‘Tis the season, meaning MMOs like World of Warcraft are in the middle of their holiday celebrations, events, and sales. One group of dedicated World of Warcraft fans has gotten into the holiday spirit with a cozy new holiday short sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.
Team True Potential, composed of Pivotal, Dietrich, and MasterVertex, is a group of three World of Warcraft fans who share a talent and passion for animation. These talented artists teamed up with fantasy music composer Zach Heyde, and voice actors Daniel “Alasdair” and Rosanna T. to create The Final Touch, a wholesome story about two sculptors.
The Final Touch features Oswald, a gnomish craftsman who has taken up sculpting, and Leatei, a shaman who is one of WoW's space-faring draenei, as the two explore the challenges of creating the perfect statue. Ever the perfectionist, Oswald is vexed by a particular imperfection of his craft, to which the quick-witted-yet-sleep-deprived Leatei is little help in solving, despite her command of the element of earth. The comedy that ensues is hilarious, fun, and expertly rendered in a fidelity even higher than Blizzard’s own in-game cinematics, and all set to a perfect, quirky score.
This is neither the first nor the last of Team True Potential’s animations. Though the individual members have created their own individual projects in the past, the trio’s first claim to fame was a remaster of the Fall of the Lich King cinematic from Wrath of the Lich King, released in February of 2020. In June of this year, it released Judgement, a gripping duel between a human paladin and a Forsaken rogue on a bridge in the Plaguelands. Team True Potential has plans to make more of these stellar videos, and according to Pivotal, hopefully without taking 6 months for a single one.
Fan reception has been overwhelmingly positive, with the video gaining 175 thousand views in the first week since its posting. World of Warcraft fans laud the obvious care and attention given by the artists in every facet of the short, from the facial animations and action, to the team’s ability to tell a story through music and action, rather than words.
Many of The Final Touch’s fans were left with a bittersweet nostalgia after watching the short. Its depiction of a small, cute, and entertaining story is somewhat far from the lofty, otherworldly concepts being told by the Shadowlands expansion, and the attention to detail featured in the short outweighs the perception of Blizzard’s own work in many ways.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available on PC.