Svetnikov's Showcase

A month or two before Christmas, my girlfriend let it be known she had a fondness for Soul Calibur - news I dutifully passed on to my family, who were hurting for gift ideas. Thus, albeit a bit late to the party, we've discovered the joys of SC5's character creation. Well, the new PVR arrived today, and we can finally share some of our better creations.

I'll start things off with her favorite...

Prince (Style: Tira)

A somewhat effeminate catboy, jokester, and shameless flirt, he has completely stolen my girlfriend's heart. On the bright side, he inspired her to get back into drawing again.

Cass (Style: Natsu)

My kick-ass kitty ninja. Unlike Prince, she's what we've dubbed a "half-breed," owing to the ears and smaller stature.
*She was one of my early creations, but while the design is a little plain, I rather like her as-is. I attempted a more elaborate alternate costume later on, and it just felt overdone - sometimes simple is best, I guess.

Sebastian (Style: Viola)

Twin brother to Cass. Our running joke is, he took Yoga & Ballet classes to check out the ladies, and ended up learning a thing or two. Seeing a male character with Viola's style is all kinds of hilarious, and smacking people around with a mystic fishbowl never gets old.

Aya (Style: Devil Jin)

Training partner to Cass. She likes fruit smoothies, beefcake, and beating the stuffing out of anyone that looks at her wrong.

Kelris (Style: Natsu)

Shamelessly ripped off Inspired by rdmunhoz's tiger warrior (here). I tend to gravitate towards beast characters in most every game I play, so a tiger character was a must-have. He has yet to replace Cass as my preferred character, however. She's just too much fun.

Phineas (Style: α Pattycakes)

Sometimes when I get stumped for ideas, I do a VS match against "random" male/female characters, just to see what ridiculous gear combinations the game spits up. One of them sparked a deep desire to create a wizard. As for the playstyle, it was either that or Viola, and I really didn't want to see this old guy with that kind of hip action.

Autumn (Style: Hilde)

I really wanted to: 1. Use that Baihu Coat for something, 2. Use Hilde's style for a character other than "Default Valkyrie", and 3. Make something half as cool as Freemeal's "Tiamat" recreation. She could still use some tweaking, but I'm reasonably happy with the end result.


Comments, critique, and helpful suggestions always welcome. Plenty more characters to come - though honestly, half the fun is the personalities they take on afterwards...

One more little extra for now: The Dragonborn.

Dovahkiin (style: Sigfried)

My gf and I call him "Asshole-Dovahkiin" because he uses the Bad Guy voice and is generally a dick. Formerly Aeon's style, but being all hunched over wasn't doing his back any favors, and it was bizarre to see him randomly sprout wings. I know there's all kinds of power in dragon Shouts, but y'gotta draw the line somewhere...
(The fire-breathing thing was cool though.)

Welcome to 8WR, Kieve and gf! I'm @brucege, the local CaS moderator and curator. The two of you make quite a formidable CaS power couple. Here are some of my thoughts on your work:

Prince: Your gf has an eye for pretty boys. I bet she'd really dig K-pop. That shirt and tie combo is aggressively simple, but the color contrast and the high detail on the rest of the design keeps things interesting. Excellent color balance. Purple on torso, black on limbs, white hair/tail with gold accents. The lightly bronzed skin does a great job of blending all these disparate colors. Girly-men really look best in masculine garb, but in the context of anime/SCV, doubling down on the girly-man trope can be extremely effective. Two suggestions. Try the basic 1 pattern (purple, pink, and white gradient) with black and grey to emulate the ridged sweater pattern that your GF drew on her deviantart page. Example on skirt here. Also try linking the arm guards (feathers of strength) to the long gloves by using gold zipper stickers. The secret to wrapping zipper stickers around cylindrical surfaces (like limbs) is to use "place by axis" and hit "reset sticker" to eliminate the distortion/stretching.

Cass: Nice simple design. Great idea darkening the nose to bring out the feline look. I'd remove the shoulder armor though. It's somewhat unbalanced to only have armor on the shoulders, and they also create right angles that break the flow of the minimalistic design. The brown/turquoise/white color scheme are quite sharp together. Reminiscent of this Bleach character. I recommend adding a splash of color contrast to the design, like the red scar on the aforementioned character. You could also try adding a subtle space-age pattern on the outfit like you did for Aya's armor (which is all the rage with recent superhero movies).

