good -- there's no need to sell us on it any further. 'Tis a pity, then, that the handset's been restricted to "select markets." Hop on past the break to gawk at this scripted enthusiasm first-hand.
Star Wars: The Old Republic 1.2 update big enough for making-of video
Turns out Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.2 update wasn't just large enough for a trailer, but for an entire making-of video as well. Watch the BioWare team discuss the importance of family, leaving a legacy and adoption. Or something.
Visual Works explains how Tomb Raider's big E3 trailer came to be
If you were capable of watching the E3 2011 Tomb Raider trailer without fully freaking out, well, frankly, we're worried about your health. For the rest of us, Square Enix and Eidos have released a near 15-minute-long "making of" to walk us through all the gory details of its creation.
New Making of Eorzea video sits down with Final Fantasy XIV's composer Uematsu
For many people, Nobuo Uematsu's name is inextricably linked to the Final Fantasy series. And with good cause -- he's one of the people most closely associated with the feel of the series, with several of his compositions having become ubiquitous even within games he didn't score. Having been the sole composer for Final Fantasy XIV, the newest Making of Eorzea video sits down with Uematsu and discusses the experience of composing the full score for the game. While Uematsu estimates it's been about ten years since he was in charge of a full score for a game, there's little argument to be had about his suitability for the job. He discusses both the scope of the project and his experiences in composing such memorable tracks as the theme song -- which, in his own words, was sung by Susan Calloway at his own insistence. See more about the music of Final Fantasy XIV in the video, embedded after the cut.
Timelapse game programming brings you from concept to final boss in 06:38
We only managed to take a couple of programming classes in high school before we realized that you couldn't do Friendster and code the next Super Mario Bros. 3 at the same time--so we decided to become bloggers. Luckily, some folks stuck with it long enough to be able to show off what a strictly limited social networking policy can do for the gaming world. Many of the competitors in the annual 48-hour Ludum Dare 18 competition took time-lapse videos of their coding experiences, and they're almost as entertaining as the games themselves: check after the jump for the thrillingly compressed making-of documentary for Notch's addictive Metagun. SPOILER ALERT: Apparently, Notch had time to sleep and eat. Bummer.
'Behind the game' on Dead to Rights: Retribution
When we first heard that this video was going to go "Behind the Game" on Dead to Rights: Retribution, we got all excited to see a five-minute documentary on that little piece of plastic in the game case that protects the back of the game from scratches or dust. But apparently we went a little too literal there -- this video is actually about the making of the game that's due out next month, with Volatile Games' Project Director Imre Jele explaining how the team handled combat, interaction with the A.I. dog, voice work and the stunts in the upcoming sequel. He mentions near the end that one stuntman actually broke a rib during motion capture, and how the entire team was trying to put that much dedication into the game, and we imagined for a moment that medical bills around its offices must be sky-high with all of the rib-breaking going on during coding. But then we realized we were probably going too literal again -- maybe we should just sit back and watch the video.
Nexus One video series, part two: Google schools us on OLED displays
The first installment of Google's fancy Nexus One design series focused on the sound quality of the device, and on the overall design. Well, part two is here now, and this time, we get to watch while HTC project manager Tomasz Hasinki and Android software engineer Romain Guy give us the goods on the Nexus One's OLED display and the interactive, 3D framework. We're expecting a couple more videos in the series, so grab a very tiny bowl of popcorn (it's pretty short) and check out the video, which is after the break.
Watch the making of Halo 3: ODST live-action short
Like us, you've probably been wondering what sort of work (apart from directing people in costumes and laying on the special effects) went into Microsoft's now-legendary Halo 3: ODST live-action short, "The Life." Its creators must have anticipated our curiosity because they've put together a short-but-sweet behind the scenes video, which includes a rough cut of a scene that didn't make it into the final production. The micro-documentary also reveals some surprising trivia about the shoot, including the fact that the opening funeral scene was shot inside the cooling tower of an operating nuclear power plant. Oh, and the battle sequence? They filmed it at the bottom of a coal strip-mine. Really? We could have swarn it was New Mombasa.
