Whoa, this is rather cool. Youve got to see this.
via the Warhammer Community
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/01/20/warhammer-a-new-beginninggw-homepage-post-1/
It’s December 7th, 2019 – it’s a cold, fresh morning in London, England and a horde of world-class musicians are descending on the prestigious AIR Studios. Established by Sir George Martin (producer of The Beatles and Oscar-nominated composer in his own right), AIR Studios London nestles within a repurposed church that’s nearly a century and a half old. Within the walls of this gorgeous listed building, decades of incredible sound and music have been performed and captured for television, radio and cinema. And, on this Saturday – it is host to the sound of Warhammer.
Yep, that’s right. That particular chilly winter morning saw a phalanx of sound engineers, scores of musicians and an entire choir combine their talents to give voice to a Warhammer ident.* The Warhammer ident.
This act was the culmination of nearly a year’s work, drawing on talents and skills across not only Games Workshop, but an industry-leading animation studio and… as we’ve mentioned, a veritable army of musicians. As was befitting such a momentous occasion, the Warhammer TV team were there to capture it on film…
Space Marine with bolt rifle? Check! Stormcast Eternal with a two-handed hammer? You betcha! There are times, here at Warhammer HQ, when we see such awesome stuff for the first time, that we need to pinch ourselves and check we are awake. This was one of those times.
So, how did all this come about? Well, for that answer, we spoke to the head of the Warhammer Media team, Andy Smillie. Warhammer Media is a new team at Games Workshop that’s hard at work bringing the worlds of Warhammer to film and television. For his part, Andy’s been steeped in Warhammer for almost thirty years, and while many of you may know him from his visceral Flesh Tearers work for the Black Library, he also headed up the Warhammer Community team. That commitment to the fanbase runs deep: even a few minutes chatting with him shows how passionate he is about doing justice to the Warhammer universes for them.
- Andy Smillie and Jonathan Hartmann look on in delight as the first chords are played.
“It’s no secret that we’re working on some really exciting projects right now. We’re animating Angels of Death, developing Eisenhorn for live-action, and have just put pen to paper on a 40K anthology show. Actually, don’t quote me on that last one – it’s not announced yet.”** He smiles, leaning back in his chair. Scattered around his desk are reams of paper, scripts and storyboards for forthcoming projects, and on his computer monitor, the trailer for Angels of Death sits paused, awaiting signoff.
“We really wanted a Warhammer ident so that, when people are watching one of our shows, they’ll know that what they’re seeing is part of the Warhammer brand. It’s a mark of quality, if you will, something to tie what you see on your screen to the Warhammer hobby and to Games Workshop.” He pauses a moment, fiddling with the Warhammer Community mug that substitutes for a pen holder on his desk. “It’s more than that though. We really just wanted to take the opportunity to do something special for the fans… I mean, imagine one day you’re sat in the cinema and up there on the screen emerging from the gritty fog of war is a Space Marine. A cinema full of people cheering at Warhammer – that’d be great.”
With the need for an ident… ahem… identified, the only real question that remained was what should go into it. “Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000 are our key properties – they’re what people know us for,” Andy says. “So this really had to bring together both of those universes.” That meant a Space Marine and a Stormcast Eternal. “Space Marines are our most famous and recognisable archetype, and the Ultramarines perhaps the most recognisable of all.” Likewise, Stormcast Eternals are the epitome of Warhammer Age of Sigmar – celestial warriors wreathed in lightning and sent to drive Chaos from the Mortal Realms. “We wanted the ident to capture these key characters, to really embody their might, their steely determination and their pathos.”
- Space Marines and bolters. They go together like strawberries and cream… or heretics and bonfires, whichever analogy you prefer.
- The Stormcast Eternal brings the “war hammer” to our new Warhammer ident.
“With all of our media projects, we want to enrich and grow the Warhammer community, making it more fun and ‘real’ for those already involved and reaching people who’ve yet to wield a paintbrush in earnest. Strong, recognisable images like those in our ident will help people connect with the universes,” Andy explains, before moving on to address the weapons the heroes in our ident carry. “The bolter is about as uniquely 40K as the Space Marine itself.”
Andy is referring to the iconic wargear of the Space Marines Chapters, incredible weapons that have an almost religious symbolism within the Imperium. These over-the-top hand-cannons fire self-propelled, armour-piercing mass-reactive shells. They’re unashamedly bombastic, brutal and totally awesome.
- The bolt rifle in all its glory, as rendered by M2
“Having him firing his gun directly into the screen, and showing the size of that mass-reactive shell, was a fun way to immerse the viewer in the action,” Andy says. “And that enormous, lightning-wreathed celestial weapon used by the Stormcast Eternal… how could we not literally have a war hammer in the ident?!”
