VFX Artists React to Bad & Great Video Game Cinematics! 2

[@Ready_Set_Boom]

The Corridor team should have a competition for who can make the best eye close up shot.

[@SolWake]

Would love to see this!

[@haziqshams]

Up

[@sadchild9478]

Competition?

[@dadwithtourettes]

Yup, this. Next office competition should 100% be a best eye close up

[@jedironin380]

I still remember the one Star Trek movie where they did a zoom out from Picard's eye clear out into deep space. At the time it was unheard of to pull that off.

[@Braytonks3D]

I really love Jerome's respect for the work of the competitor studios and keeping that understanding that youre all there to make cool things and push each other to be better. Just exciting to see what the industry is doing as a whole :)

[@jacksonchien1673]

Video game cinematics are something I would love to see more of. The Witcher 2 and 3 cinematics are some of my favorites.

[@hulkhatepunybanner]

*Video games that attempt to look photo-realistic fail completely. No matter how much they try it looks fake in detail and in movement. Photo-realism CGI only works in conjunction with real footage.* When Nico mistook the Wolverine shot I thought he was faking his surprise for Jed's sake. I don't think a professional VFX guy would mistaken THAT scene for movie footage.

[@jacksonchien1673]

@@hulkhatepunybanner Why are you saying this as a reply to me instead of as an independent comment? This has nothing to do with what I said.

[@toxicmk4832]

​@@hulkhatepunybanner ah man what a bummer right? Clearly not a professional. You should take his seat.

[@acuteoldman]

The new cod cutscenes🤤

[@soapymargherita]

I remember being really impressed with the eyes in Witcher 3. They managed to communicate such subtle emotions and little looks, that's got to be super difficult.

[@attilaszigeti1078]

An honor to have DIGIC featured in such a lineup. Thank you for the kind words Jerome! Respect to you and the Blur team!

[@Soul-Burn]

Well deserved.

[@edwardnahanee5287]

Really loved when Jerome said that he loves when other studios use the technology to the best because then they have no excuse to not put out a stellar project is pure passion towards his work and it’s truly inspiring for sure! You can only be the best when you’re playing and beating the best!

[@magnus2705]

I know this has been said a million times before on this series but it's just so satisfying to see a person and group of people so incredibly dedicated and passionate to their craft. It's an absolute pleasure to watch Jerome on the couch with you guys and I hope you continue to have him return for this series. Huge props to the team at Blur and I can't wait to see future projects out of them.

[@paulkanja]

Sonnies edge just hits different, imma go do a rewatch of ldr just for that, (and the three robots as well)

[@QFloyd]

Wolverine's cinematic has aged so well, one of my favorite games as a kid.

[@kevinmorrice]

the gameplay not so much, the cinematics however are still fucking gold

[@QFloyd]

@@kevinmorrice Idk, I think it was a decent hack n' slash

[@SirStrugglesAlot]

@@kevinmorrice Yeah, but you can't tell me the damage and regeneration system on Logan didn't look cool as fuck

[@kevinmorrice]

@@QFloyd its decent when its not feeling sluggish

[@kevinmorrice]

@@SirStrugglesAlot that did look cool as fuck, unfortunately everyone i know who played it all said it felt sluggish

[@dil6969]

The Halo 2 Anniversary cutscenes by Blur studios absolutely knocked my socks off when I first saw them. Since then, I've rewatched nearly every cinematic in that game at least 3 times.

[@Jsterman23]

I really love the StarCraft 2 cinematics, especially the opening ones for Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. They're just so grand, and they look great too. It'd be cool to see them reacted to.

[@DrMarioMorales]

I was looking for this comentary. Starcraft cinematics hold up well to this day

[@aureateseigneur5317]

The Legacy of the Void one is super dope because they use real Star Craft Tactics in it.

[@SMARTasYOU]

Any blizzard cinematic would be cool. Diablo 4 and World of Warcraft had some really nice ones recently as well

[@stephans8577]

@@DrMarioMorales hold up? They still set the bar.

[@Zerradable]

Seriously, there is no excuse for not reacting to any WoW cinematic in a video with such theme.

[@sirforcer]

I want to see more in-engine cinematics/animation talked about here. There's a lot of nuances to making something that looks good but can also render in real time that I would love to see y'all talk about. Even non-cinematics but just gameplay could be fun. Talking about how you make animations that look good flowing between each other when you can't control what the player is going to do next would be a really interesting topic.

[@raulespinosa4427]

I would love a “cinematographers react” to good and bad shots and what makes a good shot

[@amadeusmalonje6948]

Yes!