Behind the scenes with "that SWTOR cinematic trailer"
Sure, the Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer from E3 may have been lacking in the gameplay department, but that didn't stop it absolutely rocking the socks off anyone that saw it. The people that made that possible are from Blur Studio, specialists in CG animation for games, films, and commercials. The IGN video above features an interview with Derron Ross, an animation supervisor for the company. He explains that although you might not realize it in the final products, a ton of the highest quality game videos are from Blur -- as an example, one of the early Warhammer Online trailers that a lot of you will have seen is from them. Ross goes on to describe what it takes to create something with such dangerously high levels of awesomeness.If this little behind-the-scenes look at the SWTOR trailer has you craving more CG goodness, Blur's website has links to a ton of their other works for your viewing pleasure.
Leaked: Questionable Killzone 2 Super Bowl ad, making-of special
A 52-second video purporting to be a Super Bowl advertisement for Killzone 2 has been making the rounds, though its legitimacy has come under a great deal of scrutiny. First of all, the length -- NBC is charging in 30 second increments for commercials, leaving eight seconds unaccounted for should the ad run. Also, while Sony does have a few ad spots reserved during the big game, they're set aside for movies coming out of Sony Pictures, and not for games. Also, the writing is really bad. The leaked ad is posted after the jump -- with kickoff a few hours away, we won't have to wait long to see if it's a fake.Also posted after the jump is a leaked 23-minute making-of special for the Helghast-filled shooter, which is set to air on Bravo today. If you've remained in the dark about Killzone 2, you might want to check it out -- we found it highly educational. For instance, before we watched it, we didn't even know there was an earlier installment in the Killzone series. Yeah, apparently, it came out on PS2 in like, 2004! Crazy, right?Source - The questionable Super Bowl adSource - Bravo's making-of special Curious about Killzone 2? Check out our expert opinion in the single-player review. Not enough for ya? Then proceed directly to our ridiculously informative FAQ, featuring everything from Trophies to button layout to multiplayer analysis, and more!
The making of the Warhammer Online cinematic
Just before Warhammer Online launched, we were treated to a gorgeous new cinematic to give us just a taste of what to expect in the game. This teaser launched right about the same time as World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King trailer, making for several heated forum debates on which video was more amazing. No matter which side of that fence you're on, the fact is that Mythic gave Blizzard a run for their money in the cinematic department, there's no doubt.Now the actual creators of that cinematic, Blur Studio, have compiled a two-hour video depicting the making of that Warhammer teaser. It's broken down into four parts, so you can pace yourself, but it's certainly worth a watch if you're into the whole CGI scene. You'll learn about the concept stages, how Blur took liberties with actually creating new content before it was designed for the game, how the Orcs were made as an army and much more. Check out Blur's website for their impressive CGI portfolio which includes the Tabula Rasa cinematic as well.
Cinemassively: The making of BloodSpell
While Neverwinter Nights wasn't quite an MMO, players were able to host up to 64 people at once on a home server. It was also extremely customizable in a way that few MMOs allowed for. That's why it served as the medium of choice for veteran machinimator Hugh Hancock to create his feature-length machinima, BloodSpell.Making a feature-length anything isn't easy. It requires a lot of planning, time, dedication, and a large cast of supporting players. Hugh has been releasing documentaries once a week that go over everything from concept to development to preproduction, all the way to finish. These short films are extremely helpful to any aspiring machinimator plotting a large-scale project! For more information, check out the BloodSpell blog.If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Making of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams
This look into the making of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams comes courtesy of GameTap and was ripped from a DVD at GameStop (we're not sure if you can pick one up or if it's on those in-store video loops, but we're betting on the latter). It shows some of the backstory on the original Saturn game, as well as why Wii was the perfect fit for the new game. Not only that, but it discusses some of the improvements Sega hopes to make with the new game. It's an overall interesting video, so be sure to check it out.[Via Siliconera]
