I thought it was kind of rough, personally.
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New Overwatch Animated Short: "Rise and Shine"
- Thread starter BackwardCap
- Start date
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
That animation is genuinely astounding. Ofc the rendering can't compare to CGI but man those animators went ham with Junkrat's dialogue. I'd actually argue that the facial animation is more on point in that film than in this CGI short.
No hard knocks against it really, but yeah I guess you can't really compare it to a cg short. Junk was definitely very animated that's for sure.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Them doing what Valve used to do with SFM is really really cool and also a bit meta. Definitely this gen's TF2.
Doctor Ironic
Member
Overwatch doesn't even touch TF2 in any department, especially not its characters.
Ah man they're making shorts for in-game assets now? And good lord the animation in that is so good:
Yep, done by the same team that creates the in-game cutscenes for World of Warcraft.
I think what made it more impressive is that Junkrat's voice actor (Christopher L. Parson) carried that whole short. You can tell the guy loves voicing the character, and it's a plus that does a pretty solid job with the accent (if we ignore for a second the decision to not use, y'know, an actual Australian voice actor). It's a bit off, but he picks up on most of the bits to make it a good caricature without falling into the usual pitfalls.
Also, the look of Junk as he lights the fuse is priceless.
OW characters have such goofy ass voice lines, taunts and skins meanwhile none of that personality or writing is apparent outside the game.
But even for someone like Torb in-game, hes so one note compared to the Engineer. Probably cause he only builds one thing but its more than that.
K
Reminds me of the TF2 subreddit needing a post about how TF2 is better than OW daily for some reason.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Having such a large and diverse cast for players to project onto and a really dedicated team of artists consistently producing new content in the form of emotes, shorts, comics etc. certainly works in Blizzard's favor imho. Plenty of ideas for shorts. Valve was the GOAT but they stopped. :|
I agree:
Frankly I always thought those warcraft cutscenes looked like ass even after they improved the rigs. So this is like, a super huge improvement imho.
Ricerocket
Member
That's fine? Blizz is doing it's own thing for Overwatch. Not all characters and their animated shorts are comedians with a catchphrase.
"CATCHPHRASE!"
Gentleman Jack
Member
Valve hasn't released an animated short in over three years, and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say they'll never release another one or write any new character-centric content ever again.
The king is dead. The Junkrat short puts OW on top simply by existing and being good. The Mei short is kinda eh but at least they're putting some appealing personality into the sparse story that seems to follow team based shooters in the modern era.
Really enjoyed this one. I don't enjoy hating Mei, so it's nice being reminded of her humanity this way.
Man, everything's gotta be a competition with some people.
I'm finding the massive, throbbing hate-boner for Blizzard's writing kinda baffling. Like, it's not world-class prose or anything, but why would you expect that? They're just fun, free little (CG) cartoons.
Man, everything's gotta be a competition with some people.
I'm finding the massive, throbbing hate-boner for Blizzard's writing kinda baffling. Like, it's not world-class prose or anything, but why would you expect that? They're just fun, free little (CG) cartoons.
I thought it was just alright. The animation is fantastic and I appreciate what they were going for, but the story telling was just sloppy from top to bottom for me. I particularly felt the emotional beats all fell flat. More time shoudlve been spent with Mei's team instead of having their only representation be a faceless hoodie and one piece of art.
Maybe that just stood out to me more because that was the aspect of Mei's backstory i was always curious about not "howd shed make her sick ice gun tho?"
Maybe that just stood out to me more because that was the aspect of Mei's backstory i was always curious about not "howd shed make her sick ice gun tho?"
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Because Valve's writing team was SO good at humor and even emotion at times and thus set the bar high.
demosthenes
Member
God I miss these. They were so good.
Zero people are expecting oscar bait.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Because it genuinely was? Doesn't mean people are expecting Oscar bait. I genuinely hate that term in hindsight.
AmayaPapaya
Banned
Really liked it! It was a cute story, without a doubt, and it helps that Mei is utterly adorable in it. Not like her in-game character which is the devil. Animation looked really good.
Keep em coming!
Keep em coming!
I mean, I don't disagree; I used to show the Meet the Team videos to my dad whenever a new one came out, and they slayed him every time. I wouldn't even consider doing that with most of the Overwatch shorts.
But those TF2 videos were a long-ass time ago now. It seems strange to be coming down this hard on Overwatch videos that should really just be fun bits of fluff.
Lord of Castamere
Member
Sucks that such great animation is trapped behind a derivative story. Mei is super cute.
That's because it's always the most bland, awkward stuff. I'm sure people would be fine if they could hit a light, Saturday morning cartoon kinda vibe but they're still like an ocean away from that. The storytelling was sloppy.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Undoubtedly they were a long time ago but yea still disappointing. There's just something missing from these shorts that elevate them especially when they try to go for emotion. Like, when Widowmaker shot that robot like I couldn't have cared any less despite the music swelling and Tracer looking devastated and angry.
