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Artcraft Level Design Part 4 features Nagrand
Part four of the latest series of Artcraft was released this week, and this time, five different level designers are featured in the segment, all talking about the development of Draenor's version of Nagrand. Nagrand is pretty unique in that Outland's version of the zone is one of the most pristine parts of Outland -- it's been virtually untouched by corruption, although chunks of the zone have obviously broken off and floated away. Which makes for the interesting task of keeping those familiar landmarks of Outland's Nagrand, while seamlessly adding those missing areas that were lost in the Twisting Nether. All of the designers talk about that particular hurdle, as well as delivering a lot of other really interesting facts about Nagrand and the Highmaul Raid included on the western edge of the zone. The development of Highmaul and the Highmaul ogres vs. the Warsong orcs is particularly cool. This is the final installment of this particular series of Artcraft -- honestly I think it's been one of my favorites to date, simply because it highlighted so much of the stuff behind those zones we spend all our time in, but hardly ever think about in terms of how they came to be. You can check out the final installment on Blizzard's website, as well as all other posts in the series.
World of Warcraft examines the art of designing proto-Nagrand
Part of designing an MMO is putting a whole lot of work into things that no one will really notice. If you're playing World of Warcraft and running through Nagrand in Outland, you might be vaguely curious about how the zone is going to translate into its original form in Warlords of Draenor. Odds are, though, that you'll notice only in passing what the latest development blog from art director Chris Robinson talks about extensively. Robinson details the challenges of building the temporal prototype of an iconic existing zone, especially since the original Nagrand was marked partly by the contrast between its peaceful plains and the floating bits of rock in the distance. The intent was to give the area an almost delicate feel, as if parts of the landscape could rise up and start floating away. Take a look at Robinson's whole piece for more insights about weaving the story of the zone into the art, and take a moment to stop and look around when you reach the zone in-game.
WoW devs discuss environment and zone design
World of Warcraft senior art director Chris Robinson has penned a new dev blog focused on zone and environmental design. It's the first of a planned series that will use Nagrand as its primary example, and over the coming days you'll be hearing from additional quest and systems designers and even historians who "craft and create not only the zones we adventure in, but the visual story about these locations and the creatures and races that inhabit them."
World of Warcraft spotlights Draenor's new Troll models
Today's World of Warcraft Artcraft blog is all about Trolls. No, not the trolls who plague internet comment sections everywhere; the playable Troll race that outcools all the other Horde races. Blizzard's Chris Robinson spotlights the new models for both the male and female Trolls, noting that the race's tusks posed "unique challenges": In the character customization options, you have the ability to select from a number of tusk "styles." While other race models (like the Tauren) have similar customization options, the additional modeling, texturing, and animation articulation of the Troll face-and mouth especially-made this a distinctive challenge. We actually had to model the Troll with a flat lower lip; then, for each facial customization option, we went in and posed their lips to naturally wrap around each tusk option. We've included a pic of the female Trolls below.
Warlords of Draenor: Orc posture updates potentially on the horizon
There are a few really iconic design choices in World of Warcraft that have always been a hallmark of the game. Big arms, huge shoulderpads, that sort of thing. One of the items on that list is orc posture -- orcs have a hunch. They've always had a hunch, unless you happened to be an important orc NPC. Player models have always been slouched over, because for some reason, orcs just don't have proper posture. But there may be some changes to that on the horizon, according to a couple of tweets made yesterday by Senior Art Director Chris G. Robinson. Regarding Orc posture, want to add upright orcs eventually but that won't be part of this update, no guarantee or eta. If/when we introduce- - Chris G. Robinson (@artofcgrobinson) August 3, 2014 Robinson went on to clarify that this is not something that will be out at the launch of the expansion -- and it might not be something that makes it to the game at all. But it's something that Robinson definitely wants to attempt to tackle in the future. And although this is one of those things that many players have expressed an interest in seeing, Robinson was quick to clarify that if this change does in fact see the light of day, it will be as an option, not as a default setting. So those who are fond of their hulking hunched brutes can continue to play them just as they are. It's interesting, however, to see that these kinds of changes are definitely being thought about. And it does make me curious as to whether or not we'll see other options regarding posture or even things like height or body options added in some day, like the ability to create wizards with wizard builds instead of barbarian builds. If nothing else, maybe we'll see the male trolls suddenly discover what their female counterparts have known all along -- life is a lot more enjoyable when you exercise the option to stand tall.
