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Wight & spells

This bundle is marked as high quality. It exceeds standards and is highly desirable.
"The avatar and messenger of death, gathering souls in the land of the living."

Technical info:
  • Contains only in-game mesh and textures.
  • Contains custom animations and SFX.
  • The size of the models is optimized.
EXPLORE the bundle in this post.
UPDATE 30.08.22: see here.
See icons here.

Author's notes:

Features the amazing Call Of Dread spell model by @Vinz on the preview.
A Reforged version of this model from @VictorZ has been released, you can take a look at his bundle.
Feel free to use/edit the model but give credits! If you want to publish an edited version, please, provide a link to this bundle.

Keywords:
Aura, Boss, Darkness, Death, Grim, Hand, Lich, Reaper, Skull, Soul, Spirit, Undead, Wight
Contents

Wight.mdx (Model)

WightLight.mdx (Model)

WightUnit.mdx (Model)

HandOfDeath.mdx (Model)

Stranglehold.mdx (Model)

SpiritBolt.mdx (Model)

ExpirationAura.mdx (Model)

DeathCurse.mdx (Model)

DiskOfScythes.mdx (Model)

Reviews
ILH
ILH
A beautifully designed undead hero with an eye-candy arsenal of custom SFX. Works in-game. Approved! Honestly the 'Death' animation looks amazing, lost count of replaying it.
Hello everybody! In short, this bundle is my attempt to put an end to the lack of models representing Death itself in the Warcraft universe. Thus, I tried my best to combine custom animations, game graphics and ideas into something coherent and original. Enjoy!

Idea

A Wight is not death itself but a mighty (summonable) Undead creature that manupilates its powers; it's an avatar of Death in the Warcraft universe.
Size.png

This is a large caster that is higher than an Abomination, almost as big as a Tauren Chieftain and can take on other large creatures in melee combat.

Appearance

In terms of appearance, a Lich in Warcraft is the most death-embodied being, so I found it natural to take its features as a basis and supplement it with the details of an Acolyte that is also a symbol of the service to the Undead. Here I applied Shade's textures on a Lich's skull, took the cape and transformed it into a grim face of the reaper:
3.png
1.gif
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As you can see, the head has several material layers that compliment each other: even the skull is a bit purple in order to fit the color scheme. Besides, it is not a simple merge, as it may seem at first, but a profound work on carefully shaped geosets, re-wrapping and new bones that perform custom animation.

Of course, a reaper is not a reaper without a scythe. While creating the scythe I used the following textures of the Undead that fit in the color scheme:
4.png
5.png
6.png

If you look closely at this, you may find such bronze-color details as the skull of the Temple of the Dead on the belt plate, its lattice textures on the scythe, some team-colored parts, handing fabric and so on. For all the apparent simplicity of the design, the whole appearance is literally woven from those exterior elements that remind us of the setting of the Undead army.

You won't belive me if I say, that even Crypt Lord, Mannoroth and Naga Siren took part in the creation. Thus, step by step I considered going through a large amount of suitable details that could be transformed and assembled into the final concise exterior of the model.

Animations

These animations seem familiar to you? You feel you've already seen a unit brandishing a two-handed weapon in a similar fashion? No, I didn't import them: from the edge of the cloth to tip of the scythe all animations are custom.

Once again, I entererd the battle with unbeatable Blizzard animators to repeat their success. Moments when the weapon freezes during impact, timings, invisible transitions between frames, postures, momentum for the movement - all this was carefully taken into account.
Avatar.gif
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In many animations, even in portraits, I tried to additionally focus on the main signature weapon and decided to highlight it with some glow. Thus, some special moves began to look more reasonable.

The Spell animation can be played as a Stand Victory or an alternate Stand Channel, while the Attack Slam can be played as a Spell Throw to deal with missiles; they are non-looping:
8.gif
9.gif

To get a perfect timing for the Hand of Death effect you should trigger the spell with an event when your unit begins casting this ability.

The Birth Animation repeats the Raise Skeletons spell, but I made the bones glow, added a summoning circle, spirits, and a neat sound like a death bell.
17_birth.gif

In other words, I showed a lot of respect to this animation. This is a boney with a scythe, a Grim Reaper, so, what can fit better?

Use Birth to summon the creature; Attack Walk Stand Spin to protect it and attack nearby foes; Spell Slam First to cast destructive AoE spells. Almost all animations and special moves are accompanied by appropriate sounds. Try out Spell Slam First to hear a hollow scream of a Banshee.

