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Dread Knight/Death Knight

Another random project, with a little bit more personality


Feel free to use and/or edit these models as much as you like; so long as you credit me.

Keywords:
Undead, Knight, Hero, Evil, Zombie, Villager, Scourge, Another Witty Keyword
Contents

Dread Knight/Death Knight (Model)

Reviews
00:51, 7th Jul 2014 MiniMage: Could be useful. The animations are well done and smooth.

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M

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00:51, 7th Jul 2014
MiniMage: Could be useful. The animations are well done and smooth.
 

Kyrbi0

Arena Moderator
Level 45
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
9,495
So huh, this is a pretty neat little foray into your world, Ver-dict.

I think the mesh works out pretty well; it should, since it's pretty standard (guy in armor, wielding sword). I gotta say the contrast of the sharp armor and the smooth fabric & hair & cape are nicely dichotomous. The head reaches for & attains uniqueness, in that you really modded it nicely to make it look unique (the beard & mullet). Gotta say, you may not have been doing this intentionally, but I love the stark similarities between this and Ganondorf of Legend-of-Zelda fame. Seriously, you really got him down nicely. Except Undead. :p

Textures are solid; Garithos armor works well, and the Revenant cape doubles as a nice tabard. I think the sword is a little off... Though whether it's a matter of size/shape, or the textures used, I'm not sure. The circlet is a really nice bit. The head... I'm torn. On one hand I'm like "wow, how creative, he used a villager-corpse-face to make a regular face! (you can even see the bloody neck stump, under his beard (but of course not in-game)). Were you going for an Undead-ish kinda guy? Duh... Well anyway, quite creative to use a doodad texture. I'll admit a certain 'off-ness' about the face, though; it just looks dead. Duh, but *too* dead. Like not enough emotion for a Portrait, etc. I could be wrong, and perhaps that was the look you were going for (thinking back, plenty of original Wc3 heroes have pupil-less eyes and little reactions... But maybe just one more Portrait anim, to break up the monotony of him staring out coldly into the void?).

That being said, the animations are really where this (and many of your models) shine. You are one of the few modelers that really takes that seriously; SOOOOO many animations, many of them excellent (with fitting, excellent SFX to boot). Granted I haven't checked in-game, but lemme see...
  • Comparing Attacks, #2 seems the weakest of the bunch; as if he isn't swinging the sword hard enough to cut. The two 'stabs' are fine I suppose, and the first slice is good.
  • Grateful for the alternative "ranged-magic-spell" Attack Two
  • That Death... What is that? I can't lie, my first thought was "cop-out". xD Still, I suppose it fits your lore, I imagine; so whatevs.
  • Portrait animations are good, except see above
  • STAND CHANNEL!! You know what I like... And I like me some "i'm so powerful and channeling such crazy magicks that my body is floating & I'm in ecstasy & NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW". Just beautiful.
  • All the Spell anims are cool, and feel powerful.
  • Really I think my biggest problem is the Stand - 1 (and perhaps the start of some of the others, like Spell & such)... It's just weird. Not sure what it is... Perhaps, yeah. The legs. They are, like, distinctly parallel and tight together, and he's just standing there with no sense of balance. Looking at similar heroes (Paladin, Blademaster, etc) there's always a sort of 'space' between the legs & feet, giving them a splayed, more stable foundation as they prepare for battle. This guy just seems like a... stone flamingo statue. There, I said it. :p

So yeah, those are my thoughts. Once again, pretty nifty model.
 
As far as his stand animation goes, I'd imagined the Dreadknight as a rather egotistical character; probably more like a Baron.

Think of the Dreadknight not as a fallen Human, but as more of a hand and body for the sword he wields; unlike Arthas, who maintains his own personality even with the influence of his sword. Looking over the animations, the way I'm seeing it, with a look back, is that of course the melee attacks would be the way they are, while all of the magical attacks have much more personality; the sword is powerful, and best shows this off when actively using said power.

That aside, I'd thought for a moment that the generic Death Knight resembles the grey-haired Villager, with the goatee. This model, rather obviously, greatly resembles the default Villager, or the Bandit Lord. This is giving me a few more ideas for my next little 'random projects'. I've been busy with some things and don't want to immediately dive right back into the Creep race I was doing.
 
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