a mini-gallery

-Anubis is good
-Marcus is definitely a step forward
-Cleo is the best one, but at the same time the one that can be improved the most with lil tweaks.
The head, snake collar, sandals are straight perfect. If i can suggest give a try to the previous (or after?) sword, the one with golden hand-protection and strange blade shape... it will add a lot of visual egyptian feeling
 
Holy MONKEYS! Anubis's headpiece (what the heck do you call those?) looks amazing! Such creative use of the bat wings. :3

Marc Antony turned out great! Definitely a huge improvement over the original. Love what you did with the stickers. ^-^ You really pulled in the look of the shoulderpads to all the other items! :3 Only qualm is that he's wearing shorts. o3o Looks kind of odd - he'd probably look more proper in executioner's undies.

Cleopatra's great as well. I bit of color bleeding going on but, overall, another awesome use of stickers. ^-^ Her headdress really helps pull her together, too. Again, though, I have a problem with her undies. I don't know what they would have worn back then, if anything, but those underwear look odd with that sort of dress. I'm not a fan of the belt either... bu that's more a problem with how annoyingly floaty they made all the items, compared to SC4 CaS. Something about her is bugging me but I can't put my finger on it.

Storm looks pretty awesome but I have to admit... I don't keep up with the X-men anymore. :( I do feel she should have a stronger face, though. Love the rich colors~

Keep it up, mister!
 
Excellent work all around brucege. I really like Anubis's head, and the sticker work on Antony's armor is awesome. Awesome sticker/pattern work on Cleo as well.

In an odd side-note, you did know that Storm was a pickpocket/street urchin in Cairo as a child, right? So obviously she fits right in.

PS A belated hat tip to you good sir, as scrolling down the page I rediscovered your Tribal priestess, even commented she was one of my favorites when posted.......... Liked her enough to blatantly steal her design for my broquest amazon, apparently. While I'm partial to stealing high-quality work, I never do so without credit, and clearly your design stuck in my head enough that I could recreate it with a few small changes a month or so later...no wonder that one came together so quickly......Anyway friend, consider it done that I go in and credit that design with an "inspired by" as soon as I get the chance......and in the meantime let's call it an "homage" ......
 
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  • #85
Thanks for all the support, guys! I'll sneak the edits in sometime.

@Quinion: No worries, bro. The amazon turned out to be an excellent work of its own, and you've always cited your inspirations in your threads, so it never even occurred to me. As a matter of fact, I'm currently stuck on my third broquest member, and I may have to turn to the forums for help again soon lol.
 
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  • #86
Here's a small update with two recreations.

1. NOVA (UMVC3)
Either Algol joined the Avengers or Nova got Soul Swords. I'm gonna say the former's more likely.
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Behold! My armpit.
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2. (^_-)*

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Loving how you did the red portion of Nova's mask. From afar, it's seamless. :D

2's hair is interesting and I'm quite fond of that mesh effect on her gloves! It doesn't work out as well on her waist, though. Also, looks like she takes after Chun-Li, in the thigh department. :p
 
Those two recreations are pretty awesome! I like, how the kunoichi turned out. ( I believe I saw her before... )
 
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  • #93
For anyone who's curious, here are my thoughts on CaS. Spoilered to save space. If you don't have the patience to read this wall of text, skip to the bold text. I won't claim I know how to make good CaS, but I do know how to properly evaluate them. I judge CaS by three criteria: aesthetics, creativity, and coherence.
1. Aesthetics - determined by item choice, color coordination, and physical proportions. The 1 + 1 = 2 of CaS. IOW does it look good. Matty was so dominant in this particular field back in the day, that the community began to neglect the other two CaS criteria in favor of random pocket stickers. Not to detract from one of the forum's greatest artists, but many talented people didn't get quite the attention they deserved.

2. Creativity - finding new CaS techniques. Means very little without good aesthetics to support it, but important nonetheless. Art begins from the self. If something is beautiful, who cares where it came from. However, the moment you share your art, it becomes subject to social values. Inventions become property of the inventors. When we see beautiful, but unoriginal art, we respect the art's originator, not the art's conveyor. IOW Sephiroth looks cool, but you didn't make him. Recreations are mostly exercises, but it's still f***ing awesome to see Dante duke it out with Cloud in SCV.

3. Coherence - Unity of purpose. What separates good CaS from great CaS. Every choice must have a reason, and every reason must lead to one theme. The evaluation process goes something like this: What is this CaS's theme? How does each piece contribute to this theme? Does this piece need to be there at all? IOW Sure, a pocket sticker would look cool here, but does that make him more of a knight? Just to clarify, I spam bump-mapped stickers as much as any other bloke. My upcoming OCs for example lol.
 
brucege said:
For anyone who's curious, here are my thoughts on CaS. If you don't have the patience to read this wall of text, skip to the bold text. I won't claim I know how to make good CaS, but I do know how to properly evaluate them. I judge CaS by three criteria: aesthetics, creativity, and coherence.



