World Of Warcraft Evaluation

Evaluation

The World of Warcraft project encouraged me to go out of my comfort zone, i knew from the outset this was going to be a tuff but yet enjoyable project for me. The reason for this was because i had never created a 3D character/creature before which did cause problems throughout this project as it effect my time management, however the reason i knew it was going to be enjoyable as i knew World of Warcraft has some bizarre creatures as it currently stands which enabled me to go all out with this the creature. The requirements for the character or creature was

• 6000 Polygons
• Art Style (WOW)
• Fit into the land of Durotar

When the project began i started collecting research, i gathered information about Durotar to get a better understanding of the world. Durotar is a dry, red soil land. It inhabits many creatures and animals. My original idea was to create a lizard, spider, scorpion type of creature. I then continued to gather research about them three animals.

Secondly i began my sketch's, i created quick sketch's of lizards and other hybrid creatures such as half spider half man, half scorpion half man. I began to think that these ideas where to basic and not original. So searched the WOWWiki for animals which lived in Durotar, from there i thought of animals which may not currently live in dry dessert environments, and develop them to be able to survive in that type of land. I thought about Gorillas as they are a very strong and dangerous animals, from there i started to sketch a few ideas down, but it didn't look right. I gathered research about how gorillas stand and look. This helped me and from here my idea started to come to life. I got to a point where i now wanted to give my Gorilla the ability to survive in the dry land of Durotar. I created a dry tree gorilla, cactus gorilla, rock gorilla and dry soil gorilla. 

Thirdly i made a final of my concept, it was a gorilla which had formed into rock and soil to survive in the environment. I then edited a few bits and used Photoshop to add colour and bits of detail here and there. It was time to take my gorilla into Maya and create a basic mesh.

Fourthly, i began my basic mesh in Maya. With help from Simon i was able to create a basic but effective mesh. I then sent it over to Mudbox, from here i started adding in details for where i wanted major rocks to be. My gorilla started to come together, however i did get stuck on how to add detail as it was taking me very long and i also wasn't pleased with how it was looking. This is when Simon gave me a 1 to 1 tutorial on how to add major detail points, he showed me how to use stencils in Mudbox and also how to use sculpting tools such as Wax and Fill.

Afterwards i began to use the tools Simon showed me and i started seeing major improvements in my 3D sculpt, i started to become pleased with my sculpt. As days of sculpting finished i was finally happy with my 3D sculpt. I spoke to Simon and Drew about retopolgy to get a better grasp of how it works and how its used in the games industry.

Finally i began my retopolgy, it was a long and mentally painful process. It took me ages to get the basic form of my gorilla. It was continues pushing and pulling of verts. I got very frustrated as it just wasn't going how i planned. My time management had gone straight out the window once i reached this point. It really slowed my work process down, due to how hard it was to get the mesh to look somewhat of a resemblance to my sculpt. As the project drawn to a close i wasn't finished, which left me with a unfinished retopolgy and a untextured model. However i was still pleased with the work i had to show. 

If i was to do this project again what would i do? 

I would expect the unexpected, i wasn't expecting retopolpgy to take so long, so i would make sure i get my retopolgy finished and textured. I would also time mange a lot more efficiently, I'm normally well time manged however due to this project pushing me further and the retopolgy making me forget what day it was, i fell behind and this caused me to be unfinished.

What have a learned?

I think i have learned a lot in this project, i have understand the form of gorillas more. Also i have learned how to sculpt in Mudbox efficently and i know understand how to use more tools that the software offers. I now also understand retopolgy, i may not be very quick at the process however i now understand it.

Chad Greenway

Decision Making

As I was going to develop my gorilla I had to create a plan in what i would do through the project. I set my plan out as the following.

• Create basic sketchs
• Create Final Drawing
• Create Photoshop Othographics
• Create Basic 3D Mesh
• Create MudBox HighRes Mesh
• Create Retopolgy 
• If Possiable Unwrap And Texture Retopolgy Mesh 

I thought this plan was a very good starting point, I knew what I wanted to accomplish from the outset of the project. Doing the above gave me an advantage in the future so I knew what I was working towards. 

Reasrch Ideas

When I began this project my finished product had to be slightly over or under 6000 polygons, it also had to fit into the landscape of Durotar which is a rocky dessert environment in World Of Warcraft. I had to think about what character I could create which would easily fit in the range of polygons and the environment. I began to think of ideas; Lizard, Roadrunner, Spider, Scorpion, Meerkat and Baboon.

Because World Of Warcraft is set in a fantasy world its creatures and characters are far from the norm. So i decided to develop sketch's for lizards but with slight mutations some had a human upper body with spider legs. Others were basic lizards with dry branches growing out there backs with cactus spikes. I thought this is too generic, I want my character to stand out from the rest. Something which looks strong and fierce.

I began to look at Gorillas, although they aren't seen in deserts in our world, they would fit into a fantasy world if developed correctly. I looked at gorillas which were already present in WOW. Below are some examples.

The above examples are gorillas which are currently in WOW, the first example looks very similar to an everyday gorilla we see in our world. However, the second example seems to be a gorilla which has adapted to the cold or snow environment. I liked how they had done this however I didn't like how it is the same model just textured differently.

I started getting sketch's together and began to get an idea how I wanted my gorilla to look. I had to constantly keep in my head how could this animal adapt to the dessert of Durotar. I sketched a cactus gorilla, rock gorilla and a tree trunk gorilla. The rock and cactus gorilla would fit the environment best. I decided to chose the rock gorilla as I felt i could create a much better gorilla from this adaptation.

Research Activity

World Of Warcraft (WOW for short) has a very simple but unique art style, I collected research from different Blizzard games the creators of WOW to see if the art style is persistent across their games.

The following images are screen shots from a range of their games.

 World Of Warcraft

 WOW is Blizzards biggest game as it currently stands, the art style for WOW looks very simple and cartoon like. Personally I really like this style as it gives the game a unique fantasy feel with its bright colours.






Hearth Stone

  Heart Stone is Blizzards online card game. Again the art style for this game follows in the footsteps of WOW with its cartoon like visuals, again it gives Hearth Stone unique look compared to other basic card games.













Diablo 3

Diablo 3 has a slightly different art style with its colours not as bright as other Blizzard games but it still follows the cartoon like visual path.







Heroes Of The Storm

Heroes Of The Storm is a game under development by Blizzard the visuals slightly change here as the foliage takes a more realistic approach but the house still has a very cartoony look.











Over Watch

Over Watch is under development by Blizzard, its a team based shooter which is somthing new to Blizzard as they havent created something like this before. They have chose to use more detailed visuals with this game and the textures seem much more smooth to me and very clay like. The characters however are much more detailed then previous games but still hold some of the old art style.