Spells

Here I used the in-game color values and decided to use a mixture of only two colors: green and white, which made the spells distinctive, but at the same time in the style of the Undead. Some of the white parts contain special blending layers and omnilight so that the spells are always visible.

Here I improved and changed the original Curse spell:
CurseDetails.png
Curse.gif

Now it is adapted to the color scheme, has a dimming Birth and Death animation and special emitters to give it a more unique look.

I thought it would be pretty original to create a hand of Death that can attack or grab enemies and torture their souls:
11.gif
12.gif

I tried to make the hand more anatomically correct while using in-game mesh only. The hands include Medium and Large animation for the sizes.
Use the "Origin" attachment point for these SFX.

Hand of Death
Causes a ghost hand to burst from the ground, immobilizing and damaging a target enemy. Deals double damage to living creatures.

Stranglehold
Causes a ghost hand to burst from the ground, immobilizing a target enemy and sucking out its life. Drains life only from living creatures.

The idea behind the aura is simple: it is slowly taking life. So, I took the Life Drain model and combined it with an aura texture that had a perfect color:
13.gif
14.gif

Unfortunately, the drain textures was too blurry. Thus, I decided to create a more classic-looking aura with a "suction" effect that moves under the beat of a heart, reminding us that our time is limited. There's a darkening effect under it, so it stays bright in day time. I called this aura "Expiration Aura", also after the names of the in-game auras, mostly consisting of two words. It almost has no mesh with bones and weighs ridiculous 3 KB.

Expriration Aura
Decreases the movement speed and life regeneration rate of nearby enemy units. Effects only living creatures.

Simply use negative values of the Unholy Aura to quickly create a usable version of the Expiration Aura.

As for the Sprit Bolt, I named it after the following idea: it is a ball of spirits, tormented souls, that the reaper possesses.
15.gif

The spell has ghost tails, ribbons, an explosion effect with a dimming omnilight, shading SFX and only one animation.

Spirit Bolt
Throws a ball of evil spirits at a target. The ball breaks upon impact, damaging nearby hostile units. Spirit Bolt cannot be used on mechanical units.

Here you can see the usage of the Disk of Scythes SFX after the Stranglehold. It has an omnilight and background layer to look better in day time.
StrangleHold320x657.gif

To make a spell from it, I simply modified the Carrion Swarm ability and removed its buff.

Disk of Scythes
A whirling scythe that ripples out from the Hero, causing damage to land units in a line.

I also have a lot of ideas for many other spells and will probably add them to the bundle in the future. However, the spells here are just an addition to the Wight models. So, if you want to ask me for more fitting shiny Undead spells, I recommend using @Vinz's spells.

Wights

There are three Wight models. The first one has a big range of animations and special moves (like an Attack Slam First for critical strikes/stuns and Attack Slam Second for cleaving attacks):
16.gif

This model can act as a boss in your maps, as it allows you to easily combine spells with internal special moves for various purposes. It also features unique cinematic-style Death and Birth animations that you can control with an animation speed trigger.

The second model is called "WightLight" because it's almost two times lighter than the original one. However, it has the necessary set of animations.
18_death.gif

As you can see, its Death animation is simpler and there's no Attack Walk Stand Spin sequence, which saved some kylobytes because these sequences use many required geosets and materials. There's also one less Stand, Portrait and Spell Slam animation.

The last one is "WightUnit" and it inherits almost all of the animations from the WightLight model and, in addition, it doesn't have the green glow around the scythe, so it looks less epic than the heroic model.

Afterwords

Don't forget to check "Can't raise, does Decay" in the "Combat - Death Type" field and set the Death animation time correctly. I also recommend to add "large" in the "Art - Required Animation Names - Attachments".

These models took a lot of time and effort to create, although they don't have moving textures or flashy mesh details, they do have other good points, which, as I want to believe, are enough to successfully fulfill the niche.

Wight was the most interesting and energy-intensive project for me, but it gave me a great opportunity to improve. While working on it, I imagined @General Frank with a stern look, saying in a resolute voice: "If you do something, do it well or don't do it at all." When I made the first model, it was he who gave me a sense of responsibility and duty in modeling here, made me take it serously and try hard.

Also, I want to thank @Rhapsodie for being my third eye in the creative process. In addition, I want to thank other people who show attention to my work, because you also motivate me to pursue this hobby.
 