[@jayjay24155]

YES!!

[@bulman07]

Roger Deakins

[@accawaan8145]

Would be mad!

[@AlexSDU]

Great idea indeed.

[@spencermoore5986]

Death Stranding cinematics are so unique. It's hyper-realistic yet not photo-realistic. And it blends and looks better than most games that go for the photorealistic look. Worth a react video for sure!

[@daekrFINGERS]

Definitely worth taking a look at. What an incredible game.

[@spencermoore5986]

​@@daekrFINGERS Great game and story. I remember the graphics looking incredible but not photo-realistic...yet flowing with the game and ultimately looking BETTER because of it.

[@DTyrannosaurus]

I avoided this game for as long as I could because it just didn’t look interesting to me. When I finally gave in to the directors cut on PS5, I was so hooked… about 288 amazed hours later, I’m in the Platinum club (ama).

[@ondururagittandeska2004]

Wow so unique Not Like MGR did that as well.

[@flllpmajor]

Death Stranding has the best cutscenes I've ever seen in a videogame. Would love for them to react to the corpse disposal cutscene near the start of the game, where the void out happens

[@joaovictorkelima2551]

Blur Studios was the reason I spent hours and hours of my teenage years replaying these cinematic masterpieces over and over again

[@TheChunkyLad-c5b]

These 2 eps have been my favourite so far, and Jerome may be my favourite guest. His knowledge, passion and respect for the craft and artists are just brilliant to watch. You guys are awesome.

[@tedley70]

I love the way he speaks about his competition: it takes professional maturity to identify your competitors as making you better and holding you to a high standard, rather than as the guys who might "take" your contracts.

[@justaviking]

I love Jerome's respect and admiration for his competitors. That speaks volumes of his character. It reminds us that they all push each other to improve the craft, and also demonstrates the confidence he has in his own team.

[@quinn_wbfm]

The SWTOR trailers (particularly Sacrifice & Betrayed) are some of the most compelling storytelling creations I’ve ever seen - and they’re only 4-6 minutes long! Blur Studios is incredible 🙌

[@MrSpannners]

They're so good, I rewatch them regularly. I would love to watch a show that was made in that animated style. But it's so much work it would probably never happen.

[@quinn_wbfm]

@@MrSpannners There with you haha, I’ve probably watched the cinematics through a couple times a year since Sacrifice. I actually think a fully-animated SW film in this style is becoming more and more of a possibility - with the huge success of shows such Arcane & Love Death and Robots I think popular IP holders will continue to tap into the audience interest for feature(+) length animated content in this cinematic style 🤞 here’s hoping!

[@SkintSNIPER262]

@@MrSpannners It's too much money

[@shivmag8175]

@@SkintSNIPER262 Mate, c'mon it's Disney/Lucasfilm, i'm sure they could afford a one off TV series/movie in this style.

[@SkintSNIPER262]

@@shivmag8175 it's $100,000 a minute. Or something like that

[@darthbek]

I am SO glad SWTOR cinematics are getting some love. Absolutely amazing. Every one is a winner. I've long said video game cinematics are some of the best artwork out there. Glad to see you guys covering it!

[@quinndombroskie4528]

Jed talking about generations of rendering software and how it works similar to the console cycle was so interesting. I would be very interested in a video that goes through the timeline of these renderers and shows the early work vs the later work. How many generations of rendering software has there even been? Do all the new rendering softwares come out at the same time just like new consoles? Seems like a very interesting topic to explore

[@WubbyPunch]

I think it’s heavily influenced by the console life cycles. PC master racers fail to see that they owe everything they brag about to the existence of consoles and the standardization that it creates to build upon.

[@modellking]

consoles push huge money, so any new console will bring huge renderer improovemnts just pushing what is possible. see the current UnrealEngine 5 and 5.1 Trailers compared to what games did just 3 years ago

[@scarletspidernz]

Consoles wouldn't exist without the PCMR pushing the edges of the tech, PCMR are the beta testers for everything studios and companies want to try, consoles are the nice packaged versions deployed to the masses that can't be bothered dealing with all the issues PC dealt with. Yes consoles give a uniform platform and baseline fixed positions but when developing they can't use console, they need the flexibility in case there's error causing too much resource usage, it starts with PC and get scaled down to fixed form for consoles These rendering/engine software companies aren't developing on consoles they're using the latest PC gear upgrading every few years to the latest and greatest so they can continue pushing the edge.

