Imperator Titans are the largest ground-based war machines in the arsenal of Warhammer 40k‘s Imperium of Man – 330-foot tall walking cathedrals, with gun arms half a football field long. So, I’ve often wondered: what would I see and hear when one turns its barrels on me and fires? As of today, I’m no longer curious, though, because the work of two intrepid YouTubers has created a one-minute animation of that exact experience, in awesome, terrifying detail.
Being, as they are, at least five times the size of Imperial Knights and more than ten times the size of regular models in most Warhammer 40k factions, Titans are rarely seen on the 40k tabletop – so it’s exciting when we get to see them do their thing on screen.
This one minute, two second animation shows a custom 3D-modeled recreation of the Imperator Titan from Space Marine 2, as it stomps along, takes ineffective cannon fire against its void shields, turns unhurriedly to face the camera, then charges and fires its Sunfury-pattern Plasma Annihilator directly up my nose.
The video is the creation of YouTuber TheDiamondMan3, who says in the description they made the stunning Imperator model “using Blender and Substance Painter”, then did all the animation in Unreal Engine 5.
Work in progress Blender screenshots shared by TheDiamondMan3 on Twitter show off the frankly ridiculous level of detail they put into their digital Imperator Titan sculpt – down to the tiny crenellations and flying buttresses (google it, architecture fans).
Visually, of course, it’s really something – but the clip gripped me for its sound just as much, as we hear the Imperator’s chilling, booming war horn; the piddling crumps of the cannon fire gradually drowned out by the swelling, actinic howl of the Plasma Annihilator; and finally its apocalyptic blast.
And for that, TheDiamondMan3 credits another YouTuber, Indomitable Fist, who uploaded the sound four years ago – this video was created from scratch, specifically to put pictures to Indomitable Fist’s sound effects.
Of course, if you’ve put all that effort into 3D-modelling a horrifying, 300 foot high death machine, you might as well have some fun with it while you’re there. Before creating the plasma-blasting animation, TheDiamondMan3 used UE5 to make their Imperator Titan dance the griddy (a must watch) – and hacked the model into tactical shooter SQUAD using the game’s development kit.
The imagination, ingenuity, and elbow grease 40k fans put into customizing the hobby will never fail to amaze and delight me. This Imperator Titan started life as a ridiculously big, lifeless hulk in one of the best Warhammer 40k games of all time; now it’s been painstakingly reconstructed piece by piece and made to do a TikTok dance from 2019. And this, only days after the Golden Girls joined the Sisters of Battle. We truly are living in the future (but not yet the grim dark far future).
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Source: Wargamer
