A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold (SC6 edition)

Thx friend ! At the end of the gameclip i posted you can see how i carefully positioned the cat ears so it makes a nice collar for Seung seen from the front :) Batshit crazy is my middlename... Oh another funny thing, bat in french translates to bald mouse or chauve-souris :)
 
A quick pencil sketch i did this last week-end for my goddaughter who is just a big stitch fan...i thought i could post it here since i made his CAS alter ego (i miss the rabbit ears to do him just right, probably coming in the next patch...)
Right hind leg has unfortunately been hit by an infantoray (quizz : which retro videogame featured this sci-fi weapon ?)



PS : there are many quizz unanswered, what are you guys doing ? what, you have a REAL life, come on, no excuses :)
 
Here comes the fierce PANDASHAO, where is the PO-LIIIIICE ! :)
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Design notes : i know the ears might seem a bit too big for a panda and should be closer to the upper middle part of the cranium, but first prio was to hide the cat ears, so i made them as small as possible.
Quiz : what the head composed of ?
 
Not use an external hard disk to record the entire match on Xboxone? You can upload your video directly on Youtube.
 
Not use an external hard disk to record the entire match on Xboxone? You can upload your video directly on Youtube.

I don't see the point of uploading directly to youtube, i record on the internal HDD of the one then i go to :
http://xboxclips.com/
Then you search your gamertag and voilà, you can download, embed, copy/paste links of vids directly into your post.
Piece of cake !

Enough IT banter, do you not fancy the Panda above ? :)
 
Ready for more CAS PO-etry ?



kept the turtle shell untouched because there are turtles in the KF movie, at least one, right :) Let's say he borrowed it from master Oogway
after his passing...sob










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Yes, i am not mincing words, i pick them carefully (eg. overdone) puns and CAS alike are the meat of my posts :)
 
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@VILARCANE Oh my goodness!!! After all that CAS showing off we did with one another today, I completely forgot that I as well want to download your Seong Witch-na. : )

I think I must have shown you 2/3 of my SC VI creations today! Definitely the ones I like the most, and I am stoked by the trade-a-roo we completed. Excited to play with your characters that I downloaded, they really are solid and many of them were actually creations I was thinking of making (in terms of theme) but I kept on getting pulled in different directions.

Stoked to keep sharing the good stuff with one another.

Let me know when I can download that Seong Witch-na from you! : ) And remember if you think of anything else of mine you would like to swipe just let me know.
 
@VILARCANE Oh my goodness!!! After all that CAS showing off we did with one another today, I completely forgot that I as well want to download your Seong Witch-na. : )

I think I must have shown you 2/3 of my SC VI creations today! Definitely the ones I like the most, and I am stoked by the trade-a-roo we completed. Excited to play with your characters that I downloaded, they really are solid and many of them were actually creations I was thinking of making (in terms of theme) but I kept on getting pulled in different directions.

Stoked to keep sharing the good stuff with one another.

Let me know when I can download that Seong Witch-na from you! : ) And remember if you think of anything else of mine you would like to swipe just let me know.

"Really solid" hohum, don't hold back because of forum politics, talk about your feelings like you did in the chat (i learned a new word btw, "rad" :) :
like when you discover my Panda in skeleton underwear, or the first time you laid eyes on IVYndian or Cagouille, or the way Taki's espionne's stache caught you off guard :)
Well, too late now, i just did...

Sorry for not interacting more with you because family was asleep and i don't have a keyboard to type quick, but i really appreciated your kind wow-rds and your interest for grabbing my digital soul-mates :) Yup, i still got quite a few to show-off, i think you saw 60% of my current collection, bar alternates.

I got crushed by your Minas most of the time (no wonder she's your main), but i landed a few wins i was quite proud of, especially outwitting you with CHESSVALIER was a high for me, check...mate !
I was surprised by the (almost) absence of lag and even when i lost, i loved to watch your crazy combos and nice special moves with Seung, Ivy, Talim etc. (this game is such a beauty).
Ok, there were a few occurrences when i got bitter because you seemed to have a slight ping adv and blocked all of my CEs at first, or because of early armor breaks or merciless comeback rounds from you (which is ok if you were holding back all the time haha :), but i totally respect you wanted to win (only downside, for you, is that you saw maybe 20% of victory poses from my CAS, too bad :) I will remember the guard impact then grab or CE technique, you are very good at it !

I will not argue who is best at CAS and who is best at fighting, i think you made it pretty obvious.

Before i continue sharing, i am interested in knowing what you understood and learned from studying the way my CAS are designed and the techniques at play, tiny little secrets you can only discern in the editor, rather than starting by asking for more stuff...try to deconstruct.

Studying your CAS, i think your technique is "solid" (wink), but the biggest advice from me would be to avoid clash of patterns, or pattern overkill, and add some unique elements that would bring your CAS to another level of thematic originality. Your Wasp and Snow Ninja Taki are the most visually appealing to me.

Cheers !

