Warcraft Movie Video Shows How Orcs Were Brought to Life

It's now less than a month until Warcraft opens in theaters, and Universal Pictures has released a new video that shows how the production team used visual effects to create realistic emotions and hair for the movie's orcs.

The visual effects were produced by Industrial Light & Magic, which was founded by George Lucas and has done work on the Star Wars movies and films like Captain America: Civil War and Pacific Rim. Animation supervisor Hal Hickel said that for Warcraft they "had to create a whole race of orcs that had to hold their own against the live actors in the film." You can see how they did that in the video below.

ILM visual effects supervisor Jeff White said that while the body motion capture was "pretty traditional," the facial capture is where he feels the company "broke some ground."

"The first shot that we delivered was a close-up on Durotan. Very subtle, yet there were important moments there to bring the character to life," White explained. "It was really our way to show all the filmmakers that, 'Yes, we can pull these orcs off,' and when they first saw it, they were floored."

"You can see his eyes responding, just these little subtle movements. And they felt alive and it was just an amazing experience," said visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer.

In addition to capturing the orcs' facial movements, the team at ILM also created a tool that was all about grooming CG hair and dubbed it "Haircraft."

Warcraft hits theaters on June 10 and stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Toby Kebbell, and Robert Kazinsky. Duncan Jones, who has helmed films such as Moon and Source Code, directed the movie.

There have also been four character videos released the upcoming Warcraft movie. They've featured orc leader Durotan, human warrior Lothar, half-orc assassin Garona, and the human wizard Khadgar. You can check them out for yourself through the links below.

• Durotan
• Lothar
• Garona
• Khadgar