Posts with tag animation

Amazing player-animated and -rendered WoW avatar

by Allison Robert Jan 17th 2012 at 5:00PM

Mother of sweet things! I saw this on Reddit's /r/wow community a few days ago and realized that I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to my own forum signatures (which is apparently the whole purpose of the project). Thovald, the player responsible for the video, wrote that he did it in 3D Studio Max and didn't actually change the female troll model itself. The big difference is an increased polygon count for the robes and (I would assume) the graphics of the fire spell being cast. It reminded me more than a bit of the perennial favorite Blind, and it's all the more amazing that Thovald is apparently self-taught.

We know that Blizzard is working on an update for character models, but it's pretty cool to see what players can do with them in the meantime. They might be old, but as Thovald noted, they're still a surprisingly expressive bunch.

Filed under: Arts and Crafts

Patch 4.1 PTR: New map animation coming

by Mathew McCurley Mar 14th 2011 at 5:00PM

Our (my 10-man) prayers have been answered! /map has an animation now on the test realms, and it totally rules.

For those of you who don't know about /map, the greatest emote in World of Warcraft, you need to try it out. There have been few times in WoW when I have felt more at peace with myself and my surroundings then when I have held my trusty map. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise -- /map is the best, most trustworthy, and amazing emote that will never let you down. And now it totally has a real map.

You also may be thinking that the words in this post are intended to be humorous or spoken in a mocking or sarcastic tone. You are wrong. Join the /map brigade, and be one of the cool kids.

Patch 4.1 cannot come soon enough. Thanks to reader Iceleaf for the tip!

WoW Patch 4.1 is on the PTR and WoW Insider has all the latest news for you. From previews of the revamped Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub to new Valor point mechanics to the new Archaeology items.

All the World's a Stage: Player housing, interactivity, and other possible features

by David Bowers Nov 15th 2009 at 10:00PM

All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

Playing Warhammer recently has made me think of more features that WoW could add in order to create a better roleplaying experience. Far and away the most important one, to my mind, was the Tome of Knowledge. WoW players really need an in-game resource they can refer to as a standard for information about the Warcraft universe, and having this at hand, roleplayers could do a lot better than they can today.

Knowledge is the most important thing, of course, but there are other features Blizzard could add to the game that would help roleplayers too. I'd like to address a few of these things, and see how much they could really do for us. Player housing is a possible feature that gets talked about a lot, but I have my doubts as to whether or not it would really help roleplayers all that much. Another issue is one that is more important to me personally, and is another feature inspired by my trial with Warhammer Online: looking at interactivity between characters.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, RP, All the World's a Stage (Roleplaying)

A new animation for Feed Pet

by Mike Schramm Sep 28th 2009 at 9:00AM

Well I grabbed my own video of the new Feed Pet animation, but it turns out that Lougara on YouTube did it much better, so that's their video you can watch above. Yes, as hunters everywhere have noticed, Blizzard has added a brand new animation to the feeding of a hunter pet -- you can actually see your hunter toss a piece of grub to the pet, who then catches it and noms away.

It would be cool to see it go a little further -- maybe have the pet claw and chew away at it for a moment -- but then again with so many different types of pets out there, it's probably tough for Blizzard to make them all look good. Still, it's a nice little touch for immersion, and it has the added bonus of showing other players when you're tossing food to your pet as well. Of course, with Bloodthirsty as a pet talent or the Glyph of Mend Pet going, you may not even need to feed your pet any more, but if you do, that's what you'll see.

Filed under: Hunter, Machinima, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Buffs

Patch 3.2.2: The clucking draenei (and the levitating tree)

by Mike Schramm Sep 24th 2009 at 1:00PM

I've talked here before about just how wacky Blizzard's coding is -- they are obviously great programmers (even with all of the 180,000 bugs), but man, when things go wrong in this game, they go wrong in the weirdest, strangest ways. Take the bug above, spotted in patch 3.2.2 by xella over on Livejournal: the female dreanei /train emote is bugged like crazy, but instead of not playing or playing a random sound like you might expect it to do as a software bug, it instead plays a cacophony of the strangest sounds, including a slice of the original sound and then a female blood elf /chicken noise instead. This will surely be fixed soon (and as a few people in the comments over there say, it's probably a bit of file corruption on Blizzard's part), but what a weird bug.

Fortunately, as granular and strange as Blizzard's bugs are, their fixes are just as minute: tree druids will be happy to see that, since patch 3.2, their treeform now actually moves correctly after Levitate is cast on it. It's a small change, sure, but every little bit helps with immersion. Maybe someday we'll see mounts do it, too.

