- Joined
- Dec 14, 2017
- Messages
- 4
StarCraft: Remastered has piqued my interest in older games, with WarCraft 3 being a natural go to. One thing I always enjoyed when I was younger were all of the custom things people made for the game, especially the cinematics.
I decided to take on a personal project of recording old user created WarCraft 3 cinematics and uploading them to YouTube. I am doing this both for archival purposes and so that they can be enjoyed outside of the WarCraft 3 engine.
My first pick for this project is Cult of the Damned by Zurg. Since there is voice acting for the dialogue I was able to convert it to a 16:9 format for a great cinematic experience. The quality of the production improves tremendously between the five acts, with act five even featuring moving mouths on the character models.
Enjoy!
***I do not claim credit for the creation of this cinematic***
Act One - Tolling Bells
Act Two
Act Three
Act Four - Hopes Charred
Act Five - In Passing
Here is a write up by Zurg from the original wc3c.net hosting page (which is down as of today, December 14, 2017 EDIT: Back up as of December 17, 2017):
"Overview
Cult of the Damned is the first drama in Warcraft III cinematics. It tells the story of an outcast of society and the troubles he faces as he reconsiders his future. Stephen lives in the fictional city of Atraymath in Lordaeron. CotD is five parts or acts long, just like one of Shakespeare's tragedic dramas. It took a year and a half to create and release all five parts.
The first ideas for the story began back early spring of 2003. I was playing one of those "movie-maker" maps on Battle.net. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to make a horror type movie about a family trying to escape from the cult of the undead, and the sheer fear and danger they would face. For several weeks this idea ruminated in my head as I worked to complete my cinematic Encaliel for a contest at Wc3Campaigns. Encaliel was not very well-received; it received second place out of three entries. However, summer was approaching and I was ready to take on a bigger and better project. The real inspiration for Cult of the Damned came from Romeo and Juliet in my 9th grade English class. I decided to apply the plot structures of Shakespeare and turn my idea into a tragic drama.
I began the actual work for Cult of the Damned several weeks before summer started. I wanted to write a story and then make the cinematic. I wrote up through the third scene of Act One before I abandoned it and jumped right into creating the terrain. My plan was to complete all five acts over the summer and release them together. I quickly made progress on Act One, using the knowledge of the World Editor that I had acquired with Encaliel. At some point, I realized that this project was not just going to be a quick little step to better my cinematic making skills. Terraining and testing began to involve more and more time, as I sought higher results. I began Act Two right after the completion of Act One. I had attained hosting at the bustling modding communities of Warcraft III Campaigns and Warcraft III ModForge. Warcraft III modding and cinematics were in their golden age and I was part of it.
As I made more progress on Act Two and gained a fair amount of publicity and popularity, I turned my sights against DaemonKillar, creator of Creatures of the Night. Since parts one and two of his series revealed the possibilities of cinematic making with Warcraft III, it had been my goal to compete with him and create cinematics equal or better to his. However, as I neared the completion of Act Two, my inspiration and drive in the project felt like they were grinding to a halt. I nearly gave up on the project there, but I managed to complete Act Two. Diverting from my original plans, I released Acts One and Two together. I received a lot of positive and ecstatic feedback from the community, and quickly started on Act Three.
Then things began to fall apart. I lost hosting at Warcraft III Campaigns after a battle over my dual-site hosting. Some people were beginning to leave the community and I really did not have a concrete plan for the rest of the story for CotD. The first several scenes of Act Three were very hard for me to complete. It was nearly winter, over half a year since I began the project. I was half-way through Act Three, the cathedral scene, and I was ready to quit. Cinematic making was turning into a long, difficult and tedious task, it had almost lost its fun factor since Act Two. For some reason, I finally realized something: this is what I wanted to do in life, express myself through movie-making. So I threw "cinematic-making" aside and set my self free to make a movie. I never really lost inspiration again throughout the rest of the project. I had low points and high points, but the end of Act Three and Acts Four and Five were completely different and better from their predecessors. I released the last three acts separately. Each was greatly lauded by the dwindling community.
On November 22, 2004, I released Act Five and brought the map-making portion of the Cult of the Damned project to an end. I have only mentioned a small portion of everything that went into the project. A lot of credit must go to the dedicated fans and beta testers of CotD and all my fellow map-makers that helped me along the way. Cult of the Damned has shaped my goals for my career and has been an experience that will be with me and influence me for the rest of my life."