Sebastian: Excellent job connecting the tail, back, and chest with that turquoise tree sticker. I like how you carry the light, bluish green color from the collar to the belt and shins. The reddish gold accents bring some nice contrast to the design too. The only thing is I'd fix the color of the shoulder armor to match the rest of the outfit. The current forest green color kinda just stands by itself. If you have an extra Special Equipment (SpecEq) slot, you could try adding ear piercings too. Or you could use SpecEq like horns or feathers to make hair extensions.

Aya: Channeling some Rihanna, I see. The dark skin and red hair combo make a very aggressive combo. This character certainly comes off very strong-looking. I like the detailing you did for the shoulders and legs. I think she would look more balanced with some chest armor though, like that coily-Madonna looking breastplate thing. Or some combo of the dancer's bra with tight shirt. I do recommend switching to longer hair, which will soften the butch look and cover more skin (she is pretty naked after all). You might want to try that spiked collar for a more punk-ish look too. Again, look into ear piercings or hair extensions if you have extra SpecEq slots. This one has a lot of potential and room for character building.

Kelris: Great white tiger design. The turquoise goes well with the white and black. Nice job crafting those gloves using pocket stickers. You've more than differentiated yourself from rdmunhoz's original design.

Phineas: Classic mage character. He'd fit right into a D&D game. You can never go wrong with dark blue, sparkles, and gold bling for wizards. The short jacket you crafted for him using that griffon emblem looks awesome. I also like how it transitions into that star pattern. You also did a good job of connecting the light blue shirt to the light blue skirt. Good work with all that facial hair too.

Autumn: Nice bump mapping on the Baihu coat. I really like the work you did with that gold and brown border on the edges too. The shoulder armor is a bit too bulky for my tastes, but you blend them well with that scale pattern. You have quite a knack for those bat wings too.

Dovahkiin: Cool skull knight build. The helmet really doesn't match with the rest of the outfit though. I'd look into dropping the whole Skyrim reference and constructing something more ominous-looking with horns, feathers of strength, etc. I like how you carried the scale pattern of the top onto the bottom. Connecting separate pieces via SpecEq, stickers, or patterns is the mark of an expert CaS artist.


Overall, this is some spectacular work. A lot of CaS comes down to personal taste, so don't take my nitpicking too seriously. Your technique is already superb. I do recommend checking out this technique thread as a refresher course:
http://8wayrun.com/threads/school-of-cas-advanced-cas-technique.18282/
If you're looking for CaS topics, you can check out the contest thread here:
http://8wayrun.com/threads/most-esteemed-one-shot-contest-thread.15703/
We've had themes like comic book heroes, fantasy tropes, and gothic lolita in the past.
If you have any questions, feel free to message me. I'm always happy to help new talent on the forums. Looking forward to the next batch!

Daayyyum, that's some cool stuff! Makes me wanna do darker skin characters again. And "Autumn" is just absolutely epic!

brucege said:

*snip*

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Thanks for the detailed critique! Tried out some of your advice - Prince in particular is better for it (initially tried the gryphon-emblem sticker on his sleeves since it has a smoother border, but the zipper ended up being the best option in the end. Pity the leg-warmers don't accept stickers too).

Re: Autumn's huge pauldron, I tried using something smaller, such as the leaf (you'd think it'd go great with the fall theme), but unfortunately I couldn't find any pieces that worked better, and the bat-wings are about as small as they can get, minus some depth maybe (helps to bring the spines together on the wing-curve).

As for Dovahkiin, I was aiming for something similar to the Dragonbone Armor set. Looking at it more carefully, there are a few things I might consider changing, but he's more of a joke-character than anything else.

Draggonnfs said:

Daayyyum, that's some cool stuff! Makes me wanna do darker skin characters again. And "Autumn" is just absolutely epic!

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Thank you for the kind words. :) I'm interested to see what else you come up with.


Our characters generally fall into one of two groups - a sort of "continuity" cast, where the characters know each other or are in some way related, and joke-characters, who exist mostly to pound on in Vs mode.

