Developer Interview: Sit Down with Senior Animator Carin Huurnink

news.blizzard.com:

It takes a team to make the magic of Warcraft Arclight Rumble come to life. Gather ‘round as Senior Community Manager Syless “Aezztra” Necole delves into more of Senior Animator Carin Huurnink's processes and inspirations.

Please introduce yourself and let players know what exactly it is that you do on Warcraft Arclight Rumble.

Carin Huurnink: Greetings! I am Carin Huurnink, senior animator on the Arclight Rumble team. I’m originally from the Netherlands and have been on the team since the early stages of our game. My job is to give life to our characters and to translate gameplay ideas into fun yet recognizable animations in game.

The world of Azeroth is HUGE; how did you and the team tackle the enormous task of scaling down the world to what we see today?

Carin: I have been playing World of Warcraft ever since its release, and nowadays, I’m raiding Ulduar multiple times a week in Wrath Classic. To me, it was a dream come true to work on a franchise that I love and, at the same time, create something brand-new.

One of the highest priorities while making animations for Arclight Rumble is to clearly signal to the player what’s happening on a small mobile device screen. In one glance, you should be able to distinguish which unit you’re dealing with and what action they’re performing. We try to achieve this by using clear silhouettes, exaggerated poses, and broad movements. Our VFX and audio artists really help us elevate it beyond anything we could do as animators alone, enabling us to scale a world as huge as Azeroth down to miniature size.

We try to squeeze in as much personality and familiarity to the in-game characters as we can, but the moments in which we celebrate an unlock or level up is where the player really has a