Tauer's Models 2.0

[Kyrbi0]

Yeah! Zul'jin for the Zul'win!

I'm loving the mesh so far Tauer. I think Deolrin and a few of the others have made most of the points I would've. I would say put a lot of love into that Scarf (perhaps a big flowing section that trails behind him, like the Paladin's cape on one side), since to me that's always been his hallmark.

Also, despite the coolness of those boots, I too think he should be barefoot; not only is it common, but it helps show off those sexy 2-toed feet of Da Trolls. Better balance, mirite?

Also, as has been stated, Straps are a must, but also a must for a texture, not the mesh; it's common in Blizzard models to let the texture define the details, rather than the mesh.

Looking forward to it! (also consider a Jungle Troll version for the skin when you finish)

 

[Tauer]

Yay, texture is done!

Kidding, of course. Just laying down the main colours and getting ready to do some shadin'. Yir.

Also scaled the feet down a bit (and as you can see, barefoot ) and made his upper arms slighter thinner to give him a more slender, trollish look.
All the teal colored parts will be, you guessed it, team colored

I'm loving the mesh so far Tauer

Thanks!

perhaps a big flowing section that trails behind him, like the Paladin's cape on one side

Yep, already did that

also consider a Jungle Troll version for the skin when you finish

Mayhaps. Although, Zul'jin is a forest troll, right?

LOL, yeah, you made your point clear! You're the artist here afterall, like any noteworthy artist, you must make what you like mostly.

True
Still, accepting criticism (especially from people with more knowledge about it than me) is a good practice for when, or if, I ever want to get a job in the game industry. I just don't want anybody to think that I ignore their advice without any reason.
I really appreciate all the constructive criticism people are giving me

 

[Heinvers]

It's shaping up quite good so far. I'm glad that you resized those feet, a lot better now.

 

[Deolrin]

All the teal colored parts will be, you guessed it, team colored

But honestly, I still think he looks too much like the generic Forest Troll. I hope you make his face old and warty-looking. Maybe make his nose a big fatter or something. And is that a dagger I spy to the right of the model? If he holds a dagger in his free hand I will literally love you forever.

...Oh, and if not a dagger, I think giving him some throwing spears on his back or something could be interesting. Just to give it some kind of variety. I think having 2-3 throwing spears on his back would make him different from the in-game trolls, too.

OH! And one more thing! Perhaps a few skulls tied to his waist\belt?

 

[Heinvers]

perhaps a few skulls tied to his waist\belt?

<3 d

 

[Kyrbi0]

Mayhaps. Although, Zul'jin is a forest troll, right?

Yes, but if you will make him in certain ways, with certain modifications... Well let's just say we Gurubashi will want to feel some of the love. Looked at without the lens of 'awexome retro Wc2-recreations', this will be an excellent basic/advanced Troll character.

Yay, texture is done!

Kidding, of course. Just laying down the main colours and getting ready to do some shadin'. Yir.

Also scaled the feet down a bit (and as you can see, barefoot ) and made his upper arms slighter thinner to give him a more slender, trollish look.
All the teal colored parts will be, you guessed it, team colored
~
Still, accepting criticism (especially from people with more knowledge about it than me) is a good practice for when, or if, I ever want to get a job in the game industry. I just don't want anybody to think that I ignore their advice without any reason.
I really appreciate all the constructive criticism people are giving me

Lookin' great so far! Something I was going to say earlier but fits now; I think the mesh is really quite well-done, and the least of your concerns. Rather, several users were complaining that he doesn't quite look "Trollish"; personally, I think the Trollish-ness is more in the animations (the hunch, the lithe-ness, etc) than in the mesh, so I'm waiting to see how those pan out.

But honestly, I still think he looks too much like the generic Forest Troll. I hope you make his face old and warty-looking. Maybe make his nose a big fatter or something. And is that a dagger I spy to the right of the model? If he holds a dagger in his free hand I will literally love you forever.

...Oh, and if not a dagger, I think giving him some throwing spears on his back or something could be interesting. Just to give it some kind of variety. I think having 2-3 throwing spears on his back would make him different from the in-game trolls, too.

OH! And one more thing! Perhaps a few skulls tied to his waist\belt?

I think Deolrin has the right of it here. Our biggest concern (as Troll-lovers & designers) is that EVERY SINGLE TROLL LOOKS THE SAME; no one can seem to come up with a new kind of animations. Even Blizzard themselves copy/pasted (Forest) Troll animations over the whole range... It's sad. As an example (and I hope no offense is taken, as I love the guy)... Poor guys' like PROXY couldn't really go very far, in the last Modelling Contest, because the existing animations were so lacking. Almost no Spell animations, very un-varied Attack & Stand... Etc.

