(Request) 🐼 Pandaren Model "Tweaks"

Community General Discussion
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I already know I am going to get a lot of hate from this but Pandaren make me happy, I love them and so I am going to fight for them, that being said I will begin.

With the rest of the main playable races getting their much needed model updates, the Worgen and Goblins being on the PTR as I type this, I was hoping that Pandaren could be looked at next? By no means am I suggesting a massive revamp like the rest of the races, I am just suggesting a few tweeks to help bring them up on par with the rest of the races. The first part of this is going to focus on the male Pandaren, I do not play the females so anything that needs to be changed about them I do not notice, so if anyone would post below suggestions for the female Pandaren I will add it to the main post.

Male Pandaren

  • Eyes

Male Pandaren eyes are severely lacking, they lack the detail, “life” and “light” that the rest of the races have after their updates.

When comparing their eyes to the other races they look vastly different, like a
different style even. Even when compared to the other two “animal” like races.

When we look at Lord Zhu in the cinematic using tweeked character models,
they added a glow which even if it was minor brought so much more life into
the eyes and brought them closer to what we see Chen using in the MoP
cinematic.

The eyes are really my only major concern but I will continue on with other
issues that could use some tweeks.

  • Facial Hair
    First and foremost I believe Pandaren could use a bit of updating on their hair
    and facial hair textures, it too is lacking compared to the rest of races, however
    their body fur textures are on par with the Tauren so those are great.

The next issue is one that not only effects Pandaren but effects a lot of other races and this is to free “Eyebrows” from the facial hair options. Currently if you
want a Pandaren without facial hair you have to for some reason shave off your eyebrows.

I do not know if this is a system limitation but by using the model viewer you are able to get some nice options. You can even add eyebrows to the facial hairs that lacked them.

Also once again I also believe eye color should be separated from the faces, this also effects the rest of the races in terms of customization. Once again I do not know if this is also a limit of the engine.

  • Hand Textures

The Pandaren hand textures… are a real mess? I don’t even know what this is.

You can’t really tell when the claw ends and when the rest begins. I think some minor tweeks and updating of the fur, and color changes can greatly improve this. Here is an example of the recent worgen claws.

Whelp that is all I have! Thanks for reading! If anyone else has any other suggestions especially ones for the Female Pandaren let me know down below. Let’s do our best to fight for this!

For Pandaria!

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Try making a male or female pandaren in the character creator and then just scroll through all the facial options.

Notice they’re all making the exact same expression? Like, the exact same expression?

That’s one thing I’d like to see changed.

Also, great work you’ve put into this thread!

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Was gonna add this. Facial markings we can control, faces… not at all.

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You are not alone in this fight my brother, FOR PANDARIA !!!

If they could change ours eyes, it could be really nice !

Mojo Summerheart

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You shouldn’t get hate for liking something others may not. I am sorry that you feel that way, I know how toxic some players can come off as :confused:

So, the whole reason the models are getting updated is to bring them in line with Pandaren and just how much more expressive they were than the older models. I wouldn’t say “never” but I wouldn’t expect it any time soon tbh.

However, as others have pointed out though, would be nice to see more “face” options for Pandaren and I feel like you have a fair point about the eyes. They are a bit… dull… and lack the sheen the other races have.

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Damn, this is surprisingly wholesome. I actually feel for you, man.

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They need to be tweeked out of existence in my opinion. One dumb looking race.

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Nice post OP

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Where is this stated? I believe all the other new models came in/right before WoD. After this next patch, Pandaren will be the oldest model.

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It’s more implied than anything else, but there’s a great deal of truth to it. MoP was basically the first time the devs had the opportunity to fiddle with more complex skeletons and animation rigging. How do we know this? Because pandaren, due to being the most intricate playable models at the time, were the only playable race that was capable of various facial emotions.

That’s effectively what the old models have been updated to include. take a look at the worgen models on live; they’re incapable of doing anything aside from just opening and closing their jaws. Female worgen have an ugly looking snarl painted on their face. Now look at the PTR and start fidding with emote animations and you see a huge difference. Take a look at videos of the old models for all the other races and you see that’s how everything used to be built. Mouths just opened and closed, and that’s all you ever got when it came to “emotion.”

Most of the problems pandaren have aren’t related to their rigging at all, which has remained pretty solid and has likely served as the baseline for comparison when it came to updating all the other old models in WoD and beyond. The dull eye color and the blocky hands are texture issues.

The fact that they all have the same face, on the other hand, would require slight rigging tweaks to create additional variations, and that’s probably what would have a rather low chance of being fixed anytime soon.

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Blizzcon 2013 Art of World of Warcraft panel, they mention specifically that MoP’s Pandaren was pushing the WoW engine as far as they could in terms of Player Model detail and animation and that is the bar they set for these model updates.

(Video should start at 10:36 automatically but if not that is where I suggest starting to jump straight to it. 14:22 is another point of interest and they go into talking about how the goal was the bring the character models in line with the Pandaren in terms of quality.)

The player model updates, as a whole, were to bring the other races in line with the Pandaren in terms of detail and expressiveness. Worgen and Goblins were planned at one point for 2014 but for whatever reasons (I assumed it was diversion of resources because of how bad WoD was doing) they got pushed back… a good while…

You can read up more about the whole process and history over here–

There are also archives of the Artcraft posts and then interviews. There was statement (the one I was looking for specifically but am having trouble finding it) where they much more blatantly state that the character model updates were to bring the other races in line with Pandaren but the above video basically states the same thing.

PS - Blizzard, I really wish you would OFFICIALLY archive your Blizzcon stuff, interviews, and art crafts… History should be preserved and its rough having to search for unofficial archives when trying to find sources of information :confused: Kinda a bummer that to see a lot of the old art craft posts you have to go through the way back machine website.

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Although I am content with how this fella looks, I am never against more customization!

Due to the helm he wears, I rarely see his hair or eyes, but more options are always, always a good thing.

I do agree about the hands though, more texture to them would be good.

And I’m glad you didn’t mention tails, it baffles me when people ask for larger or longer tails for them. :smiley:

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I really like Pandaren models but we really suffer from “same face” syndrome. Regardless of what face markings you choose, every Pandaren looks like the same person.

I would like more hairstyles. Tbh I kind of dislike most of the female hair selection. It would be nice if they had less buns/tied up hair and more that was longer and goes down.

Regardless, Pandaren are still the best race to play. :smile::smile:

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Would love some pandaren heritage armor

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Just posting to support this. I am never against more customization especially for Pandaren :). Now…lets get those wandering isle sets as xmog!!

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Agree with OP. I also wish we had a somewhat skinnier body option):

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I support this post!

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To be fair, I think this is less of an animation and “expressiveness” issue as it is texture and detail. Things like textures for Pandaren hands or making some variation in face appearance isn’t the same as animation. Personally, I like the expressiveness in Pandaren animation and facial expressions, but I really agree that there isn’t much diversity in how Pandaren can actually look.

Also, Jadepaw fistbump to Taran :wink:

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The hands rarely bothered me since I wear gloves, but i agree that the texture could use some change.

For the face… Im not sure how to put it but, you can make a different feel of the face sometimes. Like my rogue looks really youthful and keen but my mage just looks old and wisened? The head xmog makes a huge play here too I guess.

But overall, probably need very minor changes, except the normal running animation, too much bounce that is making people quite upset (like male worgen currently, lucky they fixed that)

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Theses changes would be great!

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