WoW's Warlords of Draenor expansion is making faces at you
When Blizzard launches World of Warcraft's Warlords of Draenor expansion later this year, players will be getting more than just the long-awaited character body model upgrades; they're also getting new facial geometry. Art Director Chris Robinson wrote today on the game's official blog, Our next big focus is doing justice to the facial options. With the original models and their simplistic geometry and low-resolution textures, a lot of facial expressions were simply painted on. Now that we've moved to higher-polygon models with lips, teeth, and fully articulated faces-not to mention higher-resolution textures-recreating those same facial options isn't as simple as painting them onto a flat surface. Previously, to get a sneer out of a model, you'd just paint a sneer on its face, and that was that. To do it correctly now-and make it look great-we have to fully pose a sneer, create a custom texture, and mesh that base pose with all of the existing emotes and animations. Robinson also said that Blizzard is "committed" to launching all of the new models together rather than roll them out independently post-launch, but a later tweet indicated that Blood Elf models will not make it in for launch.
Warlords of Draenor: New blood elf models delayed
In a quick announcement over Twitter, Blizzard Senior Art Director Chris Robinson has confirmed that updated blood elf models will not be ready in time for the launch of Warlords of Draenor. Blood elves are indeed scheduled for an update just like all the player character models, but they will now be scheduled for addition into Warlords post-launch; perhaps along side another content patch. Robinson did quickly add that the new troll models are still scheduled to be in place at Warlord's launch, and we can expect to see an Artcraft preview of them as early as next week. As we near the end of development, it's become apparent that the new Blood Elf models won't be finished to meet our standards before launch. - Chris G. Robinson (@artofcgrobinson) July 30, 2014 As unfortunate as it is that the blood elves are being delayed, I think it's understandable. As far as the older models go, the blood elves have held up rather well. There are other player character models in far more need of updating, so if something had to be pushed back, it's no surprise that it's the blood elves. Then again, blood elves are one of the most popular choices for player characters, so I'm sure there will be at least a bit of disappointment surrounding the decision. Never fear, though, we will get new versions of our favorite mana addicts soon enough, and until then, I'm on pins and needles to see the new trolls. Will my hunter finally be able to blink? I certainly hope so!
Warlords of Draenor: New model adjustments in the works
There have been quite a few rumblings online about the new character models, pointing out that the models themselves all appear to have the same facial expressions with little of the variation we're seeing on live servers. Senior Art Director Chris G. Robinson hopped on Twitter yesterday to address the concerns, pointing out that the new models on the beta are by no means final, and of course still subject to change. In the case of the human female model, base animations are still undergoing adjustments to bring them closer to matching the original base structure and expressed emotion. .@Selcaer Definitely subject to change, we're now fine tuning each face, altering base pose to more closely match original structure/emotion - Chris G. Robinson (@artofcgrobinson) July 5, 2014 The base animation is the default expression on a model's face when they are not in any kind of active motion. It's the expression your character has when they are simply standing around in town, or on the character creation screen. Currently, the human female models in the beta are all wearing the same expression while they're standing around. With updates to the base animation, and the tweaks to eyebrows and other facial features as tweeted by Robinson, the models should once again appear just as diverse as they do on live servers.
World of Warcraft takes you on a tour of Spires of Arak's art
The art team at Blizzard is proud to present and pontificate on the creation behind one of Warlords of Draenor's new zones: Spires of Arak. "When we started working on Spires of Arak, we only had some basic ideas: tall rocky spires jutting out of a dense forest," Senior Art Director Chris Robinson said in today's dev blog. Spires of Arak is what later on becomes World of Warcraft's Terokkar Forest, but the team had to create its own individual look which included working on "large spiky rocks." The art team detailed the journey that went into choosing the style and making it happen and included a video of this creation process that you can watch after the jump.
Blizz shows off WoW's actual female Draenei revamp
Blizzard has followed up its April Fools' Day prank with a look at the actual female Draenei model. Senior art director Chris Robinson says the space goat girl is very much a work-in-progress and currently lacks body and facial animations. Still, it's worth seeing where Blizz is going in Warlords of Draenor, and you can do so via World of Warcraft's official website.
