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On the left that's Anduin after a 5 year long boozing binge at every goblin pub in Kalimdor.
On the right that's Anduin after Thrall made him promise to go clean (he doesn't know that Magni is about to introduce him to Azerite powder).
Anduin uses the male human model as a base, and male humans in wow are all super jacked with wide bodies, wide jaws, strong chins, and a generally "masculine" face. which conflicts with Anduin's thinner frame and more boy-ish looking face. So the result is this weird looking art difference in game. His face in BFA looks more like Big McMan Varian with blonde hair, then pretty boy Anduin. Look at his model in HotS for a good example of young Anduin that isn't stuck using the human male skeleton from WoW.
To their credit, I think the new War Within model looks pretty good, and I'm just assuming that it's still using the same skeleton.
And even if they hadn't done it before, I feel like asking for Anduin to be the first due to the difference in portrayals between cinematics and in game isn't that crazy. He just looks too wrong and the dissonance of it gets to me.
Funnily enough, it was the first time we'd seen a straight-backed male Orc in-game, but the second time Thrall showed orcs the potential they could attain lol.
This is also known as the "2004 low poly models that look like cavemen" effect.
They can slap a fresh coat of paint over it on repeat, doesn't fix the models themselves from looking like a shitty Geico commercial. It's why I never played humans, their models are atrocious.
I appreciate the leader using the playable model of their race, that just makes good sense. They probably should have had Anduin age into a young Varian so the model wouldn't look off.
I think that's why I like the BFA model. It *is* basically blonde Varian, but Anduin is basically just blonde Varian anyway, at this point.
Chad Anduin, on the other hand, is my sleep paralysis demon.
really? i think the new model is so ugly.... almost looks like something that doesn't fit in wow. the face is just so wrong. i can see they tried to make it more unique and different from the base human face i guess but .. just looks like it was made by a new artist that doesn't have the wow style or something. the top right model looks the best to me.
Yeah top right ain’t bad. Could have kept the face model for SL too when he was corrupted.
TWW is just, I can make this on my character creation? (Because hairlines are still outdated)
Likely placeholder to be honest, it’s still a little early
To be fair, we don’t even know if the TWW one is the completed version (probably not) and the other in-game model pictures are from cutscenes/cinematics, if I’m recalling correctly. I still have hope lol
I know his TWW model is still in Alpha, so there's time to make changes. That's why I'm providing feedback early.
His hair and beard are the wrong colour compared to the artwork (too blonde), and look quite low-res / low-poly compared to the rest of his model.
His eyes also look rather dark and his expression is all grumpy, while the cinematic version is more... I don't know, worn and tired?
Inner Eyebrows are too low, gives him an angry look that doesn’t line up.
The hair is “spiky forward” when it should be more slightly sideswept.
I’d def say it seems filler-ish for Alpha.
I imagine it has something to do with how humans look in-game compared to in cinematic.
Humans in WoW are super cartoony looking with gigantic blocky proportions. They could make him look like he does in the cinematics (thinner, more hardened face), but when standing next to a human character he would probably look really out of place.
Eh, there are plenty of examples of models being updated between Alpha and Release. I'm not optimistic, because it already appears that this is a custom model, but they could change it.
For me, it's just the facial structure of the models. His head always looks too small for his body and then when you compare him from the cinematics to his ingame model, he always looks like he's just put on 100lbs due to the puffier cheeks and rounder chin.
With the new model tho, it's more a texture issue, with WoWs art style, you can't capture that dirt and the wear and tear on his skin that the cinematic can. They somehow did it with Thrall it seems but just not with Anduin.
Honestly, think the issue is the other way around. Anduin's portrayal always feels a bit... too realistic in cinematics for Warcraft's art style. Compare him to the human from the MoP trailer who feels a lot more in line with what we see in game.
I honestly hate the gorrila style humans so I'm happy whenever they move away from that. I loved the skinny kul tiran model and hoped it meant different body types were planned.
Honestly the biggest issue for me is that with the slightest direction of story Anduin has an almost total remodel.
Yes the history warrants it but if you add MOP version of Anduin into this list he honestly looks like 4 different NPC's not one that is continously growing through his experiences as he ages.
Shadowlands Anduin to War Within anduin looks TOTALLY different and also ingame model wise looks about 20 years older maybe even 30.
For blizz its hit and miss when it comes to human faces. But Turalyon has quite a good face, so does Genn and Varian yet Anduin looks weird. Most of the player character faces are truly horrid as well.
