Corvus Belli, the Spanish firm behind the miniature wargames Infinity and Warcrow, has recently opened a new programme to give fans who want to make Infinity or Warcrow videos, and even fan animations, unprecedented access to all the media assets they could possibly dream of - including full color 3D models of its newest miniatures. It's a markedly different strategy from industry heavyweight Games Workshop, which keeps a tight lid on information about upcoming releases, and has a standing ban against any kind of fan-made animation.
Despite the sometimes tumultuous relationship between GW and its fans, there's no shortage of content creators making painting tutorials, lore explainers, battle reports, tactics guides, and for Warhammer 40k - and Corvus Belli is hoping to promote a similar level of enthusiasm from its fandom. The Corvus Creator Nest is a new incubator programme designed to support content creators who want to cover Infinity or Warcrow, whether they're experienced players or just discovering the games for the first time, veteran video makers or only getting started.
There's practical support available, including equipment loans and tuition. For the recently released Next Wave Infinity sub-faction, CB has handed over a treasure trove of lore, game rules, art, model photographs, and most impressive of all, full color 3D scans of every miniature in the release.
"If you know how to use Blender, or Unreal, or any 3D program, Corvus Belli is sharing with you the assets to make 3D animation", says Carlos 'Bostria' Llauger, a game designer and one of the company's main spokespeople. He adds: "Games Workshop won't allow you even to dream about this in the following four decades".
There are understandable - if not necessarily relatable - reasons why GW plays hardball with its IP. Received wisdom has it that a firm which doesn't protect its IP aggressively will have a hard time taking truly egregious plagiarists to court. But cracking down on fan animations means giving up on a big source of influence: no-one is working on the next generation of influential fan animations, such as If The Emperor Had a Text To Speech Device, the Helsreach adaptation, or Astartes.
So the appeal for CB is obvious - if talented fan creators start making original Infinity animations, they could raise the profile of the game massively. All that's needed is for the fans to rig up the 3D models they've been given, and create something original with them.
That is the question for CB, of course, since 3D animation is by far the trickiest form of content creation. The creators in the Corvus Creator Nest have put the other assets they received for Next Wave to good use, and as soon as pre-orders opened there were lore videos, rules breakdowns, and painting videos good to go. The enthusiasm is definitely there - but it may take some nerds with very particular skills before the plans for Infinity fan animations come to fruition.