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It was alright, but I believer we can expect better from other shows. Gonna snatch that Vindicare in any case.

Oof, that was rough. I stopped halfway because I just couldn't get interested because the animations were done so poorly. The art is nice, but far too much is just stills and silly animations of those stills. Not for me at all, but for those who do like it, enjoy!

I thought the animation was ok - they clearly had to cut a lot of corners, but the corners were cut in ways that also made sense stylistically, so it all fits together pretty nicely.

But it's basically exactly what I was afraid this was going to be - fan animation with better voice acting. Is it cool and entertaining? Sure. Is it worth paying money for? Uuuh... what else you got?

For what is likely a very new and fresh animation team, it was well done. There was a style they were going for and they used quite a few shortcuts, but compare that to any indie animation studio and they did well.

If they grow as an indie studio and aren't forced into unreasonable deadlines, they'll have an opportunity to improve their animation skills and learn the tools of their trade. "Practicing" on an old story like this is fantastic, as it lets them show off their style without breaking the mold while staying true to the lore.

Yes it's simple, but the composition was good, the cuts were good, the style was consistent. I'll be watching their career with interest to see if indeed they grow.

This comes after two months of practicing animation with Krita( damn good fun! ), and while its obvious that GW needs to hire some inbetween animators to stand alongside Netlix and Disney+, it was actually quite good fun!

Not quite convinced on signing up to Warhammer+, though.

SamusDrake wrote:
This comes after two months of practicing animation with Krita( damn good fun! ), and while its obvious that GW needs to hire some inbetween animators to stand alongside Netlix and Disney+, it was actually quite good fun!

Not quite convinced on signing up to Warhammer+, though.

I think we agree on this - while it was a decent enough piece, I don’t think it was nearly impressive enough to convince someone on the fence that they needed to subscribe, though. I liked it, but not so much I would have been disappointed at all if I had missed it.

Well, it was more entertaining than "Ultramarines ".

Anyone knows if subtitles are/will be available?

Hard to get a feeling for what viewing on the W+ app will be like from that, as I think it's just using the usual Warcom Brightcove player rather than whomever is supposed to be building the service for them and you can't view it on any other devices.

(Not least because I imagine that the actual service will have streaming DRM, which this doesn't.)

Was alright. Like the animation but the story was a bit boring imo.

I posted in another thread that I didn’t like this but what I forgot to mention was that I couldn’t get it to stream from the Warhammer Community site itself (no sound and stopped loading after it played 40 or so seconds). I had to watch it on YouTube where someone had helpfully ripped it to.

I wanted to hate it but I didn't.

Has potential.

Still not subscribing to another service.

Eh.

Amusing conceit, but kinda naff execution. Too many obvious shortcuts on the animation (which, frankly, is mostly stills) and the voice acting (which is mostly grunts beyond the narrator-ork).

As a free youtube video its.. fine? As part of a monthly sub service, its a joke.
It doesn't hold a candle to VA and animation work by any of the real players in the industry.

drbored wrote:
For what is likely a very new and fresh animation team, it was well done. There was a style they were going for and they used quite a few shortcuts, but compare that to any indie animation studio and they did well.

If they grow as an indie studio and aren't forced into unreasonable deadlines, they'll have an opportunity to improve their animation skills and learn the tools of their trade. "Practicing" on an old story like this is fantastic, as it lets them show off their style without breaking the mold while staying true to the lore.

Yes it's simple, but the composition was good, the cuts were good, the style was consistent. I'll be watching their career with interest to see if indeed they grow.

Great, but this is going to be paid product, not some bright-eyed amateur's Newgrounds flash project.
But I get the feeling that the Limited Edition model you pay for via this subscription is what most people are after, not any of the digital offerings.

drbored wrote:
For what is likely a very new and fresh animation team, it was well done. There was a style they were going for and they used quite a few shortcuts, but compare that to any indie animation studio and they did well.

If they grow as an indie studio and aren't forced into unreasonable deadlines, they'll have an opportunity to improve their animation skills and learn the tools of their trade. "Practicing" on an old story like this is fantastic, as it lets them show off their style without breaking the mold while staying true to the lore.

Yeah, no. They didn't hire a bunch of kids straight out of animation school. Its a small industry with too many applicants, they can afford to pick and choose people who know what they're doing.

Once again, GW isn't a small indie company. They've got money to throw at this thing if they really want to make it work, and letting them off with that excuse is kinda horrible to the folks whose salaries they should be paying and who know how to do this job.