[@musicimpact7120]

I really hope next time, you guys start doing in-game cinematics. These days the in-game graphics are finally able to match the cutscenes from old ps2 games. With recent games like god of war, spiderman, horizon Forbidden West, the amount of detail that is being rendered on the models in real time is just insane. Would be really cool too see your guy's opinions!

[@blkarw13]

The first Dead Island game trailer, the one where the scene is going between reverse and forward has been one of the ones that really stuck with me over the years. an excellent piece of story telling and it looked great

[@Vordt_]

I'd really like it if yall did an animators react to Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Some of the animation in that is INCREDIBLY UNIQUE. The stuff near the end is just great, and I genuinely think yall could make an entire episode on it because of how unique and different a lot of the animation in that movie is.

[@AndrewDembouski]

Great suggestion I would love that

[@Vordt_]

@@AndrewDembouski The scenes later on with the "fldsmdfr" and the organic like, tendrils and organic functions that the machine has working for it are wild. Stuff like that is always so awesome to me, like bio engineering something as an animator. It's facial animations too are very cool, playing deeply into the cartoonish nature of its art style and having things like the dad's eyebrows moving up and down unnaturally to make him into an almost caricature of a gruff 40 year old fisherman. It's odd in that way where it's almost genre defining in its actual art and animation style, but rarely gets any recognition as far as I know.

[@swanclipper]

y'all - You & all (contraction)

[@FUBARguy107]

Flint Lock-wooood! 👮🏾‍♂️

[@Vordt_]

@@swanclipper my guy no one cares

[@KrustyBunion]

I've been following Blur Studios for a decade and they always amaze me with how talented they are

[@F1b0]

Onimusha 3 opening shocked me when it came out. It's umbeliveable to think a piece of that quality is 18 years old. It still holds today. Without even mention its incredible fights scenes (try to guess the big name behind those choreographies)

[@anupampeter3456]

Ahh.. I remember the cloth simulation being just unbelievable to me even as a kid.

[@armoredp]

Probably one of the if not the best intro animations of all time. I still remember it and I can't imagine it looks horrible even today.

[@rahzixofash8594]

THIS!!!! Bro, it's still so good even by today's standards.

[@marlonphilgence991]

Onimusha 3 has an incredible opening choreographed by Donnie Yen. I’m honestly surprised it has not come up on this show before.

[@rahzixofash8594]

Oh shit. I Never knew who did the choreography, that's awesome. (It's probably said in big bold letters in the cinematic haha) Honestly though, choreographer aside I'm surprised it hasn't shown up just off of visual merit alone. Such a tight and clean cinematic, even by today's standards.

[@ryansizemore5064]

I have still not played 3 but gotta make it happen.

[@ikkinwithattitude]

It would be really neat to see an episode dedicated to the evolution of Square-Enix's Visual Works, from their very early attempts in FFVII and the massive improvement they made for FFVIII/Chrono Cross, to the huge advancements shown by FFX (the Sending)/Kingdom Hearts (the opening cinematic) and XIII (the scene with the summons on the racetrack) for their respective eras, to still-mindblowing stuff like FFXIV's Answers cinematic/FFXV's ending cinematic/Kingdom Hearts' CG replication of scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 3/FFVIIR's Shinra museum cinematic.

[@jedironin380]

"Beyond Good and Evil 2" The softness and motion of her hair is fantastic! The very-fine level of detail that is possible these days is just amazing and getting better all the time. Big Thank You to all the "magicians" who make this possible!

[@SkinSlicer]

It's an iconic trailer at this point but sadly we'll never see it come out. RIP.

[@virtualtrucker26]

Damn. X-Men Origins: Wolverine aged like wine. Can't believe it's already that long 🥲

[@Cardiopazia]

Actually a pretty great licensed game

[@ProxyDoug]

I was thinking about how the game was famous for being better than the film...I just realized that's not a compliment.

[@LoveMakeShareTV]

Not specifically a cutscene, but the "It's about time" announcement for StarCraft 2 was maybe the most hype-generating piece of video game media I recall up to that point. It felt special in a way that nothing else had quite managed.

[@buffyVampslyr364]

I'm glad Digic got brought up! I still remember the first game cinematic that blew me away with it's realism was for Assassin's Creed II, it was set during Carnival. It told such a story in such a short amount of time, and was visually composed so beautifully, and the people just looked so incredibly real to me at the time. I just looked up who did that, and I'm pretty sure it was Digic, which is cool. 😊 Thank you for all your amazing work and contributions to game cinematic history/evolution and sharing it with us here! 💛

[@nwstraith]

The warhammer shot gave me freaking goosebumps when I first saw it. Absolutely incredible work!

