TL:DR - If you really want this done, you have to get the community to back the people who can and are willing to do it. There has to be a demand for the models. Why would anyone would put 10,000 hours into a project such as this if the only response they get is "meh, WoW models"?
The sheer scope of doing such a project requires an enormous amount of time. Which is why it hasn't been done yet. I can't speak for everyone but I know Zolden, Triceron, and myself have put some stuff out for people to use. I have a part time job, take 22.5 credit hours a semester, and have a girlfriend. So my time is incredibly limited as it is.
I had been working on doing it for several months and the overall reception of my work was "oh cool, more WoW models" so I stopped. If the community as a whole would be more receptive of the amount of time and dedication it takes to create an asset as such I would be interested in doing it. It's not as simple as just importing them into 3DS max and then exporting it.
A lot of things have to be considered.
Textures
1. Team Colors, you want players to be able to distinguish one player from another.
This requires editing of many different textures. Sometimes through trial and error to find the best placement of the colors.
Best done by inverting the texture and then selecting the areas you want team colored. Copying that, and then pasting it into the alpha channel. I then do a 100% Alpha overlay at different opacity's to get the color I want. This method keeps the dark areas darker, and light areas lighter. Depending on the complexity of the texture this can take a decent amount of time. The selected area is also colored to a dark grey on the rgb channels.
2. Specular map, this is a subject I'm still very touchy on. While some people will argue that it is needed for Starcraft 2, I tend to disagree. For one reason only. If every asset in the map is from WoW, then you are less likely to notice the lighting on units and doodads. Yes, the will make the model look better, however adding a specular map to each model can double the amount of time spent working on the models textures and will also increase the overall size of each model. Zolden grills me about this every time and I understand why. But I add team colors to almost everything so I can't just use the alpha channel as a specular map which means I need a new separate texture.
3. Normal map, I will not and currently refuse to do this for any WoW model as it is the most complicated of them all. It requires a lot more time and effort and to do this for each model by myself would take way too long. In my opinion, it is not worth it. The only place this is worth it is with a single individual model that is meant to be used with regular Starcraft 2 models.
Animations
1. Renaming, each character model has essentially all of the same animations. However, WoW models use a different set of terms to determine what animation gets used in game. Such as Attack 1H, while Starcraft uses things like Attack Cover and Attack Inferior. This requires coming up with a system that will allow all of the WoW models to properly use all of its animations without conflicting with another. It seems like it would be something simple to do. However, through trial and error I've had to rework this multiple times due to naming conflicts. It also requires a lot of work in the actors events section.
2. Fixing bugs, whether it is the WoW Model Viewer Exporter or the M3 Import Scripts a lot of the final keyframes of animations are bugged. This requires going through each bugged animation and replacing the last keyframe with the first keyframe. In most cases this is an easy fix. However, some animations that involve the character spinning around require a little more attention and time. Character models have up to 200 animations now. There are also hundreds of other models this would have to be done for.
3. Making them Startools compatible, tedious work of adding in the name, frame range, and ordering them so they can be commited to a mod.
4. Split Body animation, I haven't touched this yet but with character models it may be something I look into.
Helpers
1. Attachment points, most WoW models come with some Attachment Points, some have none. Each model in my opinion needs several added. Using Startools every single one needs to be replaced with ones that are compatible.
2. Target volumes, not difficult but each model needs this to display damage properly.
3. Hit Tests, Tight and Fuzzy. A little more complicated than Target Volumes but still easy. This makes it so you can click on the unit or select them. Every model needs these added.
Reducing asset size
This is something I've been working on and off with. To help reduce the overall number of models required to create specific unit types I'm working on a system that will allow customization near that of WoW. This would involve being able to change armor and weapons on a model to make it look like a completely different one while changing the animations when a different weapon is in use. I believe with the sc2 editor I am limited in my choices compared to what WoW can do. With the method I'm currently using I can show and hide up to 15 different things on any given model.
