MC2: Season 2 model thread.

Master Contest 2 [MC2] - Official

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What is the Master Contest?
MC2 is a Warcraft-related art competition run on several levels. The competition has seasons which each follow a theme, such as 'Night Elves'. Each season is split into 3 main stages; concept, modelling, and skinning. Each stage lasts 1 month. So a season should last 3 months. However, a new season is borne with the completion of the previous season's concept phase.

Stage 1, Conception requires participating artists to create 2d art of a unique unit. Multiple images may be entered to offer different perspectives and detail to the unit, and a small (500 words max) text suppliment may also be entered. You should not enter statistics, but rather information concerning the unit's background and characteristics.

Concept entries will be rated on:

[1-3]Relevance to theme and uniqueness.
[1-4]Concept information, including background, name, abilities.
[1-5]Quality use of colour, shading/light and texture.
[1-10]Quality of Drawing, and overall composition.

Total: 4 - 22 (2-7 for theory, 2-15 for art)
So, to attempt points in all areas, provide a detailed colour image, with a short bio. Bear in mind that entries that are blatantly unrelated to a theme will be ignored (ie, anything from a different season or opposing race - PM me if unsure).

The top 3 rated concepts will be rated gold, silver, bronze and proceed to stage 2.

Stage 2, Modelling poses the task of creating an animated 3d model of one of the three concept winners. Models should be low poly (within 50% of Blizzard's reccomended poly budgets | Approx - 1200 for heroes, 800 for elite, 600 for core units). Modellers must produce a UVW with their model, but will not be marked on it.

Models will be rated on:

[1-3]Use of polygons
[1-5]Animation
[1-10]Mesh construction
[1-4]Accuracy to concept

Total 4-22 (2-7 for relevance, 2-15 for art)

The top rated model for each of the three concepts will be awarded gold, silver, bronze by rating. Any tie of rating will put the higher ranked concept above the lower, proceeding to stage 3.

Stage 3, Skinning presents up to 3 models to be textured. Skinners are free to rewrap the model's meshes to aid their texturing as they see fit. Skins may not exceed 512x512 size, with the exception of large units that may use 1024x512 textures.

Skinning will be rated on:

[1-3]Etiquette (small skin, quality of screenshots, team colour)
[1-4]Relevance to concept art
[1-10]Overall quality, composition and consistancy of skin
[1-5]Use of shading, texture and colours.

Total 4-22 (2-7 for relevance, 2-15 for art)

