The new style of Animated Series, like Shadowlands Afterlives

[Dapower]

Hey guys,
This style has been around now with blizz videos for a while, I really really like it, it has roots in comics and you get to see a lot of the art that has been so well drawn. Blizzard has well, chosen this style to continue their work in storytelling for wow, well kudos, I like it. It has a good quality of texture, details and style, the lighting and changes also have enough of the needed ambience for the story. you get to fully see the picture before it changes so fast, there's a certain trick to it.

Do you guys also like it? either way, please share with me your thoughts on it.
Is this unique to blizzard? are there animated series like these before them?
Cheers

[Gaidax]

Yes, it's pretty good. It's not unique to Blizzard, but I really like these - they are well done.

[Zuben]

I skipped the very first ones about Shaohao, because I couldn't care less about his lore, but I generally like the visual style. Changed my avatar to Khadgar from Harbingers recently, he looks much more badass in it than in-game. Looking at the trailer for Afterlives I find myself much more stoked about Shadowlands' story bits than previously.

[VinceVega]

Hey guys,
This style has been around now with blizz videos for a while, I really really like it, it has roots in comics and you get to see a lot of the art that has been so well drawn. Blizzard has well, chosen this style to continue their work in storytelling for wow, well kudos, I like it. It has a good quality of texture, details and style, the lighting and changes also have enough of the needed ambience for the story. you get to fully see the picture before it changes so fast, there's a certain trick to it.

Do you guys also like it? either way, please share with me your thoughts on it.
Is this unique to blizzard? are there animated series like these before them?
Cheers

It is definitly a good style.

For SHORT series.

I am not sure how i would feel about a complete full blown tv show in that style. That would be more like a artbook with audiobook.

[HitRefresh]

They're awesome but they're kind of just really rendered out animatics. I'd love to see full animation but that's obviously probably really expensive and time consuming. I wish the game matched the style of the characters in these too, faces look so goofy in WoW in comparison. Like Draka in that, man I wish female orcs really looked like that.

[Sevarin]

not a fan of the art style personally.

[LordVargK]

Not my style. It's okay for telling a story from a past age. It feels like a picture book that gets "read" to you. But for current events I want to see motion. Especically in the Burning of Teldrassil I did not find it the appropriate way of telling the story. But for character introductions or summaries of past events it's fine.

[Sesethi]

not a fan of the art style personally.

Would you prefer this instead?

[LemonDemonGirl]

It reminds me of Guild Wars 2's 'cutscenes', but a little bit less messy

[Claymore]

Yeah, this sort of "animated comic" thing has been pretty common the past... 10-15 years I think? I remember a lot of game Developers would use these for cutscenes, because they were apparently just WAY cheaper to create.

Honestly, I would love to see Blizzard do something like that for full-length episodes. WoW has a ton of Lore and history they could pull from, and I could see that being highly successful for them, if they hired good writers. They could have an entire "season" dedicated solely to retelling the events of the Second War, or just have each episode tell its own little self-contained story (ie. maybe one could be the founding of the Defias brotherhood, another just jumping into the day in the life of a Draenei, another could showcase a Vulpera trader making his way around the cities of the Horde... lots of fun stuff.

[Venziir]

Hey guys,
This style has been around now with blizz videos for a while, I really really like it, it has roots in comics and you get to see a lot of the art that has been so well drawn. Blizzard has well, chosen this style to continue their work in storytelling for wow, well kudos, I like it. It has a good quality of texture, details and style, the lighting and changes also have enough of the needed ambience for the story. you get to fully see the picture before it changes so fast, there's a certain trick to it.

Do you guys also like it? either way, please share with me your thoughts on it.
Is this unique to blizzard? are there animated series like these before them?
Cheers

New style? I dunno how new it is, they started using it back in MoP.

[Izzyfurious]

I skipped the very first ones about Shaohao, because I couldn't care less about his lore, but I generally like the visual style. Changed my avatar to Khadgar from Harbingers recently, he looks much more badass in it than in-game. Looking at the trailer for Afterlives I find myself much more stoked about Shadowlands' story bits than previously.

Man i can't wait to hear how dissapointed the actual ingame lore compared to promo material media. For you will be after release.

[Dapower]

not a fan of the art style personally.

could you please explain why? I'm just trying to see all the perspectives here.

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New style? I dunno how new it is, they started using it back in MoP.

Yeah, but other than blizzard, do you know any examples?

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Yeah, this sort of "animated comic" thing has been pretty common the past... 10-15 years I think? I remember a lot of game Developers would use these for cutscenes, because they were apparently just WAY cheaper to create.

Honestly, I would love to see Blizzard do something like that for full-length episodes. WoW has a ton of Lore and history they could pull from, and I could see that being highly successful for them, if they hired good writers. They could have an entire "season" dedicated solely to retelling the events of the Second War, or just have each episode tell its own little self-contained story (ie. maybe one could be the founding of the Defias brotherhood, another just jumping into the day in the life of a Draenei, another could showcase a Vulpera trader making his way around the cities of the Horde... lots of fun stuff.

Could you give me some examples please? I just found some Manga like animes, which were not produced in the same sense.

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It reminds me of Guild Wars 2's 'cutscenes', but a little bit less messy

this I found also in the same style, thanks a lot man!
Other than the effects that are not the same, and the product that is not the same graphics technique, I guesss I found another example to compare the two.

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I think they are well done in that style and a nice extra thing to tell something about the lore. I also liked the Diablo cutscenes ...I think Blizzard started it with those.

All that I find are some early era 3d works, its not effects on paintings. Could you give me some links to the cutscences you are talking about?

[Sevarin]

could you please explain why? I'm just trying to see all the perspectives here.

hmm... if im completely honest, i suppose its not the art style that i dont like, so much as the fact that its not fully animated. if they did this style with full animation instead of... kind of like comic book scenes? id like it far more.

[Ryzek]

I love it, its nice change of pace from their usual cinematics.

[Gref]

for some reason it is not something I can like. No idea why I do not like it actually. I cannot really express myself.
Maybe it is the static appearance when they are talking.
Or maybe the limited movement. That being said, I am not saying they are bad or anything. I am sure they put immense effort to it.
It is just I do not like it. I do not know it is the same with liking chocolatemint icecream I guess. Some do, some do not.
it is difficult to explain why you like/do not like something actually.

[Dapower]

for some reason it is not something I can like. No idea why I do not like it actually. I cannot really express myself.
Maybe it is the static appearance when they are talking.
Or maybe the limited movement. That being said, I am not saying they are bad or anything. I am sure they put immense effort to it.
It is just I do not like it. I do not know it is the same with liking chocolatemint icecream I guess. Some do, some do not.
it is difficult to explain why you like/do not like something actually.

thank you, it truly is thats why true criticism is rare and hard to express.

[Sharnie786]

Don't like them. They're not as impactful, to me

[Dapower]

It is definitly a good style.

For SHORT series.

I am not sure how i would feel about a complete full blown tv show in that style. That would be more like a artbook with audiobook.

I kinda like place it to a video-montaged Comic book, don't you think?
I mean if this happens, it could change the whole concept of comic books, which are still a thing. Next to Manga and Anime, do you think this could take a place too?

[Ninix]

I don't like it much.

It's great art, but I feel it quite does not belong to the Warcraft universe.
It may sound grumpy but I was used to a combination of CGI or in-game-like cinematics, and those just feel off.

Whilst the content and lore messages sent in them was excellent (at least the Warbringers ones, I haven't watched the SL ones yet), I find it hard to get "taken" into the videos with static drawings / slow animation like we can see here.
They just don't catch my eye as much as old-school artworks did.