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World of Warcraft: New Tauren Model Profiled in Latest Artcraft
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The venerable Tauren race is the latest subject on the World of Warcraft community site and is detailed in great depth in Artcraft, a look at the new models coming in the Warlords of Draenor expansion due out later this year. The new model keeps many of the basic animations of the old but features a smoother appearance and facial expressions.
Before we even started animating him, we already knew the Tauren was going to be a blast to work on based on all of the detail the character art team added.
As we begin applying animations, we’re extra careful not to stray too far from the original. It’s important to us to retain the essence of the original animations, because how a characters walk, move, and carry themselves help to define their personality. We use all of the original animations as a starting point, and then go through the process of cleaning them up and adding additional articulation. Let’s delve into what that process looks like.
See the rest on the World of Warcraft site.
Comments
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
It would stay at the top you mean? It still has the most subs, and the most concurrent players.
This is fantastic. Blizzard is a bit like Pixar when it comes to characters. Not storytelling. I am not a fan of Blizzards storytelling, but the characters themselves have a lot of soul through their distinctive art, animation, sounds and feel. If you really think about it, perhaps their Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo characters are not that amazing compared to literature, but there is something about them.
I think these new models are fantastic. I am feeling a rejuvinated interest in World of Warcraft I haven't felt since 2007. With that being said, for me WoW will always be about Warcraft, the characters and the world. I would play this game again to go through the world again. One last time.
There are a lot of 12 year olds out there.
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Blizzard is nothing if they aren't marketing geniuses. They know how to sell their brand very well. I agree that their storytelling isn't always the best, but they do have a way of making you care what happens to many of their characters.
I also feel that the new character models come at a perfect time for WoW. Their subscription base has been a bit of a rollercoaster during MoP, and the game was feeling very old and worn. Going back to Draenor, revisiting some of the most talked about characters in the lore, and modernizing the game (ability pruning, adding garrisons, etc) are all ways of ensuring that your current player base remains. Additionally, they may rope back a few former subscribers too.
Been patiently waiting for them to show the new artwork for undead females. All I ever made in that game were undead females with spiky hair and the two belts crossed over the face. I might resu for a month just to see my disc priest revamped.
I think it's still at the top. However, I don't think a facelift would significantly impact their subscription numbers. Most people that quit do so because of gameplay reasons, not graphics. I play WoW only on Vanilla servers now, and I don't miss the updated graphics at all.
I must say that I always had the same idea you have. But as I see these new models I can imagine the impact they might have on the game. I've recently started playing again and I've found Pandaria quite beautiful. There's life in the zones that I haven't seen in WoW since the Night Elf starter area. The only thing that's weird in this picture is my character. The outdated models can't even compare to the insanely detailed NPCs.
Just my two cents,
Cheers!
Is this the internet equivalent of " hold my beer and watch this durrr " ?
I think except for slightly more detailed textures the new model looks 90% the same.
Blizzard bringing their 2004 models to a 2007 standard in 2014 has been disappointing so far, but the tauren are the weakest upgrade yet.
I think the new models look great, and a big part of what people aren't acknowledging right now is the increased quality of the animations. You will see this as more information comes out, hopefully. By redrawing the models and increasing the polygon count, it will significantly improve how nice the graphics are overall.
There is an issue, however. That is, leveling, transmogrification and old armor pieces. There is a lot of armor in the game that is very old, and will not receive a makeover. If the new models are wearing these sets, it will cover up a lot of the hard work that's been done. Again though, animations. No matter what, I believe the improvements there will be highly noticeable.
You have to hand it to Blizzard. For how old the game is, they have kept it generally pleasing to the eye, subjective artistic opinions aside.
@ Volgore The textures are not up to modern standards, but the character models have more life in them than many modern high fidelity games have. Their animations did a terrific job expressing life into the character models. In many MMORPGs the characters might look photorealistic but they feel like lifeless dools.
Have you seen the "wish you were here" Gnome trailer? it really showcases the new rigs extended use of facial animations. it's very well done. They are saving humans and blood elfs for last. The expectations for those are enormous. And challenging. they are being asked to remain faithful to every classic face and hairstyle while completely altering them.
it would have been done years ago had they just scrapped everything and had people start over. It's impressive that they decided to re-create all the original faces and hairstyles as reference points.
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They are I think. All of the orc enemies in the press event gameplay had new models on them.
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Yeah, for every fail MMORPG since 2004, blame Blizzard.
League of Legends isn't an MMO.....
I am actually impressed they managed to do as much as they did with the tauren. It was a very complete model to begin with and most work on these ofc have gone in to the face. The old ones did barley have any head animation beyond the mouth.
Would like to see some more details in the body but at the same tie we have to remember that they actually have fur all over their body so with that in mind i feel they look very nice.
Personally i am looking forward to the Night Elf male model, i have a vain hope they have fixed the hands not not always curl inwards. And new more dynamic hair perhaps... And more then one Eye color.
This have been a good conversation