Can you please do a collab with this guy who recreated all orc units in HD?
This only has around 500 views. Sadly due to youtube algorithm he does not get the coverage he deserves
I think it would be great if both of you make a team and work together to remaster wc3. and Hiveworkshop should give you coverage, promote your work. both of you are very underrated artists, sadly.
Meshwork is nice if not a bit overly detailed for animations. But textures are very much off. I would preffer to keep all colourschemes literarily 1 to 1 there is absolutely no need to change them and i dont think that every single bit of detail or knuckle has to be so intricately done unless animation is updated to fit like it was with actual War3HD models in SC2.
Design is almost on point for most but some just look wrong mainly due to texture changes. Especially Tauren looks wrong to me like so.
Problem is that when animation stays the same the disonance between Way overdone model detail and texture wise is even more vast. Wc3 doesnt really need to be pushed where it tries to be Reforged but with og designs and animations and new lighting. I just needs to look identical to SD models from afar, but when you zoom in it doesnt show its age by how blocky things are. And for this all it really needs is to go closer to WoW detail level.
It should be more or less how World of Warcraft is with same matte and illustration/comic book alike style texturing for most part. Its a very intricate balancing act. With buildings more could be spared since its not a problem they barely have moving elements and what is there to animate is easier to adapt and keep as is.
I still will stress that texturing and colourscheme are paramount same as balancing the level of detail to not overdo it. Think of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D vs N64 release for most part, or better yet Resident Evil 4 HD project dor original 2005 re4. A restorative approach.
Wc3 isnt perhaps as directly able to be such as there are inconsistencies and familiarity to some of them to contend with, and not all of artwork samwise did are applicable(footman for example, him being one of the oldest assets in final game doesnt help as its a bit off vs rest of Wc3 asset work in couple ways with conflicting stuff like icon showing him with different shoulderpauldrons and no bouncy visor) but big chunk of other artworks he did are good guides for it, especially Medivh artwork or battle scenes with nightelves or humans vs horde from loading screen. It shows what the colouring and texturing should be and og game is emulating it all over the place. Not doing that on remade assets is quite wrong in my eyes.
i do have something of the sort on my mind but lack of time is just putting anything on hold. I might be more free early next year to get to it. To exemplify how it should look, and how and why to do or not to do certain things, and codify the artstyle and workflow for it. Life just keeps getting in the way lately more and more for me though so i am not exactly able at the moment.
P.S. Another important thing is that we need to "balance the scales" in regard of minding compatibility with existing library of assets. If we overdo and game "escapes" the old asset work in way not to dissimilar to Reforged's misguided HD mode, then we render said content unusable without looking jarring. This is why remastering of Wc3 assets needs to quite precicely be like going from Medium detail of current (high) detail SD models, to high/very high/ultra however we would call it.
In original game example of it is the low quality models that are for Low detail, those some of those are quite ridiculous like Feetless Footman. And for meshwork on characters, extra detail has to be gently and subtly included as to not mess with sillouttes and proportions.
For instance Grunt in that set by Nort3D is way bulkier both the uppder body and his legs(due to thicker shoes and detailwork on them from the texture) and on top of texture work it pretty much falls to similar bullpark or dissimilar look as Reforged one, but in different way. More like its Heroes of The Storm orc grunt derived from Wc3 one.
I would preffer to keep the lean and "sharp" silloutting of orcs in Wc3 as much as possible. Its coming back to it being striking and comicbook art like. Realism shoudlnt be a major factor stylization and cohesiveness with og game should be.
Wc3 is a delicate case because of the modding/mapping community around it and decades worth of assets, which is tenfold as hurtful that it was so woefully misguided and inconsiderate of Sousa to do what he did to the game with his art direction.
We cannot pile up more onto that, just on different side of the fence, it has to precariously balance on top of the fence sort of speak. It also should get as far away of Sousa's view of original art as worthless of obsolete, so any seemingly accidental aspects of the look of them that might be just choked up to "low poliness" of them shouldnt be done in a blanket way, especially when it will mess with proportions and silloutting too much, though in some cases it is warranted.
if its not something that is part of the outter silloute like arms or hands on say Jaina or Maiev that are shrouded by capes and armour pieces that are the main silloutte, or bits that overtly should be tweaked.(obviously i dont think female characters should remain with their anatomy so aggressively optimized to a point where Jaina has no posterior to speak of 'xD)
So again it's another place for interpretation and experimentation to get things just right. Once Texturing is on point and those "problem areas"(including consideration for legacy assets) are done right then it would be something i could comfortably call "The Definitive" Warcraft 3 remaster.
Early access to Farm now open on my Boosty and Patreon! Naturally, I will post it here as well, after some time.