WoW uses seperate textures for Chest, Shirt, Legs, Belt, Boots, Gloves, Bracers, Cloak and Tabard. Doing something like this in SC2 from what I know of is just not possible due to the limitations. However, all of those can be combined into one texture or a few separate ones. I currently have one texture per set of armor involving these body parts and a few others that can hide/show the tabard/cloak mesh. Each shoulder, helmet, weapon, and off-hand has there own texture as well. These can be used as individual models though and can be attached and removed easily with only using 1 texture.
Each WoW character also has around 5 different meshes for gloves, boots, and cloaks. The ones that aren't currently in use are hidden from sight. The models also have many different hair styles, piercings, and beards. This is way more than my current limit of 15. To get as much customization as possible I'm going to group a few of the meshes together to be shown or hidden. Here's a list of a few of the groups I'm considering.
No Armor - no armor mesh will show.
Cloth Armor - Shows the dress and sleeve mesh while hiding the legs so they don't clip through the dress mesh.
Light Armor - Shows the smallest boots and gloves mesh, generally for leather and light metal armor.
Medium Armor - Shows slightly larger than light armor mesh
Heavy Armor - Shows the biggest boots and gloves
Heavy Armor 2 - Show the larger belt mesh with the biggest boots and gloves.
I may add more variations for armor.
Body - allows the change of the armor texture
Hair - allows the showing and hiding of hair so it doesn't clip through helmet meshes.
Cloak - allows the showing and hiding of the cloak
Beard - allows the showing and hiding of beards
The Hair, Cloak, and Beard may have multiple variations and colors.
To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. Here was my first test at doing this. This one does not include all of the other armor meshes just the light armor one. This was one Character model, with low file sized shoulders, helmet, weapons, and shield models attached. I think in the end I can have a grand total of 16 character models and their attachments to allow for a hundreds of different variations.
Here's the mod that contains the model and textures. The max file is also included. Just giving you something to use for now. If i update it I'll post it here as well.
Ok thanks for clarifying, got really terrified i was confusing and irritating you for the last one and a half days, so i was extra-clarifying everything as much as possible, but enough of that, any idea's on when the model(s?) will be ready for download?
Also so sorry to bring this up, but in the WOW TD arcade map there is imported files for a fel imp model that i can export, and i was thinking i might even put a Fel Orc warlock caster into my map who's main purpose is summoning imps to assist in battle, kind of like a swarm host except running on energy and having a weak melee attack, either a staff or a small dagger. So if you feel up to doing that model thats great, but if not its fine, because i never planned on having a caster in my map anyways.
Keep up the cool-dudeness!!!
Doing the models is easy. Getting them to the right specifications is the difficult part :P
That's why I'm asking all the questions. If I'm going to do something I only want to do it once :D
Ok, a few things to note about the picture you provided.
It is just a regular orc model that uses the red colored skin. I'm not sure if that's what you want or not. You say you want the axe, shoulders, pants, boots, and axe. Some of his armor pieces don't really match. But I assume the pants and shoulders are what you want most. So I grabbed the set and put it on an actual Fel Orc model. I can add team colors to the black area on the shoulders, pants, and boots if you would like. I can also add it to the grip on the axe. Also, I can attach the axe to the hand of the model without you having to do it in the editor yourself.
What animations are looking for it to have? More animations = more file size.
Here's what I'd do for a simple model, let me know if you'd like some others. Like Spell casts, stunned, etc... I will rename them to fit with Starcraft 2.
As for Thrall, there is a known glitch with some model animations after being exported from WMV and Imported into 3DS Max. The glitch will cause the last key frame of the animation to be incorrect. It will cause heads to turn, hands opening, legs, arms, and hands raising up or turning, and various other issues. MOST of the time this glitch can be fixed by simply deleting the last key frame of that animation and then Shift+Dragging the first key frame to where the last one once was.
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TL:DR - If you really want this done, you have to get the community to back the people who can and are willing to do it. There has to be a demand for the models. Why would anyone would put 10,000 hours into a project such as this if the only response they get is "meh, WoW models"?
