No sir do not like the model. The armor dosent look heavy at all. The helmet dosent have the dark reaper feel (the skull look) the armor around the lower legs is much to thin (that's part of the stabilization system).
The texture is a mighty tool when you deal with games like WoW, where you have simple low-poly models and all the information is just drawn like a picture on it - clothes, overlapping pieces of armor, buttons etc., even the lighting - all is just a picture on a simple diffuse texture. A flat chest can be textured to have multilayer clothes with plenty of details, faking shapes, deceiving the eye. And you still can have general lighting in your game, some specular maps for shiny things and other stuff on top. Having a team of good artists you can create miracles with this approach. But in EC they have high-poly sculpts, all information from which in form of normal and other maps is then baked to low-poly versions of these models. And judging by the wireframe, that was shown for some Tyranid, low-poly models too are far from being perfect and could use much less polygons. But what I want to say, in this pipeline you have all the information taken from the high-poly model, and if you have plates modeled on it, you can't move them or change their shape on texture even in the slightest. You can color the model, draw some minor dents, scratches, texture, and that's all, you don't draw lighting, so you don't draw shapes. Every detail that has some visible shape must be sculpted, or else it will not have proper lighting and shadows in the final product. So in this modern approach the importance of the model is much higher, and the texture can do very little to help, when the model is not OK. But in any case, I repeat, no texture can fix silhouette or hide proportions. And as for advisor question, haha, that's funny))) I thought bE guys said they work in tight cooperation with GW, so, man, not only they have all the materials they need, they have the best and the bestest advisers at their hand, the guys who designed, and created, and advanced all this universe and races! Why would they turn to some backwater Eldar fanboi for advise?))) They have the best support there can be. What we can do is just remind them who they are making this game for) I'm not sure I'm playing this game yet, I mean I payed for it already, but will I play it if my race looks like now? No, no, of course not. And there are many other grave doubts pending, that's why I payed less then I intended first, and I'm firm not to pay more until at least the looks of my race appeals to me. And that is a very serious condition, as even the Dev-favorite Spehss Mahreens don't look right yet.
If you were given the chance would you be willing to do give some of your free time to do some no strings attached, free lance modelling work for bE? The internet is a marvellous tool for working long distance and if you are tidying up models then it's not as though they would be risking a fatal log jam in their production as they wait on a potentially unreliable free lancer. Even if they don't really need someone in an advisory position it really looks like they could use an extra hand with the modelling as nearly every model I've seen so far (except the ork) has some pretty basic problems with how they have been realised and frankly your grasp of what is needed to take these models to the next level is pretty clear. From where I stand it looks like a win - win. Now I don't want to push you into doing something you don't want to, but you really seem to care about this project so it really can't hurt to forward a brief CV outlining the tools you are familiar with and including some examples of your work. This may be the ideal time as after the founder's/cash shop launch/debacle they're most likely looking to claw back some good feeling from the community, not to mention having extra cash to use, though being willing to work for peanuts and the betterment of a game you care about should help.
The more you learn about things the wiser you become. Thanks for explaining! Now I feel a much more enlightened than I was minutes ago. I feel all warm and cuddly now.
You are totally right, but there are some troubles with this.. First, nearly as you said, I doubt any company would do such thing as giving the models in production to some third hands, no matter what those hands are. You can't rely with such things, they go only through proper direct or outsource hiring, NDA etc. The only other way the guys like me can participate, is writing and drawing feedbacks on forums, like I do))) The second, no matter how I want EC to be a great game (actually I just want a great 40K game with proper races and gameplay, and EC is the closest so far), I wouldn't take any obligations to do stuff for it. I just don't have no time or strength for that, I work full-time and the rest of time I have my hands full with many promises and different projects, the one I'm pushing now also concerns Eldar. I was confused with the Dire Avenger model, but had no time to say anything, it took me see the Dark Reaper model to stop everything else and make a feedback. And the third, I'm not that good with all this stuff. Yes, I can do it all, but some things like modelling take me longer than needed for production, as I practice it too rarely. I mostly draw concepts, sometimes sculpt, and have a good background in texturing. But I do see a long way ahead before I'm content with my skills) Nevertheless, believe me, if I liked my job a little less than I do, I would already have been long spamming bE with my CVs, fanarts and what not to get into their team no matter the cost. I would even go to Canada or wherever)
No worries fella, I completely understand. Let's just hope bE is really paying attention to what the fans are saying. I should also say that it really helps having a visual reference based on the current WIP models to show areas that can be improved rather than just listing the areas that look wrong - as you said a picture is worth a thousand words.
great edit So'kiel. omg those old ones look like saturday morning cartoons. seriously hope they fix it up.
