Anduin Wrynn : The War Within Cinematic

Responsible for sculpting and modeling Anduin's iconic cloak for this piece.
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A closer look at Anduin from our recent cinematic revealed by Chris Metzen at BlizzCon 2023. Responsible for sculpting and modeling Anduin's iconic cloak for this piece. I was given artistic freedom to design the look, how it's worn, and dictating all the folds and layering. Anna the Director wanted this to feel utilitarian and protective for Anduin against the harsh desert environment. One of the features I added to help push this idea was getting that tight, snug, layering of material wrapped around his neck. Careful attention was paid to the type of folds, tension, and layering to express a tough cloth material. All the folds are modeled / sculpted in since we wanted to establish the final look and layering of the cloak in modeling, rather than later on in simulation (to not leave the folds and layering to chance or have them be random). The challenge was the cloak still needed to simulate and react to physics properly down the pipeline, so everything had to be modeled physically correct with zero interpenetrating geo. This was done so that all the art directed folds and layering didn't pop and break once simulation ran. The tattering and holes along the frayed edges were also modeled by hand. No displacement was used on the cloak, everything you see is true geometry, making the model quite dense in order to get all the folds, layering, tattering, holes, and everything represented. This forced us to push the limits of how dense the geometry for simulation can be, but resulted in a much more pleasant and realistic outcome.

Big shoutout to my Lead Jason Huang who gave me invaluable feedback during the creation process. He is also the one responsible for the rest of Anduin's model for this cinematic. Surfacing and textures were done by the great James Ma. The piece was Directed by Anna Morgan, Art Directed by Jason Fleming, and DFX Supervised by David Satchwell. So lucky to be a part of the team and contribute to such an amazing film <3. I've played WoW since I was 16 so getting to work on Anduin for a prerender cinematic like this has been a dream come true.

As always, everything you see here is not created solely by me, a small army of insanely passionate and talented human beings have contributed to everything on screen. Let me know what you thought of Anduin and the cinematic in the comments below!

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