Early Character Models in World of Warcraft
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- Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
- Hello guys. In today's video, we will be looking at some of the earliest character and creature models from World of Warcraft.
I have compiled a list of different, curious models that date back to the very early days of the game - so early in fact, that most of the them did not even make it to the release in 2004. They were scrapped during development, but, thankfully, they were kept in the game files for us to see here so many years later. We are talking unique models of a wide variety of the playable races that are different from the player models.
I was very surprised by a lot of what I uncovered looking through the databases, and it was not just the models themselves. There are many animations associated with them that are very detailed, and it was quite fun and exciting to discover them.
I hope you will enjoy the video. - Ігри
Hey! I played WoW back in the beta, and can give some insights on these unused and old models. Some of my info may be a bit off due to this being so many years ago, but I think I remember most of everything accurately.
Many of the human models share animations with older versions of the human character model. If you look at footage of pre-release wow, you can see a hefty amount of differences in the animations and design alike. Also, most of the human models were used for NPCs earlier in development before blizzard decided to use the player character model, due to being more cohesive in design and easier to upkeep with model updates. You can however find some of these models used in the Old Hillsbrad Foothills dungeon from the Burning Crusade. This is the same case with the unique orc model of the boss in the Stockades, who shares the same origin. There were originally more variations of that model, alongside some for Dwarves and Tauren, but they had been removed by the time of patch 0.5.
As for the Troll and Gnome models, Blizzard had not initially intended for Trolls or Gnomes to be playable very early in WoW's development, and so they had stylised models. When they were made to be playable around patch 0.4 in WoW beta, they used a heavily modified version of these models, until they became the models we have today.
I hope this helped figure some stuff out. I loved the video, keep up the good work!
Thanks a lot for sharing your insight and taking your time to write the comment! What you're saying makes a lot of sense, and it adds great perspective to the video. I'll have to jump into Old Hillsbrad Foothills and try to find some of the old models. Very glad you enjoyed the video :)
The Gnome and Troll bit explains why they didn't have their own starting zones. Was probably too late for them to consider upending parts of the continents to make room so were just crammed into the Dwarf and Orc zones.
Ok, here we go:
Many of these models are from the early alpha versions. And there are reazons on why they look so diferent. However, they got used later on in TBC. Go to Old Hillsbrad in Caverns of Time and you'll find most of them: The crazy wizards, the fat blacksmith guy, the fat wizard, the fat lady etc etc. You'll see them there.
0:30 The inn lady as i like to call it, it was thought to be used as the base model for innkeepers. They had the idea of making some of the npc characters stand out from player characters. And this ladies came as the result of a stereotipical design thought out for the bartenders and innkeepers. You can find them in OH in TBC.
1:26 That's and early female model. Early player models had very noticeable details that got lost when they "upgraded" them for the releaze version. The human male for example, had this very animated hair in the ponytail haircut, with the front locks being very animated. You can see them in one of the early promos when a blond human looks up when facing an Ancient. Btw they also had the detail that the character model would turn their heads to face whatever you had targeted that we did not see implemented in retail till FUCKING LEGION 13 years later! Anyway, females had lots of great hair styles that were never implemented.
1:50 those are examples of NPC models to be slightly diferent from the player models. Same with the next ones. The cast animations are early unfinished ones that were later polished for the player characters.
3:51 Fun thing is that i remember have seen that troll model already sometimes ago in the game. I think they used it for a special event during Cata launch but i may be wrong. The thing tho, is that i had already seen it im sure.
4:02 Fat blacksmith dude can be found in OH and again in Borean Tundra in WotLK.
4:23 Chubby Wizard can be found in OH, is called Dalaran Wizard iirc, he sells shirts.
4:25 Town Mayor can be found in OH, and in the DK starting zone in WotLK. These last 3 were all designed as stand out, stereotypes, npcs.
4:32 from here on, they all alpha models pretty much. Kurzen is a very special case that i guess they wanted to leave in.
5:19 Old Wizard was used as Khadgar model in TBC. The next two are also npc models for derranged wizard and noble wizard i think
6:25 That model uses the goblin animations dance, sit and flex. Fun fact is that in vanilla, you could get a desguise to look like a goblin npc, and already had those animations, which then they respected and the current player goblin characters still use them!