Moo (style: Dampierre)

After surfing the web for ideas, we happened across LordDraco's Moon Moon and practically laughed ourselves unconsious. Then we tried to figure out "How did he do that?", made a Moon Moon of our own... and it only got worse from there.
So here we have Moo, a bovine buffoon who all by himself has completely justified the Dampierre DLC.

Pan'durr (style: Voldo)

The one flaw in making a gag-character with Voldo's style, they're no joke to fight. Derpy panda may look silly, but between the creepy moon-walk and the CPU's habit of chaining his stuns (even on normal), he's rather obnoxious and we don't use him much. Still funny to look at though.

Nocturna (style: Nightmare)

Heavily inspired by Luna / Nightmare Moon of MLP fame, right down to the butt-paint. (Coincidentally, the only reason for the tiger-lily underwear was so the stickers on the hips would mirror.)
She started out as a joke character, however she managed to find her way into our continuity cast - although she'd get a full redesign if we started including her in anything outside SC5 itself. Soul-mate and lover to Morpheus (below).

Morpheus (style: Edge Master)

Taking his name from the literal Greek god of dreams, Morpheus (along with his lover Nocturna) are the wardens of dreams and the subconscious. However, they could not agree on whether to protect people from fear and nightmares, or help them face and overcome such things. Eventually, this disagreement divided them, leaving them enemies and bitter rivals.
(At some point, the "main cast" would be dragged into this conflict, in an effort to help them reconcile their differences.)

So brucege, I took your feedback on Aya and tried playing around a bit. I wasn't really sure what I was doing at first, but after slapping a few pieces together, some inspiration hit, and... Yeah.

I like her so much more now. My only real complaint is that I can't use "color-all" to give her equipment a reddish tint, because the Corset (being underwear) defaults to a greenish-yellow right off the bat, or a weird purple-pink on the other end of the spectrum.

Spent a few more hours with the Hodgepodge tonight and took screens of virtually our entire roster. Only ones I omitted were my Aeon 3P (I love him, but recolors are boring), a clone of your own Anubis design (Astaroth, because Pharaoh axe, and 0:42, 31 pitch-black skin), a couple of boring or WIP designs, and "Nyan Bitch," a Lexia-style catgirl maid (joke character) who is possibly the most annoying and obnoxious CAS ever created.

So without further ado, the image dump. We begin with the rest of the "feline" cast...

Mia (style: Elysium)

She's a nice gal, but has a bit of a dom streak. If she starts talking about handcuffs, RUN.

Viktor (style: ZWEI)

One of Prince's friends, created by my GF. She says, "I didn't really have any idea what I was doing, he was just random."
I thought putting earrings on the cat-ears was super clever of her though.

Lily (style: Ivy

Prim and proper, Lily's bookish and kinda the "boring" one of the crew. She works as an assistant to Marianne in the local archive.

Duke (style: Mitsurugi)

Abnormally big for a "halfbreed," Duke's a bit of a mystery. He plays the silent, noble type, but there's something shady about his past.
Not that Aya cares. We did say she likes beefcake. ;)

Ellie (style: Tira)

A joint effort between me and my GF, this one started out as a rough copy of one of the Quick-Battle characters I ran into, and after some messing around, evolved into our only Fox character. Though she bears some similarities to Krystal (of Starfox fame), neither of us noticed until after Ellie was done. As for her personality... we're still figuring that out. She doesn't get much use, sadly.

Mushi (style: Yoshimitsu)

Heavily inspired by Quinion's "Lord of the Flies" CAS, Mushi is the result of some wayward magic granting an everyday insect human size and intelligence. While he sometimes daydreams about raising an insect army and dominating the world, he mostly just wants to be accepted.

Marianne (style: α Pattycakes)

Marianne is the city's chief archivist and records-keeper (yes, that's right: Marianne the Librarian). Design-wise, she's very simple, but I'm including her here anyway because she's such a joy to have in the cast.
*What really completes her character isn't the style, but the voice scheme. She uses that "Young Eager" female voice. With lines like "Gracious!" (block-break), "Allow me!", and especially her enthusiastic victory "I win!" she pretty much wrote herself as a complete cast-member out of the box.