[@nphueber]

Would love to see you guys react to the OG Starcraft cinematics, I remember being blown away by them as a kid

[@chimeron260]

Death Stranding has some of the best cinematics in gaming. Kojima was so confident in his cinematics he ended the game with a 3 hour cinematic. Don’t know if you count those as they are real time renders though. The pre-rendered cinematics in Final Fantasy 13 are really great too, especially on the PS3 where they were uncompressed HD video.

[@xmgaming2444]

Kojima games have always had excellent cinematic quality. Metal Gear games are often some of the best looking games of their console generations. I remember seeing MGS4 for the first time and being blown away, then it happened again and again with every game after. He's got that magic touch.

[@musicimpact7120]

I really wish they made a video about in-game cinematics. Stuff that is exclusive to video games. That would be so cool.

[@csneon2000]

I love the Path of Hate video. GUNSHIP used it for their "We Own the Sky" music video and both go very well together. Also, knowing these large VFX companies are using 3DS Max. Its the program that I used during my degree program and feel most comfortable with.

[@JH_1981]

I was wondering if that was same video from the GUNSHIP music video. I bet only 4 of us in comments know who GUNSHIP is though lol

[@csneon2000]

@@JH_1981 When I saw the clip. I immediately know it was from GUNSHIP. That song got me into the band and the whole Synthwave genre.

[@AusSkiller]

I'd coincidently had that on repeat while working for the last week, such amazing music and the video is equally excellent.

[@jasonblalock4429]

I'd love to see you do an episode on *in-engine* VG cinematics sometime. That's such an interesting variation, since the designers have to work within the limitations of the engine while still being as cinematic as possible.

[@ajbp95]

That plane chasing scene is absolutely stunning! Would be great to make a lot a comics come to life.

[@Zinger7107]

The opening cinematic from Onimusha 3 from 2004 is still one of the best I've ever seen.

[@ProxyDoug]

I remember hearing how Capcom assembled that studio, called Robot, for cinematics like that, but I don't think they lasted long after releasing that game.

[@coteof7055]

you guys ABSOLUTELY should do a react of the Answers cinematic from Final Fantasy XIV. Absiolutely incredible bit of storytelling and design.

[@samends8863]

Aaaand Heavensward. Maybe Shadowbringers? Stormblood is nice too. Endwalker..

[@marcopoloonpollo5937]

I would love to see cinematic reviewed by the current cutting-edge games from this year. In fact, it would be great to have companies talk about improvements they made to sequels (e.g. Horizon Zero Dawn vs. Horizon Forbidden West).

[@ryo-kai8587]

This is a huge one. I'm currently replaying Horizon Zero Dawn, and it's amazing. The world is absolutely stunning, and character models are great... but the facial animation is deep in the uncanny valley for all but the biggest setpiece moments. From what I've seen, the improvement in Forbidden West is mind-blowing-though I've yet to play it since I'm waiting for a PC release. Can't wait for that day, because I'm still amazed at the footage I've seen so far. I also just really wanna play another Horizon game because the first one is top-tier.

[@marcopoloonpollo5937]

@@ryo-kai8587 Every qualm you likely have with HZD seems to get addressed for the sequel. Some break immersion for the sake of gameplay, but it seems worth it, like the developers really listened to the players. Gameplay aside, the visual improvements are massive, in my opinion.

[@mackenzie_ish]

I'd love to see David Jaffe on the show as a guest, he's the creator, director, and designer of the God of War and Twisted Metal games, and it would be cool to hear more about what goes into not only the animated side of games but the entire designing process; how a game goes from an idea to a full product, how level design works, the differences between animating for a movie or TV series vs a video game, all that stuff. I'm glad they're finally delving into video games on the channel, they're super interesting to look at (not just the modern games either, even the older ones have some cool mechanics and design choices)!

[@Csumbi]

the DC Universe cinematic was always one of my all time favorites. I always love how Wonder Woman looked in that trailer.

[@qwan3356]

Still gives me shivers with how that game opens. Freaking top tier.

[@giuniral]

Onimusha 3's intro has everything. Wide shots with dozens of characters, particle effects, close shots with decent textures and high-detail models, great animation, and fight choreography... I had to watch it every time before playing.

[@joshw1619]

A criminally underappreciated cinematic!!

[@ShaneDotz]

Let’s go! New artist reacts, one of my favorite parts of the weekend.