Same is (partially) true for "nurnies", the little bits on the mesh; so far the only one I've seen to really exercise some crazy-creativity in Trolls is -Grendel (the Conjurer is a good example, as well as the Edgemaster); everyone else copy/pastes the Troll wards, or the Shadow Hunter mask, or whatever.

Anyway, so for me, I'm just looking forward to some of that here; since you're building this from scratch, you have a great opportunity to really flex those creative muscles. And we have the great opportunity to suck your creativity dry like vampiric leeches enjoy the flex.

 

[Heinvers]

And we have the great opportunity to suck your creativity dry like vampiric leeches enjoy the flex.

YAS SIR
I agree with you

 

[loktar]

would definitely agree on some warts/wrinkles, maybe a tattoo or something, and some skulls
I think the animations have the best potential to make it more unique and troll-like too

Really loving it so far. I'd love to see it in a WC2 campaign.

 

[Hjorleif]

@Kyrib0: The Heart of the Storms Zul'jin (from screenshots) looked particularly amazing. I wanted the release of that model more than anything from that project, he also 'seemed' to have been melee, which is a nice take on Zul'jin, in my opinion. People overlook melee Trolls, not sure why.

 

[Kyrbi0]

@Kyrbi0: The Heart of the Storms Zul'jin (from screenshots) looked particularly amazing. I wanted the release of that model more than anything from that project, he also 'seemed' to have been melee, which is a nice take on Zul'jin, in my opinion. People overlook melee Trolls, not sure why.

Dang, that's not too shabby.

Y'know, speaking of 'overlooking melee Trolls', it's funny... Designing a Troll race here, right? When people think 'Trolls', they think '(emphasis on) Ranged', right? Well that's what / thought, and what / attempted to design... But on a recent 'build' of the Trolls, I sat & counted up all the true "melee combat" units that each race can field, and realized that every race (aside from Orcs, and they are a legitimate exception) has merely 2 true "melee combat" units, and my Trolls had 3 (even 3.5, depending on sources).
So yeah, some people "over-overlook Melee Trolls".

//EDIT// If we're going to continue this, though, we should probably move it elsewhere; I fear we are beginning to delve too far afield from the topic-at-hand, which topic is TAUER'S PURE UNADULTERATED POWERTHIRST AWEXOMENESS.

 

[Hjorleif]

If we're going to continue this, though, we should probably move it elsewhere; I fear we are beginning to delve too far afield from the topic-at-hand, which topic is TAUER'S PURE UNADULTERATED POWERTHIRST AWEXOMENESS.

True story, Tauer is quite a spectacular modeler. I eagerly await his Zul'jin model.

 

[Rui]

I'd like to see the face very loyal to the WC2 icon, he looks really cool.

 

[Hjorleif]

On a side note, I've recently started to construct a Forest Troll race using Ujimasa's (sp?) Troll buildings and this Zul'jin would complete that race. :3

 

[Tauer]

But honestly, I still think he looks too much like the generic Forest Troll. I hope you make his face old and warty-looking. Maybe make his nose a big fatter or something. And is that a dagger I spy to the right of the model? If he holds a dagger in his free hand I will literally love you forever.

...Oh, and if not a dagger, I think giving him some throwing spears on his back or something could be interesting. Just to give it some kind of variety. I think having 2-3 throwing spears on his back would make him different from the in-game trolls, too.

OH! And one more thing! Perhaps a few skulls tied to his waist\belt?

First off, skulls - awesome idea. Will add at some point. One can never get enough skulls.

Well, I think he looks generic right now due to lack of a proper skin. Pretty much every detail lies in the texture when dealing with low poly models.

That is actually a sword, I plan for it to be on his back and giving him an alternate animation set with melee animations

The ranged animations will have throwing axes in each hand, like the normal trolls.

Lookin' great so far! Something I was going to say earlier but fits now; I think the mesh is really quite well-done, and the least of your concerns. Rather, several users were complaining that he doesn't quite look "Trollish"; personally, I think the Trollish-ness is more in the animations (the hunch, the lithe-ness, etc) than in the mesh, so I'm waiting to see how those pan out.

I completely agree with this, a lot of the trollish-ness lies in the hunched over animations. So yeah, the real challenge will actually be animating this dude.