Fred (style: Pyrrha)

Fred's name is a play on both Freddie Mercury and Right Said Fred (the "I'm Too Sexy" song). The bright-green hair is also a joke, although I don't expect anyone to get the reference.
Personality-wise, he's in the same ballpark as Rundelhaus Code, a flamboyant narcissist with good intentions and bad execution. He's also the only one who enjoys it when Moo spanks him...

Kieve (style: Pattycakes)

Based loosely on the character Long, from the Bloody Roar franchise. I originally had him as Yoshimitsu, because Yoshi was my favorite back in Tekken 3, but sword & shield suits "me" better, as my play-style in most games tends to be a tank. As with Teresa, he doesn't get much use - I alternate between Cass, Kelris, and Sebastian, with a little Aeon now and then for "smashy smashy" times. Not willing to put in the time learning a fourth style just yet.

George (style: Xiba)

George was tragically created without a personality. The current design is his second version, but still feels lacking.
Cast-wise, he's one of the background characters, a stage performer in the same troupe as Shelby.

Shelby (style: Maxi)

A tumbler and acrobat, Shelby's the spunky outgoing sort. She and George are kind of an item, but neither of them can tell us why.

Googol (style: Cervantes)

A badass bounty-hunter with a big mouth. His friends just call him "G" - or they would, if he had any.

Aria (style: Pyrrha Ω)

Another mercenary, although she's only in the city because of her contract. No one knows who she's after, but her frequent alcohol abuse and sour attitude suggest it's a very personal affair.

Leviathan (style: Xiba)

One of the four "Gods of Wrath," a "four horsemen"-style cabal seeking an artifact they believe will help them ascend to true godhood.
*Style-wise, these four were created with the sole intent of using an entire "set" of armor - in this case, Leviathan, with Sea King pieces to help complete it. I was shooting for that greenish oxidized copper look, and I'm reasonably happy with how this one came out.

Lusca (style: Lexia)

Alternately, "Famine," I have never been happy with this one. I've seen some amazing things done with Lusca pieces by other users, but inspiration always fails me on that point. Continuity-wise, we'd design unique armors for all four Gods of Wrath anyway, so revising her in SC5 feels like wasted effort. I've only included her here to complete the set.

Warthog (style: Aeon)

Alternately, just "War." Included for completion's sake, but I did like the color scheme.

Gorgon (style: Pattycakes)

Alternately, "Death." The skull sword / shield really help complete her design, which might otherwise be just a boring recolor of the Gorgon set.

Bob (style: Raphael)

I got a wild hair one day and wanted to do something futuristic and techy. Thus, Bob. Not sure whether he's a joke character or cast-member, but he's fun to have around. And my girlfriend loves his scarf.

Reika (style: Mitsurugi)

Originally, Bob had a female counterpart in the "future/techy" design spectrum, but she failed on almost every aspect you can judge a CAS - Reika is her replacement. The asymmetric chestpiece was a beast to figure out, but totally worth it. As a bonus, her design doesn't lose a whole lot even after having the equipment broken.

These next ones are my GF's handiwork.

Teresa (style: Viola)

Essentially a "self-insert" character.
(We initially figured we'd be using CAS just to build a couple of mains for ourselves and that'd be it. Oh how wrong we were...)
Of course, Teresa gets almost no love in the roster now, since she enjoys playing Prince too much. :P

Zylphia (style: Ivy)

Her (favorite?) OC. Zylphia's seen many incarnations, my favorite of which was a custom model she did in one of the Tomb Raider games, but she managed a pretty respectable recreation here as well.

Lara Croft (style: Cervantes)

My girlfriend is a longtime Tomb Raider fan. A Lara recreation was inevitable.
Cervantes style, because guns.

Great new creations! Here's some of my thoughts.

Morpheus: Damn. Dreamland's gotta be like mad ghetto to make a god wear that much armor. Better safe than sorry though.

Aya 2.0: Nice job with the bump mapping! Cool combination of skin, leather, and chain mail textures. I also like how you extended the chain mail onto the waist with those rabbit ears too. Have you tried using pocket stickers to black out the flanks of the corset? You'd get a cool T-shaped section of chainmail on the front and back.

Duke: Really nice. Manly as shit.

