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The Struggle v1.0

This bundle is marked as high quality. It exceeds standards and is highly desirable.
162746-albums7255-picture104902.jpg


v1.0

1665 AD, England. A film portraying the horrors of the plague epidemic and an inner emotional fight of the plague doctor.

Made for Cinematic Contest #6. Map is not protected, do whatever you want with it. Special thanks to DivineArms for his amazing voice acting service. Nudity content has been approved by site director Archian. Duration of cinematic sequence is 4:59 minutes. Development period: 2015-11-09 - 2015-12-21.


Models:

StriderS http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/574789
Vaanel http://www.wcunderground.com/the-pantheon-t1958.html
Talavaj http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/stone-sword-terraining-mapping-resource-238310/
Vexiant http://www.wcunderground.com/graveyard-trees-t2553.html http://www.wcunderground.com/dead-trees-t2530.html
Daerone & Su1c1d4l http://www.wcunderground.com/gilneas-trees-bushes-t1305.html
TNV http://wc3-maps.ru/load/modeli_dlja...ft_dlja_wc3/pak_zhenshhin_iz_wow/67-1-0-27796
Laya http://wc3-maps.ru/load/modeli_dlja...rcraft_dlja_wc3/temnaja_ehlfijka/67-1-0-18143
Dimbasik http://wc3-maps.ru/load/modeli_dlja_warcraft_3/modeli_nezhiti_wc3/vedma/66-1-0-14630
Satreas http://www.wcunderground.com/detmold-t4385.html
Leper Gnome http://www.wcunderground.com/scarlet-priest-t3071.html
DzhekVorobey & DiKey51 http://www.wcunderground.com/wells-t2875.html
Born²Modificate http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=83031
sc_freek http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=86064
ChrisTorm http://www.wcunderground.com/wod-iron-horde-doodads-t3711.html http://www.wcunderground.com/wod-talador-doodads-t3705.html
neogaidenx http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/models-530/glowing-light-65911/?prev=search=light&d=list&r=20
Nbah http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/models-530/real-fire-51737/?prev=search=fire&d=icon&r=20
RightField http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/models-530/storybook-49672/?prev=search=book&d=list&r=20

Skins:

http://forums.3dtotal.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=112450&stc=1&d=1206056904
Varimathras http://www.wcunderground.com/darkshore-tileset-t4264.html

Music:

Halgrath - Horoathea Mass of Aegorath
Kammarheit - The Poignant
Atrium Carceri - Through the Tunnels Again
Dronny Darko & protoU - Extinction

Sounds:

Rain Loop http://soundbible.com/2011-Rain-Background.html
Footsteps http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/footsteps/
Thunder http://soundbible.com/2015-Thunder-Strike-1.html
Crying http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/crying
Doors http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/doors/
Flies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRcjpUGuvZ4
Body Fall https://www.freesound.org/people/CosmicEmbers/sounds/160740/
Cough http://soundbible.com/tags-cough.html
Knocking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZDm_zKCIo
Breathing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1MPgNGI1Ao
Cloth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUrdIk5Rjo0
Body fall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOCQHkWn-4
Brush http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/painting
Bells http://www.freesfx.co.uk/soundeffects/church_bells/
Male Crying https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UA6Y4AiSKc
Bad Cough https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr09KiVWMdU
Drop http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/drop?p=14

Voice Acting:

DivineArms
APproject's girlfriend

Digital Art from DeviantArt:

Crazymeau http://www.deviantart.com/art/Plague-Doctor-339249354
Snook-8 http://snook-8.deviantart.com/art/craaaa-348954315
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emtWLP9.png


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fXFXUKl.png

WATCH NOW


Keywords:
Cinematic, APproject, The Struggle, Struggle, WoW, Warcraft, Film, Movie, Contest, 6, England, History, Plague, Epidemic, Doctor, Nude.
Contents

The Struggle v1.0 (Map)

Reviews
18:21, 31st Dec 2015 StoPCampinGn00b: The impressiveness of the cinematic is more captivating than its story, as are with many short flicks with dark themes. Ain't nothing less to be expected from APproject's work. 5/5! Do note there is brief...

Moderator

M

Moderator

18:21, 31st Dec 2015
StoPCampinGn00b:
The impressiveness of the cinematic is more captivating than its story, as are with many short flicks with dark themes. Ain't nothing less to be expected from APproject's work. 5/5!

Do note there is brief non-sexual nudity which may be inappropriate for some.
 