1st: DOOM MAIDEN
By Candy_Warlock




History:
The Nathrezim are a sophisticated race even though their foes cannot see it. They have many traditions and social classes. They have similar emotions to mankind except they show it in a more rational way. Greed, jealousy, conspiracy and corruption are words that best describe this demonic kin. The Doom Maiden Order make it far back when the Nathrezim were not part of the Burning Legion yet. They played important role in the political battlefield and the fight for power among leading Dreadlords. These Doom Maidens acted as assassins and were used by Dreadlords to seduce others and learn more of their plans. They were the only cast of females not to marry. When the power struggle was near its end, the arrival of the Titan Sargeras created great confusion and mayhem. The Nathrezim united to battle their common foe and failed inevitably to his great power. Luckily, they didn't disappear for Sargeras's soul was corrupted and they pledged their loyalty to him. While the Dreadlords were sent to the far places of the Universe to corrupt, the Doom Maidens waited longing for battle and souls to seduce and destroy. Having heard of the Nerzhul's re-empowerment and Archimonde's failure, Sargeras decided it was time to attempt to conquer this resistant world and consume its magic once and for all. The Doom Maidens were called forth to execute their duty.
Info:
The Doom Maidens are weak compared to their male counterpart, even though they both have a battle constitution. However, the Doom Maidens exceed in speed and cunning and have the ability to fly a longer distance than the Dreadlords who are encumbered with heavy armor. These maidens are specialized in rapid attacks against spell-casters for the Burning Legion is primarily bent on magic-consuming.
Researches:
Doom Maiden – Training: This research grants the Doom Maiden the distrust ability and makes her spell immune. It should have a moderate cost.
Abilities:
Fly: The Doom Maiden lifts off the grounds and reaches and lands to the selected place, this ability doesn't cost any mana and has a short cooldown, the unit is invulnerable and cannot attack nor cast spells while flying to the selected location, the spell range should be the same as blink but its not as good since it takes time to reach destination and opponents see the direction of the flight.
Mana Leak(auto-cast): Target unit enemy spell, the unit loses 20 and the Doom Maiden gains 10mana. Fast cool-down, mana cost: around 30. The enemy spellcaster loses his spiritual energy as if some one made a hole in his mind and all of his energy is flowing out of him.
Corrupt: Target unit enemy spell, the unit gains +20% attack bonus and is neutral hostile for 15secs, costs 200mana, long cool-down, cannot target heroes.
Unit:
Hp: Low Tier 2: Anti-caster unit
Attack Damage: High Attack Speed: High Attack Rating: Medium
Armor: Medium Speed: Fast Movement type: Run
Attack type: Chaos, melee
Strategies:
If used in conjunction with felhounds the combination is downright lethal for enemy casters. The felhounds will use their Mana Burn and the casters will get the time to cast a couple of spells and that's when experience players will bring in the Doom Maidens really fast to chop them into pieces. Doom Maidens are very weak and cannot attack air so ranged units and air units are your worst enemy. For ranged ground units like archers and headhunters, using flight to get to them can be devastating but is less efficient against huntresses. When in team games, having protective auras is always good to compensate the low hp of the Doom Maidens. If a Shadow Hunter from an ally can use his ultimate, then your opponents are toast if you have a bunch of Doom Maidens on your side because they do massive damage at a fast pace destroying bases really fast. Heavy melee units are always hard so use Corrupt on them and use Fly to go away and let your opponent fight his own troops. Be careful of hero damaging spells (Frost Nova, Chain Lightning, Carrion Swarm, Thunderclap, Blizzard, etc.) because those spells are very dangerous to your maidens because of their low hp. If you are facing this situation quickly retreat or fly to the hero and concentrate on him, your maidens will drain his mana and he'll have to teleport or try to run away or bring his troops back to him, which is a not so good decision since you'll just fly to a safe location and run away. The Doom Maiden is not to be used by new players or players that cannot micro troops well in big battles but if used correctly, they can win the game.
Comment:
Ehh… what a long text… anyhow the history isn't too good. I hope it changed your mind if you thought it was a dread lord female rip-off cuz I actually put time into it to make it similar and wc3-ish and yet original and different. I wasn't aiming for something really far-fetched that wouldn't fit in the daemon theme even if was evil-looking. It was fun drawing the character; I really loved the colored pic's pose. I chose to color that one since it was easier and cooler; the other one is more to show the full body view. Enjoy! ^^b

2nd:DREADNAUGHT
By Moon_Lunatic



The Dranei were long enemies of the Dreadnaught, fighting on Outland for ages long forgotten. The Dreadnaught were named so because of their desire to fight no matter the odds. An old Far Seer had seen these Dreadnaughts fight in his visions. Belonging to the Burning Legion, the Far Seer wanted; needed the power of the Dreadnaughts to fight for him. The Far Seer had many enemies he wished to crush. He quickly hired builders to build an underwater portal that stood a mile away from the Maelstrom; the Far Seer was wise in his choosing. Only every 10,000 years did the tide come in on the spot where he laid the portal. Ritual after ritual the portal grew stronger until it could bear the weight of the two worlds and bind them as one. The Seer had talked to these Dreadnaughts in their dreams, and laid the taint upon them. Only being able to obey the Dreadnaughts righteously came to the gate. Escort ships were standing ready and the crew revered these new warriors fearfully. Only a few minutes later had the waters again sealed the access to the portal. 10,000 years later the tides blow away once again, and all the Dreadnaughts were trapped in the void awaiting their chance to rise from the waters again and serve the Burning Legion. When coming out of the portal, there was but one ship waiting, the ship that held the line of ancestors to the Far Seer, who had waited for so long to release the power of the Dreadnaughts again.

