LogInBut is it true?
The reveal trailer of The Witcher 4 had many gamers reeling because of CD PROJEKT RED's decision to make Ciri the protagonist instead of Geralt. But the biggest issue some had was her face: how not pretty and uncanny valley she was.
CDPR and Platige Image released a behind-the-scenes video of the cinematic trailer, talking about its vision for the woman, but what the audience above was more interested in was Ciri's allegedly changed facial structure. But is it really different?
Over 2 thousand Redditors seem to believe she has a new, prettier, face, with several X/Twitter users agreeing. However, many people vehemently disagree that CDPR has changed anything. "Redditor discovers the effect that lighting can have on an in-game face model, is confused," commented one.
"Nothing changed lmfao yall were literally just hating her for scowling," added another.
New footage, CDPR
New footage, CDPR
Original trailer, CDPR
The developers in the video were more concerned with sharing Ciri's story than discussing her face. If you distract yourself from trying to find those mystical changes, you will learn that Ciri is determined to become a Witcher in the fourth installment.
Ciri and Mioni, the girl being sacrificed in the trailer, are "mirrors of each other." While the latter accepts her destiny, Ciri is all about fighting it. At the same time, she is not like Geralt:
"One of the really important things was for the viewers to feel as Ciri would feel, so you could see how the story unfolds together with her and get the same emotional flow as she would get, as she was trying to fix the issue of the village. The way she kills the monster, the way she reacts to people killing Mioni, it's different than what Geralt would do. She lives through these emotions she's connected with herself."
CDPR
The trailer was made possible thanks to a 14-day mocap session and a lot of people's work. The studio wanted to make the camera look natural, not CGI-like, the virtual cameras were recorded on stage.
"In the trailer, for example, when you see Ciri when she enters the fog, you can see that she’s confused, that she doesn’t know where to look, that camera is more aggressive with motion and we wanted to express more of this confusion. We wanted to have this glimpse of truth in it. But also, there are scenes when magic happens and then we want to switch from those handheld cameras to more created ones. The style completely changes, so we go with cranes now, with dollies."
It was hard to animate them properly, but the team managed to create these nuances "that we really wanted to take care of and to make it feel really like a movie."
The developers also talk about some parallels between Mioni and her father compared to Ciri and Geralt, and if you want to know more about it, go watch the whole video.
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