“Anyone want a popsicle?”
August 23, 2017 4:02 PM Subscribe
"Rise and Shine" [Overwatch Animated Short] [YouTube] ““Rise and Shine” is the seventh short film the company has released so far set in the Overwatch world, joining “Recall,” “Alive,” “Dragons,” “Hero,” “Infiltration,” and “The Last Bastion.” The almost 10-minute-long video gives fans a deeper look into the backstory of Mei, who was cryogenically frozen for years while doing research in Antarctica, before rejoining the Overwatch organization in the present day. Like the other shorts, the level of quality in the animation really stands out. The company also released a new Hearthstone short, and it’s easy to mistake the animation at first glance for something at the level of, say, Pixar or DreamWorks.” [via: Polygon] [Previously.]
nice try blizzard but she's still the woooo-oooorst
Awww, it's ok, you can be wrong. That's what the Internet is all about.
posted by Fizz at 4:22 PM on August 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
Awww, it's ok, you can be wrong. That's what the Internet is all about.
posted by Fizz at 4:22 PM on August 23, 2017 [10 favorites]
lol they hid loss.jpg in it
posted by Elementary Penguin at 4:26 PM on August 23, 2017
posted by Elementary Penguin at 4:26 PM on August 23, 2017
The robot pet from a game I don't even play made me cry.
posted by dinty_moore at 4:29 PM on August 23, 2017 [8 favorites]
posted by dinty_moore at 4:29 PM on August 23, 2017 [8 favorites]
This was predictable, manipulative heartstring-tugging and it was totally effective and I cried at the tea.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2017 [6 favorites]
posted by knuckle tattoos at 4:50 PM on August 23, 2017 [6 favorites]
I really want an animated feature film about our Overwatch heroes. Or even better yet, a tv series in the style of Star Wars Rebels. It will never happen, but one can dream.
posted by Fizz at 5:02 PM on August 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 5:02 PM on August 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Mei: the griefer's choice.
posted by P.o.B. at 5:36 PM on August 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by P.o.B. at 5:36 PM on August 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Yes, I want an Overwatch movie too! At this point they've almost done a feature's worth of animation. They may as well be selling tickets for it!
Also, nice "The Thing" reference with one of Mei's deceased colleagues being named "MacReady."
posted by ejs at 5:41 PM on August 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Also, nice "The Thing" reference with one of Mei's deceased colleagues being named "MacReady."
posted by ejs at 5:41 PM on August 23, 2017 [4 favorites]
Overwatch, WildStar, and Fortenight are all games that come to mind which I want really badly to enjoy, because I love their art style and general sensibility (is there a word for it? Pixar chic?) but find the actual act of playing them tiresome for different reasons. I haven't given up on Overwatch yet, it's a fantastic game, I'm just pretty terrible at it and don't see myself putting in the time to get much better.
Sometimes I just want to enjoy the art and vibe in the form of cartoons where nobody can shoot or eat me. These Overwatch promo videos are just my speed that way. I'm ALL IN if they ever work up the chutzpah to make a proper film/series out of them.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 5:43 PM on August 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sometimes I just want to enjoy the art and vibe in the form of cartoons where nobody can shoot or eat me. These Overwatch promo videos are just my speed that way. I'm ALL IN if they ever work up the chutzpah to make a proper film/series out of them.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 5:43 PM on August 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Never forget that, when confronted with a dozen clones of herself and forced to compete in a snowball duel, Mei is the sort of person who hides rocks in her snowballs.
(I loved that game mode.)
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 5:43 PM on August 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
(I loved that game mode.)
posted by jsnlxndrlv at 5:43 PM on August 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
There's an in-joke that this is in fact the new Diablo 4 trailer.
... because Mei kills her opponents and wins matches in the most infuriating manner, making her very hated by her opponents, yet she does it so cheerfully, so she must be Satan incarnate.