Level 30
Joined
Nov 29, 2012
Messages
6,637
Another work from APproject and what can I say? Just amazing! The plot is truly good and has this psychological thrill in it. The camera work is good plus with the amazing scenery that adds up to the rich but terrifying world that you want the viewers to see, a dark and hopeless world filled with a grave disease. The dialogue is well thought of and is not your typical lines and they are done in a way for me poetically. You've played well with the animations for each characters involved. Seeing how Warcraft 3 is limited in these things, you've just found ways (or probably, I'm not just aware on how to do so) on how to play with much more complex animations, adding more life to the characters.

All in all, this deserves much praise. A 5/5 from me! A great gift for New year, aye!
 
Level 2
Joined
Sep 24, 2015
Messages
11
Wow... this was like a movie, i mean it was better then a movie :D good job, i hope to seeing more of your work in the future!!!
 
Level 28
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
2,340
Beautiful, very moody and most importantly (for me): very immersive. Well done APproject :D

Do you think of finishing it/further developing the cinematic, without the 5min mark? I hope so.

Btw I was surprised to see the so-called "camera fade out trick" to open the door, that we discussed at the thread, ha ha ha. Good luck with the contest!
 
Level 8
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
106
I really didn't think such cinematics to be possible in Warcraft 3. This must have taken you a massive amount of time and determination to complete.
Did she have to be nude though? :p
 
Level 31
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
2,555
Thanks, guys. :)
Do you think of finishing it/further developing the cinematic, without the 5min mark?
No, I think not. I had plans for portraying at least 2 plague victims at start, but time limitation forced me to make it work with only 1, but I guess I am okay with that.
Did she have to be nude though?
No, of course not. I contacted Staff and asked if this kind of non-sexual nudity was allowed, they allowed it, so I kept it for the shock and surprise factor. In case it was not allowed, I would have changed the skin, adding some bands and hide it. But the nude part is truly essential in this cinematic for an overal picture I am trying to portray, it gives another shade for the atmosphere.
 
Level 14
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
Messages
1,003
This is an utterly fantastic cinematic and honestly pushes the World Editor to its absolute limits.
5/5, one of the best cinematics I've seen on Warcraft III in my over ten years of playing this game.
Also, 3D rendered boobs aren't 18+, not even 15 years ago you could show boobs in a PG rated film (at least in America) and I'd like to work towards bringing that standard back.
 
Level 12
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
412
I see you put a lot of work into it but not so much thought on the story, the animations & sounds/voices are precisely spot on but I don't see anything interesting about it other than a weak plot which strikes it odd, so much work put into models rather than focusing on a good story. The nudity wasn't necessary but apparently that's the generation for you nude is *flashy* & pulls people into liking the cinematic because we all know when private parts are exposed "it's a must see" so let's rate it 5 stars why not.

I enjoy your work but this is not one of them, sorry.
 
Level 14
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
Messages
1,003
I see you put a lot of work into it but not so much thought on the story, the animations & sounds/voices are precisely spot on but I don't see anything interesting about it other than a weak plot which strikes it odd, so much work put into models rather than focusing on a good story. The nudity wasn't necessary but apparently that's the generation for you nude is *flashy* & pulls people into liking the cinematic because we all know when private parts are exposed "it's a must see" so let's rate it 5 stars why not.

I enjoy your work but this is not one of them, sorry.

Completely incorrect. In the 80s / 90s, the female breast was shown in PG rated films without anyone caring.
People are afraid of sexuality these days.
 
Level 31
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
2,555
I see you put a lot of work into it but not so much thought on the story, the animations & sounds/voices are precisely spot on but I don't see anything interesting about it other than a weak plot which strikes it odd, so much work put into models rather than focusing on a good story.
I completely disagree with you on this. In my opinion this was one of the best plots I have ever covered. The thing is, viewer needs a certain baggage of knowledge on the matter in order to relate in this story. I read myself various documents and historical sources describing how thing were back then and so I tried to portray the mood, symbolic meaning, emotional fight that was pretty much present back then. This was not only about some sickness that just spread and killed, it was about hopelessness, how desperate times were, how hard it was to understand the disease so that people grabbed the bible (there was even a scene with a Holy Bible on the table, no one really noticed it or noted about it though), how tough it has been for doctors who knew nothing about curing yet they had to take the blame for killing so to speak, how their word doomed families locked in the house for 40 days, literally locked and that's what you saw in this cinematic, and many more relations. First time I managed to create something based on emotions and moods, viewer has to emapthize with other characters and hopefully feel what is happening there with their own skin (also some knowledge is needed to understand what is going on, to relate), that was the core of the story. I focused on the portrayal of the feeling and emotion, how hard it was, and not on some clishe crap storyline about how a hero has to retrieve an artifact and save the world, what probably the most would call a good story.
The nudity wasn't necessary but apparently that's the generation for you nude is *flashy* & pulls people into liking the cinematic because we all know when private parts are exposed "it's a must see" so let's rate it 5 stars why not.
Of course it was not necessary, but why not? During that time filth, disease and naked bodies, open wounds, thieves, rapers were present, why would I censor it? As if back then women had no breasts. Nude is flashy indeed, but it was made just for the shock factor and the displayal of filth, because it was not sexual content, just naked breasts, also with black bubons over the body. Current generation would most likely want Nicki Minaj's meat bouncing all over the screen, this content of mine I call artistic instead. Anyway, it would be really sad if people voted 5/5 just because of nude content, as it was just a cherry on the pie, not the pie itself.
 
