Artcraft - Blood Elf Update

[grexly75]

New models looks fantastic! My god, I was afraid a rework, but now I'm just happy. My belfs will look beautiful! Thanks blizz!
I don't understand people, who said something like "horse face" - girls, at least, looks beautiful without that expression of disgust or displeasure.

The weird thing is that the models could be 100% perfect and people would still find something to complain about..

[snuzzle]

This thread is amazing, so many people were actually expecting them to change stuff like the models' resting poses. It didn't happen for any other races, why would they decide to do it for Blood Elves?

Blizzard made the biggest mistake by ever using the phrase "new (character) models". It let stupid people think fundamentals like the model skeleton or animations were going to be changed. In some cases, upgrades were performed (models for hands now more often have separate 'bones' for the fingers) but nothing has really been changed.

What are you talking about? It DID happen for a lot of races, and a lot of people are upset about it. And they DID change female blood elf's resting pose based on the Artcraft.

Female night elves got a major side lean that they didn't have before.

Female draenei got a less arched back and more bent legs, resulting in her losing a few inches of height.

Female orc holds her head taller and stiffer.

Male draenei doesn't pull back his shoulders as much, as well as he had his legs lengthened.

They've made plenty of changes to the models' idle poses. Female blood elf, as we can see here, doesn't lean as far to one side anymore. So it's perfectly reasonable for people to believe they may do the same with male blood elf, too.

As far as animations, my female tauren has a completely new talk animation and jump animation. They change when they want to, even though they said they wouldn't.

[rellik]

I mainly play BE's and I am actually pleased with the updates. They basically made HD versions of the previous models and didn't try to completely rework them. Lets just hope all the different face options and hair stay on par with the two shown here.

[Astalnar]

Female model looks amazing, male on the other hand has a lot to be desired. Mainly, I really really hoped after seeing how they fixed the posture of females, they would do the same for males, but it seems they kept that one because it is "easily recognizable pose". Really, on thing you could change and we would all cheer you leave the same...

On other hand, both models got more muscles now. I can only hope this will fix the problem male models have with hovering pauldrons.
Here are more detailed thoughts about the preview: http://cogitationesastalnaris.blogsp...blood-elf.html

[Alex86el]

what's with the "ass-chin" ?

[Mormolyce]

As far as animations, my female tauren has a completely new talk animation and jump animation. They change when they want to, even though they said they wouldn't.

They never promised anything. There's a balance to be struck between updating ancient models and preserving the look and feel we're used to, and that's what they've done. They used their judgement on what to change and what to keep, they seem to have erred on the latter side for the most part. You can have your personal opinion on whether their choices were good or bad but you can't object to them on the basis that they said they wouldn't change things because they said nothing of the sort.

I think they've made the right call 9 times out of 10 personally.

[Unilythe]

The models look alright, but the face of the female looks very weird. I hope they will keep working on those, or that it's just one of the many faces that are available.

The male models look great though, if you're into that. They basically look like a higher quality version of the old versions, so that's great.

[Mustardisbad]

dat aaassss

I think they look really well done so far.

[dupti]

Well I think these models are pretty good.

[Deleted]

Wait for the animations - you'll all will be mind-blown...

[snuzzle]

They never promised anything. There's a balance to be struck between updating ancient models and preserving the look and feel we're used to, and that's what they've done. They used their judgement on what to change and what to keep, they seem to have erred on the latter side for the most part. You can have your personal opinion on whether their choices were good or bad but you can't object to them on the basis that they said they wouldn't change things because they said nothing of the sort.

I think they've made the right call 9 times out of 10 personally.

I never said promised. But yes, they did say time and time again that these were not remodels but merely upgrades, and recognizable features would remain intact. However, they did not always follow through on this, and it seems often things were changed for the sake of change alone.

They used phrases like "your character with the lens focused" and "if you can't recognize your character, we failed". But when they change idle stances, face shape, eye color, lip color... it gets harder and harder to say "Yup, that's exactly my character!" My main does not even feel like she's the same species anymore because of the change to her face shape and nose. I cannot possibly agree on that being the "right call".

[mitrooper]

Here’s my opinion from what I have seen so far of the new Blood Elf models.