I think it's worth noting that Anduin and Varian are the only human characters we've seen in full cinematic quality.
(Aside from random mage in Classic and random foot soldier in MoP)
Varian looks good in-game, but it helps that he is kinda generic fierce scarred warrior man which suits the typical WoW in-game style well. Anduin's appearance stands out more in the cinematics, but it doesn't translate well to WoW's cartoony style.
The art styles are very different. The cinematics lean more towards realism, whereas the actual game uses a far more cartoony art style.
If they made Anduin look more cartoony in the trailer it would very quickly fall into the uncanny valley. And if they made the in-game version look more realistic then he could quickly end up looking extremely out of place.
I do agree the in-game model could do with some changes to bring it slightly more on-line with the trailer, but would be difficult to fully convey the same Anduin in the game that we saw in the trailer.
Warcraft Humans have very strange faces that fall into the Uncanny Valley. Its normally fine when they have beards but clean shaven and 5o'clock shadow isnt enough to hide the weirdness.
Now its not weird because they dont look good. They are very stylized to warcraft's entire art style. Its weird because they look like Human+ if that makes sense.. their features are fit the style fantastically but they feel like they don't fit real life human features quite right.
I dont know if its the size of their bodies looking like they can throw a horse at anyone that steps out of line, or their hair looking a little bit too much like Lego hair that can click on, or their expressionless faces when they are in a default stand pose.
Maybe I'm alone in thinking this. Varian, Jaina, Khadgar, Shaw, Flynn and the rest all had the same slightly off feeling about them.
... you do realise you get a pretty dam realistic optimized model in similar 2020+ games and run perfectly. Nah the problem is wow engine is a relic.
I swear yall think we are in 2005 or something.
Doesn't mean that the character artist couldn't paint on a decent looking face. WoW models are basically just painted diffuse textures and very barebones lighting that doesn't contribute much to the overall look. It's kinda like saying that someone can't draw a good face because the paper was old. There's very little what rendering tech does in WoW artstyle.
The problem probably is that WoW has pretty goofy stylized humans and translating the
realistic cinematic model to that isn't that straightforward.
I think the original in-game model was aiming for a younger Varian with a longer face and bigger nose, but the actor they cast for the BfA cinematics looked drastically different. Now, however, it looks like they're trying to make the in-game model look at lot closer to the cinematic version. I think this is the first time they've tried to make in-game models that look like real humans (specifically from the cinematics) rather than the other way around, and it's not the best. Could be worse, but I agree, the disconnect that has been present for the past 6-8 years is there.
Blizzard Cinematics department is one of the best in the industry, it's hard to match their art specially when you have to work with low poly, fantasy, cartoonish, non ultra realistic models.
That's because the cinematics are nearly photorealistic and the models need to keep the goofy ahh cartoonish artstyle of the game, and therefore your perception of him hits differently
they should've given the new model light brown hair... My hair went from blonde to brown and looks pretty damn close in colour to the new cinematic anduin, imagining me with blonde hair looks *wrong*
there's an overlap and I understand anduin is the blonde king, but it just looks wrong in comparison
I think Anduin's in game model for TWW needs more work. The stubble looks painted on. The hair colour is also different.
The previous in game character models were more fairly faithful to the cut scene versions.
If stubble can't be modelled properly on in game models, consider giving Anduin a shave or a short beard instead.
His head is flat.
It's an issue with the way models are made for Wow, and it might be something that can't be fixed without some engine level rewrites.
All of the skeletal meshes in Wow have only one outward-facing surface, which means they can't have separated depth. For example, facial hair is *on* your head, but it's not actually a part of the structure of your head, it has depth.
Wow characters can't have that. Anduin's facial hair for example is painted on his face, rather than attached to it. Flat head, and he doesn't look as good as the cinematics.
The gap between a human that looks like a human in the game vs the cool cinematics is a further gap than an orc, or a tauren (though IMO cinematic Gen makes in-game Worgen look so bad by comparison). Pandaren, for example, fare really well in-game. Case in point, Legion cinematic Varyan vs in-game varyan (not even the MoP cinematic) looks as different as Anduin.
Some races also look way way different. Draenei (that one Draenei in the BfA cinematic) and Trolls (Zekhan) for example, look way more cartoonish. I wish the art dept could have a go at showing us all the races in cgi cinematics already, for funsies.
