Blizzard a week ago at BlizzCon 2023 presented an epic cinematic for the World of Warcraft: The War Within expansion, where Anduin and Thrall were the main characters. If you’re blown away by the quality of the 3D models, here’s a more detailed look at Anduin, shared by senior character and creature modeler Jamiro Blanco.
Our heroes Anduin and Thrall are connected through a shining vision emanating from the heart of the world. Find out what happens next in the first chapter of the Saga of the Worldsoul story arc in the new World of Warcraft: The War Within expansion, releasing in 2024.
Blanco was responsible for creating Anduin’s cloak using ZBrush, Maya and Marvelous Designer. He said it was a “fun challenge” because the cape had to be modeled physically correctly and had to “look good in all the close-ups.”
All the folds on the cloak are modeled/sculpted as we wanted to establish the final look and layers of the cloak during the modeling process rather than later in the simulation (so as not to leave folds and layers random).
Wear and small holes were also modeled by hand, without using displacement on the cape. Everything about the cape is real geometry, which makes it “quite dense to reproduce all the folds, layers, breaks, holes and everything else. This forced us to push the boundaries of how dense the geometry could be for the simulation, but the result was a much more pleasing and realistic result.”
The rest of the model was created by lead character model artist Jason Huang.
Blanco also helped create some of the models, sculpts, and displacements for Thrall’s armor.
More works can be found to artist pages on ArtStation.
