Unit Pictures

[Shadow Archon]

I think it is, the similarities between the bridge hologram on the ark and the shuttle model are less than some other model differences for the same unit.

Well, the bridge hologram clearly contradicts with the artwork anyways, and tries to fit with the map, when the map itself contradicts the width/length dimensions the hologram has.

The game model and the artwork are much more consistent.

Besides, the docking bay description says it houses "Specialized Ark Shuttles".

That's where that name was from. Thanks! *To the Wiki*

[Robear]

I always thought they were the same. To be honest I didn't put a ton of time or efort into trying to estimate a size, I just wanted it to be big enough for a few hatcheries to fit inside. At the time I wasn't sure if the small blue dots on the loading screen artwork were intended to be windows or just glowing areas, and I just wanted to be done with all the HotS units (iirc that was the last one I did before posting the HotS capital ships chart). But, if that new carrier image you found isn't just concept art, but is the model we'll be seeing in LotV, which definitely has teal dots as windows, maybe it'll be time for a new estimate.



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I always thought they were the same. To be honest I didn't put a ton of time or efort into trying to estimate a size, I just wanted it to be big enough for a few hatcheries to fit inside. At the time I wasn't sure if the small blue dots on the loading screen artwork were intended to be windows or just glowing areas, and I just wanted to be done with all the HotS units (iirc that was the last one I did before posting the HotS capital ships chart). But, if that new carrier image you found isn't just concept art, but is the model we'll be seeing in LotV, which definitely has teal dots as windows, maybe it'll be time for a new estimate.



So, the next infantry unit I'm revisiting is the Dark Archon. I did it and the regular archon very early on in the project. I spent a long time trying to shade the archon, and drew it in ballpoint pen, (all the other units are pencil) really trying to capture the outpouring of energy from the portrait. The Dark Archon I did a lot quicker, with a much lighter and more indistinct pencil sketch, figuring I would do a lot more of the ball of energy digitally. But then I never really put in the time to do a great job on it.

It came out perfectly adequately, so I forgot that my original vision for it had been to make it incredibly badass. So, I'm gonna try to take the same original drawing, which was fine, and put some of my 3-years improved digital coloring skills to the test in building up a truly dangerous-looking energy being. Here's the old one, and just the very start of coloring some of the lightning for the new one— it's all in the sketch, but it got completely lost in the color before.



Like I said, the old one was perfectly fine, but hopefully I'll get some much cooler results now. The Dark Archon doesn't sound like it's having a pleasant time as an Archon, so I don't want it to look pleasant.

[Nolanstar]

A twilight archon with a more sc2-ish vibe and the armor could be a possibility.

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A twilight archon with a more sc2-ish vibe and the armor could be a possibility.

[Shadow Archon]

So, I scaled the General Lee from the comics. It's a small ship that's called a Wanderer-Class. Now, given how the comics switched here and there between artists, it's going to be inconsistent with scale. Very easily in-fact.

For example:

One shot included the Comic's Mega-Wraith docked with the General Lee:



It's general knowledge that Wraiths in Starcraft are just air-superior fighters with a one-pilot sized cockpit. This "Mega-Wraith" somehow had room for a Dropship (possibly more!), a hangar for the Dropship, a communication room, a spacious bridge, and more than a dozen crew/marines with whatever it needs to accommodate them.





The very same Dropship docked to the General Lee at the end of the comic:



...Which is bigger than the Wraith in the first shot...

And worse, the Dropship is this big on the planet below:



...As you can see, the scaling from the last two issues of the Starcraft comic is absolute bonkers.

Other scale issues come up elsewhere too.

There's a scene when the General Lee blasts the hell out of a Ghost, and in that scene there's no room for anyone to stand in the bridge!

There's a scene where someone has a Vulture near one of the General Lee's ramp. The shot's a real tight close-in, so you have no idea where it is on the ship. If it's in the large center section, the ship is too small for it to have the rooms we see it has. If it's in the pods to the side, the ship's windows become unreasonably large.

So, I've decided to just ignore all of those scenes, and use something more sensible, window scaling and the height of characters. We have two characters to use here. Nuura (5'8") and Turfa (6'4"). There's a slight inconsistency (better than up above though) with my numbers here, but that's well within the scope of me being wrong when I scale Nuura's chair.

