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New Models (In the hands of someone with aesthetic talent)
Lord_Vayde
Member CommonPosts: 78
So my friend and I were discussing the new models earlier and realized that the current images being thrown around the web lately are mostly either a) the horrid default models or b) customized by someone who has likely never seen a naked body.
Not that I mean to insult anyone by that, but really...one only needs to log into something like Second Life to see how many misshapen parodies of human anatomy can be created when you give people fairly large control over their avatar's physical form.
So that said, I decided to hop onto the test server and see the new models for myself. Now just so you guys know, I'm not really a standard Vanguard player. I hop in every now and then to see how its doing and get a few levels here and there, but I'm pretty heavily invested in other games. So don't think that I'm coming here to parade Vanguard's new models or anything, I just want to present that the new models can (and do) in fact look far better (and sexier) in the hands of someone with a little aesthetic prowess.
Keep in mind that everyone's opinion of beauty varies, and you may not necessarily agree with my choices for this thread, but I have tried to create these models following fairly standard High Fantasy artwork, particularly as Keith Parkinson might have envisioned it. Oh, and please excuse the fact that I have no clue how to lose the interface in Vanguard 
I would also like to point out that there are still some flaws with these models - particularly the men, there needs to be some way to bring the chest width down a bit more, and while I understand that Vanguard does not have an animator right now, maybe they would want to borrow one from one of SOE's other games just to fix up the man's standing pose, and give it a more relaxed look than having their arms shoved out to the side.
Anyway, here they are, with more to come:
Human (Thestran) Male:
Half Elf Male: 
High Elf Female:
Comments
Dark Elf Male:
Dark Elf Female:
Well done, they do look much better than what other people have been showing.
I wish I had time to hop on and check them out on the test server today.
WORK WORK WORK.
There are two kinds of people in this world. People who pick their nose.. and liars.
Very impressive
Good effort
"after the time of dice came the day of mice "
Thanks for effort into creating showing some good made models. As for the quote, is there any concept art avaible that he did for Vanguard. For the models I mean.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
Wow, this really does make all the difference, new models look wonderful! Bravo man!
_____________________________
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In 2008...
Cracked.com voted Roosevelt as the most badass President of all time.
This is his story....
Kurashasha Male:
Kurashasha Female:
Thanks for all the feedback so far guys! I'll do my best to get in all the races (and hopefully genders) today, though I'll be switching to more vanity shots rather than the standard face/body thing.
As for Keith Parkinson's art, I'm not sure of any site that still has an archive but I'll look around.
Orc Male:
Orc Female:
Vulmane Male:
Vulmane Female:
Those are significantly better than the ones I remember during my trial. Gonna post some dwarves? :P
Dwarves for the Dwarf-God!
Dwarf Male:
Dwarf Female:
Agreed, we've really only seen the 2-3 races that are still behind worked on. I still think the majority of races have been improved.
Peripheral to my hobby as a realistic figurative sculptor, I have studied anatomy quite a bit. In my art studio I have a couple muscle sculptures which I use as references, as well as a life size medical quality skeleton. Additionally I have many anatomy books that just deal with muscles and bones which I frequently refer too and I have developed an extensive personal collection of anatomy pictures which I use to test my knowledge of insertion and orgins as well as how each muscle appears when flexed, extended, rotated, etc.
With that being said, the muscular anatomy of the bodies is really off. The bodies appear to have painted on definition, and it's not even painted correctly. To my eyes, it's really distracting, but as you noted, aesthetics is a subjective thing. The 4 pack abs is really eye jarring. I've heard of the ideal of 6 pack abs. Even 8 pack abs. I am a runner, about 165 lbs and 5' 9", and I can see all 8 of my abdominal muscles ( but only when flexing ) and I am not an elite athlete or anything...just a regular guy that runs to keep in shape.
To me, it's not even that the artists took creative license in making a stylized rendition. They just lacked talent. Either that or they are working with so many technical constraints that it hamstringed them severely.
Just to add, I don't thing the female dark elf or female high elf look too bad.
In the end it's not that big a deal I guess...they are gonna be wearing armor or clothing anyway.
Are they images previous to the new update and tweaks from player feed back?
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS)
Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve
Do you know when they will be added to the live game?
Thank you
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
Nice pics. You've done much better with the models than the TTH crew.
???
He logged onto the test server and took screenshots.
???
He logged onto the test server and took screenshots.
There still difference.
TTH took screenshot on the default characters, the OP obviously did not. The OP did more work into showing how they can look like, with sliders.
On the othar hand one have to remember that TTH's screenshots was before they made the major tweak on the female models. But that doesn't leave out that TTH did it the fast and easy way. (They do a good work on other things, but this one maybe was not that good.)
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
I was playing around on test earlier with the new character models and took some pics. I didn't want to start a new thread so I thought I would post these here.
I find the devs have been working hard on these. There are much better compared to when they first went onto test. Enjoy
I live with a digitial and traditional oil-painting artist, so get really dismayed when models and animations are not good. This does not mean realistic - the biggest problem with most digital models is proportion. Distortions, especially in more of a body-building way, are great; comic artists have done it for decades with spectacular results. However, if the head of your vulmane looks like an overlarge mushroom sprouting from the body, with no neck musculature to support the head, it isn't believable and is therefore bad. Even really clunky models like the frogloks or Vah Shir of EQ1 were believable because their bodies looked like they bore the weight of the features and were not disproportionate.
The new orcs in these pictures are an example of it working right. They are by no means realistic, with heavy shoulders and arms. Their legs are also chunky and their heads are small, giving them a big body look that is not realistic, but still believable. The humans and elves have heads that are proportional with fairly slender bodies, especially the elves.
The vulmane and kurashasha have large heads and broad shoulder, but thin legs and necks. A little of this would be fine, but its really over the top. They look like unbalanced barbie dolls or he-man action figures as result.
Theyre a definite improvement. Still need work but getting there!
I must admit the character models are really the only thing stopping me from playing the game (thats assuming the run and fighting animations are better too). I like the housing and flight (two things on the top of my lists for games).
Overall graphics are not important to me but the models are. If I don't like how I look I'm going to be irritated every time I see myself They don't have to be great or cutting edge. I like the night elves in WoW and my characters in HZ (Istaria) and even my wood elf, dark elf and Human in EQ. They just need to look good to me.
But those earlier models were just horrid. These are better and I may check it out soon again.
Venge Sunsoar
Some before vs after shots would illustrate the changes more.
Personally I didn't think the models were bad before. It was the animations that were bad.
Well I like playing dark elves and they were terrible hehe.
Venge Sunsoar