[@frogfan449]

ill repeat my comment from the previous video, which is that i would love to see an in-engine cutscene in this series. it would be interesting to see an analysis of how the techniques for those differ from pre-rendered cinematics. my recommendation is the intro sequence of deus ex or maybe you would want to look at something with more modern graphics

[@ProxyDoug]

Another good old game to look into would be Vagrant Story because it does a lot of cool tricks to fill a poorly lit room with characters when they actually only had 3 models. For modern games, I would suggest checking FF7 Remake for the lighting and God of War Ragnarök for the transitions.

[@MsAsh221]

I would love for you guys to react to the opening scene of Sonic Unleashed. It holds up surprisingly well since 2008.

[@donaldmelvin5246]

So I just watched a clip from the movie "never back down". It is the beat down competition. It was so awesome back in the day. So since I have watched stuntmen, vfx, animators reeact. You have taught me to watch moviesor TV shows in a different perspective. I see now that the end fights of never back down are so cut and moving from one line to the other.

[@JanPospisilArt]

That Mark of Chaos cinematic, man, I watched that on repeat so much. Excellent atmosphere.

[@eChuckNorris]

I've always been amazed at how far the final fantasy games pushed the consoles they were made for. Amazing cinematics that never seem outdated.

[@hermanbazirakibirango1625]

Thanks for the reactions to movies and VFX in general. They help us grow and take note of the smallest things. I have a reaction to the Lightsaber redesign you made though!

[@legomacinnisinc]

Man, I've loved cinematics like this for as long as I can remember. I love seeing people go into them in more detail. It's hard to say what I would like to see more of because all my favorites are Blur stuff you already covered haha I will say though, anything done by Riot for League of Legends is pretty fun and getting someone from their staff to go through it would be dope

[@BestNickNameEver]

this. i would love to see an episode of rito's cinematic

[@centurion792]

Rainbow Six Siege invitational cinematics are pretty insane for a game (originial operator intros too). Season pass intros (where they introduce the newest of operators) are animated in such a neat way that they could merit their own animators react segement too :D Edit: Typo

[@peterstauffer]

I love how he didn’t answer Niko’s last question at all 😂

[@ryanelliott6706]

The 4th SWTOR cinematic for Fallen Empire has always been one of my favorites. Tells an emotional story in 3 minutes. Will probably always be in my top 5 favorite game cinematics ever.

[@PenitusVox]

One of my favorite cinematics is the intro to Kingdom Hearts. It looked great at the time and I think it pairs a nice amount of realism with stylization.

[@stomyn]

Kingdom Hearts has some fantastic opening cinematics throughout the series

[@paulengland1860]

One the best intro cinematic for a game I've seen is Onimusha 3: Demon Siege from 2004. It has this absolutely wild cinematic that is so detailed and huge in scale. Lots of cool combat parts, too. Hopefully you'll check it out. Also, as a side. You should also check out the short showcase but called Laviathan, created pretty much single handed by one person. Keep it going guys, really enjoying your channel. Take care & Roll high.

[@theworldsmostplagiarizedma2436]

Video game cinematics are an untapped resource for these kinds of videos and I’m excited to see you guys do more of these.

[@Joltte]

Some of the Starcraft Cinematics are great! The old games have that fun jank and the newer ones are quite slick, specifically the kerrigan v zeratul cinematic is awesome!

[@davprz9643]

really glad DcUniverseOnline got some recognition it has some of my favorite cinematics

[@Treebsquire]

I really hope you do Onimusha 3's opening cut scene at some point. It holds up really well but was absolutely mind blowing at the time.

[@hexencorner666]

One of the best and most epic intros to a videogame ever!!! As "simple" as it looks, the last part with Takeshi Kaneshiro and Jean Reno close it perfectly. Other that would be amazing, is the Castlevania Lord of Shadows 2 first trailer... it's so unfortunate that the game is so mediocre, but that trailer is something else. And of course, LOK Soul Reaver intro, yoy want to talk about iconic, that intro define the PS1 era of games cinematics.

[@0giraffe0]

Anything from either of the Onimusha games. Those games had the best looking and the most compelling cut scenes.

[@phoenixshorts6531]

My favorite cutscene also happens to be a Blur production. The Halo 2 Anniversary cinematics, specifically the ones with Lord Hood. The way his face moves differently due to his scars, and being able to see his tongue moving in his mouth just makes these scenes have that much more believeability.

[@simonvilleneuve6077]

I work as a cinematic designer and as cool as this video was, it's not telling the full story! Many, MANY scenes are now done in realtime, includes character customization, day/night cycles, branching stories, NPCs in the background doing their own stuff. It would be amazing for this to cover this relatively unknown aspect of cutscenes in videogames today!

