Digic Pictures, a computer animation studio based in Budapest, Hungary, announced work on the cinematics for the new WARHAMMER: MARK OF CHAOS RTS game. The anticipated classic will be published by Namco Hometek Inc. in 2006. A subsidiary of Cinergi Interactive, Digic Pictures previous works include rendered cinematics for ARMIES OF EXIGO, an RTS PC game, as well as 60 visual effects created for the Hollywood blockbuster, TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES.
Creating cinematics for a game is like creating visual effects for movies that demand the highest quality, except there is no film stock to build upon; everything is CG, said producer Gabor Marinov.
Digic introduces the vast, well-established Warhammer fantasy world in a :40 teaser, as well as in a three-minute intro film already in progress. The fully animated movies depict various Chaos forces, warriors, champions, Goblins, Daemons, Empire soldiers, Warrior Priests and High Elves. While the teaser gives us only a taste of wrath in battle, the intro will set up the games story.
Digics cinematics used Maya for character animation and was rendered in RenderMan and mental ray. For compositing, Digic used Nuke and Fusion.
"The efficient yet very flexible pipeline, which evolved here during the past few years, makes it possible for us to concentrate on researching new technologies and developing special tools that can be incorporated in the workflow instantly, helping our artists to realize their ideas more effectively," explained CG supervisor Robert Kovacs.
Digic Pictures (www.digicpictures.com) is a part of the Cinergi Interactive business group (www.cinergi-interactive.com) owned by the Hungarian-born Hollywood producer, Andrew G. Vajna.
Namco Hometek Inc. (www.namco.com) is the U.S. consumer division of Namco Ltd, a Tokyo-based world leader in the high-tech entertainment industry. Based in Santa Clara, California, Namco Hometek Inc. is an award-winning videogames publisher for the next-generation game consoles. Namco has created some of the industry's leading videogame franchises: TEKKEN, SOULCALIBUR, DEAD TO RIGHTS, PAC-MAN WORLD, RIDGE RACER, TIME CRISIS and ACE COMBAT.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