First off Blood Elf stances.

I'm glad to see that you artists at Blizzard kept the Blood Elf stances, they are an arrogant race and those stances are perfect for that type of character.
Please do not listen to people that think the Blood Elf stances do not look realistic…the stances are exaggerated and not realistic, they are not supposed to look realistic, Warcraft always had a semi cartoonish style and exaggerated look and I personally love it.

The Blood Elves, both male and females, have had this stance for over 7 years now and the stances should stay as is, it’s part of their character, it’s what makes them truly different compared to the other races, they ooze arrogance and superiority

The new BE male model’s stance looks perfect compared to the old model, the new female though, I like a bit less, it seems you guys lost that beautiful contra pose she had, just look at the picture from her back and compare the old model to the new one, the new model looks stiff and wooden compared to the old one which has a nice twist to it…try to keep that please.

Textures look good, much better than the Night Elf males, which look unfinished to me.
Again, the new Blood Elf textures look very faithful to the old model’s textures, but in highres, which is the right way to make these new character models, stick to the old models style, but update them with high resolution textures…well done.
By the way, Love the new underwear textures

Now the faces, not completely happy about both the BE male and female, face textures look great, very detailed, but there’s a problem in the modelling itself.

On both the male and female the space between the bottom of the nose and upper lip is way too high, it should be shorter, the space I’m talking about is called the “philtrum”, which is the small indent we all have above our upper lip.
The faces of both male and female Blood Elves will be far more pleasing with a shorter “philtrum”…In the screenshots, it’s too long.
Again, just look at the old models and you can clearly see that the “philtrum” is much shorter on the old models… Please fix this on the new models if at all possible.

Finally, I hope the animation of the new Blood Elf models is as close and faithful to the old animations, the BE animations of the old models are downright perfect, please try to stick close to those.
The Blood Elf male for example has one of the best running animations in WoW, it would be very disappointing if you guys would lose those fantastic animations…
Sadly that happened to the poor Night Elf Male…still hope you can fix the NE male one day, again, look at the old model’s animations.

Keep up the good job, can’t wait to see the New Blood Elf models in-game and in action.

--Mike

[Frozen Death Knight]

I wasn't really a big fan of the Blood Elf stances, myself, but it mostly had to do with how broken the anatomy looked. Now with the increased polygons it doesn't look as bad as it used to. The spine looks a lot better and the shoulders are much better connected to the body than the original models, so the arms don't look they are hanging loosely from the torso anymore.

If there is one thing I am a bit bothered about it's the female face. A few things look pretty off, like around the mouth and lips (the upper lip to be exact), and how the iris and pupils look extremely big, which make it look like she's a bit high. Other than that, the update is excellent. The male Blood Elf looks just fantastic. Really nice work.

[playerguy]

rememer ur a belf so u cant really carry big weapons even a female gnome is stronger than you

[Deleted]

They do look better but i hope the weapons are bigger for BE female.

[Crookids]

Why are people so annoyed about the male posture? It gives a different look so they're easily depicted. I think it's cool and presents them as meticulous individuals who stand as if they are better than you while making them easily recognizable. The only thing that was a bit flamboyant was how thin they were. They added just enough bulk with the new model and I think now even the males look good.

I have no doubt the run animations tweaks will be on point as well as with the other redone models. They've nailed fixing run animations especially with the Draenei.

[Astalnar]

Why are people so annoyed about the male posture? It gives a different look so they're easily depicted. I think it's cool and presents them as meticulous individuals who stand as if they are better than you while making them easily recognizable. The only thing that was a bit flamboyant was how thin they were. They added just enough bulk with the new model and I think now even the males look good.

I have no doubt the run animations tweaks will be on point as well as with the other redone models. They've nailed fixing run animations especially with the Draenei.

Would you please stand up, and try staying in that pose for more than a minute? It is unnatural. They can look smug and arrogant even when standing normally. Even if they let them still lean on one leg would be fine, as long as they fix the lean on the shoulders.

[PricklyBear]

I couldn't resist...

[Queen of Hamsters]

[Fortyz]

Honestly not impressed at all. It looks as if little to no effort was put into blood elves. how dissapointing