The sheer scope of doing such a project requires an enormous amount of time. Which is why it hasn't been done yet. I can't speak for everyone but I know Zolden, Triceron, and myself have put some stuff out for people to use. I have a part time job, take 22.5 credit hours a semester, and have a girlfriend. So my time is incredibly limited as it is.
I had been working on doing it for several months and the overall reception of my work was "oh cool, more WoW models" so I stopped. If the community as a whole would be more receptive of the amount of time and dedication it takes to create an asset as such I would be interested in doing it. It's not as simple as just importing them into 3DS max and then exporting it.
A lot of things have to be considered.
Textures
1. Team Colors, you want players to be able to distinguish one player from another.
This requires editing of many different textures. Sometimes through trial and error to find the best placement of the colors.
Best done by inverting the texture and then selecting the areas you want team colored. Copying that, and then pasting it into the alpha channel. I then do a 100% Alpha overlay at different opacity's to get the color I want. This method keeps the dark areas darker, and light areas lighter. Depending on the complexity of the texture this can take a decent amount of time. The selected area is also colored to a dark grey on the rgb channels.
2. Specular map, this is a subject I'm still very touchy on. While some people will argue that it is needed for Starcraft 2, I tend to disagree. For one reason only. If every asset in the map is from WoW, then you are less likely to notice the lighting on units and doodads. Yes, the will make the model look better, however adding a specular map to each model can double the amount of time spent working on the models textures and will also increase the overall size of each model. Zolden grills me about this every time and I understand why. But I add team colors to almost everything so I can't just use the alpha channel as a specular map which means I need a new separate texture.
3. Normal map, I will not and currently refuse to do this for any WoW model as it is the most complicated of them all. It requires a lot more time and effort and to do this for each model by myself would take way too long. In my opinion, it is not worth it. The only place this is worth it is with a single individual model that is meant to be used with regular Starcraft 2 models.
Animations
1. Renaming, each character model has essentially all of the same animations. However, WoW models use a different set of terms to determine what animation gets used in game. Such as Attack 1H, while Starcraft uses things like Attack Cover and Attack Inferior. This requires coming up with a system that will allow all of the WoW models to properly use all of its animations without conflicting with another. It seems like it would be something simple to do. However, through trial and error I've had to rework this multiple times due to naming conflicts. It also requires a lot of work in the actors events section.
2. Fixing bugs, whether it is the WoW Model Viewer Exporter or the M3 Import Scripts a lot of the final keyframes of animations are bugged. This requires going through each bugged animation and replacing the last keyframe with the first keyframe. In most cases this is an easy fix. However, some animations that involve the character spinning around require a little more attention and time. Character models have up to 200 animations now. There are also hundreds of other models this would have to be done for.
3. Making them Startools compatible, tedious work of adding in the name, frame range, and ordering them so they can be commited to a mod.
4. Split Body animation, I haven't touched this yet but with character models it may be something I look into.
Helpers
1. Attachment points, most WoW models come with some Attachment Points, some have none. Each model in my opinion needs several added. Using Startools every single one needs to be replaced with ones that are compatible.
2. Target volumes, not difficult but each model needs this to display damage properly.
3. Hit Tests, Tight and Fuzzy. A little more complicated than Target Volumes but still easy. This makes it so you can click on the unit or select them. Every model needs these added.
Reducing asset size
This is something I've been working on and off with. To help reduce the overall number of models required to create specific unit types I'm working on a system that will allow customization near that of WoW. This would involve being able to change armor and weapons on a model to make it look like a completely different one while changing the animations when a different weapon is in use. I believe with the sc2 editor I am limited in my choices compared to what WoW can do. With the method I'm currently using I can show and hide up to 15 different things on any given model.
