Syama Pedersen has just released two new videos on his upcoming personal projects, making new Warhammer 40k animation videos. Here they are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjdLXNRs-B8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tST30DNvxAo
For those that don't know, several years ago Syama released a 5 part fan made animation series called "Astartes", which is probably the best animation videos I've ever seen. They contain more detail, nuance, atmosphere, action, and story telling in just a few frames than most TV shows and movies tell in hours, and all without any dialogue. They're the kinds of videos where you can rewatch them several times, and catch new details you missed on previous views. Syama made these videos by himself, doing all of the animation, textures, story, and sound design himself. They even give weight to the world and the people in it, which Games Workshop, and other animators, have struggled to do for years. Here's the best quality Astartes 1-5 video I've been able to find (the others are lower quality uploads or AI upscales, which lose a lot of the details Syama included in his original videos):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAz8B98sVHY
Astartes was such a huge success that Syama was planning on making more Warhammer 40k fan videos. Unfortunately, it was around the same time that Games Workshop (the owner's of the Warhammer IP) started cracking down hard on fan made projects, essentially shooting themselves in the foot, considering that many of those fan projects have brought millions of new fans to the Warhammer IP. However, during that time, they hired Syama Pedersen to work for them, and his signature style of animation quality bled through on official videos like The Horus Heresy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Se57MuiL8). Again, unfortunately, Games Workshop forced Syama to remove his own fan made Astartes videos off his own channel, but were reuploaded to Games Workshop's own website, with changed quality, sound design, and music, making them objectively worse. The only remaining original cuts of Astartes are uploads by random people on Youtube.
Since then, though, there's been almost nothing heard from Syama, personally or through his work at Games Workshop. From the two new teaser trailers released by Syama, it looks like he no longer works for Games Workshop, as the projects he's working on would require a full time investment. The time between the Astartes episode releases was several months, and this was when he was able to work on them full time. And, according to his personal Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/syamapedersen/about):
This Patreon page now represents my personal & original projects and has no connection to 'Astartes' or anything Warhammer related.
Currently this page is supporting the Yatra project! A CGI short-film project following a man's journey across lifetimes. Set within an original retro/classic inspired future-fantasy world, the current goal is to complete a 3min intro cinematic that is already planned out and ready for the asset build stage. Support is currently going towards 3d modelers while I provide direction with the time I have to spare.
It looks like, for legality purposes, Syama is making 40k fan videos again, in all but name, just to skirt around Games Workshops stupidly antagonistic approach to their own fans. He even changed his channel name to "Digital Bones", I'm assuming because Games Workshop bought out his original channel property.
It looks good like all his work (he was in charge of layout for the Warhammer episode of Secret Level) but I hate Game Workshop so I'd support him privately as his talent deserves patronage but pirate the episodes of the Warhammer + series.
I'm of the same view. I was inches away from deep diving into the Warhammer 40k IP, because of the incredible work of Syama Pedersen, but then the Games Workshop fiasco happened (well, one of the fiascos), and I became completely disinterested in ever supporting that company.
The only models I own are the Necrons from the Necrons vs Mechanicus battle box I split with a friend. I thought if getting more units to be able to make a proper army, but at the time the 'start collecting' box was like $75 and I couldn't justify that. I poked my head into a Warhammer store last week because it was next to the grocery store I had stopped at to have a look around, and the current iteration of such a starting kit was like $170. And I believe it comes with fewer figurines.
Sadly, the only real way in is pirating. 3D Printer go wrrr for 5 hours.
I've heard increasing numbers of Warhammer 40k fans are forgoing figurine purchases from Games Workshop, and are just 3D printing what they want, to avoid the wallet rape and FOMO GW is doing against their fanbase.
It's a very weird thing. The original method is being taken over by a new method. The problem is the company doesn't know how to make money and keep fans with it.
From what I've seen, with how Games Workshop is/has been run, it seems like they actively hate their own fanbase, and do everything in their power to alienate, piss off, and drive away their own fans. It's weird, like they want their own company to fail. Perhaps it's just hubris, thinking they can do whatever they want to their fans, thinking their fans will keep swallowing the shit they're shoveling, in perpetuity.
Holy shit I thought GW locked him in a box and threw away the key.
They figured the hype had died down and the gw fanbase had been sufficiently chastened from the Word Bearers treatment they got so they dont have to pay to keep him out of play anymore.
Trump's president for less than 2 weeks and we get a trailer for Astartes 2 that doesn't include a single Primaris.
Subscribed.
Thanks for this heads-up.
In the comment section there are a bunch of people saying Cavill needs to hire this guy for his upcoming series. Would make sense to have someone like this on board with their vision help bring the project to life. Then again, if Cavill has his own vision, then they could end up colliding. But it all depends on the story he's trying to tell and where Pedersen might fight into that fold, even assuming that was a possibility.
There’s about a 0% chance that cavill and this dude aren’t on the same page.
There's a good chance Cavil saw Astartes and got physically more excited than anything his work with the Hollywood harpies has done for him.
Did they buy astartes and his original channel, or did they just threaten him with legal action?
Maybe both? There's no way in hell GW had him on payroll without having it in the contract that they own his creative soul forevermore. But they maybe also sent him a C&D before that when Astartes got big, I only remember that they were stupidly hamfisted back then.
I'm pretty sure they bought out Syama's creations up to that date, which is why Syama took down his own Astartes videos on his own channel, and they were reuploaded onto Games Workshop's channel/website with edited audio. His fan made videos put Games Workshop to utter shame. I'm pretty sure a lot of their motivation for buying Syama's works and hiring him, was an attempt to save face with how poorly they've been running their own IP.
But, they very well could have threatened Syama with legal action, too, forcing him to sell his works to Games Workshop, and possibly go work for them (carrot), or face a lawsuit (stick). Keep in mind, this all happened the exact same time that Games Workshop was putting lots of legal pressure on other fan made projects, many of which were just deleted off the internet or stopped from being released. It's entirely plausible that the deal they gave Syama only constituted a specific number of years of employment with Games Workshop before he could be released from the contract.
This is just spit balling, though, given the limited evidence we have, and how tight lipped most have been on the subject. It would, however, explain a few things, like why Syama hasn't reuploaded his original Artartes videos on his channel, why he renamed his channel, and why his Patreon now has a different description for his new works (describing it completely separately from 40k), as a way to legally get around Games Workshop's hostility toward fan made projects.
So who is making Astartes 2 then?
Interesting. I didn't know it was uploaded on that channel, too. Perhaps my musings on Syama no longer working for Games Workshop was false. That, or they have an exclusive deal to upload his 40k works on their channel, too. Not sure.
In any case, the Astartes 2 trailer you linked is the same one I linked in the above post, but were uploaded on different channels. Astartes 2 is being made by Syama.
I will watch this when I get the chance.