All Warhammer images courtesy of Blur Studios © Relic Ent.

Stash is a new innovative DVD magazine that corrals the best work being done in animation, vfx and motion graphics for advertising and broadcast. As part of our November focus on 3D environments, Stash editor Stephen Price compiled two galleries of leading work.

For Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Blur Studio produced a CG cinematic that rivals a blockbuster feature film. The thrilling, two-minute film, included with the game CD, introduces players to Warhammer’s dark, futuristic fantasy universe through an intense, tactical battle between legions of alien warriors.

Blur Studio teamed with the game’s developer, Relic Ent., in developing the storyline for the cinematic and in translating its characters and environments to the cinematic format.

“THQ wanted a pulse-pounding open to get Warhammer fans excited about starting the game,” explained Blur Studio creative director Tim Miller. “It wasn’t hard to come up with something that fit that mission — the Warhammer universe is filled with drama, death, destruction and epic combat. Our main difficulty was holding our team back from going NUTS and trying to put everything in this two-minute open. There’s just too much cool stuff in the game and we wanted to do it justice.”