If you know anything about me, one of the things you know is probably that I don’t play MMOs. It’s not a matter of taste, though. It’s more like I just haven’t been able to get into any of them and that I probably wouldn’t have the time to play the way those games need you to play them. That said, I did play Warcraft 3, and I loved it. Not only did I think the game was amazing, but I also fell in love with the artwork and design. In all honestly, if I ever got to produce some artwork for Blizzard, it’d be a dream come true for me.
During last year’s COMMISSIONATHLON, most of the commissioned artwork I was working on was for people’s World of Warcraft characters. Faced with each individual character’s description, I’d look up the actual armor pieces on the WoW website and try my best to draw each piece accordingly. It wasn’t exactly my dream of working as an artist for Blizzard, but it was close at least in terms of what I’d have to draw so I enjoyed it tremendously. But still, the armor took a bit of getting used to. For me, it’s not a matter of practicality, it’s a matter of design. Big, huge, bulky, over-the-top armor sets are just and essential part of the Blizzard Style, and that’s just fine. But along the way, as I studied the armor sets and worked them into my own artwork I had to admit it sometimes became difficult to imagine how it was that those things actually worked.
If you look at the design for Dwarf ever since we started this new storyline, you’ll see that I gave him bigger shoulder pieces – and they have been hell to work with. They’re just too big and I like to move my characters around just too much. Every time Dwarf raises his arms, it’s a problem. I seriously can’t imagine what it would be like if I started drawing an armor set on him like the one portrayed in today’s comic. He does actually look unmovable, which is probably appropriate for his characters – but he also looks like you could tip him over and he wouldn’t be able to get up. Heck, I’ve read that medieval knights in full armor couldn’t get up if they fell, and their armor wasn’t even half as bulky.
Both Dwarf and Weretiger’s armor designs in today’s comic are based on actual WoW high-level armor sets that I saw on their website. In Dwarf case I checked out warrior set for dwarves and in Weretiger’s case I checked out hunter sets for Nightelves. I modified somethings though, because due to some of the graphic limitations of the game there’s a lot of parts in the armor that end up looking weird and as if they had just printed armor on some clothes, but other than that it’s not really all that difficult to look at the sets and see which ones I based them off of.
In any case, I still enjoyed drawing the armor a lot. And I still wish (upon a star) that I could draw for Blizzard some day. So I truly hope that I get plenty of WoW characters to draw in my commissions during this year’s COMMISSIONATHLON (in a couple of weeks). But that doesn’t mean that a part of me won’t still be chuckling at how ultimately unpractical they are.
Good hunting;
O
Dwarf looks awesome though =P
But I guess it would take ages to draw that in every strip, hehe.
Most armour in games usually looks more ornamental than practical…
I must admit though, dwarf looks sort of awesome in his. =P
…except for the fact that it looks like he would have trouble breathing…
Tail armor for the win
But a Tauren (?) head on each of Dwarf’s shoulders is a nice touch too.
i hate to fight in that armor
Weretiger – he has both eyes in this strip. Where is his eye-patch?
lol I must agree with Lurid. Though a lot of that armor looks awesome in games, they dont seem to have much of a practical look about em. I also wonder when I log into WoW every 6 months or so, how a warrior in 600 lbs of armor can swim…
@eyescream: I think that is just a Ram since the horns curve in a spiral and have the ridges in the lower half.
I thought Rangers only had proficiency in light armours? Did Weretiger take Armor Proficiency (heavy) as a feat or something?
Weretiger is so screwed. Again.
Dwarf – He looks like a dwarf should: Unmovable, able to take anything and smash apart what comes his way with his fists (though a heck of a good weapon is recommended for this part. Might not be a very mobile dwarf, but when was a mountain meant for moving?
Weretiger – Fail. Rather epicly, at that. Even in WoW, Hunters only get to wear up to mail armour (and begin with leather)…and that looks rather like plate.
Will be interesting to see if our Elf decides to take a new look for himself as well – though I suppose him being able to find a shop that would sell to him with -that- hand would be pretty near difficult, just a few lengths from imposible.