7:35 Those ugly gnomes appear in WotLK during the quests in Westguard Keep.
8:55 This is just a guess but it seem that's just an early concept of the undead model that was used for retail. Very very early models looked like skinny humans.
10:22 That is Targorr the Dread. He was IN vanilla. He is a boss in The Stockades dungeon in Stormwind. He uses an early alpha model for the blackrock orcs.
wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Targorr_the_Dread
Fun fact Targorr was the liutenant of Gath'llzogg, the elite orc leader in Redrige
I just hope someone reads this :P
Wow, thanks for the breakdown man. That's some great insight that I wish I had known when I made the video. I feel slightly embarrassed! I would like to check out some of the in-game NPCs you mention. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.
@@moegdalswowvideos6800 You ar welcome bro!
lmao so they had goblins doing Soulja Boy even in Vanilla?
3:51 That troll model I THINK gets some use in Cata Stranglethorn the one with the back poles may have only been in the patch quests for either late Wrath reclaiming the Echo Isles or Cata's awful revamp of ZA and ZG. The forest trolls in early TBC used a lot of them.
The dance animation from the human model at 6:20 is the same dance for the golbins.
I didn't even know that! That's very intriguing. I wonder if the dance was made for goblins or humans initially.
Although I see why Blizzard changed the gnomes to be more .. palletable, I think a more rugged look for gnomes generally works really well
They were kinda like that in Warcraft II game and art style, and also in the cancelled Lord of Clans game. The modern cute, bubble gum colorful and playful portrayal of Gnomes actually kinda started in Vanilla Wow.
@@Altermerea I was looking for a way to describe their newer look, your description was essentially what I was looking for xD
That's a good description :D
They should of kept them Gnomes , as Hostile NCP in "Gnomergan" , probably Butcher that dungeon name sorryz .. they look like a creature from the movie Labyrinth
Great video! I love this game archaeology stuff, especially with WoW. It's magical!
Thank you very much mate! I'm happy to hear that :) Thanks for your feedback.
Nice video! 6:28 this dance is used by the old goblin models
Thanks a lot mate - great to hear that you enjoyed it :) Wow, I didn't know that. That's very interesting.
Very nice video. I'm a fan of the hairy pelvic-thrusting gnome :)
Thanks a lot my friend. Who isn't? :))
5:40 I JUST FUCKING REALIZED: THIS IS THE SAME HUMAN MAGE DESIGN THAT WAS IN THE VANILLA OPENING CINEMATIC, HE'S THE MAGE USING FROST NOVA AND THROWING FIREBALLS
I remember finding these models for the first time 10 years ago in the Wow Model Viewer. It was a tool used by machinima creators. These models were always an interesting find to me. Kinda sad the various fat / skinny humans are so rare in game. There are also models like Defias Archers and rogues, used only in Deadmines dungeon. Or old Goblins which were used only as flying masters in Vanilla, they have models made after imps and flamekins and it's different than regular Goblins from Vanilla.
It's also worth noting that Goblins were the only race in Vanilla, that was not playable, but got their own customisable model capable of wearing armor and with variable skin color. Other races in Vanilla, like Blood and High Elves, Worgens etc. were just monster models with different skin textures, which was very off-putting for High Elves because they had as low quality models as Gnolls or Kobolds.
Wow, I'm way behind :D I considered mentioning the special Deadmines human model as well, but ended up not doing it. There are actually a lot of very cool and colorful skins for that model as well. I didn't know that goblins had a model that could wear armor - that's very interesting.
The modified Undead model at 9:00 is for the Chinese servers due to them being VERY anti-death.
I've heard about that. Interesting!
Mao zedong want to know your location
The first model is actually in the game! There's an npc in Howling Fjord named Olga, the Scalawag Wench. I'm not sure if the model is anywhere else in the game, though.
That's awesome! Thanks a lot for the info. I had no idea, but it's very cool that they used the model. When it's used so sparingly (maybe only once), it adds a lot of flavor to the NPC(s) in my opinion.