“To help us with the visuals, we needed to work with folks every bit as passionate about their craft (in this case, animation) as we are about designing miniatures – so we turned to M2, an international animation studio with an incredible pedigree. They have done everything we could have hoped for, and more,” Andy says. He’s right too, the quote provided by M2’s Executive Producer Ole Holm Christensen speaks volumes:
“For the developing team at M2 Animation, it was both fantastic and daunting being allowed to create CGI content for something as legendary as the Warhammer brand. Warhammer is all about extreme attention to detail. Building the Space Marine and the Stormcast Eternal and bringing them to life in CGI has been no exception to that fact.
The base inspiration is, naturally, the marvellous painted miniatures, but for the characters to work and perform in an animated reality, it is certainly not just a matter of scaling up a digital version of the models. Everything needs to be rebuilt and sculpted in 3D to make proportions and the way they move look believable.
M2 artists, from Director and Art Director to modellers, animators and VFX crew, have brought loads of passion to the project, and we all have a hard time imagining anything cooler than telling stories with animated Warhammer characters.
With the open-minded and collaborative approach from the good people at Games Workshop in the mix, this has indeed been a privilege.”
“For example, I believe this was the largest percussion recording in all of London in 2019. The last thing this big was Hans Zimmer over a year ago. Warhammer is MASSIVE, and we have the drums to prove it,” Jonathan quips. “All that was terribly exciting – but the logistics of finding those musicians, securing them, and loading dozens of massive Japanese Taiko drums, African Djuns, timpani, gongs, and more… It was a lot of coordination and planning. When we went to edit and mix this, it was insanely large. 950 unique tracks in surround sound for a full orchestra. It’s amazing to hear Warhammer expressed in this powerful way.”
That sentiment rings true as we’ve watched the ident with our colleagues around HQ – a quick jaunt into the Warhammer Studio gave us access to some of the folks who have become truly synonymous with the worlds of Warhammer over the years. We couldn’t wait to hear what they thought:
“It’s very stirring,” says Jes Goodwin, the godfather of the world-famous Space Marines and one of Warhammer’s longest-serving and most highly regarded miniatures designers. In fact, Jes had a hand in the project, giving direction and signoff to the 3D Space Marine and Stormcast Eternal renders created by M2, but this was the first time that he’d seen the full ident. The music had barely died down, but already he was considering what he’d seen. We played the video again.
“There’s a dissonance to Warhammer that you see played out in this,” Jes adds, as he watches it through for a second time. “In the Space Marines, you have high-tech armour and a brutal weapon, both quintessentially futuristic, juxtaposing with the medieval influences and clashing cultures present in the music. Jonathan loves our worlds, and he’s managed to bring in elements that are really subtle, and really ‘get’ what Warhammer is all about.”
- Phil Kelly, Jes Goodwin and Pete Foley experience the new ident for the first time.
“Goosebumps,” adds Jervis Johnson, a veteran of the Warhammer Studio and originator of many of Warhammer’s best-loved rules and lore. “I was walking past the concert hall in town recently, and there was a science fiction and fantasy concert going on, where they play all the theme tunes from the films. I remember thinking at the time that it’s not quite right really, it felt like there was something missing because there was no Warhammer. Now, this? This feels like the start of something.”
“It’s got a great sense of gravitas and presence, hasn’t it?” asks renowned Warhammer writer, Phil Kelly. The question is purely rhetorical, but as the lead background writer for Warhammer Age of Sigmar (and a talented drummer in his own right), Phil has a keen interest. “It had to be classical music, with that sense of antiquity. The music has a sense of legend and history to it. I like how both Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar are represented. 40K is, by its very nature, grim and dark… while Age of Sigmar has that air of hopefulness and that majestic swelling that completes the movement.”
“It’s an exciting time,” says Pete Foley, one of the heads of the Warhammer Studio. “This ident heralds something very exciting when you think about it. It’s thrilling that we even need it – that there will one-day soon be enough high-quality media content to warrant this. As with anything that draws on a well-known intellectual property, you want to retain it’s essential nature, what makes Warhammer… well, Warhammer. The gritty, beautifully rendered characters, the choice of music, the fact it’s performed in the minor key – these all help the portrayal retain its dark fantasy aspect.”
As some of the most influential and highly regarded creatives in Games Workshop reflect on the ident, and what it means for Warhammer in the future, we’re left with the words of Jervis Johnson in his distinctive, booming voice ringing in our ears… underpinned by the refrain from the new ident.
“It really is the start of something special.”