Warlords of Draenor: Details on the art of garrisons
Senior Art Director Chris Robinson has been keeping us on tenterhooks awaiting the next Artcraft installment, dealing with Garrisons, and it's here! It's a fascinating post, giving way more than just art, an insight into the design process and the "gameplay first" approach the designers have taken. We also hear from Wendy Vetter, the Dungeon Team's lead artist, who walks players through the process of making the new old, and the old new, as they borrow and adapt older textures and assets while still bringing them up to date with the new systems and graphical quality. There's also input from the props team, giving information on the elements they've added into the mix, the storytelling side of design, creating a whole with items and their use. They're the team working on decoration and filling the space in the buildings. It's another great installment in the series and a fascinating read!
Rumor: Are we getting a new character model preview this Thursday/Friday?
Chris Robinson, Senior Art Director at Blizzard, tweeted a pretty obvious hint of what's to come later this week in a blog post reveal on the official Warcraft site. As pictured above, it really looks like some new hair ... and where would Blizzard showcase new hair? On a new character model. I don't think it's a very big stretch to say that another model preview is on its way. It could just be new hairstyles, however that'd seem pretty anti-climatic, especially given that we haven't seen any of the other models yet. In fact, I'll go as far to say that this hairstyle looks like it belongs on a Human or Blood Elf (which we know are now in-progress for WoD). Stay tuned to your Warcraft news sites (especially on Twitter). Should be interesting!
Draenei and blood elf models now on list of planned updates
Draenei and blood elf players, it's time to get excited. According to a tweet made by Senior Art Director Chris Robinson, both sets of models are now also on the update list. While the Warlords of Draenor website has yet to mention this change, Robinson stated that the page simply needed to be updated to reflect the news. At BlizzCon, it was originally stated that the initial model updates would be for vanilla models only, and that blood elves and draenei would be addressed at some point after the new models were released for Warlords. While this is amazing news, please note that this isn't an indicator or confirmation that all the new models will be available when Warlords is released. However, according to another Twitter post by Robinson, a new character reveal with an updated model is on the way. The character reveal will likely be posted on the official Warlords of Draenor website sometime soon. With the amount of progress already made with new models, I'm pretty excited to see what they're going to reveal this time around -- maybe new human or night elf models? We'll have to wait and see.
WoW Source talks Warlords of Draenor, new female Forsaken models
In the latest episode of WoW Source, Morgan Webb sits down with Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas, Senior Art Director Chris Robinson, and Game Director Tom Chilton to talk BlizzCon 2013 and the next expansion, Warlords of Draenor. Along with an overview of the various features of Warlords, there's an exclusive look at the new female Forsaken models. Although these are just stills of the character model in progress, they're gorgeous -- and I can't wait to see them in action and live. Check out the full video for insights and news about BlizzCon 2013, the development of Warlords of Draenor, and more. Those amazing new character models pop up at about thirteen minutes into the video, along with more footage of the other new character models already revealed at BlizzCon 2013.
Tom Chilton suggests Mists of Pandaria "wildly overhyped"
Maybe Mists of Pandaria isn't quite as likely as we all thought. IGN PC had a chat with Game Director Tom Chilton about the rumors of the upcoming expansion, as well as the upcoming patch 4.3 and the possibility of WoW moving to a free-to-play model. Chiming in on the subject of transmogrification was Art Director Chris Robinson, who explained a little about the details behind the feature and its restrictions. Robinson clarified that protecting class integrity was an important factor in both armor design and the upcoming transmogrification feature: "When you see those demon wings you know 'Okay that's a warlock,' you know you can apply that to his tier twenty-one armor but it's still a warlock." So what about free-to-play? Chilton confirms that it's "definitely a possibility," but for those of you looking for an immediate free-to-play version of WoW, you're going to have to wait. Chilton clarified that the change would be a dramatic departure from Blizzard's current business model, and it would take quite a bit of convincing to switch models. As to the subject of Pandaren ... Speculation swirled recently regarding Blizzard's decision to trademark "Mists of Pandaria," as many thought it may indicate the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion. Pandaria, in Warcraft lore, refers to the home of the Pandaren, basically humanoid war pandas you may remember making an appearance as neutral heroes in Warcraft III. Chilton said the speculation was, "wildly overhyped." He added, "if you look at traditionally how we've handled that race it's been in those secondary products because we haven't realized it in the world. Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that." Comic books, figurines, or a new expansion? Time and undoubtedly BlizzCon will tell. Check out the full article over at IGN PC.