Level 14
Joined
Mar 27, 2008
Messages
1,003
I completely disagree with you on this. In my opinion this was one of the best plots I have ever covered. The thing is, viewer needs a certain baggage of knowledge on the matter in order to relate in this story. I read myself various documents and historical sources describing how thing were back then and so I tried to portray the mood, symbolic meaning, emotional fight that was pretty much present back then. This was not only about some sickness that just spread and killed, it was about hopelessness, how desperate times were, how hard it was to understand the disease so that people grabbed the bible (there was even a scene with a Holy Bible on the table, no one really noticed it or noted about it though), how tough it has been for doctors who knew nothing about curing yet they had to take the blame for killing so to speak, how their word doomed families locked in the house for 40 days, literally locked and that's what you saw in this cinematic, and many more relations. First time I managed to create something based on emotions and moods, viewer has to emapthize with other characters and hopefully feel what is happening there with their own skin (also some knowledge is needed to understand what is going on, to relate), that was the core of the story. I focused on the portrayal of the feeling and emotion, how hard it was, and not on some clishe crap storyline about how a hero has to retrieve an artifact and save the world, what probably the most would call a good story.

Of course it was not necessary, but why not? During that time filth, disease and naked bodies, open wounds, thieves, rapers were present, why would I censor it? As if back then women had no breasts. Nude is flashy indeed, but it was made just for the shock factor and the displayal of filth, because it was not sexual content, just naked breasts, also with black bubons over the body. Current generation would most likely want Nicki Minaj's meat bouncing all over the screen, this content of mine I call artistic instead. Anyway, it would be really sad if people voted 5/5 just because of nude content, as it was just a cherry on the pie, not the pie itself.

+Rep not only for your amazing cinematic now, but for having common sense and a mature approach to nudity.
 
Level 4
Joined
Sep 13, 2011
Messages
43
Review


The Struggle v1.0 review
"May the Lord be merciful."

________________________
A beautiful cinematic with stunning visuals and voice acting.


________________________
Aesthetics

The terrain is just astonishing, while Iceborn has a strong wow effect, this environemnt is just as realistic as Warcraft 3 can get. In the same time, the effort of being realistic didn't affect the aesthetics negatively, rather the other way around.
The voice acting surprised me! Your RPG projects do have voice acting which is a nice thing on its own, but this time the sound is very clear and the acting feels actually authentic, and that's quite a unique thing when it comes to Wacraft 3.
The script is written quite well, I like the idea and the main theme and even though I feel something could be a little bit different to make the ending even more dramatic and use all the potential (that might be because of the limitations of Warcraft 3, if it was simply a stand off short film, it would be just amazing, I'm sure), however, the sombre end of the story felt very gloomy and it concluded the story in a great way, along with some really nice lines... "Lord, here I come."

+
Beautiful environment, amazing voice acting, great story and nice monologues

-
Sometimes it felt a little too slow, the animations are simply made for a different speed



________________________
Rating

5/5

A breathtaking cinematic stretching beyond Warcraft 3 in many ways.

 
Level 21
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
1,473
Very impressive!

The atmosphere was very dense and felt completely rounded. Also, the mechanical aspect seems perfectly executed (no model stuttering while slow-mo, no misplaced sounds/music/low bitrate etc)

The plot is short, true, but also focussed on point.

Do you see a possibility to make it much better? It seems that you pretty much exhausted the tools of W3.

One wonders
 
Level 31
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
2,555
Thanks. :) Of course, there is no end when it comes to achieving better and better result in my opinion. I still seem to come up with better result for my maps with each release, so I am sure it is not a limit for me, well, I hope so, hehe. For example, in this cinematic I tried making custom animations for the first time, this was new for me, therefore I was able to get a finer result, perhaps there will be something else for the next contest that will help to surpass this entry.
 