Ellie: Beautiful. Best of this batch. The white and pastel colors make a dream-like or arcane flavor to the character. Goes extremely well with the fur motif on the pants, shoulders, and tail. Like something from Nights into Dreams (Sega Saturn).

Fred: S&M medieval Tarzan. An absolutely fascinating train wreck of genres. Whether you intended it or not, he's a work of art.

Kieve: The gleaming white armor stands out too much. You can shift to grey for a smoother blend. I like the work you did with the head and face. Like a disgruntled NYC journalist covering political corruption or whatever in the 80s. That somehow ended up as a paladin tank in Log Horizon. You must be quite the charmer IRL.

Bob: Interesting venture into cyberpunk. The scarf is very superhero-esque. Few men would dare to wear lavender butterfly wings, but hey, he makes it look good. See if you can sub in a top that can take stickers though. You can use some kind of fancy, futuristic pattern and then make some armor pads with pocket stickers, zipper stickers, etc. SpecEq is also an option. Like using feathers of strength for the abs or the bolt/screw for the pectorals. Sky's the limit.

Reika: Fascinating asymmetrical design. Cool work on her shoulder and left breast. And of course the pocket sticker for the extra sleeve.

Zylphia: Resembles Morrigan from Dragon Age. Simple yet effective. I see that your GF took the character in a different direction from her deviant art sketch, which is really cool btw. Would you mind if I posted my own CaS rendition of Zylphia here?

Thanks again for the detailed feedback. :) Always like hearing some in-depth critique, but sadly I get the feeling this forum's a bit of a ghost-town now.

brucege said:

Morpheus: Damn. Dreamland's gotta be like mad ghetto to make a god wear that much armor. Better safe than sorry though.

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He started out as an anti-Nightmare, "Daydream," and gradually got more interesting from there. But given that people can dream up some scary shit, I'd say the armor is warranted.

Aya 2.0: Nice job with the bump mapping! Cool combination of skin, leather, and chain mail textures. I also like how you extended the chain mail onto the waist with those rabbit ears too. Have you tried using pocket stickers to black out the flanks of the corset? You'd get a cool T-shaped section of chainmail on the front and back.

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I toyed with the idea a little, but wasn't thrilled with the results.

Duke: Really nice. Manly as shit.

Ellie: Beautiful. Best of this batch. The white and pastel colors make a dream-like or arcane flavor to the character. Goes extremely well with the fur motif on the pants, shoulders, and tail. Like something from Nights into Dreams (Sega Saturn).

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Thank you, especially for the praise on Ellie. :) My gf's talked about getting rid of her a couple times, so hopefully this should boost her confidence a bit on that one.

Fred: S&M medieval Tarzan. An absolutely fascinating train wreck of genres. Whether you intended it or not, he's a work of art.

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He is indeed in a class of his own. Most of our funniest material comes from something involving in Fred.

Kieve: The gleaming white armor stands out too much. You can shift to grey for a smoother blend. I like the work you did with the head and face. Like a disgruntled NYC journalist covering political corruption or whatever in the 80s. That somehow ended up as a paladin tank in Log Horizon. You must be quite the charmer IRL.

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Well my gf would agree, but I'd hardly call that an unbiased opinion ;) The armor's actually silver and doesn't come across quite as bright in-game, though the gradient pattern might give it a bit more depth. I should try that. I'd probably start revising him from the ground up though, since he was the first original CAS I made and I've learned a lot since.

Bob: Interesting venture into cyberpunk. The scarf is very superhero-esque. Few men would dare to wear lavender butterfly wings, but hey, he makes it look good. See if you can sub in a top that can take stickers though. You can use some kind of fancy, futuristic pattern and then make some armor pads with pocket stickers, zipper stickers, etc. SpecEq is also an option. Like using feathers of strength for the abs or the bolt/screw for the pectorals. Sky's the limit.

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Something to think on I suppose. I've wanted to spice him up a bit, but haven't hit the right inspiration yet.

Reika: Fascinating asymmetrical design. Cool work on her shoulder and left breast. And of course the pocket sticker for the extra sleeve.

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The goal was more of a bionic arm / prosthesis, hence the use of the eye sticker underneath to give the impression of grafted skin. I really wish I could've used the "Lady Knight" greaves on the left leg, for the extra armor up the thigh, but that'd have done both sides and made her a little too armored-up.