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one of the most based undead models ever made
Thank you very much! 😊
You are insane. Fantastic work. I envy your passion.
Thank you! I learned a lot from your works and want to say that you are a real SFX genius 😌
I thought I would read "put and end to the lack of Heroes of Might & Magic models for Warcraft III". :xxd:
To be more exact, I got inspired by heroes V 🤓
I am just now cracking into this but dude this is looking leagues beyond anything you've ever done. LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT EXPLAINER POST. This guy looks so so so so freaking cool.

Should this be nominated for Director's Cut?
Yeah, I had to explain the usage of the spells, some mechanics... err, because I foolishly decided to unite the models in the bundle 😀
Thank you for the compliment about the Director's Cut, but I think the bar nowadays is beoynd the skies 😅
 
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Deleted member 247165

D

Deleted member 247165

I'm in complete shock! Didn't know you are capable of this greatness. I mean you were awesome before but this, this is a completely different level!
 
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Nice model, you put a lot of thought on it, looks great!
Big thanks! Yeah, I like concepts, that's how my imagination works 🙂
Yaay, finally another Heroes of Might and Magic V unit, awesome work on it mate, i love it :D
truly well made model Vilagerino,
I'm in complete shocked! Didn't know you are capable of this greatness. I mean you were awesome before but this, this is a completely different level!
This is an absolute unit... the textures, the animations, the ambient: Brilliant, Keep up the good work sir!!! 💪💪

God-tier bundle...
For such praise I am always ready to try harder, and I even feel proud 💪😅 Thank you a lot!
 
Level 4
Joined
Oct 29, 2021
Messages
18
He is really cool and perfect and his abilities impressed me. Keep up the good work:goblin_jawdrop::grin::thumbs_up::peasant-thumbs-up-cheers:With the weak abilities that I saw from him, he seems to be a powerful hero. It is good that one of his weak points is lighting, that is, he is weak in the daytime but reaches his maximum power at night, but I don't know if this feature can be implemented in Warcraft or not.
 
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This is... This... THIS IS AMAZING! :ogre_love::ogre_datass:
Wow! Insane model and a beautiful set of spells, I especially love these necrotic spells 5|5! Greatness! :infl_thumbs_up:
in it is awesome, will try to access the internet often to be able to see god level models like this xD.
This model is next level.
This is fantastic! The amount of work you put into the description is amazing :D
The Grim Reaper has arrive. Nice work as always dude.
Amazing models!
Thank you a lot, guys! I'm really happy to hear such words from you 😌
Dude, this is incredible!
Such detail, all those spells you made! This character could be both the protagonist and antagonist.
Thank you! Yeah, maybe when it gives redemption to someone, it can be a good guy 😀
Give this a DC
Also, how does Jaina summon 2 water elementals and they are separated and not spawned in 1 place?
Oh, this is super Jaina, she can use triggers to summon 2 water elems at once on both sides 😄
Do you think it can be nominated for a DC? 😎 I don’t know the judging criteria, but I intuitively feel like it's almost impossible to jump the bar nowadays, especially for lore-designed models, but, of course, I will be really proud of it, although, I didn't set myself such a goal 🙂
He is really cool and perfect and his abilities impressed me. Keep up the good work:goblin_jawdrop::grin::thumbs_up::peasant-thumbs-up-cheers:With the weak abilities that I saw from him, he seems to be a powerful hero. It is good that one of his weak points is lighting, that is, he is weak in the daytime but reaches his maximum power at night, but I don't know if this feature can be implemented in Warcraft or not.
Thank you, friend! Lore-wise this thing is not a night creature, but something purely necrotic and close to Liches but soulless. I see it as an elemental of Death itself, its avatar. Its power stays at the same level regardless of the day time, because death doesn't care when to come for you 💀 However, you can add such a feature to your map, as it can be controlled via triggers and stuff 👍
Gives me nice HOMMV vibes... I dig it!
The model is very similar to the 6 unit from the heroes of might and magic 5, I'm delighted!
This model looks pretty similar to Wight unit from Heroes of Might and Magic 5, pretty cool I gotta say :d
Big thanks! Yes, coincidentally, the image of death in my head turned out to be similar to this unit, and those "nice HOMMV vibes" made me dedicate the entire Death animation to this unit, I also named the bundle after it. So, I was curious to see if I could recreate such an animation in Warcraft, it was another challenge for me, and I think I nailed it 🙂 But it's for you to decide:
WightDeath.gif

If you followed my thoughts there, you would be able to predict the result. For instance, the torso looked too empty without a piece of armor, and I considered it would be the best decision to decorate it with a skull. I also added some hanging cloth to the scythe to make it look more dynamic and less boring (made it from the Lich's hanging chains, but had to animate it anyways 😑). In addition, I picked one of the most stereotypical shapes for the scythe, as I wanted to be closer to the classic image of death. The flying bottom of the model was based on the Lich's skirt, and so on.