Honestly, this has happened more than once, where we're attacking on Volkskaya point B or something, and we wipe the whole enemy team except Mei, and she uses Cryo-Freeze on herself on the point to stall our entire team for 4 seconds, then when it's over she Ice Walls herself in the corner for another 4.5 seconds so none of us can touch her, and by that time her team has respawned then comes and wipes us, and we realise we didn't get a single progress tick on the capture point...
posted by xdvesper at 5:44 PM on August 23, 2017
... because Mei kills her opponents and wins matches in the most infuriating manner, making her very hated by her opponents, yet she does it so cheerfully, so she must be Satan incarnate.
Honestly, this has happened more than once, where we're attacking on Volkskaya point B or something, and we wipe the whole enemy team except Mei, and she uses Cryo-Freeze on herself on the point to stall our entire team for 4 seconds, then when it's over she Ice Walls herself in the corner for another 4.5 seconds so none of us can touch her, and by that time her team has respawned then comes and wipes us, and we realise we didn't get a single progress tick on the capture point...
posted by xdvesper at 5:44 PM on August 23, 2017
Yes, the Mei's Snowball Offensive was so kooky, I loved it! She had all these really funny voice lines about putting rocks in the snowballs. I uploaded an
old clip of it for nostalgia purposes so I could listen to it again, I also really liked Jack Morrison's "you gotta be kidding me" voice line too.
posted by xdvesper at 5:48 PM on August 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
old clip of it for nostalgia purposes so I could listen to it again, I also really liked Jack Morrison's "you gotta be kidding me" voice line too.
posted by xdvesper at 5:48 PM on August 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Man, the mouths aren't quite perfect yet, but everything else is really good. Is this (any of it) in-engine?
posted by mhoye at 6:09 PM on August 23, 2017
posted by mhoye at 6:09 PM on August 23, 2017
Now if they'd only do literally any Junker material with their actual, you know, good animation.
I'm not complaining that much, but I am complaining
posted by suddenly, and without warning, at 6:14 PM on August 23, 2017
I'm not complaining that much, but I am complaining
posted by suddenly, and without warning, at 6:14 PM on August 23, 2017
Overwatch is totally not my style of game, but damn those little short films are good. Just their existence makes me happy the game exists, even if I don't want to play it.
Blizzard's always had a stellar art and animation department. If you watch their Warcraft cinematics in order—each expansion is separated by a few years—you can absolutely see their skill set and confidence growing. It was already plenty impressive about 13 years ago when Warcraft was originally released. (Check out that fur on the dwarf's clothes and the bear, in 2004, no less! They were absolutely showing off.) And with the release of their Pandaria expansion, you can see the animation department really hits their stride. By the time Overwatch cinematics hit the scene, they're just unstoppable.
I've assumed that as a gaming company they don't have the resources to scale up to movie-length works, lord knows the investment and risk must be astronomical. There's always been a little dream in the back of my mind though that they'd team up with someone like Pixar to create a movie of their IP, something stamped with their unique flavor. And if they did a Warcraft animation, it seems like it'd be so much easier to incorporate their trademark anachronistic humor into an animated work, something the movie was sorely lacking. I've always found the wildly anachronistic NPC chatter and jokes to be one of the funniest and most charming parts of the game.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 6:20 PM on August 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Blizzard's always had a stellar art and animation department. If you watch their Warcraft cinematics in order—each expansion is separated by a few years—you can absolutely see their skill set and confidence growing. It was already plenty impressive about 13 years ago when Warcraft was originally released. (Check out that fur on the dwarf's clothes and the bear, in 2004, no less! They were absolutely showing off.) And with the release of their Pandaria expansion, you can see the animation department really hits their stride. By the time Overwatch cinematics hit the scene, they're just unstoppable.