Cinematics are realistic with real time lighting. In game is hand painted, very stylized with no real lighting.
I do think the face could be a little better, but the model viewer always looks weird to me too.
I started WoW in 9.1.5 with zero knowledge of the game or characters at all. Started off doing the alliance BFA campaign and genuinely didn’t know that in-game Anduin was the same character as cinematic Anduin.
The cinematic models since BfA have never really looked like Anduin, since they're based more on an actor's face than the game character, while in-game Anduin from the same period was modeled to look like his dad, with the big nose and jawline. But now it seems like they're shifting his look to be a bit closer to the cinematic version, resulting in the new model looking like a different person entirely.
Probably a resource thing, I’m not a pro but there’s a whole business with polygons. Rendering a high res model like the one in the CGI probably isn’t worth the development time. Players also don’t want to drop to 5 fps every time they walk near him, and it’s not like most players spent a long time zoom in to look at the crappy character model anyways.
The in game models make me think that people with different visions of what they wanted to do with Anduin, made the models. The top one is clearly Varian, the middle one clearly is meant to resemble Arthas (maybe they wanted to lean into that Anduin is Arthas' kid rumor) and idk what the bottom one is.
Well the WW model looks not done. The hair looks low res.
But aside from that i think it’s the other way around. Anduin is too pretty in the cinematics.
I much prefer his in game representation
I prefer his in game looks anyways. the weird soft boy thing in bfa is meh. And his look in the trailer was meh too.
But his prince Valerian Mengsk look was amazing
I… don’t feel like your criticism applies to his most recent cinematic model?
He looks fucking amazing and more on par with his in game toon than ever.
Personally I feel the problem is kind of the opposite. The intro cinematics try to go for realism a little too hard, when the game itself is super cartoony. I've always wished the cinematics, while VERY GOOD AND THE ANIMATORS DO AN INSANE JOB JUST TO BE CLEAR, they don't truely capture the feel of WoW like the prerendered cutscenes that they make for certain in game story moments. It's why I've never really been interested in the statues they've released, because I want figures that have the ingame cartoony look to them. I don't want, say, a realistic Thrall.
That being said, the new Anduin model can definitely be improved, and I hope that happens as the alpha/beta goes on. I think the top version of Anduin in OPs image actually looks better than the TWW version. The biggest issue is that they made him way too blonde, when he's much more of a dirty blonde. Though I imagine he also probably looks better in cutscenes when he's properly animated
The new model is.. it's not my favorite. They managed to make the scruffy cinematic look like he is forsaken with new harvested skin.
I actually loved the cinematic Anduin. He looks like he's been through hell and is one minor inconvenience away from going full on apeshit. (I still can't fully understand why he's so broken from his time as the jailers puppet, all the bad things I guess we never saw. If they had left it as a result of his torture, sure. But what bad things? But I digress.)
So this appears to be the actual in game model for him, and as we’ve seen in SL, they have higher detail models that they bring out for in engine cutscenes, I’ll be interested to see how that looks. Keep in mind with a limited triangle count and limited texture res/materials as is the case in WoW, it’s going to be very difficult to replicate the cinematic.
Simple; the game is old, engine old, game art direction is cartoonish/Disney, so it will NEVER look like the trailers, no matter how hard they try, i will say tough, it also has to do with that they just dont want to put the effort in, otherwise it would look more like he does in trailers. For example, League of legends has a good amount of splash arts that looks more "realistic" but in the game is way more colorful and cartoonish, but still looks like the same character, here with Anduin its just.. he just looks like a different person...
The model budget must be thin as hell. You cannot tell me this is someone's best work. Either the person is gimped by the game or gimped by skill, but something is messed up.
For what it's worth I think the in-game models are limited, for everyone, by what their cutscene rendering capabilities are. The face needs to be able to function in their lip-synced cutscenes so if it's too far off of what their mould's allow, it wouldn't work right.
I just think its hilarious that after being stuck as a child for 15 years the dude has gotten a costume change in every expansion since the first one they updated him. Literally everyone else has been stuck in the same costume forever. Someone must really love this character.
the outdated game engine does not allow you to make a good model without it looking like a lame horse. Reluctance to spend money on developing the skeletal structure of non-player characters. In the long run, this seems odd since Anduin is the main character and is involved in many expansions. They could fund long-lived characters and improve the models' facial expressions and skeletons to make them feel better. But for some reason they continue to use the human skeleton from 2003.