[@BernicePanders]

Have you guys considered doing a full episode on just Stargate franchise? It's pretty huge! Also, my first CGI movie was FINAL FANTASY: SPIRITS WITHIN, which I just saw again recently. Have you looked at that yet? 🧐

[@hydrakn]

they did spirits within before need them to look at the final fantasy xiv game trailers (cinematics)!

[@krrowonyx]

Something i still think is cool to see is the evolution of game trailers. One in particular is all of the the final fantasy 14 trailers, the difference between them is quite a lot

[@hydrakn]

Agreed, do FFXIV!

[@szh496]

You should react to some cutscenes in Mortal Kombat 11 too!! They're just way too well made to be in a videogame!!

[@CharlesVanNoland]

With stuff like DIGIC's cartoon stylized works, an idea that comes to mind is simply allowing artists to hand-draw shading directly onto a frame of the scene geometry, and that is just saved onto a texture that's projected onto the geometry so that it can move around and animate while having the hand-drawn shading mapped onto it. The caveat is that you would also need to draw multiple frames of shading for when geometry moves enough within a single shot, and flip or blend between these hand-drawn hash-mark shading textures. It's just paint-on-model but per-shot. Most shots are short enough and don't involve enough motion for shading to change much, so that's basically one frame for an artist to hand-shade.

[@BrockandNikkiLooney]

Oh no I watched from episode 1 to this as a binge and now I gotra wait 2 weeks? Thank god I'm Subscribed! Love your stuff! :) lol

[@knightbolton2125]

Another great episode! I’ve always liked the cinematics from Skylanders, specifically Trap Team. They’re not as advanced as the stuff on here but they’re a lot of fun to see.

[@lucas_lipp]

My favorite game cinematic is still Flames of Truth from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, but all the FFXIV cinematics are fantastic, with the Shadowbringers one being another stand out.

[@hydrakn]

FFXIV ARR and the Coil cinematics were amazing, SHB was super hype, so was Endwalker. Heavensward will always be my favorite but I think the opening music really takes the breath away

[@lucas_lipp]

@@hydrakn The Heavensward one is also fantastic. I just made the mistake of watchig it after having beaten ARR, since I didn't know about the updates. lol

[@hydrakn]

@@lucas_lipp ah lol! I saw it at fanfest and people were going nuts! 12 bless you!

[@lucas_lipp]

@@hydrakn May the Fury be ever vigilant

[@ElhoimCrow]

Final Fantasy X had some great cinematics, especially the dance of Yuna sending the souls to the afterlife.

[@sirjack6285]

Hi guys. Loving your shows. I get excited every time I receive the notification that there is a new video out. Have you guys tried inviting anime creators from JPN on the show? Would really like to hear their takes on some of the most iconic anime from way back all the way to the contemporary ones.

[@jacobwansleeben3364]

My personal favourite video game character in terms of how they're animated in-game (outside of cutscenes) is Hisako from Killer Instinct.

[@AlcyoneHere]

Beyond the Aquila Rift is such a technical master piece and an absolute banger of a story. Thank you Studio Unit !!!

[@holykuhmeinefresse]

One of the episodes that really made a mark in my mind and left me back genuinely terrified.

[@54Immortal]

Did you know it's based off a book.

[@SplitSniper7]

I'd love to see them do some of League of Legends cinematic videos. Their music videos are amazing!

[@Kwaspo]

Oh my god I never knew they did the League of Legends cinematics. Such beautiful work and by far my favorite cinematics from any game.

[@ProxyDoug]

They actually made those models available on a behind the scenes post on one of the League of Legends blogs. The textures are ridiculously large.

[@TheRealGh0st141]

Bloody good work! Stay Frosty boys!! 🤘🏻🖤💀

[@donalddickerson206]

Loving the video game cinematics. Would love to see you address the first World of Warcraft trailer cinematic. And the Starcraft 2 trailer cinematics. Also, in your other video you analyzed Warcraft 3, but only the first cinematic, which was actually the worst of them all (as it was built on a very early demo IIRC). Would love to see you go back and review some of the other WC3 cinematics, specifically: Ascending the Frozen Throne, Fall of Lordaeron, and Destruction of Dalaran. Especially since they were done after a lot of work had been done on the engine (when they switched from WC2 to WC3 style stuff). Plus, let's be honest. You definitely need to do the Raid Shadow Legends Ad cinematics--those are honestly so impressively good compared to in-game graphics that I can't believe you haven't done them already.