Patch 4.3: Deathwing, cosmetic armor skins, and armor storage
European gaming convention Gamescom is in full swing this week in Cologne, Germany. German entertainment site Gamona.de sat down with both Tom Chilton and Chris Robinson to discuss the details of the upcoming patch 4.3, the patch where your dreams come true. It was revealed that the patch will include: Deathwing's raid and three new 5-man dungeons Cosmetic armor skins (!) An armor closet to store old gear, freeing up bank space As patch 4.3 will include Deathwing's raid, that probably means it will be the final patch in the expansion's overall narrative. If you doubted for a moment that Blizzard will announce the next expansion at this year's BlizzCon, doubt no more. We expect that these new 5-man dungeons will provide a new tier of heroics as well, pushing difficulty about Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub. Follow us past the cut below for details on cosmetic armor skins and more!
Ashbringer TPB is pretty legendary
It was with a mix of anticipation and apprehension that I wrote about the Ashbringer Trade Paperback by Wildstorm which collects all four issues of the limited series. After all, I wasn't entirely impressed with the regular series featuring Varian Wrynn but thoroughly enjoyed Tokyopop's Warcraft Legends manga, so while I was decided upon getting Ashbringer, I had moderately low expectations.The good thing about having low expectations is that it's hard to get disappointed. It turns out, however, that I didn't have to set my expectations so low... the Ashbringer comics are a very good read from start to finish, particularly for readers who play World of Warcraft. In fact, that might be its one caveat -- the Ashbringer limited series is a decent read for the average reader but truly shines for players, who are familiar with the story and recognize the characters.
Ashbringer TPB out now
I haven't been a big fan of the whole Alliance-centric direction of the Wildstorm World of Warcraft comics, and I picked up the whole Varian Wrynn saga mostly out of a completist impulse rather than actual concern for the story or its characters. I also thought Ludo Lullabi had better samples of art on his personal site than what he showed in the comic, so when I found out the next story arc was going to be pencilled by Jon Buran, I wasn't too concerned. Buran is doing tremendous work so far. Of course, we all soon learned why Lullabi left the book -- he was tasked with illustrating the Ashbringer story.The good news is that the Ashbringer comics which follow the story of the legendary blade showcase some of Lullabi's best work yet (with assists from Tony Washington). This owes largely to the spectacular coloring, done Painter-style by either Lullabi himself or an uncredited colorist. The painted covers by Chris Robinson add a sense of awe and wonder to the series, and each issue of the four-parter is rich with lore because it was written by Blizzard's own Micky Neilson. Even better news is that DC Comics has collected the mini-series in a hardcover edition available at your friendly neighborhood comic shop for $19.99. So soon after picking up Warcraft Legends, I think I'll need to make a little more space on my shelves...
BlizzCon Flashback: The Panels of BlizzCon 2008
Tickets are sold out for the day, and most of us are probably a little angry, but don't forget! There's another day of ticket sales on the 30th! If you haven't made your decision on whether you want to go or not yet, you're running out of time and it's probably a good time to look back on the BlizzCon that was. BlizzCon 2008 lacked any major World of Warcraft announcements, Blizzard's other franchises stole the spotlight last year, but that doesn't mean WoW wasn't there in spades. Let's take a moment to look back on that, shall we? The Opening CeremoniesBlizzCon 2008 kicked off with the opening ceremonies, hosted by Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. Morhaime delivered many facts and figures about the World of Warcraft at the time (if WoW were a country, it would be the 75th largest in the world), and announced a new class for Diablo III: The Wizard.
Notes from the BlizzCon 2008 Art panel
Greetings from sunny Anaheim, California! One of this years WoW-related BlizzCon panels focused on the process and inspiration for the creation of the art for various aspects of Warcraft. There were a total of 7 people on this panel, lead by Chris "The Intern" Robinson, the Art Director for WoW. Also on the panel were other representatives from the various art teams, enough that there was some confusion as to where they were all sitting at first.Before we get into the whole thing, I should mention the most important part: The artists all but said that giving visible armor to Druid forms is in the works!
