14 DAY TRIAL // The World of Warcraft team has published the first in a series of articles showcasing the improved character models and animations in the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Warlords of Draenor.
As Blizzard promised during BlizzCon 2013, all the character models and animations for the game's playable races are being completely redone, with the new models coming in the next expansion, Warlords of Draenor.
Chris Robinson, senior art director of World of Warcraft, has posted the first article in the series meant to exhibit the revamped character models. He plans to offer interested players a look at the process and the philosophy behind the overhauls and providing insight regarding the team's future plans.
The developer blog post on Battle.net begins the series by sharing a first look of the Human female model redesign process.
Robinson informs that the models are re-done completely from scratch, including any customization options such as jewelry, hair styles and skin tones, in an effort to deliver improved visual content that surpasses the quality of existing models introduced in the Mists of Pandaria expansion.
"With the revamp, we're completely overhauling every aspect of the player models, but our goal is to do so while retaining the core look and feel that has always made them your character.
"We'll feel like we've succeeded if you see the updated version of your character and it still feels like you're looking at the character you've been playing for the past however many years—only someone has finally focused a lens," Robinson explains.
In order to achieve the desired level of quality, the polygon count will be significantly increased, in some cases going from less than 1k to over 5k and more than doubling the texture resolution, and new skeletal models with a significantly increased bone count will be used in order to support the updated animations.