Zylphia: Resembles Morrigan from Dragon Age. Simple yet effective. I see that your GF took the character in a different direction from her deviant art sketch, which is really cool btw. Would you mind if I posted my own CaS rendition of Zylphia here?

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By all means! I'm sure we'd both love to see your take on her.

Awesome! Yeah, SCV's getting on its years, but we got all the time in the world till SC6!
So here's Zylphia:
This is based on your pictures from deviantart. I had to take a lot of liberties with the design to make it work in SCV, so I hope you don't mind the tweaks. Let me know if you'd like the formula. Zylphia's steampunk vampire look was really fun to recreate. Actually, all the characters on your deviantart page are awesome, so if it's cool with you, I might like to give some of the others a shot too.

brucege said:

Awesome! Yeah, SCV's getting on its years, but we got all the time in the world till SC6!
So here's Zylphia:

Spoiler

View attachment 46214
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This is based on your pictures from deviantart. I had to take a lot of liberties with the design to make it work in SCV, so I hope you don't mind the tweaks. Let me know if you'd like the formula. Zylphia's steampunk vampire look was really fun to recreate. Actually, all the characters on your deviantart page are awesome, so if it's cool with you, I might like to give some of the others a shot too.

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That's pretty awesome. I'd at least like to know what you did on the horns to get that two-color effect. I assume a pattern, but which and set to what?

She says it was interesting to see your take on it (and liked it). I've poked her about creating her own account here, so hopefully she'll be sharing her own thoughts without boyfriend-proxy soon :)

In the mean time, I'm sure we'd both love to see what you do with some of her other characters.

*Disclaimer - that DA gallery is her art obviously, mine is not nearly so impressive.

Kieve said:

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Thanks! We had another CaS power couple before called Chobek. We usually addressed both as one. It'd still be fun for your GF to create a separate account so we can watch all your SCV marital disputes.

For the horns, I used that stripe pattern with the green, purple, and red (?) You set one of the colors to gold and the rest to black. Then you increase the size and fiddle with angle. If you need a small strip of color (like for the gold trim on the center of her blouse), you can use that red/white candy cane pattern. Set one stripe to gold and the rest to black. Adjust size and angle.

Also, for the short sidebangs (see close-up above), you cover the top of the face with a large "number one" sticker in brown. Then you cut out the center with that sticker that looks like a square with rounded corners (set to skin tone). The rounded corners form an inward point on the bangs. The number one sticker also fades out at the edges so its great for fake hair.

Hum, i had a look then a second look, i have seen and done so much CAS that it admittedly takes much to wow me.
Out of a fairly generic but proficiently executed batch of anthros, RCas, knights, vampires and witches, the only one witch :) captured my attention at first glance was Ellie...then i read brucege's review who said the same :)

I assume you have been browsing through my main thread because pictures are better than words and i don't want to copy paste my CAS here, but if you feel like getting inspiration, check out this video of mine which i will reembed in my main thread because i don't want to pollute your thread :

Anyways, feel free to steal whatever you want from it (i noticed that great panda and cow of yours, and i know how it ain't easy to do the goofy CAS mind you :)

Ok, back to basics, a few pointers i gave to all the CAS artists i once took under my wing, which have been the guiding principles for all of my CAS :

1-have a strong concept and a fresh idea of what you want to achieve before you start putting pieces of clothing / equipment together.
You wanna do a pirate, fine, but what will stand out ? what will make it original : make it an anthros pirate, an undead pirate, a pirate with a parrot, a pirate lady a la Mary Read ? Use the ExEq, texture / bump map or sticker work to your advantage to create the wow factor...
2-pick the right face preset because the first thing you look at is the face and it defines the overall personality of your CAS (of course adding make-up, working on the eye color/sfx and brow variations to support your concept
3-have the colors of your CAS toned down for a more realistic look (which you guys do) : the color scheme works better when it is well matched meaning make it readable and copy/paste the main colors on different set of equipment (which can sometimes mean a different value depending on the properties of the piece of clothing / Amor / Exeq
4-Use and appropriate weapon and voice / animations and check all works in-game and complements your concept.

