THIS! IS! SKYRIM!
Being gamers on the internet, many of us receive quite a bit of exposure to machinima videos, films made using videogame animation clips as opposed to standard animation software. The technique is becoming more common every day as graphics continue to improve in proportion to the number of film making tools available to the general public. And that’s why you’re able to watch this impressively faithful rendition of battles from Zack Snyder’s 300 through the lens of Bethesda’s Skyrim, complete with action scenes slowing down suddenly, only to ramp up to very fast speeds.
While Skyrim’s Creation engine can’t quite capture the impact of thousands of Persians smashing against Spartan shields, this video actually does a good job of rendering several critical battles from the popular movie. After a brief introduction, the action begins with the first meeting between Leonidas’s army and the Persians (complete with the Persian herald taking a spear to the chest). The video also depicts the Spartan’s battle against the Immortals, and their final stand before falling to flurries of arrows. Sadly, the emotional impact of the final scene is drained somewhat when the video pans over their bodies and we hear these words: “Become a Spartan hero today. Suscribe to Tyrannicon.”
Tyrannicon has developed dozens of machinima projects for YouTube and Machinima.com, many of which are parodies of popular games like Mass Effect 3 and Modern Warfare 3. He’s also dabbled in some impressively epic videos like the 300 project and The Great Battles of Skyrim series, which uses Bethsesda’s modding tools to depict fights between hundreds of soldiers in a variety of familiar Skyrim locations. The amount of work Tyrannicon puts into these videos is actually quite impressive, which you can see in this 300 Outtake video detailing what was needed to bring the video in its finished form.