@Kyrib0: The Heart of the Storms Zul'jin (from screenshots) looked particularly amazing. I wanted the release of that model more than anything from that project, he also 'seemed' to have been melee, which is a nice take on Zul'jin, in my opinion. People overlook melee Trolls, not sure why.

That does indeed look pretty cool. A shame the project was never finished. Didn't he promise to release all the resources here on the Hive though??

I'd like to see the face very loyal to the WC2 icon, he looks really cool.

That is definately the look I'm going for

On a side note, I've recently started to construct a Forest Troll race using Ujimasa's (sp?) Troll buildings and this Zul'jin would complete that race. :3

Cool, would love to see it. I've yet to actually play a map that has any of my models.

Alright, started doing some basic shading around the face. Nothing majorly detailed yet, but you get the idea:

I'm trying to go for the WC2 icon look, later I will add more detail to make him look older and more rugged/ugly.

EDIT:
And the shading continues...

 

[Wolffman]

Looking forward to possibly an epic Forest Troll model. I have goosebumps from excitement. Definetely using as feature of my next map

 

[Heinvers]

Awesome so far. Maybe you could make a small cut on cheek or ear.

 

[Kyrbi0]

That does indeed look pretty cool. A shame the project was never finished. Didn't he promise to release all the resources here on the Hive though??

Yes, here and at Wc3C.net. However, the guy he had doing it (Ryuthedragon) was stymied by the existing Resource-Submission system here at the Hive. I am working on a part of that (the Wc3C-part, mainly, since it doesn't require anything but attaching to posts), but it's sort of on a hiatus (for a long time now...) because he's working with Sellenisko to finalize many of the models, make them truly 'release-able'. Eh.

Either way, I don't have that model in my copy of the files (turns out it's a partial list).

I want your permission to make it the feature of my WIP Forest Trolls map Tauer.. Hope you say yes

Um... I'm not sure you understand... If he releases it publicly, anyone has automatic permission to use it; that's kinda the idea behind the whole thing. It's an implicit permission. You don't have to ask. :/

 

[Traxamillion]

Finally a good pre-wow public Zul'jin. Too bad these models came so late in the modding era of WC3 (or popularity of the game). These look amazing and a younger me would figure 100's of ways to incorporate these beautiful models. Keep up the good work.

 

[Isgeir]

Have you ever considered making some Dwarven models, for example Dagran Thaurissan? Community lacks good Dwarven models, especially Dark Iron.

 

[Hjorleif]

I think you should do Broll Bearmantle next. A major Night Elf character whom is quite amazing. An added bear form would be absolutely awesome.

 

[rcshaggy]

http://wowpedia.org/Danath_Trollbane
Can you do a model of Danath Trollbane?

 

[Tauer]

Sorry guys, progress has been real slow (actually came to a complete stop) lately, simply been too busy to work on it.

Weekend now though, and I've been texturing a bit now

Have you ever considered making some Dwarven models, for example Dagran Thaurissan? Community lacks good Dwarven models, especially Dark Iron.

Hmm, I'm afraid I've never really been into dwarves at all actually.

I think you should do Broll Bearmantle next. A major Night Elf character whom is quite amazing. An added bear form would be absolutely awesome.

While I agree that there are not enough night elf models from lore, I don't think Broll should be counted as a major character tbh.. I'd rather make someone like Xavius or something

http://wowpedia.org/Danath_Trollbane
Can you do a model of Danath Trollbane?

I think paladinjst is working on a Danath model.

As you can see, not a lot of progess (only just picked it up again today, too busy ), did some more work on his face and ears.

 

[Heinvers]

Xavius or something

Perfect.
=======================
The face goes well as I see, You could also add some tattoos on his head or chest/hand. I would darken the skin near his eyes tho. Great job Tauer

 

[Deolrin]

The eyes are sort of the wrong color. Forest Trolls tend to have yellow eyes.

 

[Heinvers]

A bit of diversity won't hurt

 

[Rui]

In the Wc2 icon he has red eyes. In this model, however, the hood is a little bit too stretched and close to his nose, compared to the icon.

 

[Traxamillion]

In the Wc2 icon he has red eyes. In this model, however, the hood is a little bit too stretched and close to his nose, compared to the icon.

Are you really criticizing the fact that the scarf is touching his nose instead of being 1/3" away from his nose?

It looks really good so far, and is true to the Wc2 style of Zul'jin. Also as reference if you need it, here's Zul'jin's model in Heroes of the storm.

