They use normal maps. They wouldn't be able to get that clean of shading on such lowpoly models without them. It also looks like their highpoly detail is the base for their handpainted styled textures.
No. Went from concept art to 3D Character art, mostly cuz I wanted to see my ideas "finished." It was handpainting first and then went into more realistic bents.
Elementrix did something similar a few years ago that you might want to check out: http://polycount.com/discussion/105369/new-approach-to-handpainted-environments/p1
Handpainted normals! HA! Using a ball 'prilitive' to lay down shapes and pick colors, plus bits and pieces from old normalmaps. I'd call that nextgen for the poor
ImSlightlyBored -> just painted a mask, some handpaint, some alpha map drop and layer brush next on Zbrush. Kinda poly-expensive but working on single pieces it is usable.
Hey Johnwoo, its interesting to note that the H2 developpers seemed to use fully handpainted normalmaps instead of highpoly bakes. Do you have more info on the subject?
Here is sword I made in Blender. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu99XtQsRek&feature=youtu.be Is it right way to render handpainted low poly things shadeless? Tris: 132 Textures: 512x512 diffuse
This is a recent piece I finished that I guess you can consider "fan art". I made a handpainted update to the Fountains of Mana in Warcraft 3. Enjoy! :)