Panda Wukong

[Daffa]

I'd say this is pretty creative and still has Sun Wukong feels.

 

[Vinz]

Creative, as usual. :]

 

[Deleted member 247165]

Amazing !

 

[Draktar]

What program do you use for animating?

 

[BoatyMcBoatface300]

What program do you use for animating?

I would prefer to use some of the modern tools, probably Blender, but I used mdlvis here.

 

[Deolrin]

I love this. So creative, has a lot of character - I adore the animations. I would say that the cloth texture is a bit bland though, and I think he could use a neck, or something, because he looks a bit too teddy bear-esque, even moreso than the rest of the Warcraft Pandaren. Maybe some of the proportions can be changed a little bit.

 

[Bigos]

This is a pretty funny model! hehe

 

[Mister_Haudrauf]

Please add the "Contest Entry"-tag.

 

[xieal]

so cute

 

[Misha]

hey, these are some really nice animations xD

 

[Mathayis]

One of the sweetest models i've seen!

 

[FirstLegacy]

looks nice.. gonna add this to my panda army

 

[Kyrbi0]

(I suppose I can put my comments here rather than the Contest thread)

Lemme first say I'm very glad someone finally made this model; I've been soft-planning a Pandaren race for years, and been toying around with an enlightened, flying classical Monk unit for that faction. Using a cloud works & feels very authentic to the mythology it comes from, so that's very cool.

I'm also a big fan of the 'little things' you added in; having his feet kicking idly during Stand, chomping on the Bamboo in the Portrait, his spiritual pose during Dissipate, and especially the handy-looking transformation animation (I'm always grateful when modelers go above & beyond the standard anim-set & provide some interesting ones for alternate uses) (by the way, probably better to follow Wc3 Convention & just call them "Morph" and "Morph Alternate").

That being said, this model still seems like it needs some work (at least, to fit in better with the standard Wc3 style); a big problem I have is the Attack animations; while they look cool, they are much too fast, with an almost comic-book-like "visual swoosh" of the texture (the yellow tip of the staff streaks through the air very... 'solidly'). Maybe it's the Viewer & I should test it in-game, but man it's like instantaneous, which you don't really see in Warcraft.

From there, I would also look into the textures; I think Deolrin was on to something, because I agree that they seem a bit too.. drab? smooth? uniform? Like, it's got nearly no wrinkles, and no little finials or nurnies or a belt or a necklace or anything (Warcraft 3 models, especially early on, tended to focus it's visual complexity more on the texture than on the mesh; i.e. all the little 'additions' & things were textured on, rather than being modeled on). Not exactly sure how this could best be done; I see you're using a custom texture (shame ;P), but I recognize that sometimes it can be really hard to find fitting in-game ones (maybe ask around? Peeps like Deolrin or @PROXY or @-Grendel are really good at that).

Finally, I'm kind of unclear as to whether this is supposed to be a Hero or a Unit; visually it has the complexity of a Unit (i.e. insufficient for a Hero), but you've given it Hero Glows so that makes me think 'Hero'. Having both is always great ; )... But you may want to lean one way or another.

I see great potential in this already-good model. Good luck, man!

 

[Mister_Haudrauf]

Finally, I'm kind of unclear as to whether this is supposed to be a Hero or a Unit; visually it has the complexity of a Unit (i.e. insufficient for a Hero), but you've given it Hero Glows so that makes me think 'Hero'. Having both is always great ; )... But you may want to lean one way or another.

When i see such a sentence i think of Demi-Heroes. Not fully Hero (more of a General), but not a normal unit either.

 

[BoatyMcBoatface300]

Well, updated, I added more wrinkles to the kasaya now and upped it to 128p.
I'm trying to keep to the traditional China's kasaya look, whilst with monks being monks they wouldn't have much of any "material possessions."
How's it?
I feel it is appropriate thematically, whilst speaking in wc3 hero's terms, it's not, something like that?

@Kyrbi0
The reason for them being spell rather than morph is because it wouldn't work as morph animations, it has to be triggered if anyone plans to use it. Unless I create the morphed animations itself, which would determine what he can or cannot morph to, but that wouldn't be too wukong now.
I figured that this is something that has to be tackled on the programming side, hence spell.

As for the attacks, yeah, I was going for a look that seems more like how traditional 2D would look, but re-imagined in 3D.
And you're spot on, it's definitely instantaneous.
Perhaps I might add more inbetweens to make it look smoother rather than instantaneous.

 

[Madison]

This is very original. How did this never cross my mind? lol

 

[Deolrin]

Yeah, the robe looks much better now. Some textures still need work, I would say - the weapon, golden pieces and teamcoloured parts all suffer from the same issues as the robe did before you updated it. Too bland and with too little detail. Wrinkles and shading in the TC can go a long way. The teddy bear proportions still bother me, and I agree with much of what Kyrbi0 said as well. A bead necklace (Blademaster style) would be neat. A more detailed weapon that stands out more would be another way to add interest to this model as a hero, rather than a simple unit. The golden bracelets and crown could be made a little bit more prominent, thicker, more distinct, more 3D, rather than the thin appearance they have right now. You could even go all the way and add animated textures, particles or some sort of animated glow to the golden parts, to further indicate the character's transcendence / godhood.