Level 12
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
412
Completely incorrect. In the 80s / 90s, the female breast was shown in PG rated films without anyone caring.
People are afraid of sexuality these days.

You must of read elsewhere because it's irrelevant to what I said in fact you got it backwards. I was simply implying that "nudity" draws attention so it will get a 5/5 rating easily, I mean look it's on the front page now.

I completely disagree with you on this. In my opinion this was one of the best plots I have ever covered. The thing is, viewer needs a certain baggage of knowledge on the matter in order to relate in this story.

The thing is I already assumed that everyone knew about it so that is why it wasn't interesting to me almost like watching a small part of history repeating itself in a tiny episode.

It's like watching people die & suffer, there's nothing great about those things.
 
Level 31
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
2,555
I was simply implying that "nudity" draws attention so it will get a 5/5 rating easily, I mean look it's on the front page now.
It gets 5/5 not because of nudity, it gets 5/5 because of overall quality. It won the cinematic contest and the term was the winner gets to the front page. Are you implying that breasts brought me to the front page? That is really a silly claim. Judges of the contest did not make any remarks about nudity when reviewing, they were professional, it did not buy them.
The thing is I already assumed that everyone knew about it so that is why it wasn't interesting to me almost like watching a small part of history repeating itself in a tiny episode.
Everyone knew about the plague epidemic, yeah, but did everyone know about the plague doctors? Did everyone know about about their struggles against the disease which could not have been defeated? Did everyone know about their methods and social / medical status? Do everyone know this just like the plague epidemic story? Well, I didn't, it's cool you did.
 
Level 12
Joined
Mar 17, 2007
Messages
412
Judges of the contest did not make any remarks about nudity when reviewing, they were professional

They have to be professional, if they added that remark it would obviously be offensive.

but did everyone know about the plague doctors? Did everyone know about about their struggles against the disease which could not have been defeated? Did everyone know about their methods and social / medical status? Do everyone know this just like the plague epidemic story? Well, I didn't, it's cool you did.

No of course you didn't, that's basically what I just said.


Below is the quote on the front news page which says nothing about story, we can both agree to the second quote that does.

The Struggle is a technical marvel. It has it all: high-res models, custom animations, competent voice acting, detailed terrain and sounds down to every footstep. It is a superb work both in terms of effort and talent and a worthy recipient of the first prize.

If I had to point out any weaknesses (which I do, being the judge and all), I would say that perhaps some more cohesion could be added by better developing the transitions between the three parts of the cinematic, currently the cuts between them are a bit abrupt.

Also, the voice acting of the residents of the second house could be improved. The first lines feel a bit rushed, the man is explaining how desperate he is to save her but the desperation doesn't really show in his voice. Again, it is not a big issue, the voice acting is still much better than what I've heard in cinematics in the past.

Thus I am happy to select The Struggle as the winner of the 6th Hive cinematic contest. Congratulations!

As I said before I like your work this just is not one of them but you're simply in denial & making false assumptions elsewhere, in fact I like your work that much is the whole reason why I'm telling you this but you blindly accept it the other way, I'm kind of disappointed.

I rest my case
 
Level 31
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
2,555
So I am the one who is making false assumptions? Obviously blaming for getting 5/5 and for being on the front page just because of nudity content and subjectively being unable to see the point in the story are no false assumptions, right?

Why would it be offensive? It wouldn't, it is subjective, your culture or personal beliefs sees it subjectively, therefore forming your premature opinion about it, which actually remains to be an opinion. I have no problem with opinions, but don't spread it as some conspiracy based facts as nudity did it all. Oh and you probably did not make it to the second judge, who actually mentioned the story.
 
Level 4
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
88
This cinematic is way great, from the terrain, cameras to the sounds and dialogue, how you made it creepy! But some part for me seemed slow. Yet overall 5/5!! Fantastic job!

I'll look forward for more cinematics made by APproject. 6/5!
Anyways, comments here sure talks 'bout that nude part
its not that part made the cinematic 5/5, its how the story and cinematic was made. I mean, c'mon guys, seriously? what's the big deal with that being nude? morons
 
Level 3
Joined
Aug 29, 2016
Messages
56
Go to Forum -> The Arena -> Contest Archive -> 2nd page -> Cinematic Contest #6
tnx! +rep, btw that was a pretty nice cinematic dude! i love medieval period.Btw im gonna watch Human Error soon heheheh TNX AGAIN!.


EDIT:Just finished watching Human Error, man that was another good project from you! watched it while having supper. Very GOOD 5/5
 
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