'Valkia' Cinematic Trailer for Total War: WARHAMMER III - Champions of Chaos (DLC)
In late 2022 I was the principal Cinematic Artist on the 'Valkia' trailer for the Total War: WARHAMMER III - Champions of Chaos DLC.
I wanted to deliver an impactful and high-energy fight sequence as the 'meat' of the asset, befitting Valkia's status as favourite of the Blood God! I felt storyboarding would not quite capture the dynamism and pace I wanted here, so my very first step was to assemble the fight choreography from in-game animations, which where then cleaned up and supported with mocap by our amazing animation team.
As one of four trailers we created for this DLC, Valkia's trailer had to seamlessly fit with its three 'siblings' into one big supercut trailer. To achieve this we identified specific story beats that applied to all four of them, and then built each cinematic trailer around those beats.
Previs, layout and lighting done with Creative Assembly's in-house engine and tools. Post-production and editing done in Premiere Pro.
Colour was essential to set sides apart in big melee wide shots. Valkia and her army -- the followers of Khorne -- are covered in red tones, while the enemy -- the servants of Slaanesh -- have colder, purple lights on them.
