Hogger's new model: What the FUCK?!?!

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Probably needs his pronouns evaluated too. Its how you prove a company has moved on and beyond stealing the breast milk of other employees.

[Funkyjunky]

Seeing as I work in the 3D industry, I've a guess as to what happened:


Artist was assigned a task to make a new gnoll for the gnolls that will be appearing on the Dragon Isles. Blizzard character artists also draw up concepts for their designs, so that likely happened. Art director approved it. Artist made the model. Art director says "sweet, looks cool." Gnoll_new.fbx is then flagged to replace all gnoll_old.fbx models in the game at once. Commit asset to perforce or git or whatever their internal version control software is and boom, done, all likely without a single thought as to the fact that it was replacing a semi-notable meme mob in elwynn forest as well.

It still doesn't explain why they didn't update the model, but instead replaced it with something that has barely any resemblance.

I hope it's just a PH. Because that weapon holding looks awfully.

- - - Updated - - -

Walrus babies dont have tusks.

Or legs. Or hands. Oh hey, it's not a real walrus but a fictional race

[Caprias]

Iirc. several artists working for Blizzard are quite open about being furrys on twitter.

[Iain]

Since there are no tents, ribs, or smaller hoggers with a dead body in the background, one might assume this was the Alpha version of Hogger in the 2004 WoW.

That's a good point. There's a strong chance Blizzard adjusted Hogger to feed into the story of the Dragon Isle gnolls.

But still, all the gnolls will get this update regardless.

[Warning]

It's weird how far off the mark this is. Do they not use reference images?

[Niwes]

Hogger don’t deserve that. He died for our sins. Billion times. He don’t deserve that.

[bloodmoth13]

Its a well designed model, it looks good, but it does look a little too cartoony.

People say wow has always been cartoony and i guess that is somewhat true but lately they have opted for much softer designs.

Constructive criticism would be that they need to offer different eye sizes and shapes, have some with big wild eyes and some with more narrow and predatory eyes.

The big eyes just remind me of those awful furry suits.

The hots model does a great job at representing the character imo, it looks menacing in a non over the top sort of way, and the biggest difference is the eyes.

[Celvira]

The remodel would be serviceable if they they changed the eyes to be less comically human and altered the jaw to be wider, along with giving them larger, more feral sets of teeth. As it stands, I don't feel the new model instills the primal fear Gnolls are typically associated with. Yes, Gnolls are typically relegated to low-level enemies that quickly get reduced to player-fodder, but their cackle and tents of STICHED HUMAN FACES make them terrifying early monsters to come up against.

UwU isn't the answer Blizzard. If you guys can spare the time and resources, PLEASE consider improving the new model while there is feasible time to do, or at the very least adding one or two options that present a more viscous appearance reminiscent of the classic aesthetic.

[Funkyjunky]

Its a well designed model, it looks good, but it does look a little too cartoony.

There are arguments to be made about this. But the big issue is that no matter how good we think this model looks, is that it's too far off from the gnoll design.

It's not an update. It's a replacement.

[Hitei]

Same model btw.

[Overlordd]

They're openly hiring furries on twitter, is this a surprise when the devs reflect their thing on the game?

[ArenaDk]

Holy dam, you all look at all the amazing new models and get a cry attack over one level 10 mob ? Grow up , post feedback about it and move one.

You dont know if they are done, you dont know if this was the intention and even if , its such a little thing

but no , you all just wanted to create another crychamber with people who echo your tears. You guys are becoming worse then leftwing twitter

[username993720]

Another race ruined by the Disneyfication process:


By the way, this is probably the Hogger model you guys are looking for:

[manypillars]

There's a ton of love that went into that model. Look at the model viewer on this site- its ears, brows, and lips are rigged. It has an animated tongue, can blink, and looks like all the fingers are rigged too. Compare that to the new furbolg model. Ears, brows, and lips are not rigged (yet), hands are messed up and might not be fully rigged, doesn't seem to blink. Even the tuskarr model doesn't seem to have the brows rigged or able to blink despite the beards being rigged up, and the eyes don't seem to move. The new gnoll has some issues (posture has the head tilted awkwardly down and a few of the animations are just bad), but there's still an interestingly high level of detail and work in these guys for a race of nobody mobs whose only notable member is a meme.

[pacotaco]

That's not the point, these artists clearly have talent.

I dislike the Ardenwaeld characters, which were largely designed by Ariel Fain.

https://www.artstation.com/pushinverts

But Ariel is clearly a master at her craft. She also designed the Zandalari creatures which are amongst the most striking designs in the game.

So the way these 'furry' characters look isn't out of inadequacy. It's a clear, creative, but above all, deliberate choice, one that just happens to fall into distaste by quite a few people in this thread.


All of this below is Ariel's work. She's got immense artistic range. It's impressive as most artists are locked inside a single thing they do well. She's versatile:



This isn't about skill or even quality, it's about style and art direction.

Exactly what I was going to say. It's not that Blizzard artist are bad or incompetent, is that the character art direction lately is weird in the sense that some models look disjointed, like 2 art styles trying to mix and failing.

In this case, the gnolls look too clean and fluffy.
They need to make the eyes eaither smaller and pupil-less or even more big and crazy lloking. They now rest on an uncanny "puppy eyes" place.
The mouth is also wrong: they need to make the teeth bigger and jagged with a bigger lower jaw. Maybe with an underbite.
The fur and clothes are also too clean and well kept. They need to make them more dirty and unkempt, so they look more savage.

[Iain]

Indeed there was just nothing wrong with the original silhouette of the gnoll. Yeah their spine looked all messed up, but that's what made them endearing freaks. They didn't have to be 'fixed' anatomically.

[loras]

Look how they massacred my boy!



Seriously, I usually love when they update models. The WoD/Legion demons, the updated kodo mounts, the new nightsabers..... what were they thinking turning the gnolls into fucking Disney puppies???

This guy eat bones, man, not Scooby Snacks!

"I can't believe you would prefer the old model!"

So much shit is overly anthropomorphised and made to look, well, like some misplaced claymation puppet that it often becomes really jarring within the rest of the game's dated context (and no, i'm not only talking about new models walking around in old content).
That's a style failure mind you, not a technical one; they knew their context when they made shit like this; it's either intentional or just a failure of artistic skill.

[VinceVega]

Absolutely love all the “blizzard lost there edge” or loosely vailed “leftist can’t make art and ruined the game” comments as if BFA alone didn’t blow all of the classic wow designs out of the water on the darker/grim factor.

Well... doesn't that proof them/us right though? Compare the grittynes of those with the cutey lovey dovey soft stuff from dragonflight?
Also... i am probably for internet term a leftist but the furrification is hardly deniable right now.... and it sucks donkey balls.

[Relapses]

Seeing as I work in the 3D industry, I've a guess as to what happened:


Artist was assigned a task to make a new gnoll for the gnolls that will be appearing on the Dragon Isles. Blizzard character artists also draw up concepts for their designs, so that likely happened. Art director approved it. Artist made the model. Art director says "sweet, looks cool." Gnoll_new.fbx is then flagged to replace all gnoll_old.fbx models in the game at once. Commit asset to perforce or git or whatever their internal version control software is and boom, done, all likely without a single thought as to the fact that it was replacing a semi-notable meme mob in elwynn forest as well.

Seems more likely than either scenario we presented lol. I don't really mind speculating and being wrong, I just have an issue with speculating then being told I'm wrong by somebody who is also guessing.

[guisadop]

same as when they "updated" the worgen model in Cata and ditched the vanilla ones.. what a disappointment!