The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King [Paperback]

Blizzard Entertainment Film Department (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2009

Gaming fans have been waiting more than two years for WRATH OF THE LICH KING the latest addition to World of Warcraft. Now, they can experience Northrend’s icy steppes and uncharted mountains through the art and imagination of the creative team behind this epic game. Containing more than 150 drawings, concept art pieces, and final renders, as well as secrets of game mythology and development stories, this mesmerizing book reveals how Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed series gets made. In addition to a behind-the-scenes technical look at the game cinematics and developmental art, Fans learn how Blizzard updated Arthas the Death Knight to be even more evil than in Warcraft III and how a new central character, Sindragosa the Frost Wyrm, was developed. Other features explore technical dimensions and Blizzard’s influence on the game world and beyond. EACH BOOK COMES WITH: Two 8” x 10” original art cards in vellum sleeve and a 12-page illustrated storybook on the creation of the frostwyrm Sindragosa, that make this a must-have for any WoW fan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Every now and then, we get sent cool stuff - like awesome books. The Cinematic Art of 'World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King', is one of said awesome books, with tons of concept art for the Lich King intro. If there's one thing that Blizzard is known for, it's making relentlessly addictive (and awesome) games. But if there are two things that Blizzard is known for, it's making relentlessly addictive (and awesome) games and having some of the best pre-rendered cinematics in the industry.Remember the Terran-Zerg battle on the abandoned space station? Or Tyrael battling the forces of evil deep inside the crypt? What about Prince Arthas' betrayal of his kingdom and family? Yeah, that's what I thought."

-JOHN FUNK, THE ESCAPIST


"The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich Kingis an art book any WoW fan would be proud to have in their home. Here are some fashionable suggestions about what to do with it when you get it. Cinematic Art provides a very pretty look at the behind-the-scenes development of WoW's well-received second expansion. There are over 200pieces of artwork in the book – conceptual and developmental – as well as 75 exclusive pieces of original art. With back story, character descriptions and lengthy explanations of the rendering and development of Lich King concept art into WoW's engine, this book makes for a good read as well as for sweet, sweet eye candy.

-AJ GLASSER, KOTAKU


“Containing more than 150 early drawings, concept art pieces, and final renders, this book gives WoW fans a rare, behind-the-scenes glance into the creative process of Blizzard’s highly-praised cinematics.”

-GAME INFORMER

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Insight Editions (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933784814
• ISBN-13: 978-1933784816
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 11.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #410,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great depth and generous with the art, December 25, 2008

By 

Parka (Singapore) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King (Paperback)

Length:: 0:18 Mins

The publisher of this book is Insights Editions, one of my favourite publishers. Their art books always have extra goodies, at least for the ones I bought. In this case, there are two 8" x 10" original art cards in a tipped-in-vellum sleeve and a 12-page booklet on the creation of Sindragosa.

This is a paperback book and the binding doesn't look strong. Strangely, no hardcover version alternative is available. The pages are rather glossy and oily fingers will definitely leave smudges. They are given the silver-color treatment and the text printed on these silver "plates" is extremely classy.

The book details the production process of the animation in great detail. There is conceptualization, story development, character development, production design and even the 3D execution. To make the book complete, they also included how they did the soundtrack and audio.

On the art side, it starts off with storyboards on the introduction of Tuskassr and Lich King's entrance. Following that are pages of characters, armour, monsters, dragons and environment paintings. There's a generous amount of concept art on Sindragosa and the undead. Also included are multiple screenshots of their 3D creation process like creating matte paintings, composition, animating, rendering, etc. This book is literally packed with artwork.

Blizzard has done a tremendous job with the book and with their game. They have brought together a brilliant team of artists to showcase their talent to the world.

The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King is a stunning art book. I recommend it to all fans of World of Warcraft, or any fantasy concept artists.

(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Beautifully Packaged Book For Warcraft and Concept Art/CGI Fans, January 3, 2009

By 

Jon Huff "designer and aritst" (IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King (Paperback)

I picked this up on a whim because I'm a fan of concept art and I thought the cover was cool. I actually started playing World of Warcraft AFTER I got the book. You'd think a cinematic that runs about 3 minutes and 30 seconds wouldn't been enough to make a whole book about. But man it is! There are a lot of pictures here, but that's not a bad thing. It's utterly flabbergasting the amount of work, love (and surely some blood, sweat and tears) went into the creation of the Lich King, the dragon Sindragrosa and their environment.

The concept art was probably my favorite part. You get to see tons of beautifully rendered art. The section on the actual construction of the CGI images is also fascinating for someone who knows only the basics of how this work is done. An elaboration on some of the more technical passages might have been nice but it doesn't detract from the book.

My copy, at least, seems to have a printing error. A couple pages are printed twice. There doesn't seem to be any pages missing that I can tell, however. There are two prints included which are very nice and a small illustrated (in pencil) story of Sindragrosa. The silver 5th color used on some of the pages is subtle and well done, but lends an air of class to the whole book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing concept book!, June 5, 2011

By 

Rehanakn - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Cinematic Art of World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King (Paperback)

OMG I absolutely love this book. It's inspirational for any artist out there, even if you're not an artist the art is just really awesome to look at. This book is a must for your library.