[@dylanmaguire3595]

Would love to see a side by side showcase of the opening cutscene of final fantasy 7 and its remake analysed by you guys. To see how each of them pushed the limits of their respective consoles

[@jthom269]

I second this.

[@ZiggySol]

I'm always amazed at how well the Mark of Chaos cinematic holds up

[@heyitsgabe1093]

You guys should totally watch the Sonic Unleashed intro cinematic some time. What a beautiful piece of animation!

[@Ramen-fb4xr]

Just about to say this one! Still revisit occasionally

[@Smommasboy]

So glad you guys touched on Sonnie's edge and really went in on Beyond the Aquila Rift with Jerome, two of my favorite shorts from LDR for totally different reason, with the action and intensity of the former and the intricate facial animation and storytelling

[@daggumnametaken]

The opening cinematic for Onimusha 3 is still a personal favourite of mine. It is old as hell and I would love to see you guys react to it.

[@EmeraldEyeProductions]

Oh, hell yes! Can’t wait for the continuation of this series. There is SO much good shit

[@ewanbristow]

Video game cinematics are SO underrated, so glad this is being covered

[@ewanbristow]

@@Mrturtlestomps damn okay

[@GamingGaugevid]

I would love to see reactions to some of the (real time!) cinematics in games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Stuff that pushes what is done in real time.

[@iaMk69]

That DCUO cinematic is single-handedly one of the coolest short introductions to the premise of a game. Remember seeing people pass it off as the "Justice League 2017 movie trailer" in several fan-made projects. 😂

[@jthom269]

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is an amazing example, not just of graphics and rendering, but of character, emotion, and amazing cinematography. The camera work in this game is superb and the small details in motion capture go above and beyond what most games will achieve. Make sure you use the PS5 version if you ever critique this game.

[@NathanNimi]

You guys have to react to the Assassin's Creed trailers!

[@mohammadashikurrahman7530]

They have to react to all of them. Each trailers are technical marvel in cgi history.

[@emiferguson6442]

I would love to see you guys talk about some of the Blizzard cinematics in one of these videos. The CG trailers for WoW/SC/Diablo are still so incredible, even after all these years.

[@NneonNTJ]

Yet, you leave out the Overwatch ones which are some of their best works

[@emiferguson6442]

@@NneonNTJ I actually love OW, but to me at least, the GC cinematics for the other Blizzard games seem much more technically impressive. Especially the old WoW/SC cinematic trailers from 10+ years ago.

[@BeanDogTally]

Wrath of the Lich King for sure!

[@theplaneshifter803]

Another interesting angle for this would be taking a look an in engine cinematics and what are the differences of them from pre-rendered in a technical and skill level.

[@kabalder]