The old Alpha Troll models came back for Burning Crusade Forest Trolls in the Bloodelf zones before Zul'Aman patch created models for forest trolls with unusually round chins that could wear almost all then-extant body armor and a handful of helmets.
3:52 The model's stance and some animations are almost spot-on for the WC3 Forest/Frost/Shadow troll model.
the undead model is probably for use on the chinses client
That might be the case! I would hope the jumping animation is different then :D
Seen those male Kul Tarian humans the chunky 1s , in Turtle WoW 🐢 at Booty Bay
Very cool and interesting video 👍
Good job.
Thanks a lot man. It's great that you enjoyed the video and found it interesting :)
3:20 those trolls were used in ghostlands and eversong woods in tbc and the gnome looks a bit like the "gnome" from the movie Labyrinth
I see Medivh, Khadgar and old Hillsbrad models there, so some of the humans were used ingame.
hi my friend i played a song from this wonderful game on my Azeroth guitar i hope you like it toooo
Hello man! Wow, that sounds great! I have no idea how to play to guitar, but you seem very skilled. I definitely enjoyed your cover of the song :)
@@moegdalswowvideos6800 Thanks bro
I personally like the old undead model better than the one we got
They look too much like a normal human tho . I can see why they re model them .. they should of kept a lot of these as NCP quest givers
The models look like something from warcraft III just updated a bit and a with a bit more variances and I think they were intended for NPC's just how the peon NPC's in WoW look like peons from Warcraft III.
I think you might have a point there. There seem to be some common traits. The male wizard model in particular looks quite similar to the wizard hero in Warcraft III.
You forgot the skinny bandits with the spiky shoulder used in a few Defias places.
That fancy gentleman is what Mayor Quimby in New Avalon looks like.
This was neat.
Awesome man!
another great one moegdal, no asta la vista baby at the end though :(
Ah, sorry man. I'm sure I'll remember it for the next video and end with the line :D Glad you enjoyed the video though.
@@moegdalswowvideos6800 that would be awesome. i did enjoy it might be good to do some videos based on TBC moegdal since i guess classic tbc will come in near future
@@dror843 Definitely. That's probably what most people are excited for, too.
@@moegdalswowvideos6800 idea for a first episode secret mounts and how everyone did the starting chain quest for netherdrake mount but as it wasnt complete people started looking every where where there were netherdrakes trying to talk with them to see if there is more to the chain :D
@@dror843 Thanks for the suggestion! I have another video in mind currently that I hope will be cool, but we'll see in the future :)
5:32 looks like Medivh
You're kind of right about that actually!
Medivh uses the night elf male model with mostly human male animations
8:08 this is my kingdom come
Thank you for another great video. I always look forward to your new uploads. Would you please consider creating a video about Ashenvalle? Do you have a Patreon?
Thanks a lot man. I'm very happy to hear you enjoy and look forward to the videos! I don't have a Patreon, no - it's great that people watch in the first place :) Ashenvale is definitely near the top of my favorite zones from Classic WoW. What type of video were you thinking?
@@moegdalswowvideos6800 Thank you for the reply! Ashenvale is one of my favorite zones. I remember being so nervous going from the Barrens to Ashenvale as it was my first Contested Zone. There are so many unique spots - the Strand, BFD, the Satyrs, the different lakes, furbolgs, etc. One of the first blue items I got was some boots from the quest Warsong Supplies. Such a great zone.
@@ChiliDawg97 It's an awesome zone and you're right - it has so many cool elements. The blue Warsong items are very iconic to me. I also remember the demon area particularly well.
4:27 - the booty of legend.
5:23 an early Medivh maybe?
Big fan
Thanks a lot mate!
Wtf thoses animations are amazing , blizzard is lazy
Some of them really are :D
The og male looks like the peasants from wc3
*video shows picture of old female troll*
*shudders*
Sorry mate :D You don't want that picture stuck in your mind.
every animation was much better than original except gnome.
The animations used by the older models appear to be mostly longer in duration which might have been the problem, but I think they're very cool. The movements are more exaggerated.
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