If you look at Ellie, you'll see (except maybe the concept which is still a bit generic) that she abides by all those guiding principles...
She is not stunningly original, but at least she is stunningly beautiful (like your GF i am sure :)

I know you have the basics to create some great stuff and improve on the likes of Ellie...Keep it up, i'll be lurking, and pass on my greetings to your GF...

Vil

Thanks for the feedback!

We're both very amused by the praise for Ellie, since she was kind of a random one-off without any strong concept behind her. Clearly it worked out though!
I had a look at that video - saw many of them in previous threads already, but it's a staggering array of creative work, very impressive. Reminded me there were some things I wanted to try with bird-characters, and other animal designs. For the immediate future though, I've been working on giving Autumn some friends (and I need to get a shot of her without the helm, so you can see her face).
Winter, Summer, and Spring (my personal favorite thus far) should be forthcoming later today. Just have to finish up on Summer first.

Thanks for the feedback as well ! I think i have done CAS for SCV, VI and VII if they ever come out :)
Reg. Ellie, that is precisely what i said, no strong concept, but some time randoms can be turn out uber-cool, if the chemistry works.
Lily is another example of that.
I didn't quite notice autumn, i think the concept is great and fresh (Season-based CAS), and some pieces and colors / textures you picked are good, but without reading the name, i couldn't see what you are aiming at...you could go for more flowery / leaf patterns, make better use of the ExEq (to create a more vegetal or tree-bark look, idk). What is your reasoning behing the helmet build, make it look like an acorn or something ? And the arm, a leaf ?
Try Winter, might be easier for a start, anyways, i'll be lurking for the remaining 3 :)

Finally got around to taking those screencaps!

Rochelle (style: Cervantes)

One of my gf's. Rochelle has been "WIP" for a while - her design just feels lacking some how. "I'm just not sure where to go or what to do with it."
Posting her here for some constructive input, so any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Summer (style: Lexia)

Summer was troublesome to pin down, and I still feel like there's something more or different I need to do with her. Right now about the only thing I can think of is a change to the colors (the burgundy is a bit dark for "Summer"), but I like how it offsets the gold and lighter colors. Initially I was using straight-up golds / yellows as the base, but my gf thought there was "too much yellow." Thoughts & critique are welcome on this one as well.

Spring (style: Raphael)

By far my favorite of them all. She started the "Seasons" trend when I decided to make an alternative to Autumn, and I am just in love with the design.

Winter (style: Sigfried)

I cribbed some ideas from Rochelle when making this one, in the pauldrons and gauntlets / boots department mainly. The rest was just trying to apply what I've learned in previous CAS stuff to make her look as chillingly awesome as I could.

Added bonus:
I went back and took a shot of Autumn's face as well, since I'd forgotten do to that in her compilation pic.

Hi,

For Rochelle, the name, face preset, and your while WIP work scream musketeer !

I haved lived in La Rochelle in France, which was besieged by Cardinal Richelieu in the 17th century (the musketeers era in France)

So I would suggest complementing your build by creating a Musketeer hat with a base hat + ExEq (like i did on my kilik 3P once using the wide beret) and the raphael style to make her a fierce fencer.

The black and blue palette is interesting (in gothic/dark kind of way) or you go for more colourful and true musketeer colors (see my drawing for ref : http://vilarcane.deviantart.com/art/The-Three-MouseCatArs-598200200)

You can give her a scar or some other scary element (ExEq or stick/er or whatnot) for some added grit and persona.

You can also refer to the more realistic drawing of my ConquistadorAH! for a whole different color palette which is based on a painting of Cardinal Richelieu (Vilarcane Youtube Channel is your friend).
I have also posted the drawing in my thread and on my deviant page because i don't think i have yet.
Notice the white makeup a la Roi Soleil and the moustache (which you can see in the vid but i did not keep in the final version of the drawing). Anyways, steal away...this particular drawing was actually more inspired by my GF physique...and done for her :)

You can see a variety of timelapse videos there if you like that, and feel free to create CAS out of some of the characters lol.

Hope it helps !

The face of autumn is strikingly good for the theme, hair, make-up, colors, works great.
Winter is pretty cool with the helmet as the wow factor.