 

[loktar]

This is very cool and unique, love it ^^

I fully agree with Kyrbi0 and and Deolrin about the animations and textures though, it could use a bit more work.
Also, not a bit deal, but it has a few unused keyframes.

 

[General Frank]

An interesting and crafty model. Good use of in-game textures.
Works in-game and performs adequately.
Good job.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Well, updated, I added more wrinkles to the kasaya now and upped it to 128p.
I'm trying to keep to the traditional China's kasaya look, whilst with monks being monks they wouldn't have much of any "material possessions."
How's it?
I feel it is appropriate thematically, whilst speaking in wc3 hero's terms, it's not, something like that?

Hm. While I understand the desire to make it thematically appropriate, I have to posit that gameplay concerns (like readability, visual cues, the silhouette) generally should trump aesthetic concerns. In this case, yeah he's a monk so he wouldn't have a lot of material possessions... But you need to jazz this guy up or he won't look like a Hero in-game.

(on that note, see below my thoughts on "hero vs. unit")

The reason for them being spell rather than morph is because it wouldn't work as morph animations, it has to be triggered if anyone plans to use it. Unless I create the morphed animations itself, which would determine what he can or cannot morph to, but that wouldn't be too wukong now.

I figured that this is something that has to be tackled on the programming side, hence spell.

Now this is mystifying. What do you mean "it wouldn't work"? Does it glitch out or just fail to Morph at all (when you tested it)? Because normally those animations being named that way are precisely so people don't have to bother with triggers & systems to make things happen.

As for the attacks, yeah, I was going for a look that seems more like how traditional 2D would look, but re-imagined in 3D.
And you're spot on, it's definitely instantaneous.
Perhaps I might add more inbetweens to make it look smoother rather than instantaneous.

I would. I mean, again, only if you are trying to make a model fit for Warcraft 3. For another setting, or some kind of custom game? Sure, why not have instantaneous attack anims.

Yeah, the robe looks much better now. Some textures still need work, I would say - the weapon, golden pieces and teamcoloured parts all suffer from the same issues as the robe did before you updated it. Too bland and with too little detail. Wrinkles and shading in the TC can go a long way. The teddy bear proportions still bother me, and I agree with much of what Kyrbi0 said as well. A bead necklace (Blademaster style) would be neat. A more detailed weapon that stands out more would be another way to add interest to this model as a hero, rather than a simple unit. The golden bracelets and crown could be made a little bit more prominent, thicker, more distinct, more 3D, rather than the thin appearance they have right now. You could even go all the way and add animated textures, particles or some sort of animated glow to the golden parts, to further indicate the character's transcendence / godhood.

I agree with all this... If he were to try & make it into more of a Hero.

However, the more I look at this guy the more I feel like he should go the other way (i.e. make it a Unit). In fact I feel like it's closer to being a Unit than a Hero; wouldn't need additional 'nurnies' or extra animations, just remove the glows & rename Dissipate to Death (because honestly him floating up in the clouds for Death would be great too).

(also I'm biased because I was gonna design this guy as a Unit but shhhh... xD)

 

[BoatyMcBoatface300]

Well, added some accessories, as well as more TC. Still trying to figure out where to add more TC for more readability in-game.

I've tweaked the attack animation slightly, tell me how you feel about it now.

@Kyrbio
As for why it wouldnt work, it's mostly on the morph alternate side.

IF it were renamed to morph and morph alternate, that means it would necessarily need to use another model.
Let's call the new model X and Wukong model W.

Now here's the problem -

X cannot use the morph alternate of W.
So what happens is, the morph will work without issue.
But morph alternate would just look like X standing in place, then suddenly it turns into W....

The only way morph alternate would work is if W has alternate set of animations, so that W never turns into X, but W stays as W in both state.

Also, tested this in-game, so there's that.

 

[Deolrin]

Nice. I don't know if the necklace reads well in-game, it seems a bit too micro-detailed, but I haven't seen it from an in-game camera so you're the better judge of that. I like the new additions, still think the weapon could be made a little bit more distinct. Overall I'm liking what you've done with it a lot!

 

[Yoga WP]

Can you use the Furbolg Panda skin for its body ? I want other Female Pandaren Warden too. (A Female Pandaren Warden with a Chinese Sword) uses Pandaren Brewmaster skin for its head, with a black hair, Storm Pandaren Brewmaster skin for the costume, with the Night Elven cloak.

 

[Virusmaximo]

amazing !

 

[knight26]

This is what happens if Goku only ate.

 

[demonpuppet]

Makes me wet

 

[ShadowMidas]

Too cute.