Character model rework 25% complete (Tom Chilton & Cory Stockton interview)

[Yarathir]

http://i.wow.joystiq.com/2013/08/24/...k-25-complete/

Speaking to Tom Chilton and Cory Stockton this morning, the question came up of the character model rework. Unusually, these guys actually seemed happy to give us quite a lot of information about where they were going with the character models. Most notably, when pushed, they let us know that the percentage completion of the new character models was as follows:

TC: "Um, 20% maybe?"

CS: "Yeah 25%, maybe 25. That could be a safe number."

TC: "But yeah, there's a long way to go. And I also don't know that, when we launch the new character models, I don't know that they'll all be done at the same time. We'll probably have a good number of them done, and we'll launch those, and we'll continue to update more throughout the patch cycle. We figure players would rather have some earlier than wait forever until they're all done. Not forever but, a longer time. Might feel forever. Blizzard soon."

EDITED rest of the interview in after comment from UnifiedDivide

Tom and Cory also went into quite some detail about the reasons why the process took so long, and brought up the importance of maintaining a character's identity while also updating the models. They recognized how important that was to players, and how many players identified heavily with the look of their characters' models.

TC: You don't want to log in one day and feel, like, "well MY orc, his eyebrows were a little bit more like this, and you know his ears were more like that, and you like, changed that on me, like what the ****..." You want to look at Garrosh and go, well, I love that level of fidelity but if we actually literally map it onto your character it gets pretty scary. So it's still going to be really risky for us to do, we're going to try it out and see how it goes, but there's still danger.

CS: We've taken a lot of care with the animations especially, because you know, you add all that fidelity, right, we want to keep the same animations so their dances are obviously the same, but there's so much more stuff there to animate, now. And that has a danger like Tom said to make it feel pretty different.

You know, once there's beards swinging around and ponytails, and they've actually got fingers now, so when they do the point emotes they actually [point]. So we have to animate that now, 'cause we didn't do it before 'cause the hand was like a glove, right?

So we've actually spent a lot of time, we review them, in those weekly art sessions, looking at them side by side, here's the old dwarf and here's the new dwarf, and running the animation and trying to make sure that they have the same emotion. I think if we can capture that emotion in the animations, that people will feel like it's OK, it just looks better.

TC: The run still feels the same, you know, they've still got the same personality.

CS: It's a long process though, it's not easy, 'cause there's a lot to do, male and female, for every single race.

There is only one thing I can say: You gotta be ***** kidding me. Serious?



Well, there goes any chance for the updates next expansion. All of us overestimated the advancements in the process, so yeah. Great.

[Frozenbeef]

well that sucks Was hoping that would be the next expansion feature rather than yet another class/ race >.< I bet they are just saving it for the 10th anniversary -.-

I wish they didn't release garrosh with the new model it's just totally a let down now knowing we won't get them for years :/

Feeling incredibly let down

[Kargarok]

Oh well, new character model in 2-3 expensions.

[Deleted]

Wow, that sounds alot further back than I had thought it would be.

[Deleted]

Alright, so I'm not that cunning when it comes to this but surley creating a few new models wont actually be that hard/time consuming, right?

[Resentful]

25% fucking percent? Wow I'm actually mad lol

[Yarathir]

25% fucking percent? Wow I'm actually mad lol

Same here. Still, you made it a bit less painful because I had a chuckle at your name and then your response. Thanks.

[Mawnix]

I feel like they're misleading sort of.

[Resentful]

Alright, so I'm not that cunning when it comes to this but surley creating a few new models wont actually be that hard/time consuming, right?

No vandar does it in like a week or w/e his name is and IT'S ONLY ONE GUY makes better models then blizzard lol he has his own youtube I forgot his account name here

[Nab]

So they can create a new race in 6 months, but they can't add some polygons to an existing model in 1.5 years?

[Deleted]

Well, that means I'm not going to return. I've been waiting on this for ages and they're still on 25%? At this rate we won't even get it in two expansions!

[warlockblood]

lets hope they can step up the progress to 100% before the new expansion releases. but this is a pity lets hope they have something to keep us interested in our current models. but does this mean they are working on another race?

[Obelisk Kai]

This is actually very disappointing.

[checking facts]

the expansion had a lot of new art, after all.

blizz can't do everything at the same time, and they have to focus on the new. reworking the old is a side-project.

[CalasEU]

Alright, so I'm not that cunning when it comes to this but surley creating a few new models wont actually be that hard/time consuming, right?

You have to fit gear, dances and all sorts of crap into those new models. It's gonna take a while.

[The Glitch]

25% is better than zero% so thats fine, we knew it was a side project and not a main project, and its alot of work so 25% doesn't seem too bad. I'm just happy they are still working on em rather than it being something that gets thrown on the *to do list of never gonna happen* lol.

[Ectro81]

Well, that means I'm not going to return. I've been waiting on this for ages and they're still on 25%? At this rate we won't even get it in two expansions!

can i have yer stuff? cuz noone else cares. let them drop everything else and work on YOUR MAIN PROBLEM ALONE. I'm gonna get infracted for this, but you're a dumbass. Take a look at something like Conquer Online, then bitch to me about graphics updates, tool.

Keep it civil please.

[Deleted]

So they can create a new race in 6 months, but they can't add some polygons to an existing model in 1.5 years?

Obvously you're pretty clueless about the development of theese things. You could read up on character design, 3dmodelling, uv-mapping, texturing, rigging and animation. Then you can come back with a more insightful comment.

This is largely dependant on how many artists they have on the models and if they are generalists or specialized in any of the diciplines mentioned above.

[Deleted]

Lol like fucking seriously?
Unless they're adding entirely new bone structures to every race including worgens,goblins and pandaren, 25% is waaaay too slow for something that was promised quite some time ago.

I mean this is through-the-roof bad :/.

[thegempolice]

When did they start working on new models, as in, put a team on it? If they've been focussed on it for a year already and only 25% done, OK it's terribly disappointing.

If they've just been doing design sketches and concept art and only started the nuts and bolts recently then it could be ready for the next expansion.