The Elf: Character Race #7 of 8

8 races. 2 factions. 6 classes.

Important decisions.

Over the next weeks we will release info on the 8 playable races in Mist’s metaverse. As we get closer to the Demo date, we will release more Lore and history of the races.

Each race is distinct, with special abilities, special strengths, and weaknesses. Each race has 2 genders, male and female.

The race you choose will determine your gameplay style. Your race will determine your friendships. Your race will determine your personality, and persona in-game.

The Elf

The Elf is a misunderstood and ancient race focused on the spiritual and shadow arts. Elves are cunning, extremely intelligent, and vicious strategists. Much of their time is devoted to the energetic arts, the strategy of combat, and weapon skills. All over Midirim, Elves are known for their discipline and highly-effective battle and combat strategy.

They mix academics, discipline, and desire for power to make fearful armies. This discipline may also cause them to be heartless and unnecessarily violent. Elves value discipline and success.

Elves also vary in color, ranging from light to dark. The mystery of whether or not their skin color matters in-game will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Elves have special abilities

They can go invisible for a short time, they have a larger hitbox for their ranged and spell attacks (making it easier to aim your abilities on opponents), they have increased critical strike chance, and more.

We will go into more detail about the rest of the racial abilities in a later article.

The Design Process

Our Elf went through 2 different design iterations.

We were not fully happy with our first elf, so we re-designed him and created a character that we were more happy with.

Design #1: Not Bad, but Not Good Enough

The first draft of the elf started with some detailed design around the head shape, ear shape, and more.

We wanted the ears to be a focus point, for attention to be drawn there.

Therefore we needed to make the ears large and mobile. They needed to be designed in a way to allow for movement.

Once the ears and head shape were designed, we added our first layer of poly.

We added more details, changed polycount, and worked on the hair.

The final result of the 1st elf is shown above. It was good. But we wanted a totally different look. So we moved on to the 2nd iteration.

Design #2: Now We’re Talking

We begin the 2nd elf with the basic shape and quick verts. We wanted him to be athletic and agile.

After finalizing the verts we continue modeling. We begin adding more superficial details, including musculature, defined hair, and more body details.

At this point we begin hardening the body, making the cuts more defined, and the body becomes more “shredded” and lean.

Once the body shape has been modeled, we begin adding colors.

Remember, the elves have multiple skin colors. Here we begin with a more light skin version.

As the coloring is nearing completion, we notice that the body becomes more realistic and the musculature begins looking more real, and less cartoony. Of course in our style we always keep a level of stylized cartoon.