Nuura's Height. Nuura's Joints





Turfa's Height. Turfa's Height with halfway point.





So, there you go.

If you want to add this ship (Wanderer-Class) to your chart Robear, go ahead.

[Robear]

Thanks a lot! And thanks for that side view, in addition to the estimate. I have wanted to add it for a while. Some pages back somewhere I tried to come up with a super rough ballpark guess based on the vultures getting into the lower door and I got more into the 100m range, but man, you're right, the scale in that comic is all over the place.

Also, thought I should let you know— for no apparent reason, through basically all of your comments, only like 3/4ths of the images you embed actually show up, and the others I have to manually get the url and open in a new tab. Which makes absolutely no sense since you use the same image host for all of them, but it's been true for a while. Shows up like this:



I really can't imagine why...

A twilight archon with a more sc2-ish vibe and the armor could be a possibility.

Hmm... I could do one of those... Not sure why, but when two Protoss wearing armor merge to form an energy being, somehow it makes more sense to me that the result looks like a giant naked Protoss, instead of a giant hollow suit of armor. But it's all energy anyway, idk.

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Thanks a lot! And thanks for that side view, in addition to the estimate. I have wanted to add it for a while. Some pages back somewhere I tried to come up with a super rough ballpark guess based on the vultures getting into the lower door and I got more into the 100m range, but man, you're right, the scale in that comic is all over the place.

Also, thought I should let you know— for no apparent reason, through basically all of your comments, only like 3/4ths of the images you embed actually show up, and the others I have to manually get the url and open in a new tab. Which makes absolutely no sense since you use the same image host for all of them, but it's been true for a while. Shows up like this:



I really can't imagine why...

A twilight archon with a more sc2-ish vibe and the armor could be a possibility.

Hmm... I could do one of those... Not sure why, but when two Protoss wearing armor merge to form an energy being, somehow it makes more sense to me that the result looks like a giant naked Protoss, instead of a giant hollow suit of armor. But it's all energy anyway, idk.

[Visions of Khas]

Hmm... I could do one of those... Not sure why, but when two Protoss wearing armor merge to form an energy being, somehow it makes more sense to me that the result looks like a giant naked Protoss, instead of a giant hollow suit of armor. But it's all energy anyway, idk.

I've always rationalized the Protoss form within the Archon as being a reflection of the combined Protoss' self-image of themselves. Maybe in a cinematic it would appear more dynamic, shifting between two different faces as clouds of energy swirl in front of it.

[Shadow Archon]

Thanks a lot! And thanks for that side view, in addition to the estimate. I have wanted to add it for a while. Some pages back somewhere I tried to come up with a super rough ballpark guess based on the vultures getting into the lower door and I got more into the 100m range, but man, you're right, the scale in that comic is all over the place.

You're welcome!

I could go back and try to scale the vulture scene again, but I don't know if that will work.

Also, thought I should let you know— for no apparent reason, through basically all of your comments, only like 3/4ths of the images you embed actually show up, and the others I have to manually get the url and open in a new tab. Which makes absolutely no sense since you use the same image host for all of them, but it's been true for a while. Shows up like this:



I really can't imagine why...

...What country do you live in?

I know another poster from South Korea who can't see really anything from Post Image.

I've been using it for years now...

I might have to jump ship to imigur or something. I used to use Imageshack...before they went crazy.

Hmm...

That is odd.

Hmm... I could do one of those... Not sure why, but when two Protoss wearing armor merge to form an energy being, somehow it makes more sense to me that the result looks like a giant naked Protoss, instead of a giant hollow suit of armor. But it's all energy anyway, idk.

It's because Samwise didn't like the idea of a big naked Protoss.

Starcraft 2: Protoss Archon
Modeled by Phill Gonzales, textures by Ted Park!
Animated by Allen Dilling

The Archon went though some growing pains. The initial designs worked on a basic level but needed extra flair to make it look more unique. Also, Samwise didn’t want a simple naked Protoss floating in a puff of blue popcorn like Starcraft 1. Although the first armor design was cool, we had to push and pull a bit to get it standing out well within all the energy effects. The skirt armor is still really hard to see sometimes, but the final rendition updates the classic unit artwork very well. Also, we cut his legs off. Somewhere I have an early shot of the model with legs that I’ll try to recover. BUT, he’s so strong he doesn’t need legs. So there.