@ FreakUnique: haven’t you seen what a Tier 3 armor for Hunters looks like in WoW? Well, kinda what Weretiger is wearing.
I had the same reflection as Weretiger… Though those armors are supposed to be leather and chainmails, but I can’t see how they could be.
Nice work, O… Let’s just hope Dwarf will not disguise himself as a tower for the rest of the storyline :p
hahaha O ,good looking indeed
I like the armored tail…
@KekPafrany : It’s amazing that I didn’t noticed that – thanks for pointing it out! Fixed!
heres tip how you can draw for Blizzard:
make the armor into superhero spandex, no super awesome plates over another plate, just plain old skin tights and make the armor painted over that, something like spiderman has
thats what they are doing
You should have added a spike to the eyepatch just because… I mean, to keep it in tone with the rest of the set.
That’s one of the things I like about dark fantasy settings, as it tends to be a little more realistic and practical in the designs of the weapons and armor (an even in the nature of magic, if you can talk abour “realism” there), pretty different from the high-fantasy cliches of oversized pauldrons, lots of spikes and multi-pronged swords that in real llife would only get stuck in every place you could possibly imagine.
I love Demon’s Souls and The Witcher precisely for that, not a lot of flashy stuff, just some things you feel that could actually work.
I am not really a fan of the WoW style. There’s an interview with the John Howe on the Extended Version DVD of LoTR: The Fellowship in which he argues that the look of a weapon or armor should follow the function. Although it don’t like some of the designs in LotR (e.g. Boromir’s sword) most are really great (the witch king’s sword, Theoden’s armor, Arwen’s sword, etc.). I really hate those over the top spikey fantasy swords (just google “fantasy sword”…) that look like they will break any second or will hurt you more than the enemy. I do like some ornament on swords but more is less here…
P.S.: I just noticed – Age of Conan has some nice armor designs!
So I’m the first one to comment that I hope Perky gets into the WoW armor thing, and we get a wallpaper with her in a full Black Mageweave set (Vest and leggings, not robe) But that’s because I’m just like that….. I would love a wallpaper showing the whole group in overexagerated WoW armor
The weight of medieval armor is largely a myth. You may have heard that knights in full armor required a crane to get onto their horses? Yeah, Mark Twain made that up out of whole cloth. You can even swim in plate armor if you’re in good enough shape (with difficulty of course), and the total amount of gear modern soldiers have to lug around is typically both heavier and less evenly distributed. Though it should be noted that jousting armor was much heavier than regular armor, still not enough to necessitate a crane but enough to make it unfit for actual combat.
As for “realism”, I’m not a stickler for it in most cases. Swords, however, had better look sharp and well-balanced. I’m not a fan of the “made entirely of spikes” look, nor the swords clearly designed for storm giants being used by regular people.
“Heck, I’ve read that medieval knights in full armor couldn’t get up if they fell, and their armor wasn’t even half as bulky.”
Here I come to makes things right – thats actually pretty common myth. All of the armors used in actual battle were light and allowed lot of movement (Light as in 15 – 20 kilos light). As the time passed, armors offered more protection, and whats more, they were even lighter and less limiting for user. Knights could not only get up after falling, they could even tumble.
Those silly stories of knights lying on their backs, helpless like little turtles flipped upside-down originated from armors used on tournaments, particularly the ones utilizing lances. They were in fact so heavy and limiting that it required using miniature crane to even get a knight mounted. Helmets were fixed to breastplate, to protect head from massive force of a striking lance – otherwise even if the armor wasn’t pierced, impact would tore the head apart from body.
Thus, normal armors weren’t so encumbering and have as people use to think – they were designed to spread the weight across whole body, and allow full mobility of limbs.
Sorry for my English, I haven’t used it for a while and I forgot how to make sentences that actually make sense and/or are understandable. Hope you got the message
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As a nerd i feel i must point out that in most roleplaying games (not sure which one you play) dwarves do not recieve any movement or speed penelties from their armor regardless of weight (its a racial trait).
well done!