 

[Tauer]

The eyes are sort of the wrong color. Forest Trolls tend to have yellow eyes.

Good point...

But:

A bit of diversity won't hurt

In the Wc2 icon he has red eyes.

Basically this. There's the icon look + I'd like to think that forest trolls also have different shades of yellow for eye color, and orange is basically a darker shade of yellow, with some red in it. Did make his eyes a bit more yellow though, bit of a mix between normal WC3 forest trolls and the icon.

Are you really criticizing the fact that the scarf is touching his nose instead of being 1/3" away from his nose?

It looks really good so far, and is true to the Wc2 style of Zul'jin. Also as reference if you need it, here's Zul'jin's model in Heroes of the storm.

Thanks mate

A bit more progress:

Finished the ears and did some work on his hair. Trying to give the hair a WC3 forest trolly look so far.
And no, the scarf is not done

 

[Heinvers]

Trying to give the hair a WC3 forest trolly look so far.

It looks very warcraft-ish so far. Personally I would darken that TC part for the hair.
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And no, the scarf is not done

It's just a rough sketch so far
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That necklace thing you gave him looks quite fitting for a troll chief.
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That wooden shoulder armor on his arm could be a lil' bit broken at sides imo.

 

[paladinjst]

good work pal , nice done with the hair . and i think u should darken the root part . that will be making better .

 

[Rui]

Are you really criticizing the fact that the scarf is touching his nose instead of being 1/3" away from his nose? (...)

Well ofc, he can't breathe and have the troll agility he needs if he gets 1/3 of the oxygen ;D

 

[Tauer]

Did some work on the axe:

 

[Chen]

I'm excited for it to be finished(but take your time of course).

 

[Hardtime]

I never realized how a troll could look so smexy

 

[Tauer]

Axe + sword is done:

 

[Deolrin]

Cool, but I think the texture quality is a bit lower than your standard. It also doesn't really look much like metal. I can't really explain it better than that, though...

 

[Tauer]

Cool, but I think the texture quality is a bit lower than your standard. It also doesn't really look much like metal. I can't really explain it better than that, though...

It's not supposed to be metal, it's supposed to look like it's made from sharpened rocks.

That's the idea I get when I see the WC3 forest troll's axe anyway.

It's strange.. IMO the quality of the axes at least, is much better than the weapons for my previous characters. More WC3-like, that's for sure.

EDIT:

A WIP before I sleep. Did some work on his shoulderpad:

 

[Heinvers]

Pretty^^ I love that metal-rock look for his weapons. What about his pants? Will it be like a dress or just some leaves?

 

[Chen]

Nice WIP!

 

[NhazUl]

Nice wooden shoulderpad, and also the axes. Looks almost as if it has a normal map.

 

[paladinjst]

good work , but there's a problem : the detail on the wood , i mean the cracks , seemed to be eye-catching for the generic . and u should reduce the counts of them .

and don't use too much black colors , especially on the scarf . cause the darken parts and shadows are not only 'made from black ' .

 

[Wolffman]

Two words : Very Nice...Very Nice indeed..

 

[Kyrbi0]

Coming along quite nicely, man. Those weapons look very sinister and barbaric.

 

[Deolrin]

I think he needs some voodoo-looking stuff on his shoulderpad.

 

[Heinvers]

I think he needs some voodoo-looking stuff on his shoulderpad.

Maybe some feathers.

 

[Chen]

I think you should make Sargeras But I think you should add more troll-ish designs on the shoulderpads and other parts.

 

[Wolffman]

Also, Tauer, I kinda think you left the Clan Grunts unfinished. If that was your intention then okay, if it wasn't then okay.

You kinda missed out one of the most primary Clans in the Warcraft Universe, the Frostwolf Clan.
It's not that I'm informing you just cause they are my favorite, but they are one of the well-known clans out there and they should get a clan grunt don't you think?

 

[Chen]

Also, Tauer, I kinda think you left the Clan Grunts unfinished. If that was your intention then okay, if it wasn't then okay.

You kinda missed out one of the most primary Clans in the Warcraft Universe, the Frostwolf Clan.
It's not that I'm informing you just cause they are my favorite, but they are one of the well-known clans out there and they should get a clan grunt don't you think?

He made one. But I think it's rejected.

 

[Wolffman]

He made one. But I think it's rejected.

Well, that's depressing

 

[Traxamillion]

The frostwolf grunt was the least impressive grunt of the collection, no offense to tauer, but it wasn't nearly as good as his other models.