Filed under: Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Humor

WoW Rookie: Talking with the enemy

by Lisa Poisso Jun 24th 2009 at 6:30PM

New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.

You can't talk to the enemy in the World of Warcraft. Shouting "KEK" when you're on your Alliance character doesn't read as "LOL" to the Horde players, no matter how many times you've heard that rumor. You can't Mind Control the enemy and then babble away in your own tongue (although that did work for one amazing, once-upon-a-time period in a long-ago patch). The truth is, trying to leapfrog the Alliance/Horde language barrier is a bannable offense; you're just not supposed to talk to the enemy.

That said, there is a way you can make your intentions known to players of the opposite faction: standard, pre-set emotes. The only emotes that work between factions are the ones that are already in place in the game. Creating your own emote by typing "/e yourmessage" only works for players of your own faction; for others, it translates to "X makes some strange gestures" – pretty antagonistic, really, no matter what you're actually intending to convey.

Filed under: Tips, How-tos, Features, WoW Rookie, Rumors

Breakfast Topic: Awesome Animations

by Daniel Whitcomb Mar 28th 2009 at 8:00AM

So hot on the heels of the best mob noise in game discussion, I thought I'd ask another question: What about the animations? We probably don't think about it too much, but the sounds and animations of PCs and NPCs alike probably end up making a lot of atmosphere we take for granted. It fills out the world and makes it feel more immersive, more real.

With that in mind, the noise topic got me thinking of what animations I really like. There's a lot of them that at least deserve a mention, from the howling of Coyotes to the nervous skittering of the Silithid. In the new animations, we get stuff like Stinker's escapades and the wildlife of Grizzly Hills going on with their every day activities.

Beyond that, even PC animations can have their awesome looks, such as a Draenei twirling a Polearm to attack or a male Blood Elf dying with Shakespearean dramatics. Ethereals also have some pretty graceful moves overall, even in the way their bandages move and their energy pulses.

What animations and graphics have you encountered in WoW that have made you stop and say, "Hey, that's pretty neat?"

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Breakfast Topics

WotLK cinematic picks up Elan award nomination

by Mike Schramm Mar 13th 2009 at 1:00PM

Throw another nomination on the list for Wrath of the Lich King -- Blizzard's cinematic team has been nominated for an Elan award for the WotLK cinematic in the category of Best Animated Short Subject. And the nom is well deserved: while the trailer broke with the tradition of showing the various races and classes of Warcraft doing battle with each other, Blizzard's choice to instead recap the story of Arthas and the Lich King while he summoned Sindragosa worked well and looked amazing.

Unfortunately, Blizzard missed out in the actual game nominations -- for best PC game, the expansion was overshadowed by Fallout 3, Crysis Warhead, Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria, and Left 4 Dead. You can argue amongst yourselves whether that's justified or not. But we're sure Blizzard is happy with the animation nomination anyway -- their competition there is Turbo Dogs, so they'll probably do fine when the awards are announced on April 25th.

[via BlizzPlanet]

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Contests, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements

Video of Val'anyr, the Gavel of Ancient Kings

by Alex Ziebart Feb 26th 2009 at 3:30PM

Video of the legendary mace coming in patch 3.1, Val'anyr, the Gavel of Ancient Kings, is already making the rounds. The animation is pretty cool, but I remain unconvinced of its overall awesomeness. We can't see any of the particle effects this weapon may have, because none of that stuff is ever built into the model. We won't know what it really looks like until we see it in-game somewhere, or someone digs out the other bits and pieces it all together.

The animation itself, which is the whole point of watching the video, is really freaking sweet. If it's an animation that happens semi-randomly and isn't just a constant thing, I really, really like it. My only concern about the weapon is, again, the particle effects. Something really cool looking is going to need to fill in that gap in the middle. As long as there's something there, this weapon is going to be amazingly cool. If there isn't, it's going to be amazingly boring. A very 'make it or break it' situation, I think. That's just my opinion, though. Do you guys disagree?

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion

Patch 3.0.8 bug roundup

by Adam Holisky Jan 21st 2009 at 12:01AM

My favorite time of the patch day is here – looking at all the bugs! At the time of this writing, we're about six hours after the patch and the majority of bugs have been found. We've counted six of them, and will go over each and when the fix is expected after the break.

Obviously some are more important than others. The Wintergrasp bug that is currently crashing servers left and right needs to be fixed "nao," as people are clamoring about in trade channels. The game is nearly unplayable for most people.

Interestingly there are no bugs about ~~missing mail or~~ other missing items, nor are there reports of extreme lag and other difficulties (other than the severs crashing).

The full list of 3.0.8 bugs, and information about their status, after the break.