They aren't competing with 'any indie animation studio.' They're supposedly offering a premium product worth paying a monthly fee for. They're trying to compete in the big leagues now, and they need to put in the time and money if they're going to pretend their handful of offerings are worth the kind of money they plan to rake in.

alright so those claiming it's not worth it are comparing this single animation to netflix. I think warhammer plus needs to be looked at as a package deal. here's what GW is offering per the website.


- "A wealth" of warhammer animations. (we have no idea how much a wealth is obviously if there's a thousand animations right off the bat that we've never seen before that's gonna be differant then if there's 8 and all but 2 used to be on youtube for free so obviously we lack sufficant info to be 100% sure on this other then our opinion on that one animation)

- Weekly shows that focus on lore, gaming and painting - TBH I doubt this'll be a big draw but the lore bit could be a biiig draw in and of itself all the youtube lore channels are limited to whats already out there, it's just people looking through a varity of books etc and cataloguing. GW, by virtue of being GW, could put out genuinely new lore videos that could be a big draw. things like deep diving into the background of under developed subfactions etc so the lore videos at least depends on how ambitious GW wants to be.

- Full access to the warhammer apps: yeah ok, the 40k ap isn't very good and I expect the new AOS one to just be that reskinned. so expect it to be underwhelming

-The Warhammer Vault, featuring issues of White Dwarf and other classic Warhammer publications - ya know depending on how this goes this could be a REALLY good value, with GW tearing the fluff out of the latest line of codices being able to have digital copies of the earlier codices etc could be worth it for that alone. likewise depending how when white dwarf stops that could be a really good value. If hypotheticly the white dwarf archive simply ended a month or two beyond the most current then it might be worth just cancelling your WD sub and getting WH+

-Exclusive monthly offers - we have no idea what this'll be. my guess is there will be occasional Primaris Leuitenants etc that are WH plus exclusive.

-Premium access to official Warhammer events - this is kinda vague, I suppose they could give WH+ subscribers first dibs on tickets to WH world events etc. but that seems pretty marginal. they might however run twitch streams only for WH+ members. maybe do AMAs etc. we'll need more info to know for sure. over all I'm classing this as "likely worthless, but could be huge"

- the Mini's : obviously YMMV with these but I think they're definatly gonna be a big draw.

So.. over all my opinion: WH plus could be barely more then a crappy animation channel, but if GW really pulls the stops out with some of the other stuff it could be a huge value. IF

"alright so those claiming it's not worth it are comparing this single animation to netflix."

its not worth it right now because on wednesday, warhammer+ releases with 2 episodes we have already seen, Old Bale Eye and Angels of Death part one

im looking forward to the assassin figure though

This wasn’t a technological showcase. As others have said, it was a deliberate artistic choice that went off well with me. It felt like 40k, the Orks felt like Orks, it seemed to me the real thing all the way around.

BrianDavion wrote:
alright so those claiming it's not worth it are comparing this single animation to netflix. I think warhammer plus needs to be looked at as a package deal. here's what GW is offering per the website.


- "A wealth" of warhammer animations. (we have no idea how much a wealth is obviously if there's a thousand animations right off the bat that we've never seen before that's gonna be differant then if there's 8 and all but 2 used to be on youtube for free so obviously we lack sufficant info to be 100% sure on this other then our opinion on that one animation)

'Wealth' = 11 (they name-dropped all the shows in one of the 'online previews' on warcom). And that's over the entire first year (or more, since Astartes 2 is in the list). They simply don't have a significant archive of material, and won't for decades.
Launch will be.. two shows. And maybe they'll be finished.

Lore videos are honestly... whatever. They've been recycling the same old stuff for decades now. Listening to some rando read through material an order of magnitude slower than I can read it is just a turn off.
The rest of it has even less value.

grahamdbailey wrote:
I thought it was meh. GW should really have pulled out all the stops to wow us as an introduction to Warhammer+, and this certainly isn't that.

I thought similarly, but I really enjoyed it. I'd never read these origin stories. Quite fun.

My hobbyist's curse is that when I was younger, I had all the time in the world and no money. Now I have money to spend on the hobby but no time. This animation was metal enough to make me want to subscribe to W+, but sadly I don't have time in RL to watch enough Warhammer content to justify a subscription.

I for one loved this though and it definitely made me wish I had the time to watch everything Warhammer.

Voss wrote:


Lore videos are honestly... whatever. They've been recycling the same old stuff for decades now. Listening to some rando read through material an order of magnitude slower than I can read it is just a turn off.
The rest of it has even less value.

and if THAT is all their lore video is, yeah it'll suck. as I said the one strength GW has in this is they make the lore. so they can literally reveal never before known factoids etc, something the youtube lore channels can't do. they can bring in authors etc and ask them questions that WILL get answers. if they lean into this power, they'll stand out (not eneugh to be worth subscribing all by itself mind you as those factoids will swiftly be regurgitated by the youtube lore channels) the quality of the videos will certainl be key.

