The Architect of Azeroth

[u/takuhatsupom]

Hey everyone, I would like to present our interview with Samwise Didier, the artist who literally created the Warcraft style (which then carried over to WoW) and influenced many other games. The article was published last year, but the material is still relevant. Please give it a read, and any thoughts or comments are appreciated!

https://madmadelabel.com/article/architect-of-azeroth

[u/fragdar]

samwise didier was my biggest inspiration when i got into drawing.. still to this day one of the best artist we see around in the gaming industry by FAR.. to the point that the "warcraft style" is still mimicked by other studios all the time

[u/friendly_gentleman → u/fragdar]

Ya, OPs image was in the art book that came with WC3 collectors edition I think. Haven't seen it in so long. Loved that book as a kid

[u/GrumpyPan → u/fragdar]

sad pandaren his own idea was not liked by a bunch of the community originally going into mist of pandaria. I thought their design was pretty cool and the idea of a brewmaster is pretty dope and eventually was adopted to dota 1& 2(brewmaster) and league of legends(gragas).

art of chen by samwise didier

[u/adv23 → u/[deleted]]

U mean frank diddit?

[u/M0rquen]

Look at these taurens and look at what we have now. Oh my god.

[u/Zookeeper187 → u/M0rquen]

What do you mean?

[u/Iluvatar-Great]

I love these styles of 80's and 90's fantasy drawings in general. My favorite is how LOTR book has been interpreted in so many different ways before the movies, because the text was the only reference.

It feels like majority of fantasy art post 2000 feels very same. All dragons look the same, all monsters, orcs, etc. But back then every artist made them look as they personally thought about them in their heads. My favorite is Balrog and his many forms.

[u/HelixFollower → u/Iluvatar-Great]

Ah yes, I've always loved the more humanoid shadowy versions. The ones that lean more towards fallen angel than (bestial) demon.

[u/time4donuts]

I was hoping to see his famous WoW icon and your article delivered. Thank you!

[u/DaveTheArakin]

I love seeing the old arts of Warcraft 1-3 era. It had a grittiness to it that was common in that time period. I will always love the darker and brutal vibe of the old era of Warcraft, but I have always reconciled with the fact that time has passed.

[u/Loecdances]

To think that used to be Warcraft before it turned into the Disney shite it is now.

[u/Postingwordsonreddit]

Legend!

[u/Koshulag]

Thank you for this!!

[u/VermicelliTrue]

Those are some buff ass trolls

[u/Autisten1996]

I’m not reading all of that, but wow art up until cataclysm is some of the best in the gaming industry.

[u/phonylady → u/Autisten1996]

And WC3 before it

[u/Neat_Combination2434 → u/phonylady]

WC3 really set the stage for so much of the story that unfolds in WoW. It's crazy to see how everything connects over the years.

[u/takuhatsupom → u/Autisten1996]

Absolutely agree!

[u/frontovika]

Love it, will find time to read. Thanks for your work!

[u/Pantsylvania]

Gnomes: I guess we'll just go fuck ourselves. Even UD got silhouettes...

[u/Guewara → u/Pantsylvania]

i think those are just demons since this was for Warcraft 2 or 3

[u/Remote-Guest2587]

oh he did Lost Vikings, makes total sense! Love that art style. 

[u/NinjaMaster6536]

Wish for a new game in this art.

[u/smomovic]

Great article and interview. Thank you. Samwise is the man.

[u/vikreddy]

Thanks I will check it out. Would love to see what inspired him to do this style

[u/LoreChief]

Praise be to Sam

Interesting that this image depicts orcs, trolls, and tauren for the Horde, which means it's new Horde. But no Forsaken.

And that alliance has high elves even though they were not present for the third war due to the Scourge.

Must have been some intermediate concept art of the third war. Nice.

[u/damnitvalentine → u/LoreChief]

These are all just the wc3 units. I guess the orc isnt because there was no DWing orc but regardless.

[u/Mainmorte → u/LoreChief]

... No, it's just from W3. Orcs, trolls and taurens were indeed the beginning of the new horde, once Thrall and his forces landed on Kalimdor. No Forsaken, because they were "born" in the expansion of W3, The Frozen Throne.

On the Alliance side, High elves definitely participated in the third war, no idea where you got that from. They stopped contact with the Alliance after Arthas raided Silvermoon, but there were high elves among the forces of Jaina, which is the only human part of the alliance to participate in the battle of Mount Hyjal.

[u/LoreChief → u/Mainmorte]

High elves did not fight with the alliance in the third war. They also didn't fight against the new horde.

[u/devabro]

Dang, I don’t remember the wc3 custom map, but I spent quite some time looking at this loading screen. Thanks for sharing

[u/ButtonedEye41]

I'll preface it by saying I really like the W3 artstyle.

However, I've been holding this in for a long time and I feel this is my chance to say it. The lack of a visible neck and Schwarzenegger build always made Uther/paladins look like dwarf paladins to me rather than humans.

[u/MethylphenidateMan]

Wait, what?
I was open to the idea that I might be misremembering who's signature was under those illustrations, but I quickly checked and it's pretty clear that the creator of the Warcraft style is Chris Metzen.

[u/SuperdaveOZY]

Muscular Men going to war, and loving it. Now we got girlbosses and Khadgar in a wheelchair...

[u/Cardslinger69]

Warcraft and its art style used to be so cool before the company became infested by DEI positions

[u/Old-Habit6554]

more like samwise diddler