I've assumed that as a gaming company they don't have the resources to scale up to movie-length works, lord knows the investment and risk must be astronomical. There's always been a little dream in the back of my mind though that they'd team up with someone like Pixar to create a movie of their IP, something stamped with their unique flavor. And if they did a Warcraft animation, it seems like it'd be so much easier to incorporate their trademark anachronistic humor into an animated work, something the movie was sorely lacking. I've always found the wildly anachronistic NPC chatter and jokes to be one of the funniest and most charming parts of the game.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 6:20 PM on August 23, 2017 [3 favorites]
Mei: the griefer's choice.
top pick for comp thrower trolls who want to wall their own teammates up in the spawn point and then do her laugh emote
posted by poffin boffin at 7:46 PM on August 23, 2017
top pick for comp thrower trolls who want to wall their own teammates up in the spawn point and then do her laugh emote
posted by poffin boffin at 7:46 PM on August 23, 2017
you can see the animation department really hits their stride.
The Hearthstone animated short is also beautifully done. It's basically a Disney short film, complete with song/dance.
posted by Fizz at 8:15 PM on August 23, 2017
The Hearthstone animated short is also beautifully done. It's basically a Disney short film, complete with song/dance.
posted by Fizz at 8:15 PM on August 23, 2017
I always hated FPS games because I am an old. Love playing Overwatch.
THE POWER OF SCIENCE!
posted by Windopaene at 8:41 PM on August 23, 2017
THE POWER OF SCIENCE!
posted by Windopaene at 8:41 PM on August 23, 2017
Besides the (awesome) Carpenter "MacReady" reference, in the Reddit discussion, u/ScandalPanda noted:
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 8:58 PM on August 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
"One of her teammates has the last name "Arrhenius" and looks to be Swedish from the flag. This is almost certainly a reference to Nobel Prize winning, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, who invented a formula for the temperature dependence of reaction rates. So in a short about an Overwatch hero who freezes people, they added a reference to a scientist that studied temperature."Nice touch.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 8:58 PM on August 23, 2017 [2 favorites]
Blizzard has always done a great job with their referencing.
posted by Windopaene at 9:35 PM on August 23, 2017
posted by Windopaene at 9:35 PM on August 23, 2017
nice try blizzard but she's still the woooo-oooorst
My personal headcanon nickname for her is "Queen of the Annoying People".
Great, was going to skip OW tonight, but now I have to play so I can shoot her.
In.
The.
Face.
posted by Samizdata at 11:54 PM on August 23, 2017
My personal headcanon nickname for her is "Queen of the Annoying People".
Great, was going to skip OW tonight, but now I have to play so I can shoot her.
In.
The.
Face.
posted by Samizdata at 11:54 PM on August 23, 2017
Blizzard did release a new map: Junker yt town yt .
Wait. Is this RELEASED or just in PTR?
posted by Samizdata at 12:00 AM on August 24, 2017
Wait. Is this RELEASED or just in PTR?
posted by Samizdata at 12:00 AM on August 24, 2017
I've assumed that as a gaming company they don't have the resources to scale up to movie-length worksI think the company behind WoW could probably scrape together a few quid.
posted by fullerine at 1:45 AM on August 24, 2017
Blizzard's always had a stellar art and animation department. If you watch their Warcraft cinematics in order—each expansion is separated by a few years—you can absolutely see their skill set and confidence growing. It was already plenty impressive about 13 years ago when Warcraft was originally released.
I came here to mention the cinematics for Starcraft and even the Warcraft games, but then I was all oh, somebody's already on it. Except then it dawned on me that you're talking about fucking WoW, not Warcraft.
Their animation department goes back before WoW. While it may not look like much today, the animations in StarCraft were mindblowingly technically impressive at the time - and they were just intros, the occasional interstitial or end game sequence, totally unnecessary for the game. Same goes for WarCraft 2.
posted by Dysk at 3:36 AM on August 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
I came here to mention the cinematics for Starcraft and even the Warcraft games, but then I was all oh, somebody's already on it. Except then it dawned on me that you're talking about fucking WoW, not Warcraft.
