Thank you for posting this guide, although I've stopped playing WoW, I would have loved to immortalize my druid with a 3D figurine. I think there was a service for this a long time ago but I think the cost for the size was the reason why I didn't buy it. Do you have any advice on how to paint a figurine? For some reason Warhammer 40k has been popping up on my YouTube feed and I've been watching a lot of Warhammer figurine videos. It seems like you need a lot of specialized brushes and skill to make it look nice.
Don't overthink painting figures too much- it's the type of hobby where you start off with a few paints and some cheap brushes, then go through a journeyman phase of tons of specialized paints, brushes, tools, etc, then run into a real master who uses a few paints and some cheap brushes.
Basically, just start by trying to get color onto the right part of the figure, then watch some videos on how to use shades and highlights to add depth and texture. Play with the different techniques, buy some specific brushes or tools to make those techniques easier or more consistent, ditch the techniques that don't seem to work for you.
Look for 'Sonic Sledgehammer' on youtube for a good way to start, at least for Warhammer sized figures. His focus is for people who need to paint a bunch of figures in something of a hurry, but that means you can get a decent looking individual figure in an evening, which is encouraging. He'll usually call out optional extra steps to add more depth or detail, which gives you a good idea of how more advanced techniques work when you're ready.
> I think there was a service for this a long time ago but I think the cost for the size was the reason why I didn't buy it.
There was: apparently it was in 2007, and a 1:18/4-inch figure cost $99. (thank you, Google time range filters)
> Our servers grab your latest character data from the Blizzard Armory, create a custom 3D model, and then let you pose it any way you like. Once you are happy with the way it looks you simply hit “Print” and our proprietary software prepares the model for printing. A trained artist gives your custom sculpture a final inspection before sending it electronically to our printing facility. From there your FigurePrint is printed and shipped directly to your home
> Do you have any advice on how to paint a figurine?
One or two "Army Painter" brushes will do you fine.
Thin paints a little as you work, the paints in the bottles are a little thick.
Paint a base coat layer, wash a darker color over that layer, drybrush a lighter highlight over that layer and you'll be 90% of the way there. From that point, it's just practice and adding skills.
I was going to post this. Would have to log in once again to make sure to equip my favorite set (which was not Judgement it was paladin 10 man Ulduar!) and weapon. Kinda sad these sets are very well poly.
Similar situation with High Alagan Coat of Healing on FFIXV.
I never played Guild Wars, but I would've definitely loved to do something like this for my Diablo 2 character, or Phantasy Star Online character, or any number of ones I put hundreds of hours into.
This is great, I hope some people pick it up and can make a business out of it. There's a few on e.g. Etsy that offer a service to turn game characters into 3D models.
The raw vertex data for the character probably has them in a fixed T-pose, which isn't what you want either. If the engine does skinning in the vertex shader then you'd need to capture the output of that to easily get the actual pose, but perspective is applied at the same time, and you'd need to do some digging to find the matrix to undo that. Newer engines tend to do skinning in a compute shader and write the posed vertices out to memory instead but GW2 is probably too old to be doing that.
Presumably, the model, the bone values and the projection matrix are all passed to the draw calls being examined.
You're right that its perhaps easier to eyeball the final verts than attempting to reverse-engineer the skinning setup but I would be surprised if it was all that much effort to find the projection matrix and apply the inverse to the final verts. Well, perhaps a process improvement for anyone so inclined to do the digging.
GW2 utilizes GW1 engine with few modifications - Havok was used to provide 3d rag-doll animations. Over last 12 years they did all sorts of small upgrades pushing a little bit into modern times - 64bit client was released (or rather had to be) and they moved from DX9 to DX11
oh wow this looks great and thank you for the guide. Haven't played GW2 in over a decade but I do think about my time playing it every now and then. Made a lot of friends and great memories. Will have to login and see if any of them are still playing. Would be cool to print their characters too.
Basically, just start by trying to get color onto the right part of the figure, then watch some videos on how to use shades and highlights to add depth and texture. Play with the different techniques, buy some specific brushes or tools to make those techniques easier or more consistent, ditch the techniques that don't seem to work for you.
Look for 'Sonic Sledgehammer' on youtube for a good way to start, at least for Warhammer sized figures. His focus is for people who need to paint a bunch of figures in something of a hurry, but that means you can get a decent looking individual figure in an evening, which is encouraging. He'll usually call out optional extra steps to add more depth or detail, which gives you a good idea of how more advanced techniques work when you're ready.
There was: apparently it was in 2007, and a 1:18/4-inch figure cost $99. (thank you, Google time range filters)
> Our servers grab your latest character data from the Blizzard Armory, create a custom 3D model, and then let you pose it any way you like. Once you are happy with the way it looks you simply hit “Print” and our proprietary software prepares the model for printing. A trained artist gives your custom sculpture a final inspection before sending it electronically to our printing facility. From there your FigurePrint is printed and shipped directly to your home
https://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/world_of_warcraft_...
Rock Band 2 had this too https://i.imgur.com/cgpJWHg.jpg (Not my photo as I was also too poor in 2008 lol)
edit: Relevant PA
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/31/the-ungift-par...
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/01/02/the-ungift-par...
One or two "Army Painter" brushes will do you fine.
Thin paints a little as you work, the paints in the bottles are a little thick.
Paint a base coat layer, wash a darker color over that layer, drybrush a lighter highlight over that layer and you'll be 90% of the way there. From that point, it's just practice and adding skills.
Similar situation with High Alagan Coat of Healing on FFIXV.
Officially supported player character printing service would be much more interesting than all merchandise Arena sold over the years
You're right that its perhaps easier to eyeball the final verts than attempting to reverse-engineer the skinning setup but I would be surprised if it was all that much effort to find the projection matrix and apply the inverse to the final verts. Well, perhaps a process improvement for anyone so inclined to do the digging.