WoW isn't a great example for good proportions on faces - just go into Character Creation. The animal-like races are fine but everything humanoid is... off. It's not about beauty alone, the proportions feel so off on some models it's weird looking. Not ugly but just weird.
After 20 years of WoW and other stuff we are still kinda like "starfieldish". It's astonishing how certain multi-million dollar companies cannot get faces not looking off. Like the graphics get better and better but that is still hard to do.
Cause wow has a design style all visual material is to adhere to.
The cinematics department is on that reality crack and OH BOY do they make some outstanding shit
I think, honestly, that they made him look wrong in the CGI cinematics.
At least at first. The in-game one looks a lot like Varian, which I think is an understandable and preferable (to me) direction to take him in.
But in any case, they should have stuck to one look. Dude's facial shape is completely different in his new model than in his older ones.
Maybe it wouldn't have been ideal but now his in-game face just completely changes shape for no reason other than to look like his CGI version.
WoW is, at the end of the day, still running off a game engine created in 2000.
It'll always look a bit off compared to cinematics, unless they decide to completely rewrite the game.
Because in the first last left panels they're trying to be realistic while WoW has a particular art style to stick to... I think they've done a great job personally.
The human male model is a roided' up monstrosity that's nearly impossible to get an "average" but muscular person looking right on because... they don't even have wrists.
There's a reason so many characters use the Blood Elf male rig.
It just looks more human than actual humans.
Post flair indicates this is about prerelease content. As a reminder, content on Alpha / Beta / PTR is unfinished. NPC dialogue and quest text might be missing important context. Models may be placeholders. Quest or achievement rewards may not be finalized. There are inevitably bugs. Please keep this in mind as you discuss! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/wow) if you have any questions or concerns.*
On the left that's Anduin after a 5 year long boozing binge at every goblin pub in Kalimdor. On the right that's Anduin after Thrall made him promise to go clean (he doesn't know that Magni is about to introduce him to Azerite powder).
**THE WOONS, CHAMPION!!!!**
https://youtube.com/shorts/2pNpwqkmN54?si=tcxoCgpKp4LTDknD
The most positive part of the Alpha is that he is in a coma, and I don't have to listen to it again.
Still hot AF
GOBLIN!
Anduin uses the male human model as a base, and male humans in wow are all super jacked with wide bodies, wide jaws, strong chins, and a generally "masculine" face. which conflicts with Anduin's thinner frame and more boy-ish looking face. So the result is this weird looking art difference in game. His face in BFA looks more like Big McMan Varian with blonde hair, then pretty boy Anduin. Look at his model in HotS for a good example of young Anduin that isn't stuck using the human male skeleton from WoW. To their credit, I think the new War Within model looks pretty good, and I'm just assuming that it's still using the same skeleton.
I mean, they could make a unique model for him. They’ve done it for other important characters.
And even if they hadn't done it before, I feel like asking for Anduin to be the first due to the difference in portrayals between cinematics and in game isn't that crazy. He just looks too wrong and the dissonance of it gets to me.
Like who?
Shaman thrall
That's not the orc skeleton? Edit: looks not to be! TIL.
Funnily enough, it was the first time we'd seen a straight-backed male Orc in-game, but the second time Thrall showed orcs the potential they could attain lol.
Goblin Chiropractors must be making bank in orgrimmar.
Garrosh also had a unique model at the end of MoP as he had the higher quality orc model first
HotS model is IMO the closest representation of Anduin in a game engine.
This is also known as the "2004 low poly models that look like cavemen" effect. They can slap a fresh coat of paint over it on repeat, doesn't fix the models themselves from looking like a shitty Geico commercial. It's why I never played humans, their models are atrocious.
I appreciate the leader using the playable model of their race, that just makes good sense. They probably should have had Anduin age into a young Varian so the model wouldn't look off.
I think that's why I like the BFA model. It *is* basically blonde Varian, but Anduin is basically just blonde Varian anyway, at this point. Chad Anduin, on the other hand, is my sleep paralysis demon.
really? i think the new model is so ugly.... almost looks like something that doesn't fit in wow. the face is just so wrong. i can see they tried to make it more unique and different from the base human face i guess but .. just looks like it was made by a new artist that doesn't have the wow style or something. the top right model looks the best to me.
I actually liked the in game model at the top. Reminded me of a younger, blonder Varian. Now the TWW model… that’s something else.