Eh, it was okay. But nothing worth subscribing to.

BrianDavion wrote:
alright so those claiming it's not worth it are comparing this single animation to netflix.

Well... no. We're also comparing it with fan animations over at YT, like Helluva Boss.

And nope, it's not worth it when compared to those.

 Albertorius wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
alright so those claiming it's not worth it are comparing this single animation to netflix.

Well... no. We're also comparing it with fan animations over at YT, like Helluva Boss.

And nope, it's not worth it when compared to those.

Helluva Boss does exclusive minis, digital apps, event exclusives and vaults of older GW publications?

MaxT wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
alright so those claiming it's not worth it are comparing this single animation to netflix.

Well... no. We're also comparing it with fan animations over at YT, like Helluva Boss.

And nope, it's not worth it when compared to those.

Helluva Boss does exclusive minis, digital apps, event exclusives and vaults of older GW publications?

Does that have anything to do with animation and storytelling quality? No?

Because that's what we're discussing here. Hell, let me bold the argument, here.

Yeah - that was a pretty poor showing all around. It looks like something fan made.

I enjoyed that!

Did I enjoy it £5 pcm?

No!

I'll wait and see what people say about the full service.

So I had posted the following on B&C, as I feel it's only a quick google away to learn more about the animators and stop making judgements about skill, experience, etc.

Essentially, Farside is a subsidary/sister company of the decade-old Sun and Moon Studios, led by two experienced UK animators, Louis Jones and Dylan Shipley, with long histories including Aardman and other sector stalwarts. Their clients include BBC, SquareEnix, and others. Traditionally S&M did non-feature animations, but Farside seems to be focused on that, and possibly was founded for Hammer and Bolter, but also had some SquareEnix work under its umbrella.

Needless to say these aren't inexperienced professionals.

So I googled Farside Features, the animators.

It's intriguing that Farside Features was incorporated in 2019, i.e. by the time GW really was getting down to make content. That does suggest the company was founded specifically for H&B too - although their website features a SquareEnix advert too, also featured on Sun and Moon Studios, which is also run by the directors of Farside, and from which Farside spun off to focus more on story it seems.

The two leads are:

Co-director Dylan Shipley (see on Twitter at https://twitter.com/dylanshipleyart?lang=en and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-shipley-097675a/ )
Co-director Louis Jones (on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-jones-97b8391/?originalSubdomain=uk) - see experience in Aardman among other big UK animation, both in design and voicework.

You can see Farside's own Twitter at https://twitter.com/FarsideFeatures , their website at https://www.farsidefeatures.com/

And if you want to see some of their other work from S&M's website. A recent one, is a Life is Strange Trailer for SquareEnix, which is the middle part of the following advertisment:

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVOE2PxYNl0[/media]

Among other works are a second doctor Doctor Who animation for BBC, a Just Cause 3 Trailer for SE (also featured on Farside's website), and others are on their website and Vimeo.

Overall, really interesting and a great pair of creatives, with a strong company with varied portfolio, to partner with. It's great the story beats are coming from the Storyforge team, but FF have experimented with lots of different kinds of outputs and its clear both Shipley and Jones are passionate animators.

For some of the way Sun and Moon was regarded, see Jones's recommendations on LinkedIn:

Spoiler:

Recommendations
I worked with Louis and the Sun and Moon team on the first series of Kit & Pup for CBeebies. He is a true creative leader with an understanding of how to take a script and use physicality, humour and timing to c
...

I first worked with Louis several years ago just as his company started. Since then I have seen the impact of his leadership and creativity building Sun and Moon into an incredible animation company. Despite the ra
.
It's rare to find the whole package in one place, but that's what I found working with Louis; a highly creative and talented animation expert; customer-focused; marketing savvy; fun and friendly. The project we wo
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We commissioned Louis' company Sun and Moon Studios to create three animated films for our educational resource, design and develop the CD-Rom software and do our website as well as a load of marketi
...

Louis has fantastic flair for colour and design. He has great sense of timing and all these qualities make him a very skilled character designer and animator and a pleasure to work with. He is also a very talented voice actor
...

Louis Jones is very experienced character designer, animator and voice actor who has worked on many projects for national television in the UK.

Sorry they could be Oscar winners but this Old bale eye "animation" is not worth 1 cent.

This is the type of content I expect to get for free on YouTube not a payed streaming service of a multimillion dollar company.

If this is something they are proud of showing off as the flag of whats to come then wow.

Nice minis though