Charge: The Dreadnaught charges forward dealing damage to any who are in his path. Think shockwave, but him being the shockwave.
Fear: The mere presence of the Dreadnaught sends some scrambling away in fear.
Last guard: Once the Dreadnaughts health becomes lower than 25% his defense increases by 50%, health regenerates 10% faster.
Taint: Tainted by the Burning Legion, the Dreadnaught is invulnerable to mind effecting spells.

3rd: HORROR
By Muoteck



A blank space, a wonder,
A worry, a daily reminder,
Of what we are.
Thing.
Unproved.
Untested.
Udiscovered.
Until it strikes.

No one knows from which squalid world thece cursed creatures came from. They are rarely seen and nobody survived meeting with it. When they appear on the battlefield, they bring fear to the hearts of even most fierce warriors. Some says that these monstrosities have no soul. That could be truth, as things they can do with their opponents terrify even demonic hordes. They stop before nothing. They respect no one. They do not know fear. Surounded by horrifying stories and legends. I've seen one. Only one. And I do not want to see more, even though I've seen it from behind keep's walls.
Horrors are one of the most deadly demonic creatures. They said to be feeding on terror they cause, so they constantly search for new prey. I have to add they feed as well on fallen beings surrounding them. Some say that they saw poeple dying from frighten. Some say that these creatures can create illusions of target's greatest, the most concealed fear. Some say they can't be killed. I doubt we'll reveal some of mysteries around them soon. I doubt there will be people so stupid to try research it.

Allenberg and Vicarde, "Demonology"

Horror, tier 3 heavy melee.
Demonic leviathans, surrounded by aura of fear. Slow and heavy armored, they are one of the best first-line fighters.

Attack: melee, ground
Slow movement
Spells and abilities:
- Hardened skin (innate passive) - reduces damage suffered.
- Resistant skin (upgrade passive) - reduces damage taken from magic attacks
- Terror (upgrade aura) - Horrors are surrounded by aura of fear. Every nearby creature (enemy and allied) has slightly reduced damage, speed, attack rate and defense. Living creatures have some % chance of dying from fear.
- True sight (innate passive) - reveals nearby invisible units

Begin Modeling.

And Sticky Please!

I guess I'll try to do the dread knight now since I've nothing better to do.
The doom maiden looks too hard to do ;p.

Sorry for the double post, but here's it so far.

You are awesome!

I love how accurate it is.

I dont have much but I thought since I had a question too I could pimp a little bit of my maiden so far.

When is the due date? Im sorry if its in the thread somewhere and i just missed it...

Progress:

Looks good so far but a few things i would go over (i hope you dont mind):
1. The lance could be longer to give it more of a powerful deadly spike look like in the concept.
2. The feet, really dont fit the concept you can use the same number of polys and still fix that alot.
3. the spike on his shoulder looks a little blunt on your model, try welding the verts at the end of it. That will save some polys too.
4. Try differentiating the shoulder pads like in the concept this could also save you some polys.
5. the tail looks like it could be alot longer and from what i can tell, have more loops so it will move smoothly for animations.
6. the head looks a little off, there are quite a few polys in there that wont add to the overall shape from a distance, but if you do keep the polys put them to use.

besides other small optimizations everything looks good, keep up the awesome work!

I have 4 questions:
- is this stage over?
- anyone can enter?
- can there be more than 2 models for the same concept?(for example, if someone starts modeling the Horror, can someone else model it too?)
- can someone who had done something for a stage of the competition do something for another stage?(for example, if I do a model and the model moves to the next stage, whitch is skinning, will I be allowed to skin it?)

im might do the doom maiden or the draead kingt

aaaahhh!!! thread necromancer alert!!!