(back from expo con to read your comics 8D)
Tail armor for the win! Would it be amazing if in todays world, people actually dressed this way?
Silly WoW armour! Like elf’s face in the last panel. You should check out DDO, O. It’s free to play now and is very closely modeled on the 3.5 system.
If’n I can muster the wherewithal to get a toon in on the Commissionathlon, I’ll introduce you to the sexxy practicality of Everquest 2 armor. Sure, we’ve got some goofy stuff, but most of it could reasonably be worn by a person and remain functional.
I’ve always thought hunters in WoW looked more like transformers than hunters. Awesome comic, as always. Looking forward to this years ‘thlon. Still lovin’ mine from last year http://www.flickr.com/photos/23937505@N05/4657285965/
I don’t know if it’s been said… way too many comments to read… but is it just me or does the outline on Elf just look… I dunno, off. It doesn’t seem to fit. With the computer colored panels, it’s fine, but with the water color, or maybe just this particular instance, it looks weird.
Mediveal plate armour wasn’t all that bulky. Of course infantry plate armour was lighter than calvalary armour. While 35kg might sound like much, it was actualy pretty well distributed weight. And suprisingly agile. You might not be able to do 60 or 100m sprint with obstacles but then again you don’t need to. I did some fencing practice against someone with infantry plate armour and… ok here I have to admit I’m no master swordfighter (neither was my sparring partner un the armour)… I couldn’t defeat him. It wasn’t for my lack of skill, but his ability to counter my attempts despite the armour.
Even the jousting armours werent that horibbly heavy (even if they were more rigid. Helmet wasn’t fixed to the chest piece, in any permanent maner, but it had a special mount sometimes, sometimes they used normal helmets. They did have however an extra attachable (extra thick) piece on chest piece, that did protect neck and lower part of wearers head as well (had a protrouding piece). It wasn’t the armour that imobilised the jousters as much as being hit by a lance and falling off the horse did (danger of back injury – remember Christopher Reeve fell off a horse and lost the use of at least lower part of his body as result). Besides lances were made to brake on impact. The goal was to break the lance on opponent without falling yourself off of the horse.
If only you had female characters, you wouldn’t have to spend nearly as much time drawing armor
Medieval knights didn’t wear plate mail. “Kingdom of heaven” actually got that right – they were using chainmail at those times. Plate mail came later – during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. And knights in plate armour were able to do gymnastic stunts (well, not for any prolonged periods of time, but they did practice things like handstands and tumbling). And if you fall off the back of a horse wearing several tens of kilograms of iron you’d be in such a shock from the impact alone that you may really lay immobile for up to a few minutes.
It wasn’t that hard to get up as seen in this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMuNXWFPewg
I agree that the blow that would unhorse the knight might be stunning, but getting up, No problem.
Plate parts started to be used over the chain mail during medieval times (14th cent.), but the true plates came during the renaissance.
Another great comic O.
Slightly off topic though: will there be an official opening for Commissionathlon requests?
@SeventhRealm: Next Monday!
Well, about the knights O, they could stand up even in full plate but it required some work. To stand up from a prone possition in full plate you need to turn face-down and with the help of ankles and then hands, with support or without, rise to kneeling posture, then, from kneeling you could stand up. But no, standing from face-up was impossible and still is impossible because you cannot move your stomach muscles in a breastplate.
Kingdom of heaven was set in 12c. when chainmail was indeed the armour of choice. However middle ages end in 1495 over 350 years later, and by then they did allready have the plate armour. Also platemail is wrong. Only chainmail is a mail, other types are just armour. Victorian age error.
Isn’t the right spike misplaced on Dwarf’s armor ? Shouldn’t it be on his shoulderpad ?
The one that is around his right (well, his left, from his point of view) nipple.
You should ask this guy how hard it is to move. He went and actually got one of those armors made professionally.
http://www.tankspot.com/showthread.php?47133-Real-Life-Onslaught-Armor…/page9
Eh, needs some weird colors, like pink and yellow. THEN it’s WoW armor.
And is it just me, or does anyone else think of Vision of Escaflowne in the last panel?