Why do cinematic and in-game models look so different from each other?

[Camthur]

BFA announcement Cinematic Anduin - looks freaking awesome. Very realistic

BFA data mined Anduin - round faced dude who might have eaten the cinematic Anduin.

[Flevor]

because cinematic's are CGI made wich has probably easier to make more realistic faces than in in game art assets

i'm no expert on this kind of things but

my guess goes to that i think it's not easy at all to make in game models look like a CGI cinematic

[UnluckyAmateur]

They've been like that since wc3.

[Camthur]

What's throwing me is how inconsistent they are. Saurfang in the cinematic and in-game look the same. Yet, Anduin looks like two different dudes. Maybe they have a harder time making humans look right since we see them every day and have more of an eye for detail with them.

[iamthedevil]

Because they use different resources.

One created from nothing, the other uses a completely prebuilt 3D stage. Which do you think would produce faster?

[XDurionX]

Cinematics are prerendered so the models can be as complex as they wish. Ingame models have to be computable thousandfold by every client.

[Fritters154]

What's throwing me is how inconsistent they are. Saurfang in the cinematic and in-game look the same. Yet, Anduin looks like two different dudes. Maybe they have a harder time making humans look right since we see them every day and have more of an eye for detail with them.

That's likely a perception thing rather than an artist thing. You have a well engrained idea of what a human should look like because they exist and you see them every day. You do not have a well engrained idea of what an orc should look like because a realistic orc is an abstract concept.

Both Saurfang and Anduin are quite different between the cinematic and in-game, but it is much easier to pick up on differences in a human.

[Mosotti]

Is this trolling or just a really dumb question?

[Easo]

Is this trolling or just a really dumb question?

Even if he meant it wrong, there still is a point that Anduin model looks... chubby and different from the cinematic. Saurfang, on the other hand, is really similar (not quality wise, because that is CGI vs ingame, but artistically).

[Powerogue]

In fairness the cutscenes manage to look straight out of the game while still looking fantastic. The cinematics have never really resembled the in-game characters much though. Completely different art styles, even with the increased detailing Blizzard have accomplished.

Let's take a look...

Cutscene Anduin, from 7.3.5:


Expansion Trailer Anduin:

[Camthur]

I never disputed that the cinematics are way more detailed than in-game stuff. Blizzard cinematics have always looked good for their time and they look exceptional these days. I think some people thought I was questioning why the game isn't as detailed as the cinematic. I wasn't.

I just wondered why everybody looks similar between cinematic and in-game and here comes an Anduin in-game that doesn't resemble the cinematic at all. (aside from being a dude with medium length blond hair)

[HitRefresh]

Some people just have poor reading comprehension and can't read further comments.

[zeropeorth]

The trailer Anduin looks like a young brad pitt. The in-game Anduin looks like Brad Pitt's brother if they were cast in the movie 'Twins'; well not really but do see your point but without a comparison in front of me, I think most characters only vaguely resemble their high end cinematic bone structures.

[Deleted]

BFA announcement Cinematic Anduin - looks freaking awesome. Very realistic

BFA data mined Anduin - round faced dude who might have eaten the cinematic Anduin.

Because the biggest MMO in history can only afford one CGI once every two or three years that has the grafics of a generic current generation game, an ingame graphic on PS2 level and a design style that is an insult to the eye, especially compared to games like Guild Wars and Final Fantasy 14.

[HyperJay]

BFA announcement Cinematic Anduin - looks freaking awesome. Very realistic

BFA data mined Anduin - round faced dude who might have eaten the cinematic Anduin.

Because 1 is Modern CGI and the other is ingame model?

[Steampunkette]

I never disputed that the cinematics are way more detailed than in-game stuff. Blizzard cinematics have always looked good for their time and they look exceptional these days. I think some people thought I was questioning why the game isn't as detailed as the cinematic. I wasn't.

I just wondered why everybody looks similar between cinematic and in-game and here comes an Anduin in-game that doesn't resemble the cinematic at all. (aside from being a dude with medium length blond hair)

I say this with full seriousness and earnesty: Because it is an MMORPG.

MMORPGs are almost always designed from the ground up to be played on hardware 3-4 generations back from when they're launched to maximize their potential playerbase. Deus Ex or whatever other modern game can have the most amazing graphics in the world because it's designed for a single, short, burst of play and everything you're looking at is a facade made up of camera tricks to cut corners as hard as possible.

With an MMO, players are going to see almost every object in the game from a dozen different perspectives, at the same time. They're going to be interacting with each other, the world, and the NPCs that inhabit that world, and if there's any latency it's likely to make them quit and find a game that isn't laggy as all hell.

Combine these two facts with the need to both

A) Create recognizable NPCS
and
B) Produce 'endless' amounts of new content

And you've got designers and artists cutting what corners they can to make those recognizable NPCs more easily identified at a distance by specific clothing sets or weapons or other items rather than making the Facial Model itself as unique as possible, since the face can only be viewed at close range.

Particularly when you factor in WoW's "Evergreen" art style of going with an exagerrated and stylized "Cartoonish" design for the world making it even -less- reasonable to create distinct faces.

[Darktbs]

Human problem Only

When doing a Cinematic, Blizzard makes human characters with more realistic features but when they go to the game they have the Warcraft style.

Evident by Anduin normal size hands/eyebrows/Chin/Nose on the BFA cinematic and his Gigant hands/eyebrows/chin/nose on the In-game ones.

[digichi]

When I was younger I always wondered why cinematics didn't just use the models you would be playing in-game, because it was so misleading! The game is so much different than the cinematic!! Lols.

Yes, cinematic chars look better than in game, but that's the perk of thousands of hours of rendering and the hands of many artists touching up the textures, movement, lighting... all for one 3-min-clip. Art is tedious and takes forever, and the better it looks the longer it probably took. Anyone not aware should try it out some time ^^

[Cosmic Janitor]

At least before varian's death they fixed his face. Blizzard forcing me through old content once again reminded me of how unbelievably bad and ugly the previous model of Varian was in WotlK and Cataclysm.

[Hammerfest]

Yeah, I've wondered why Sylvannas in the BfA cinematic has light pink skin while her in-game version has dark indigo skin.