Every Blizzard game ever.
disappeared
Banned
Blizzard's CG work is just insane at this point.
That wasnt a guarantee since no one knows theyre there, and Mei may fail to reach anyone.
I find the comparison to Disney and/or Pixar films more telling of the quality that these shorts have than anything. If the closest competitor in quality is the undisputed king of animation, Blizzard must be doing something right.
Was the robot draining its battery supposed to be some kind of sacrifice? It isn't like it self destructed and it was fine a few scenes later.
Honestly this seems like a lot of wasted time and energy for their animation team just to keep their meta fanbase engaged. The least they could have done is tell something original, not make this hard to follow Martian ripoff with no clear objective or resolution.
Honestly this seems like a lot of wasted time and energy for their animation team just to keep their meta fanbase engaged. The least they could have done is tell something original, not make this hard to follow Martian ripoff with no clear objective or resolution.
But that sounds like a last-ditch plan no matter what ever happened with building the freeze gun to get the message.
Orochinagis
Member
That moment was weird since we know Mei and her robot survived. Its unclear if Mei made contact with OW
Rickenslacker
Banned
Their CG animations while nice looking have been, yeah, leaving something to be desired when it comes to content. I loved the Junkertown animation though, I can't even use the qualifer "for in-game assets", the animation was just insanely good.
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
Love the animation but the writing... Eh.
Not expecting world class writing but it's really cheesy at times and more in negative way. They should fully embrace it IMO, but they try to ground it too much.
I appreciate how unique Mei is. She's a chubby Chinese meteorologist/climate scientist who works in the coldest regions of the world with her robot sidekick. Compared to the other OW heros she's a breath of fresh air! It's different compared to those like Hanzo, Genji, McCree, D.Va, etc. The others feel more tropey (if that's a word) and generic with pre-built personalities. Mei on the other hand is like a wild card, her design is refreshing.
Not expecting world class writing but it's really cheesy at times and more in negative way. They should fully embrace it IMO, but they try to ground it too much.
I appreciate how unique Mei is. She's a chubby Chinese meteorologist/climate scientist who works in the coldest regions of the world with her robot sidekick. Compared to the other OW heros she's a breath of fresh air! It's different compared to those like Hanzo, Genji, McCree, D.Va, etc. The others feel more tropey (if that's a word) and generic with pre-built personalities. Mei on the other hand is like a wild card, her design is refreshing.
I agree:
Frankly I always thought those warcraft cutscenes looked like ass even after they improved the rigs. So this is like, a super huge improvement imho.
It helps that the in-game models have fantastic rigs, as the animation team (for the Overwatch crew) really wanted to push a lot of the core principles. There's some nice overlap & snap when Zen throws his orbs, and some solid squash n' stretch when a character jumps/lands. And, in the case for the Junkrat/Roadhog short, there is some great smear poses.
The Cinematic Team for WOW did some great work, and I'm all for it if they can produce more mini-shorts in the future.
Given how seasons work in the arctic, and how power at the station was on it's last legs, it would've been months before she could recharge Snowball. Coupled with her loss of her friends/co-workers, Mei would've been in isolation for who knows how long. The short would've been left a stronger impact if Mei was traveling in that Blizzard alone, while leaving Snowball behind.
Hoya Destroyer
Member
The Mei clip was really boring. At least the Junkrat one had some energy and humor.
Still, that isn't going to carry the emotional pull that they're going for. Especially when the way you read her reaction to it makes it seem like it is a sacrifice instead of her being sad about being alone for a while.
Well, how would you approach that sequence, if given the choice?
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Yea I remember watching this video a couple days after it was uploaded. Overwatch has fantastic rigs.
Make it apparent that she is sad that he robot will be off for a significant amount of time, leaving her alone, but thankful that it gave her the opportunity to complete her, apparently, life-saving task.
They just ham it up too much.
Mr. Smiley
Member
That Junk short. Blizzard I need you to make your own SFM.
Or release rigs. Or a rig. Anything, please.
Or release rigs. Or a rig. Anything, please.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
But there's already plenty of Overwatch sfm.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
This is probably the reason why they won't officially release rigs, because gamers are terrible. :| And likely wouldn't make anywhere near the cool shit that the TF fanbase created with their software or rigs.
SchrodingerC
Member
Mei's slippers, I must have them.
Sell me this merchandise Blizzard.
Cute animated short btw, can't wait for the next one.
Sell me this merchandise Blizzard.
Cute animated short btw, can't wait for the next one.
Mr. Smiley
Member
Have the quality of the rigs improved? Like can I get the same extreme expressions like in the short?
I'll have to see myself. I know overwatch stuff is all over sfm, but I figured they were still limited when ported over.
What a relevant post
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