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- Jul 28, 2021
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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!
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.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
The spell has ghost tails, ribbons, an explosion effect with a dimming omnilight, shading SFX and only one animation.
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.
To make a spell from it, I simply modified the Carrion Swarm ability and removed its buff.
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.
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):
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
The spell has ghost tails, ribbons, an explosion effect with a dimming omnilight, shading SFX and only one animation.
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.
To make a spell from it, I simply modified the Carrion Swarm ability and removed its buff.
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):
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.
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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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 
However, you can add such a feature to your map, as it can be controlled via triggers and stuff 
). 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.
But, unfortunately, I can't take it due to my participation in some other projects and the lack of free time.