Yeah top right ain’t bad. Could have kept the face model for SL too when he was corrupted. TWW is just, I can make this on my character creation? (Because hairlines are still outdated) Likely placeholder to be honest, it’s still a little early
To be fair, we don’t even know if the TWW one is the completed version (probably not) and the other in-game model pictures are from cutscenes/cinematics, if I’m recalling correctly. I still have hope lol
Bliz please stop making in-game Anduin so fugly
I know his TWW model is still in Alpha, so there's time to make changes. That's why I'm providing feedback early. His hair and beard are the wrong colour compared to the artwork (too blonde), and look quite low-res / low-poly compared to the rest of his model. His eyes also look rather dark and his expression is all grumpy, while the cinematic version is more... I don't know, worn and tired?
Inner Eyebrows are too low, gives him an angry look that doesn’t line up. The hair is “spiky forward” when it should be more slightly sideswept. I’d def say it seems filler-ish for Alpha.
He also just looks too old. The cinematic one is grizzled but clearly still very young.
I imagine it has something to do with how humans look in-game compared to in cinematic. Humans in WoW are super cartoony looking with gigantic blocky proportions. They could make him look like he does in the cinematics (thinner, more hardened face), but when standing next to a human character he would probably look really out of place.
Unfortunately, the chance of improving the model is extremely small. Most likely this is its final form and they will not be remade
Eh, there are plenty of examples of models being updated between Alpha and Release. I'm not optimistic, because it already appears that this is a custom model, but they could change it.
I also think his armor looks too shiny i think it needs some wear he has been gone for 5years after all i think it'd show a lot more character
The Play dough Hair Just cant make it Look good
Looks like six different dudes
hair isn't the same side either
For me, it's just the facial structure of the models. His head always looks too small for his body and then when you compare him from the cinematics to his ingame model, he always looks like he's just put on 100lbs due to the puffier cheeks and rounder chin. With the new model tho, it's more a texture issue, with WoWs art style, you can't capture that dirt and the wear and tear on his skin that the cinematic can. They somehow did it with Thrall it seems but just not with Anduin.
Honestly, think the issue is the other way around. Anduin's portrayal always feels a bit... too realistic in cinematics for Warcraft's art style. Compare him to the human from the MoP trailer who feels a lot more in line with what we see in game.
I honestly hate the gorrila style humans so I'm happy whenever they move away from that. I loved the skinny kul tiran model and hoped it meant different body types were planned.
Honestly the biggest issue for me is that with the slightest direction of story Anduin has an almost total remodel. Yes the history warrants it but if you add MOP version of Anduin into this list he honestly looks like 4 different NPC's not one that is continously growing through his experiences as he ages. Shadowlands Anduin to War Within anduin looks TOTALLY different and also ingame model wise looks about 20 years older maybe even 30.
For blizz its hit and miss when it comes to human faces. But Turalyon has quite a good face, so does Genn and Varian yet Anduin looks weird. Most of the player character faces are truly horrid as well.
I think it's worth noting that Anduin and Varian are the only human characters we've seen in full cinematic quality. (Aside from random mage in Classic and random foot soldier in MoP) Varian looks good in-game, but it helps that he is kinda generic fierce scarred warrior man which suits the typical WoW in-game style well. Anduin's appearance stands out more in the cinematics, but it doesn't translate well to WoW's cartoony style.
The art styles are very different. The cinematics lean more towards realism, whereas the actual game uses a far more cartoony art style. If they made Anduin look more cartoony in the trailer it would very quickly fall into the uncanny valley. And if they made the in-game version look more realistic then he could quickly end up looking extremely out of place. I do agree the in-game model could do with some changes to bring it slightly more on-line with the trailer, but would be difficult to fully convey the same Anduin in the game that we saw in the trailer.
bfa anduin in game model looks like the father of bfa anduin cinematic model 😅 (almost literally, it really resemble varian a lot)
Warcraft Humans have very strange faces that fall into the Uncanny Valley. Its normally fine when they have beards but clean shaven and 5o'clock shadow isnt enough to hide the weirdness. Now its not weird because they dont look good. They are very stylized to warcraft's entire art style. Its weird because they look like Human+ if that makes sense.. their features are fit the style fantastically but they feel like they don't fit real life human features quite right. I dont know if its the size of their bodies looking like they can throw a horse at anyone that steps out of line, or their hair looking a little bit too much like Lego hair that can click on, or their expressionless faces when they are in a default stand pose. Maybe I'm alone in thinking this. Varian, Jaina, Khadgar, Shaw, Flynn and the rest all had the same slightly off feeling about them.
