Warlords of Draenor’s Trolls Get a Total Makeover

Trolls in World of Warcraft are still charming as ever, and they’ll be getting a high definition makeover come the release of the Warlords of Draenor expansion pack, which just had its release date revealed alongside a powerful new trailer depicting alternate historical events within the series’ lore. 

Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft’s fifth (but not final) expansion, adds a host of new graphical options to most races in the game. The latest characters to get an extreme makeover are the male and female Trolls.

Trolls were never good looking, and one of the coolest things about their new models is that you can see all of the warts and blemishes on their skin, which exemplify their bestial nature. 

As with all the other races in the game that are receiving a makeover, Blizzard has redone their animations with high fidelity movements. Blizzard admits however that they had some problems animating the new trolls due to the clipping of their tusks. 

“One of the unique challenges for the Troll models were their tusks,” wrote art director Chris Robinson.

“In the character customization options, you have the ability to select from a number of tusk “styles.” While other race models (like the Tauren) have similar customization options, the additional modeling, texturing, and animation articulation of the Troll face—and mouth especially—made this a distinctive challenge. We actually had to model the Troll with a flat lower lip; then, for each facial customization option, we went in and posed their lips to naturally wrap around each tusk option.”

The game is out on November 13, 2014 for the PC and Mac.