WoW uses seperate textures for Chest, Shirt, Legs, Belt, Boots, Gloves, Bracers, Cloak and Tabard. Doing something like this in SC2 from what I know of is just not possible due to the limitations. However, all of those can be combined into one texture or a few separate ones. I currently have one texture per set of armor involving these body parts and a few others that can hide/show the tabard/cloak mesh. Each shoulder, helmet, weapon, and off-hand has there own texture as well. These can be used as individual models though and can be attached and removed easily with only using 1 texture.
Each WoW character also has around 5 different meshes for gloves, boots, and cloaks. The ones that aren't currently in use are hidden from sight. The models also have many different hair styles, piercings, and beards. This is way more than my current limit of 15. To get as much customization as possible I'm going to group a few of the meshes together to be shown or hidden. Here's a list of a few of the groups I'm considering.
No Armor - no armor mesh will show.
Cloth Armor - Shows the dress and sleeve mesh while hiding the legs so they don't clip through the dress mesh.
Light Armor - Shows the smallest boots and gloves mesh, generally for leather and light metal armor.
Medium Armor - Shows slightly larger than light armor mesh
Heavy Armor - Shows the biggest boots and gloves
Heavy Armor 2 - Show the larger belt mesh with the biggest boots and gloves.
I may add more variations for armor.
Body - allows the change of the armor texture
Hair - allows the showing and hiding of hair so it doesn't clip through helmet meshes.
Cloak - allows the showing and hiding of the cloak
Beard - allows the showing and hiding of beards
The Hair, Cloak, and Beard may have multiple variations and colors.
To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about. Here was my first test at doing this. This one does not include all of the other armor meshes just the light armor one. This was one Character model, with low file sized shoulders, helmet, weapons, and shield models attached. I think in the end I can have a grand total of 16 character models and their attachments to allow for a hundreds of different variations.
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@Zolden: Go
All textures are missing when I tried it online.
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@LastRavager: Go
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It's pretty simple I can just turn off the team colors and remove the specular texture. When I get home I'll upload that one.
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@Daara87: Go
Here's the mod that contains the model and textures. The max file is also included. Just giving you something to use for now. If i update it I'll post it here as well.
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Messed with the main specular a bit more this is the result. Think it's getting near completion. I also removed the normal modifier off the shoulders.
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@Daara87: Go
I went back to the normals and turned off Unified and that seemed to fix the model. However the shoulders look like shit imo.
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@Zolden: Go
The light is much better now, but the model got all fucked up when I did that.
Unified on, Invert off.
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@LastRavager: Go Sorry about the late response. I spent the weekend at my girlfriends away from my PC.
This is how it looks at the moment.
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Doing the models is easy. Getting them to the right specifications is the difficult part :P
That's why I'm asking all the questions. If I'm going to do something I only want to do it once :D
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@Zolden: Go
I knew what you meant I was just showing I could do the exact same as the concept if you wanted.
And zolden, be in the irc chat when I start working on it. I want you to give me a step by step guide on how to do it correctly.
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@LastRavager: Go
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@LastRavager: Go
Ok, a few things to note about the picture you provided.
It is just a regular orc model that uses the red colored skin. I'm not sure if that's what you want or not. You say you want the axe, shoulders, pants, boots, and axe. Some of his armor pieces don't really match. But I assume the pants and shoulders are what you want most. So I grabbed the set and put it on an actual Fel Orc model. I can add team colors to the black area on the shoulders, pants, and boots if you would like. I can also add it to the grip on the axe. Also, I can attach the axe to the hand of the model without you having to do it in the editor yourself.
Here is the preview of what I was thinking.
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What animations are looking for it to have? More animations = more file size.
Here's what I'd do for a simple model, let me know if you'd like some others. Like Spell casts, stunned, etc... I will rename them to fit with Starcraft 2.
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Do what Zolden says.
As for Thrall, there is a known glitch with some model animations after being exported from WMV and Imported into 3DS Max. The glitch will cause the last key frame of the animation to be incorrect. It will cause heads to turn, hands opening, legs, arms, and hands raising up or turning, and various other issues. MOST of the time this glitch can be fixed by simply deleting the last key frame of that animation and then Shift+Dragging the first key frame to where the last one once was.