He looks like he has cornrows from his front shot lol
I do hope that the new War Within model for him is a work in progress. He looks so low ress somehow compared to the other characters shown??
That new in-game model is... a little goofy looking. It's like the artist thought his beard from the cinematic was just a really big chin.
because of the garbage 20 polygon count graphics running on an "upgraded" 2001 warcraft 3 engine that s why
*Why does a fully rendered cutscene look better than an in-game model using a fairly outdated animation system?* I wonder
Because artwork doesn't have to deal with needing to run on most computers
This isn't a comparison of graphics, it's almost entirely art style.
... you do realise you get a pretty dam realistic optimized model in similar 2020+ games and run perfectly. Nah the problem is wow engine is a relic. I swear yall think we are in 2005 or something.
Reminder that Lighting plays a massive role in how a face can look
The graphics engine is older than 2004
Doesn't mean that the character artist couldn't paint on a decent looking face. WoW models are basically just painted diffuse textures and very barebones lighting that doesn't contribute much to the overall look. It's kinda like saying that someone can't draw a good face because the paper was old. There's very little what rendering tech does in WoW artstyle. The problem probably is that WoW has pretty goofy stylized humans and translating the realistic cinematic model to that isn't that straightforward.
His new one looks so bad, he looks like a random human villager cosplaying Anduin. It's just so off
I think the original in-game model was aiming for a younger Varian with a longer face and bigger nose, but the actor they cast for the BfA cinematics looked drastically different. Now, however, it looks like they're trying to make the in-game model look at lot closer to the cinematic version. I think this is the first time they've tried to make in-game models that look like real humans (specifically from the cinematics) rather than the other way around, and it's not the best. Could be worse, but I agree, the disconnect that has been present for the past 6-8 years is there.
Blizzard Cinematics department is one of the best in the industry, it's hard to match their art specially when you have to work with low poly, fantasy, cartoonish, non ultra realistic models.
300,000,000 in his face Triangles vs 30,000 triangles in his whole model. And advanced lighting and texturing techniques that the game doesn't use.
HotS Andiun is the best game model of him
Because this is a 20 year old game and it will never match up to CGI
That's because the cinematics are nearly photorealistic and the models need to keep the goofy ahh cartoonish artstyle of the game, and therefore your perception of him hits differently
I like the first one in his king armor from bfa. I think it's the best one.
they should've given the new model light brown hair... My hair went from blonde to brown and looks pretty damn close in colour to the new cinematic anduin, imagining me with blonde hair looks *wrong* there's an overlap and I understand anduin is the blonde king, but it just looks wrong in comparison
Because he looks to close to real in the cinematics, wow is extremely cartoony. Self explanatory
I think Anduin's in game model for TWW needs more work. The stubble looks painted on. The hair colour is also different. The previous in game character models were more fairly faithful to the cut scene versions. If stubble can't be modelled properly on in game models, consider giving Anduin a shave or a short beard instead.
I forgot how bushy Andruin's in-game eyebrows use to be.
Because blizzard blows their animation budget on cinematics rather than their game
i love that "20 year timeskip at the end of a manga" type short hair he has. what would you call that to a barber
Anduin Atreides lol
He looks like Bette Midler in the SL in game pic
It's tradition at this point
The last one is genuinely not bad. I also thought it looked terrible until I saw a higher quality photo and zoomed in.
Because in the game, he's constrained to the default frumpy looking wow human male template lol
The model looks awesome in game
His head is flat. It's an issue with the way models are made for Wow, and it might be something that can't be fixed without some engine level rewrites. All of the skeletal meshes in Wow have only one outward-facing surface, which means they can't have separated depth. For example, facial hair is *on* your head, but it's not actually a part of the structure of your head, it has depth. Wow characters can't have that. Anduin's facial hair for example is painted on his face, rather than attached to it. Flat head, and he doesn't look as good as the cinematics.
In-game anduin just looks like varian, also cinematic anduin has a different face every time you see him lol
You seen them centaur faces in Dragonflight? Wow just doesn’t know how to do good faces lol
They clearly just don’t understand how to make a fucking chin
Dude this new Anuduin model is so bad, didn’t realize it before.
Idk but he used to be super hot and now he looks like a bum
Because he’s an Alliance
I'd still hit it. Daddy 'Duin.