© 2010 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Design changes to the Archon had changed the role of the unit significantly enough to prompt a revision of the artwork. Factors like High and Dark Templar combining to create an Archon, as well as experimentation with new abilities seemed like enough justification to present a new visual. It was new enough that updating the art might help people realize that it wasn't the same kind of Archon as the one seen in SC1.

I agree that there was a presence to the old Archon... I always liked how the visual conveyed a epitomized Protoss, so empowered that the presence alone was impressive.

So that's the scoop!

So apparently, merging into Archons is a bit more complicated than we think. The technique and ceremony of the merge can change the appearance of the Archon.

[Robear]

...What country do you live in?

I know another poster from South Korea who can't see really anything from Post Image.

I've been using it for years now...

I might have to jump ship to imigur or something. I used to use Imageshack...before they went crazy.

Yeah, imageshack has sucked since embedding images became a thing. Imgur's mostly what I use, though they compress large images and only keep 'em for a couple years (so the first half of this thread has a lot of deadlinks from me.) Minus.com is pretty good.

FWIW, I'm in the US. I really can't think of a reason why most of the images would work but not all.

It's because Samwise didn't like the idea of a big naked Protoss.

Well, 'it's because of Samwise's personal preference' is the explanation for every SC2 design choice. :P

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...What country do you live in?

I know another poster from South Korea who can't see really anything from Post Image.

I've been using it for years now...

I might have to jump ship to imigur or something. I used to use Imageshack...before they went crazy.

Yeah, imageshack has sucked since embedding images became a thing. Imgur's mostly what I use, though they compress large images and only keep 'em for a couple years (so the first half of this thread has a lot of deadlinks from me.) Minus.com is pretty good.

FWIW, I'm in the US. I really can't think of a reason why most of the images would work but not all.

It's because Samwise didn't like the idea of a big naked Protoss.

Well, 'it's because of Samwise's personal preference' is the explanation for every SC2 design choice. :P

[Shadow Archon]

Yeah, imageshack has sucked since embedding images became a thing. Imgur's mostly what I use, though they compress large images and only keep 'em for a couple years (so the first half of this thread has a lot of deadlinks from me.) Minus.com is pretty good.

I'll give it a look.

FWIW, I'm in the US. I really can't think of a reason why most of the images would work but not all.

That's upsetting...

Well, 'it's because of Samwise's personal preference' is the explanation for every SC2 design choice. :P

Well, not every design choice. Mr. Jack's art really became very influential for HotS.

Samwise is the same one that did prefer the Overmind to not be a suspended human eye in jelly though, which I disagree with.

To be honest, I do like that lore explanation for why it looks different. Given that Dark Templar by themselves can make these Archons, and they don't create Dark Archons, I like the idea of the ceremony, psionic technique, and merging are so variable you can end up with slightly different Archons.

Speaking of, this "merging" thing Templar do to create Archons is likely one of the ways the Protoss and Zerg were meant to merge, given the Swarm and Primal Zerg can't use Protoss Essence, even post-mortem.

[Robear]

Well, not every design choice. Mr. Jack's art really became very influential for HotS.

True, but again— that was Samwise's preference!

Near the end of the Zerg unification pass the Marine was finally brought back for a final artwork rendition. Modifying the Marine model done by Allen Dilling, the Infested Marine’s Zerg appendages were added on, based off a concept done by Mr. - - Jack! The Concept was actually done prior to Mr. - - Jack’s employment at Blizzard, but Samwise requested that it be used for the updated model.

:P

Brace yourselves:


...You know what... I've been putting off this for a long time, but the wanderer, the archons, all the arbitrariness... I've poured so much time and effort into this, but they'll just keep putting out inconsistent stuff. They obviously don't care about making the kind of world that deserves this much attention. So, that's why I'm finally moving on with my life. It's time to shut down this thread. I've spent so much time in here, limiting my artistic output to just Starcraft fan art, when there's a whole world out there... A world of WARCRAFT!



...Is what my April Fool's joke would have been, if I'd actually had enough spare time back in March. Instead I finished it tonight. Don't worry, Starcraft 4eva, I'm not stopping any time in at least the next 2 years. :P