Yeah, the game-engine use in that sense is a horribly underappreciated part of many game- productions. Sometimes, it's not just used as a poor-man's cinematic - but instead directed as part of the game, placing you in the game-universe, etc. But since there are so many obstacles to real-time rendering looking like a pre-rendered cinematic, the studios that do this consciously are not exactly legion. And they tend to be keyed to particular hardware (and therefore a specific publisher). Studios that stand out could be things like the ones who made the the kirby games with the bendy yarn, the mario-games with the bouncy surfaces, etc. These are basically mathematics-generated graphics, reduced in real-time (and not one-shot shaders prepared to replace a ham-fisted removal and replace of a resource behind an explosion or something like that). There were some studios who did this on PC: Psygnosis (later Studio Liverpool, whose swansong was WipeoutHD). They had something called Lander3d a ton of years ago - all real-time relying on Glide libraries on the 3dfx cards at the time. Factor 5, who did the legendary Rogue Squadron games - these are all in-game cinematics (who, by sheer coincidence, I'm sure, like SL, ended their studio on a ps3 exclusive with Lair - best game ever XD, but also in-game engine generation for the whole thing). Heavenly Sword is another one (studio that made Journey to the West, and the most critically acclaimed Devil May Cry game ever /s). They also were doing most of the game in real-time, and putting conscious effort into making the game-time have the cinematic treatment in terms of setup, etc. ..to varying degrees of success, admittedly, but still - an attempt was made. Suckerpunch has some animation work that doesn't exist anywhere else, and also have a guy doing the camera-algorithms that are unique - it actually works, using algorithms to avoid getting stuck behind a box, moving slightly depending on the environment (that can't be staged, obviously). Shadow of the Colossus, like Niko mentions - all in-game, with the various sacrifices that were necessary to make to get there, like in all the titles. But - all of the titles also add something else, that you wouldn't get in a cinematic pre-rendered scene: objects that belong in the game-world, and have presence there. Physics that are the same between scenes, consistency in lighting, in how the objects are portrayed. 3d depth that you would avoid trying to make in a cg pre-render, because you don't want to deal with the perspective-distortion and the incidental issues. So when you see something like Killzone 2, and you realize that all the lights are rendered with incidents in game, and that that is what is causing the lighting to be uniform - as opposed to what you would normally do, make a flat area with a transition to another area with a different lighting setting, and then pre-generate the palette on those surfaces - then that's suddenly interesting. Or when you realize (like in DICE's frostbyte engine games) that the model of the player is animated under you when you move, allowing leaning on cover dynamically, making the model avoid obstacles, etc. -- as opposed to being literally an empty spot, or a simplified model with a high res bobbing gun in front, like what is typically done. Then that's interesting. Because it allows game-design to not just ignore rules that cinematic movies have - you can avoid the typical "it's just a game" rules as well. So this - arguably dead end of the gaming industry at the moment - is where the most interesting animation work happens, it's where the most interesting tech is. And it's often supplanted, unfortunately, by large developers who understand the need to just ignore pushing the envelope on tech that is by now decades old in many cases, and instead run with ready-made frameworks on the one side - and then pushing the rest of the budget to a cinematic cut-scene on the other. Because that's what people want to see anyway (according to the accounting office). But if there was more focus on this, the "old tech", and interesting tech, how it was used, why there's "goroud shading" in Tie Fighter (and why the gigantic texture plates in super-hd on the newer games don't match that feel of depth). Then that tech would start to be useful, and it is where investment would happen: in real-time generation of "cinematics". Not as "machinima", or for exclusive use when moving the camera in behind the player at the start of the game - but in creating real-time generated immersion.

[@kaseydimmett9395]

I don't recall this having been done yet, but I'm watching The Animatrix segment "Final Flight of the Osiris" and for being produced in 2002 and released in 2003, it's stunning. There's cloth sim, physics sim, motion blur, motion capture performances, gunplay, swordplay, and a nice one-shot drop culminating in a hero pose. The director of the segment also worked on Avatar!

[@Jasx_501]

Thank you SO much for doing Blur video game cinematics! I love this kind of thing. Please do: Dante's Inferno, Batman Arkham City, and Starcraft 2.

[@iain-duncan]

When I saw what blur did in halo 2 I could have cried. Such incredible work done make my literal favorite game into a modern masterpiece

[@badsportblack1445]

Never thought I'd see DCUO on this channel, glad the intro got the love it deserves

[@InfamousSwoosh]

this guy looks so much like simon cowell it’s freaking me out

[@ronbloke9912]

Couple of suggestions: -'React to practical effects' or how to improve? Hellraiser (can't improve!) American werewolf in London (also can't improve!) Indiana Jones Raiders of lost Ark, Tremors, Evil Dead (all), Argento's Demons 2 -Compare werewolf transformation; The Howling, The Wolfman, American werewolf in Paris etc -Any Zombies comparison, especially Robert Rodriguez in Planet Terror -Action: Live, Die, Repeat. Battlefield Los Angeles, Battlefield Earth -Foreign: Night Watch, The Host Thanks!

[@jaypringle-martin6680]

One that sticks in my head is the new doom(not eternal). When he's walking through the complex and all the scientists are trembling and he snatches the guards rifle. In game, cut scene, first person. Beautiful.

[@harmvzon]

Digic made that trailer in 2006, for a long long time it’s been one of the best game cinematics around. Lighting, camera work, animation, modeling, art direction. Basically everything is executed on a perfect level. Digic and Platige, certainly in that time, were a force to be reconned with

[@harmvzon]

@CorridorCrew0128 @KZbin please fox this.

[@dcrafty427]

I feel like a very underrated game cinematic is the intro to Gran Turismo 4. As a kid in 2004 it always blew me away for how good it was for the time. I would love to see you guys talk about that one from Polyphony Digital!

[@fgs_Sverige]

You should do an episode based just in Unit image. The consistent hyper high quality of their projects is mind blowing.

[@Megacooler96_]

It's so impressive seeing these cinematics over the year. They need to make a full movie/show like these for Star Wars, Halo, ect...

[@ManadaCan]

The opening cinematic from Ghost of Tsushima is gorgeous. Also the title sequence about 30 minutes in. 🤘🏻