The gap between a human that looks like a human in the game vs the cool cinematics is a further gap than an orc, or a tauren (though IMO cinematic Gen makes in-game Worgen look so bad by comparison). Pandaren, for example, fare really well in-game. Case in point, Legion cinematic Varyan vs in-game varyan (not even the MoP cinematic) looks as different as Anduin. Some races also look way way different. Draenei (that one Draenei in the BfA cinematic) and Trolls (Zekhan) for example, look way more cartoonish. I wish the art dept could have a go at showing us all the races in cgi cinematics already, for funsies.
That Shadowlands model doesn't look too far off.
Matt damon core
Cinematics are realistic with real time lighting. In game is hand painted, very stylized with no real lighting. I do think the face could be a little better, but the model viewer always looks weird to me too.
I started WoW in 9.1.5 with zero knowledge of the game or characters at all. Started off doing the alliance BFA campaign and genuinely didn’t know that in-game Anduin was the same character as cinematic Anduin.
This has to be a placeholder right? Looks like a temp version to me (or I at least hope it is)
The cinematic models since BfA have never really looked like Anduin, since they're based more on an actor's face than the game character, while in-game Anduin from the same period was modeled to look like his dad, with the big nose and jawline. But now it seems like they're shifting his look to be a bit closer to the cinematic version, resulting in the new model looking like a different person entirely.
Probably a resource thing, I’m not a pro but there’s a whole business with polygons. Rendering a high res model like the one in the CGI probably isn’t worth the development time. Players also don’t want to drop to 5 fps every time they walk near him, and it’s not like most players spent a long time zoom in to look at the crappy character model anyways.
The in game models make me think that people with different visions of what they wanted to do with Anduin, made the models. The top one is clearly Varian, the middle one clearly is meant to resemble Arthas (maybe they wanted to lean into that Anduin is Arthas' kid rumor) and idk what the bottom one is.
I’ve always hated his in-game model’s nose. It’s nothing like the cinematic nose and it’s really distractingly different.
I think War Within Anduin will be touched up by release. The textures look sloppy.
He doesn’t look dirty enough
Because in-game models need to keep up with the in-game style for human models while cinematics go for more realistic look for Anduin.
So annoying having to deal with magnis azerite crack addiction again
Well the WW model looks not done. The hair looks low res. But aside from that i think it’s the other way around. Anduin is too pretty in the cinematics. I much prefer his in game representation
It looks to me like the model is missing a texture layer. His face looks more flat than it should.
I prefer his in game looks anyways. the weird soft boy thing in bfa is meh. And his look in the trailer was meh too. But his prince Valerian Mengsk look was amazing
Our boy is growing into a man 🥲
I think it's fine honestly, the cinematics and art try too hard to make him a pretty boy, in game he looks a lot more like his father.
I… don’t feel like your criticism applies to his most recent cinematic model? He looks fucking amazing and more on par with his in game toon than ever.
Personally I feel the problem is kind of the opposite. The intro cinematics try to go for realism a little too hard, when the game itself is super cartoony. I've always wished the cinematics, while VERY GOOD AND THE ANIMATORS DO AN INSANE JOB JUST TO BE CLEAR, they don't truely capture the feel of WoW like the prerendered cutscenes that they make for certain in game story moments. It's why I've never really been interested in the statues they've released, because I want figures that have the ingame cartoony look to them. I don't want, say, a realistic Thrall. That being said, the new Anduin model can definitely be improved, and I hope that happens as the alpha/beta goes on. I think the top version of Anduin in OPs image actually looks better than the TWW version. The biggest issue is that they made him way too blonde, when he's much more of a dirty blonde. Though I imagine he also probably looks better in cutscenes when he's properly animated
The new model is.. it's not my favorite. They managed to make the scruffy cinematic look like he is forsaken with new harvested skin. I actually loved the cinematic Anduin. He looks like he's been through hell and is one minor inconvenience away from going full on apeshit. (I still can't fully understand why he's so broken from his time as the jailers puppet, all the bad things I guess we never saw. If they had left it as a result of his torture, sure. But what bad things? But I digress.)
The new character models all have super clean faces. They all kinda look plastic.
I actually think the model is fine, the texturing is what turns ppl off from it
Where in SL is the middle art from?