1. Aesthetics - determined by item choice, color coordination, and physical proportions. The 1 + 1 = 2 of CaS. IOW does it look good. Matty was so dominant in this particular field back in the day, that the community began to neglect the other two CaS criteria in favor of random pocket stickers. Not to detract from one of the forum's greatest artists, but many talented people didn't get quite the attention they deserved.

2. Creativity - finding new CaS techniques. Means very little without good aesthetics to support it, but important nonetheless. Art begins from the self. If something is beautiful, who cares where it came from. However, the moment you share your art, it becomes subject to social values. Inventions become property of the inventors. When we see beautiful, but unoriginal art, we respect the art's originator, not the art's conveyor. IOW Sephiroth looks cool, but you didn't make him. Recreations are mostly exercises, but it's still f***ing awesome to see Dante duke it out with Cloud in SCV.

3. Coherence - Unity of purpose. What separates good CaS from great CaS. Every choice must have a reason, and every reason must lead to one theme. The evaluation process goes something like this: What is this CaS's theme? How does each piece contribute to this theme? Does this piece need to be there at all? IOW Sure, a pocket sticker would look cool here, but does that make him more of a knight? Just to clarify, I spam bump-mapped stickers as much as any other bloke. My upcoming OCs for example lol.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more with all that is very well written here.

For me, a good CAS is first of all a strong theme followed by coherent execution, and by coherent i mean that all of the CAS parts must work towards the theme, and none against it.
By parts i mean body, face, colors, patterns, stickers, voice, special equipment usage...thumbnail and name (if not a 3P) !
The most coherent CAS will always win me over particularly aesthetic ones, or even creative ones with overbright colors, and awkward design choices, or plain technical mistakes...

Yes, there are limits and deadends, but we all have shown since game release the countless ways to think outside the box and beat even the most stupid glitches of the editor and use it as a gimmick to add value to an idea.
The number of time i have read genious, awesome, gives me an idea in the misc. threads is astounding, especially considering the limited number of active and regular posters.

After close to 250 CAS, i realize i barely scratched the surface even after doing countless recreations, OCs and 3Ps, only storage space and my real family and profesional life had me cool it down a bit.
Because it is fun, even though i agree with you that while it isn't hard to get attention (especially for us "popular" CAS makers), it is still very difficult to ignite artistic debate like this one.

Emotion is the key word with art :
see, your Algol above doesn't move me, while your Anubis and George W. and Volvo transgenre will always stay in my soul as creative and coherent CAS, whatever the improvements Gatsu and I suggested...

If i had to point out a specific area of improvement for all your CAS, it would be color palette coherence, and for that i would suggest you do recolors, a very good exercise where you can see first hand why the most subtle colors (with little hue and a touch of this or that) can create the most sublime aesthetics once matched, paired or used together.
Take note of some of them, and don't forget matching a few parts of your CAS with similar colors can do wonders (which might require changing the color depending on the part to create the visual match)

Oh, and I really liked the way you critized my mayan CAS, and totally agree with areas of improvement, i saw the exact same things as you did, yet failed the creative juices to give it another shot, after updating a couple of them already.
 
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  • #96
@friend2luck: I'd be more than happy to. I'll try to find some time between my studies this weekend.

@Vilarcane: Very true. Sometimes it's just one piece or one color that makes the difference. Sometimes I never quite find that exact combination. My Antony, for example, certainly looks pretty, but he has no coherence and next to no personality. Still, the very process of researching (Commodus from The Gladiator, in particular), sketching him out on paper, and fumbling with the pieces was already fun. Add on the comments and especially the solid advice on the forums, and I get more than enough reward for my efforts. Besides, someone's gotta release the sub-par/unfinished stuff every once in a while so new users don't get too intimidated lol.
 
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  • #98
Old original + new original.

1. BEELZEBUB (from Fairy Challenge)
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2. STEAMPUNK GRENADIER
Why's she a "grenadier" rather than soldier? Cuz she's got a grenade, obviously! One version with Cervy guns + actual grenade. Another version with Raph saber + SMG sidearm.

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  • #99
It's been a while. Here we go!

1. STEAMPUNK HAZMAT
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Meanbeard-style shot always looks cool!
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Helmet is Blind Mask (star sticker) + Battle Mask (sun sticker) + Double Snakes + Goggles (red circle stickers underneath to increase red hue).
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"What's this? This fresh petroleum is a sure sign of arson!"
 
2. THE VIOLINIST
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Violin composed of arrow, flattened bottle, and horn. Just cuz I had way too many open sticker slots, I decided to give her a mole (yin yang + card club). Eye sticker + heart sticker to simulate jacket. Phoenix sticker on neck to simulate ruffled shirt. I could have removed the belt to minimize the clipping, but then the wonder jacket would puff out. Closest thing to violin bow is Raphael's thin sword. Inspired by one of Mozart's child portraits, the pink hair, of course.
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