I just guess that some art concepts may intersect, especially when it comes to some stereotypical ideas.

At some point I remembered about the HOMM Wight and got inspired by it. It made me want to create an AoE Spell animation and a cool Death sequence. After this, when I remembered its soul taker skill, I got inspired to make my Hand of Death based just on a motion of its hand. Something like this! 🙂
 
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Level 3
Joined
Mar 14, 2021
Messages
14
Sorry, but I want to ask you to make a model of the "Wraith King" lasso from DotA 2 but on Warcraft 3 textures. Sorry for writing off topic. If you respond to my request, I will be very grateful, although I am already grateful to you for the wonderful model of Death with a Scythe. To all who read, good luck and all the best.
 

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Sorry, but I want to ask you to make a model of the "Wraith King" lasso from DotA 2 but on Warcraft 3 textures. Sorry for writing off topic. If you respond to my request, I will be very grateful, although I am already grateful to you for the wonderful model of Death with a Scythe. To all who read, good luck and all the best.
Hello! I'm flattered that you trust me such a request 😉 But, unfortunately, I can't take it due to my participation in some other projects and the lack of free time.

Please, direct your request in the relevant forum threads.

However, I had an idea to create another skeleton king with the similar anesthetics of my Wight. I guess, this model would look similar to the Wrath King - all in all skeletons are skeletons! So, you might see it around someday 🙂
 
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Level 3
Joined
Mar 14, 2021
Messages
14
Hello! I'm flattered that you trust me such a request 😉 But, unfortunately, I can't take it due to my participation in some other projects and the lack of free time.

Please, direct your request in the relevant forum threads.

However, I had an idea to create another skeleton king with the similar anesthetics of my Wight. I guess, this model would look similar to the Wrath King - all in all skeletons are skeletons! So, you might see it around someday 🙂
Thank you for your answer, good luck in the contests, I hope to see the Skeleton King from you with a wide and proud bone!
 
This model is so beautiful, I give it a little kiss right on the lips 😘

I look forward to seeing what you make next, and what I will be kissing next too
Thank you! In the meantime, our skeletons want to tell you, sir, that they are pleasantly embarrassed 😀
Oh man, that detailed skeletal hand, not one but two instances of it.
View attachment 405190
Edit: where's the green breathe model?
Thanks! Oh this model is just a simple edit of Breath of Fire and I thought it was too simple to be there, I put this gif just to show some animations. However, it's not a problem to attach its file here 👌
AMAZING, no more words
reminds me of the Necron Nemesis but much better
Thank you, guys! 💛
 
Level 1
Joined
Aug 15, 2022
Messages
1
I thought it would be pretty original to create a hand of Death that can attack or grab enemies and torture their souls:
View attachment 405082View attachment 405083
I tried to make the hand more anatomically correct while using in-game mesh only. The hands include Medium and Large animation for the sizes.
Use the "Origin" attachment point for these SFX.
How u made script for spells Hand of Death and Stranglehold?
I try change original spell spiderweb but not worked.
Help pls.
 
@fearsanya, for the Stranglehold I used standard Entangling Roots and just changed the model in its Buff. For the HOD I used a trigger based on the Channel ability with an event 'A unit - Starts casting an ability', as the animation length of this ability equals the length of the Spell Slam First👌
For the further explanation on how to make such a trigger, please visit the relevant forum section.
 
Jesus christ Villagerino, these models are too world level quality. Someone stop this man!

Just Amazing.
Mighty senpai himself praised me 😌
Amazing job!
Thanks a lot! 💛
holy, pardon my french, f***kin christ man. absolute insanity. amazing.
i gotta keep up with the quality man
Thank you, man! Your works are also amazing, you have such great experience in modeling 💪 and your return to Hive is definately a good sign!
 
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