I decided to take on a personal project of recording old user created WarCraft 3 cinematics and uploading them to YouTube. I am doing this both for archival purposes and so that they can be enjoyed outside of the WarCraft 3 engine.
My first pick for this project is Cult of the Damned by Zurg. Since there is voice acting for the dialogue I was able to convert it to a 16:9 format for a great cinematic experience. The quality of the production improves tremendously between the five acts, with act five even featuring moving mouths on the character models.
Enjoy!
***I do not claim credit for the creation of this cinematic***
Act One - Tolling Bells
Act Two
Act Three
Act Four - Hopes Charred
Act Five - In Passing
Here is a write up by Zurg from the original wc3c.net hosting page (which is down as of today, December 14, 2017 EDIT: Back up as of December 17, 2017):
"Overview
Cult of the Damned is the first drama in Warcraft III cinematics. It tells the story of an outcast of society and the troubles he faces as he reconsiders his future. Stephen lives in the fictional city of Atraymath in Lordaeron. CotD is five parts or acts long, just like one of Shakespeare's tragedic dramas. It took a year and a half to create and release all five parts.
The first ideas for the story began back early spring of 2003. I was playing one of those "movie-maker" maps on Battle.net. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to make a horror type movie about a family trying to escape from the cult of the undead, and the sheer fear and danger they would face. For several weeks this idea ruminated in my head as I worked to complete my cinematic Encaliel for a contest at Wc3Campaigns. Encaliel was not very well-received; it received second place out of three entries. However, summer was approaching and I was ready to take on a bigger and better project. The real inspiration for Cult of the Damned came from Romeo and Juliet in my 9th grade English class. I decided to apply the plot structures of Shakespeare and turn my idea into a tragic drama.
I began the actual work for Cult of the Damned several weeks before summer started. I wanted to write a story and then make the cinematic. I wrote up through the third scene of Act One before I abandoned it and jumped right into creating the terrain. My plan was to complete all five acts over the summer and release them together. I quickly made progress on Act One, using the knowledge of the World Editor that I had acquired with Encaliel. At some point, I realized that this project was not just going to be a quick little step to better my cinematic making skills. Terraining and testing began to involve more and more time, as I sought higher results. I began Act Two right after the completion of Act One. I had attained hosting at the bustling modding communities of Warcraft III Campaigns and Warcraft III ModForge. Warcraft III modding and cinematics were in their golden age and I was part of it.
As I made more progress on Act Two and gained a fair amount of publicity and popularity, I turned my sights against DaemonKillar, creator of Creatures of the Night. Since parts one and two of his series revealed the possibilities of cinematic making with Warcraft III, it had been my goal to compete with him and create cinematics equal or better to his. However, as I neared the completion of Act Two, my inspiration and drive in the project felt like they were grinding to a halt. I nearly gave up on the project there, but I managed to complete Act Two. Diverting from my original plans, I released Acts One and Two together. I received a lot of positive and ecstatic feedback from the community, and quickly started on Act Three.
Then things began to fall apart. I lost hosting at Warcraft III Campaigns after a battle over my dual-site hosting. Some people were beginning to leave the community and I really did not have a concrete plan for the rest of the story for CotD. The first several scenes of Act Three were very hard for me to complete. It was nearly winter, over half a year since I began the project. I was half-way through Act Three, the cathedral scene, and I was ready to quit. Cinematic making was turning into a long, difficult and tedious task, it had almost lost its fun factor since Act Two. For some reason, I finally realized something: this is what I wanted to do in life, express myself through movie-making. So I threw "cinematic-making" aside and set my self free to make a movie. I never really lost inspiration again throughout the rest of the project. I had low points and high points, but the end of Act Three and Acts Four and Five were completely different and better from their predecessors. I released the last three acts separately. Each was greatly lauded by the dwindling community.
On November 22, 2004, I released Act Five and brought the map-making portion of the Cult of the Damned project to an end. I have only mentioned a small portion of everything that went into the project. A lot of credit must go to the dedicated fans and beta testers of CotD and all my fellow map-makers that helped me along the way. Cult of the Damned has shaped my goals for my career and has been an experience that will be with me and influence me for the rest of my life."
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