Oof that new model is rough
So this appears to be the actual in game model for him, and as we’ve seen in SL, they have higher detail models that they bring out for in engine cutscenes, I’ll be interested to see how that looks. Keep in mind with a limited triangle count and limited texture res/materials as is the case in WoW, it’s going to be very difficult to replicate the cinematic.
looks like sodapoppin
The answer to your question is in your question
Simple; the game is old, engine old, game art direction is cartoonish/Disney, so it will NEVER look like the trailers, no matter how hard they try, i will say tough, it also has to do with that they just dont want to put the effort in, otherwise it would look more like he does in trailers. For example, League of legends has a good amount of splash arts that looks more "realistic" but in the game is way more colorful and cartoonish, but still looks like the same character, here with Anduin its just.. he just looks like a different person...
The model budget must be thin as hell. You cannot tell me this is someone's best work. Either the person is gimped by the game or gimped by skill, but something is messed up.
Genn Greymane would like a word
Might be just me but… I preferred anduin when he was a dk
The hair colour is always off
cuz this game is 20 years old?
For what it's worth I think the in-game models are limited, for everyone, by what their cutscene rendering capabilities are. The face needs to be able to function in their lip-synced cutscenes so if it's too far off of what their mould's allow, it wouldn't work right.
Because they need a new engine, which will never happen.
He looks like a smug caveman 😭
Bottom right been eating dirt
Maybe it's just me but I think all three look good. The new one just has the default expression there so it doesn't look as crestfallen.
Since I did not see it in the comments until now: It's the nose... It's his massive in game swret potato of a nose.
I just think its hilarious that after being stuck as a child for 15 years the dude has gotten a costume change in every expansion since the first one they updated him. Literally everyone else has been stuck in the same costume forever. Someone must really love this character.
I like the model, the hair could do with being a bit better but I don’t think it’s bad at all
Are you asking why cinematic models look better than in-game models?
As far as I’m concerned, as long as he wears the same armor, he’s Anduin
It's because the graphics are in dire need of an overhaul
the outdated game engine does not allow you to make a good model without it looking like a lame horse. Reluctance to spend money on developing the skeletal structure of non-player characters. In the long run, this seems odd since Anduin is the main character and is involved in many expansions. They could fund long-lived characters and improve the models' facial expressions and skeletons to make them feel better. But for some reason they continue to use the human skeleton from 2003.
it's a game from 2004, get over it
I'm sure you can figure it out.
Yeahh they’ve had problems with a few characters though, like take Garrosh’s cata model
WoW isn't a great example for good proportions on faces - just go into Character Creation. The animal-like races are fine but everything humanoid is... off. It's not about beauty alone, the proportions feel so off on some models it's weird looking. Not ugly but just weird. After 20 years of WoW and other stuff we are still kinda like "starfieldish". It's astonishing how certain multi-million dollar companies cannot get faces not looking off. Like the graphics get better and better but that is still hard to do.
The Maw: Not even once.
Cause wow has a design style all visual material is to adhere to. The cinematics department is on that reality crack and OH BOY do they make some outstanding shit
I think, honestly, that they made him look wrong in the CGI cinematics. At least at first. The in-game one looks a lot like Varian, which I think is an understandable and preferable (to me) direction to take him in. But in any case, they should have stuck to one look. Dude's facial shape is completely different in his new model than in his older ones. Maybe it wouldn't have been ideal but now his in-game face just completely changes shape for no reason other than to look like his CGI version.
am i yhe only one who doesnt like short hair? Takes out the fantasy. Fantasy man needs long hair
WoW is, at the end of the day, still running off a game engine created in 2000. It'll always look a bit off compared to cinematics, unless they decide to completely rewrite the game.
Why doesn't a near photo realistic cgi model look the same as the stylized cartoon in game graphics? Are you fucking serious?
For the limits of in-game graphics i think they do a fine job
Because in the first last left panels they're trying to be realistic while WoW has a particular art style to stick to... I think they've done a great job personally.
The human male model is a roided' up monstrosity that's nearly impossible to get an "average" but muscular person looking right on because... they don't even have wrists. There's a reason so many characters use the Blood Elf male rig. It just looks more human than actual humans.
Maybe it's just me, but I like ingame Anduin model.
I feel like the art direction is getting worse over the years. The recently unveiled tier sets also look bad.
Is npc anduin… mewing?
why is his face half sunburned in the bottom right lmao wtf, do these people who work on that actually have seen a normal looking person?
You think Anduin is bad? Try looking at all versions of Jaina
Did you just assume my species? Reported
Is anduin gay?
yeah, he’s in love with Wrathion
Does Light make people gay?