Spring is may favourite, so colourful, and the helmet build is eerie.

Summer, yeah, i agree, the colors are a tad off, the helmet is very cool though, but there is so much more you can do with bright colors or sun-themed CAS. Can i suggest you steal a few things from my Mayan CAS(t) :), i am sure this could help you immensely, or the indian deity i did for Brucege...

Rochelle: She's off to a great start. The stripes on her pants are very fashionable. She has a cool vampy look with that black and blue, which you definitely want to keep. Like a gothic Cruella D'Ville. The only thing she's missing is a hat. She's using Viola's hair, which was designed to be mushed under a hood, so it looks kinda flat. Try giving her a jaunty Robin Hood-style hat (upside down turtle shell + rotated heart + feather.) Or a musketeer hat like Vil mentioned (fez? headgear + turtleshell + feather). Or you could just use one of those stylish mini-hat SpecEq's + feather. If you wanna up the detail, you have a number of options. Try, for example, turning the breast area of the blouse flesh-colored. It'll look remarkably like skin/cleavage if you cover the blouse buttons with a neckgear or stickers. Then you place whatever sticker (like a giant heart, ribbon, or pocket) you like to cover the nipple area and form a "cup" for the breasts. Or you could emulate lacing by using a butterfly sticker on the flesh colored blouse area. If you're really strained for ideas, just throw on some random straps using zipper stickers (placed by axis, reset position to wrap around.) Also try swapping out the fur gear (which you use on a lot of your other creations) for light armor to accentuate the warrior theme.

Summer: You're definitely on to something by using gold as the primary color. Summer is sunny after all. You'd have to balance the warmth of the sun with much more green colors and flower-themed motifs to avoid any connotation of "desert" over "summer." It looks like you have traces of a "bird of paradise" theme with the rainbow patterns and the fancy helmet ornament, but I'd save that idea for a separate creation. Instead, look into redesigning her as some kind of dryad or satyr. Start off by leaving behind the heavy mask and leg armor. If you wanna go dryad, you'll have a great excuse to throw around random branches on the head, body, or limbs. You could use the beetle horns and apply that leather pattern to look like branches. Use the beetle horns to give her, well, horns, or cup her breasts for a wooden bra-effect. Or give her some kind of massive tree arm. If you go for a satyr theme. Try the hooves footgear and the curly horns. You might place a chain SpecEq around her head to look like a crown of thorns. Use any remaining SpecEq slots to throw flowers anywhere you can. Or even clothing with built-in flowers like Viola's leg-wear. Noble effort for asymmetry, but try swapping out that skirt for the pareo waist equipment. Good job with the sleeve design (red sticker + zipper), but, again, I'd save that idea for a different creation. The more skin "Summer" shows off, the better. Also use some subtle floral patterns/stickers. You'll want to make the patterns look faint enough to almost pass for a light texture. You want to make the association without insulting the viewers' intelligence or unbalancing the blend. You could also try fashioning a custom tiara for her using a any long sticker and a star sticker. Also, remember to try different shades of skin like brown, orange, or green skin.

Spring: Great color scheme. Highly reminiscent of red scallions. I really like how you connected the hood across the neck with that laural wreath sticker. Thematically, the design is excellent. Fresh and spring-like. Aesthetically, it could use some work. You make good use of the gradient pattern to transition between green, white, and pink. But the outfit, when viewed as a whole, is a relatively homogeneous mix of the aforementioned colors. You'll want to pick out particular sections to concentrate the colors. For example, if you're keeping the red scallion theme, you'd want the extremities like the hood flaps and limbs green. You'd make the torso whitish, and you'd make the feet pinkish to represent the roots. I don't know. Do try compartmentalizing the colors though.

Winter: Simple and effective. Fur theme + feather sticker is appropriate winter-wear. Nice work with the border on the jacket hems too. The horns on the helmet make for a slightly more severe look than I'd expect, but whatever. It's an interesting look. I like the black mini-jacket + scarf you gave her. The contrast goes a long way on an otherwise all-white design.


Overall: You've acquired a lot of great techniques these past weeks. Your character design is also coming along very well. Keep up the great work! Also, it'd be cool if you could leave a few comments on my thread. I'm always looking for ways to improve my creations. Best wishes.