Earlier this year I got pretty bored and decided to do something creative in my spare time. I've been wanting to do a fight scene for a while and decided to develop a story with World of Warcraft. There are some great machinimas created by fans and at one point I thought about making a machinima as well but animation is what I do and I decided to use my skills in making something.

About the song Hide & Seek, although I don't speak or understand Japanese I thought the song fitting and would help me tell the story. I don't really have to understand the lyrics of a song to like it. It's more about the music and pacing and hopefully the song isn't about baking cakes when I'm showing fighting. If you're offended by foreign words then don't watch. There are some Spanish, German, and English songs that I'm considering for future episodes and even songs from previous fan videos you may have seen.

I don't know what kind of a reaction I'll be getting but I may not be able to respond to all of the emails. I'll try and answer the most frequently asked questions by updating this summary.
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update - December 28, 2008

First off I'd like to thank all of you for all of the compliments and even the criticisms. I set out to try and make something I think would be cool and hoped others would think so too. I thought I'd update this summary and give some background info in case people were interested and also address the some issues people had.

Many have been asking how the movie was created. I'm sure others have guessed that the models were exported and imported into a 3D application. The WoW model viewer has an option to export models and 3D Studio Max is the 3D app I used to create BLIND. I won't get into the details but with minimal searching you can find out how to do it yourselves. Machinima sites also have information and even tutorials. Video editing was done with a mix of Adobe AfterEffects and Sony Vegas. Minor texture work was done in Photoshop. All of the software I used have downloadable demos and I encourage people to give it a try. I'm not going to lie to you. There's no magic button that makes things look good. It takes practice and dedication. Also I'm going to respectfully decline anyone asking for aid with their movies. I put off playing WoW and other games for many months to create BLIND. It's time I started playing games again and then there's the upcoming layoff I have to worry about.

The music wasn't something I choose at random but an element that I consider to be just as important as the models, lighting, animations,...etc. It was the driving force for the pace and the inspiration for the story. Its modern sound did make me hesitant but you have other machinimas and boss kill videos to thank/blame for helping me decide to use it. :) Since others have used modern music versus grand orchestrated scores I thought that was enough to soften the blow and wouldn't seem a huge shock. With the feedback I've gotten consider your voices heard and it'll be something I take into account in the future. I still think I made the right decision and it's not something I'm going to go back and change so lets agree that we disagree. :)

There have been some comments on the animation and I totally admit that I'm not the greatest animator. When you work on something in your spare time for fun after a long while it ceases to be fun and becomes more like work. So you have to know when to call it good enough and stop and move on rather then spend countless more days,weeks, or even months on it. Try putting together a 7minute long animation by yourself while working long hours at a full time job. It's not as easy as it sounds, hehe.

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update - June 11, 2009

I just wanted to give an update since it's been so long and I get emails asking what I'm currently doing. I still hope to make more TCoW videos but have to focus on other things right now like finding a fulltime job, lol. I've been working on animations but for my demo reel because animators have to show a video of their work. I've been working on some stuff that shows a broader view of my abilities. Nothing relating to WoW though.

For those interested I did an interview a month or so ago at http://wow.buffed.de/features/4714/das-interview-mit-percula-im-original.

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update - November 1, 2009

Hey everyone, I thought I'd give an update since I still get plenty of people asking about future videos. Currently I don't have any plans to continue with The Craft of War. I've been delaying letting people know this because I didn't want to disappoint. I had thought people would forget about BLIND after a while but there seems to be a steady stream of new WoW players that see the video and ask about a continuation. Why won't I continue? It has to do with me being laid off from work earlier this year. I had to focus on finding a job so I quit WoW because, I'm sure you would agree, playing WoW takes up a lot of time, lol. Since my forced break from WoW I've lost my interest in playing although I still visit the WoW blogs and am still part of the officers mailing list for my guild. Maybe I'll find something that'll motivate me to play again. :) I think I'd have to start playing again in order to be motivated to make more The Craft of War videos.

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update - August 1, 2010

Hey everyone. I've replied to a few emails about this but I figured others might want to know that I've been working on another animated short. Like before I'm working on it in my spare time so it's still a long way from being done. I'm attempting to create my own characters along with the animations so this is a more ambitious project than BLIND. This new animation may not be as popular as BLIND because it doesn't involve WoW but it will still be awesome. There will be action and there will be robots.

Percula
[email protected].