Their animation department goes back before WoW. While it may not look like much today, the animations in StarCraft were mindblowingly technically impressive at the time - and they were just intros, the occasional interstitial or end game sequence, totally unnecessary for the game. Same goes for WarCraft 2.
posted by Dysk at 3:36 AM on August 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
Wait. Is this RELEASED or just in PTR?
It's in PTR at the moment. I'm really looking forward to Junkrat buffs because EVERYTHING'S COMING UP EXPLODEY
posted by Fleebnork at 6:31 AM on August 24, 2017
It's in PTR at the moment. I'm really looking forward to Junkrat buffs because EVERYTHING'S COMING UP EXPLODEY
posted by Fleebnork at 6:31 AM on August 24, 2017
I've assumed that as a gaming company they don't have the resources to scale up to movie-length works
They did, and it didn't work out very well.
posted by Nelson at 8:41 AM on August 24, 2017
They did, and it didn't work out very well.
posted by Nelson at 8:41 AM on August 24, 2017
I didn't understand why they went the live-action route. It still angers me. You have this wonderful animation studio and they're cranking out quality work. A one and a half hour animated feature would have blown everyone away. I don't get it. Ugh.
posted by Fizz at 8:48 AM on August 24, 2017
posted by Fizz at 8:48 AM on August 24, 2017
It's in PTR at the moment. I'm really looking forward to Junkrat buffs because EVERYTHING'S COMING UP EXPLODEY
Minor pet peeve. If it is in PTR, it is NOT released? I don't have a ton of bandwidth to deal with PTR stuff. I mean, seriously here, people. PTR stands for Player Test Realm. As for as Junk goes, wonder who is getting nerfed. (Looks unhappy as they appear to have nerfed Lucio's boop without saying anything)
posted by Samizdata at 9:37 AM on August 24, 2017
Minor pet peeve. If it is in PTR, it is NOT released? I don't have a ton of bandwidth to deal with PTR stuff. I mean, seriously here, people. PTR stands for Player Test Realm. As for as Junk goes, wonder who is getting nerfed. (Looks unhappy as they appear to have nerfed Lucio's boop without saying anything)
posted by Samizdata at 9:37 AM on August 24, 2017
Their animation department goes back before WoW…
Yeah, that was why I mentioned that it was already plenty impressive by the time "fucking WoW" came out. They've done a really nice job on all their game cinematics over the years. I still think it was with their Warcraft MMO that they really started to ramp it up though, as computers really started to hit that sweet spot of power sufficient for good animation.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 11:09 AM on August 24, 2017
Yeah, that was why I mentioned that it was already plenty impressive by the time "fucking WoW" came out. They've done a really nice job on all their game cinematics over the years. I still think it was with their Warcraft MMO that they really started to ramp it up though, as computers really started to hit that sweet spot of power sufficient for good animation.
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 11:09 AM on August 24, 2017
lol they hid loss.jpg in it
Is that real? Because I saw the screenshot and watched the whole thing again and didn't catch it.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:22 PM on August 24, 2017
Is that real? Because I saw the screenshot and watched the whole thing again and didn't catch it.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:22 PM on August 24, 2017
Minor pet peeve. If it is in PTR, it is NOT released?
I guess I should have been more precise in my language. Not released, but announced. Apologies for the confusion.
posted by Fizz at 5:17 PM on August 24, 2017
I guess I should have been more precise in my language. Not released, but announced. Apologies for the confusion.
posted by Fizz at 5:17 PM on August 24, 2017
'Sad robot' is my emotional Achilles' heel, so I don't trust this not to make me burst into tears. Still haven't emotionally recovered from Bastion's short.
I KNOW she's got that little robot sidekick! You won't get me this way again, Blizzard!
posted by pseudonymph at 11:02 PM on August 24, 2017
I KNOW she's got that little robot sidekick! You won't get me this way again, Blizzard!
posted by pseudonymph at 11:02 PM on August 24, 2017
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posted by poffin boffin at 4:22 PM on August 23, 2017 [1 favorite]