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, News items, PvP, Death Knight

Animated models now on Wowhead

by Eliah Hecht Oct 29th 2008 at 6:00PM

Just when I think Wowhead is feature-complete, they go and add something that never even occurred to me. This time around it's animated models in their 3D model viewer (high-quality Java version only). So if you can't manage to bag that elusive Squashling, at least you can see what it looks like, in full motion (be sure to click Java, if it isn't selected already). So far, animations are available for pets, mounts, player models, and NPCs, but items are coming soon (Terestrian's Stranglestaff, anyone?). Not only that, but they're already working on expansions for what sorts of animations are shown. Currently it just shows "idling" behavior; in the future, you should see a lot more, up to and including "/dance" (for player models) and casting animations.

I'm really excited about this (especially with my main computer in the shop, leaving me unable to play WoW at the moment). It lets me gaze at all sorts of interesting things:

Raid bosses I'm never going to see
Strange new mounts
Awesome small pets
Character models in any gear you want (using the compare tool)

And the Flying Carpet. It will be mine, oh yes. What are some of your favorite models?

Filed under: News items, Screenshots

New Furbolg form casting animation

by Mike Schramm Oct 28th 2008 at 2:00PM

Sure, this is hardly the most important change to come down in patch 3.0.2, but anything Furbolg is worth a mention in my book.

Personally, a Furbolg casting is more than enough excitement for me, but you, our readers, are discerning people, and we know you'd like a little bit of insight tailored to your own expectations, so we're going "choose your own adventure" on this one. You can read either one of the next two sections of this post whether you're the sarcastic and cynical reader type or the excited, "can't get enough rumors and speculation" type:

Meh: "So Blizzard improved an animation only used by lowbies (Alliance lowbies at that) with an obscure quest item? Is this why we can't have more battlegrounds?"

OMG Rumorz: "Emerald Dream expansion confirmed, with playable Furblog races! I can't wait!"

There you go: either you get a chance to whine that Blizzard isn't working on more important things, or you can extrapolate a ton of rumors from something that probably took a developer a few minutes to do. Enjoy.

Thanks, Acyronius!

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Machinima, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Humor, NPCs

Size matters: Tauren shrinkage

by Amanda Miller Mar 27th 2008 at 8:40AM

For those of you who do not frequent the forums, you might not know that since patch 2.4, there has been a Tauren outcry.

It seems that cows everywhere are logging in to find that their weapons are roughly 50% smaller than they were previously. Should you take your weapon out to get a better look at it, you'll get to watch it grow back to pre-patch size.

Unfortunately, this is not a bug. Hortus has confirmed that it was an intentional change because certain weapons would clip the ground while sheathed.

While the Tauren have been getting some support on the forums, some players seem unsure of why this is such a big issue. Let's take a deeper look into why players are upset, including the fact that cows will seemingly be the brunt of even more jokes. Not innocent jokes either; not like "steak! It's what's for dinner!"

Filed under: Horde, Tauren, Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Humor, Forums

Don't do it, it's a trap

by Amanda Dean Mar 15th 2008 at 6:20PM

Zanzer of Mal'Ganis posted on the World of Warcraft test realm forum that he is displeased with the user interface change that shows hunter traps in the combat log. Obviously this is a PvP related change, as PvE mobs probably don't care if a hunter sets traps or not. The ability to trap is one of the most important features of the Hunter class.

Typically players know when Hunters are dropping traps for two reasons. First, there is an unmistakable squatting animation that shows the character setting the trap. Of course you have to have your camera on the Hunter to see the animation. Second, Hunters who are worth their salt lay traps whenever they are able to in the PvP environment. The difference is the combat log now states what type of trap has been dropped.

Filed under: Hunter, Patches, PvP, Add-Ons, Forums, Arena

Remember the stealth animations?

by David Bowers Feb 12th 2008 at 3:01PM

Rogues probably remember well the day that their current stealth animations were altered over a year ago now. People complained that their character suddenly seemed wobbly or constipated while walking around in stealth, but Blizzard responded with promises of brand-new super-cool stealth animations for rogues of all races to help solve the issue. They said, and I quote, "Currently this issue is expected to be resolved in patch 2.1," (which obviously didn't happen) "but there is a chance that the new animations will not be ready by that time, which may result in the fix being delayed for a later patch."

A later patch indeed! Which later patch, you ask? 2.4 perhaps? The official word is "no new ETA," which, as you know, is Blizzard-speak for "sorry guys and gals, we wish we could do this right now, but there just isn't time. We might have time to do it sometime between now and the next global ice age, perhaps."

No, to be fair, they probably will get around to it some day, probably even sometime during the 21st century!

Filed under: Rogue, Patches

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