Games Workshop, infamous for tightly clutching its IP, has actually allowed a Warhammer 40K movie to be made. It’s being made right now by London film makers Codex Pictures.
We know just a little more about the movie due to a press release from animation experts Image Mertrics – it’s going to be at least 65 minutes long. Here’s the key snippet;
“Given the legacy of the Warhammer 40,000 game, Image Metrics is especially excited to work with Codex Pictures on Ultramarines to bring the unique science-fiction universe to the medium of film,” said Brian Waddle, executive vice president of Image Metrics. “Creating an alternate world that fully immerses the audience becomes even more challenging when working with a legacy property, especially when in a new medium. Animating lifelike characters that establish believability is a critical part of forging this connection with viewers. The Image Metrics technology is a perfect match to create the facial detail and high fidelity animation required to bring movies like Ultramarines to life.”
Charged with creating lifelike superhuman Space Marine characters, Image Metrics is using performance capture data and character rigs provided by Pop6 Studios to deliver approximately 65 minutes of animation for the Ultramarines movie.
“Ultramarines demands high quality facial animation in order to believably portray the Warhammer 40,000 characters. Image Metrics is the ideal technology partner for the project, giving us total freedom to animate the character in 3D space and lighting without restrictions or compromises on camera angles,” said Vanessa Chapman, Codex managing director.
We can safely predict the movie will focus on the space marine’s faces quite a lot as the detail of the facial animation is mentioned pretty each time someone writes or speaks about the movie.