PS : oh and if you play with my characters, i'd love to see clips of your best fights posted here (link from xboxclips.com), it would be good to see someone who knows what he is doing :)
 
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@VILARCANE Haha! Yes, when I play Seong Mi-na I have to release the beast, and unfortunately most of my costumes are made for her, hence why the aggression in some games, and in others not so much. But good games overall! : )

To your point of early breakage of costumes in combat (this is happening from lethal hits), this is why I endeavour to make my costumes maintain design aesthetic through stages of breakage as it is the reality that often 10 seconds into the match a piece of armour gets broken off by sheer chance. In SC V I believe this was even more extreme was it not? I believe all costume elements broke simultaneously. At least in VI we have different segments Low/Mid/High of breakage.

Through my own general observation of how costumes are generally made up (i.e. how the components interact and rest on one another), the variety of breakage scenarios can generally happen in the following order of preference:
  1. High --> Mid --> Low: Minor visible difference, design intact.
  2. High --> Low --> Mid: Small visible difference, design intact.
  3. Low --> High --> Mid: Small to Moderate visible difference, design generally intact.
  4. Low --> Mid --> High: Moderate visible difference, design compromised.
  5. Mid --> High --> Low: High visible difference, design broken.
  6. Mid --> Low --> High: Extremely noticeable difference, design broken.
What the above means, in my eyes, is that you can generally make costumes to compensate easily for 50% of breakage scenarios without losing overall aesthetic, and on 33% of breakage scenarios the likelihood of the costume aesthetic being broken is very likely without highly creative and unique strategies.

But to my next point, after all you did request that I give you more a critique than initially offered in the post above, the above scenario is based on traditionally built CAS in my eyes. But through our playtime I realized a big difference between my creations and your creations, as I see it, is that your creations harness the absurd much more regularly than my own. My creations for example are framed generally within the context of the game (with the exception being my Schoolgirl, Wasp and Sci-fi Mi-na) whereas your creations, such as the Panda, Snail, and Rook embrace absurdity and pun in their creation. I would say we are opposites in our creation vision, whereas I currently maintain a 70/30 balance between fitting into the universe and creating for the sake of creation, you would be 30/70.

The reason I mention this, is I think that the very nature of our differences in creation style result in your CAS being more susceptible to costume breakage than my own. For example, both the Rook and Snail losing their helm will impact your costume aesthetic more than any of my characters losing their own (after all, a warrior without a helm will happen, but a horse demon without a head wouldn't, etc...). I think this is the challenge of your methodology due to the current limitations of the game (i.e. if we could set it to not break costumes components, this problem would no longer exist).

Anyhoo, just my thoughts on the breakage concept, I have spent a lot of my time in the creator focused on the aesthetic of breakage and as you mentioned the unfortunate circumstance of your costumes breaking too quickly in our battles.

Regardless, to specific feedback as requested:
  • Indigenous Ivy: This costume is one of the most beautiful costumes I have seen in the game so far. The colour scheme is very solid, and realistic patterns were selected, further it has the perfect balance of mismatched patterns. PLUS that is one of the best pipes I have ever seen.
  • Mustache Taki: Love the use of the lipstick as the mustache, didn't consider this use of the sticker. It on top of the make up choices and patterns make it feel very old school European/Spanish to me. Oh, and Taki's hat was also amazing. I will definitely steal that Turtle shell idea to make a similar design.
  • Maid Mi-na: The addition of the small duster in the hand is a subtle detail that adds so much realism and personality to the costume.
  • Panda: The design is great overall, and the skeleton underneath is great. The reason I was so shocked by this, is usually when I see skeleton's online it is a lazy design choice. But in my eyes, the detail of the panda contrasts the skeleton under-layer so dramatically that it makes it feel like you have literally blasted the flesh of off this warrior creature. This is the first time I have seen the skeleton used in a manner I found shockingly clever. And it all stems from the amazing quality in the panda design above it.
  • Overall Design Choices - Creativity: As mentioned above, your costumes embrace the absurd, which results in extremely creative outcomes. The quality of your design ability results in the clear transmission of the theme and vision you had in each creation.
  • Overall Design Choices - Clarity, Too Much?: This is where I think we differ in our design choices, and it reflects the feedback you have given to me about crowding with patterns, I ask myself when looking at your costumes if the design is too clear to be realistic. For example, I believe your pattern choices, colours, and sizes make every pattern distinct and clear to the viewer, but in my eyes this contrasts reality which is often messy, muddled, and cluttered. Whereas you in your design focus on clearly defined patterns, colours, and themes to make the costumes visually appealing, viewable, and pop, I prefer a more organized chaos design approach to reflect what I view would be the reality of that environment (although I must admit even I struggle with this and often pull it back more than my initial intent).
Anyhoo, those are my thoughts! And I still want that witch Mi-na!!! : )

Note: All the above feedback stems from my personal experience making costumes, BUT note I am new to this forum and have already learned so much just from looking at the amazing creations here, so please understand that my feedback is framed within my current context.
 
My answers in bold...
First off thanks for the in depth reply, it is quite rare i can engage in such interesting discussion with someone showing genuine interest for CASart, merci !

Haha! Yes, when I play Seong Mi-na I have to release the beast, and unfortunately most of my costumes are made for her, hence why the aggression in some games, and in others not so much. But good games overall! : )
Yes, T800 wins, Zorraph wins, Chessvalier wins and a few others i can't recall, i'll have to check the replays, but i know i even beat some of your Seung (with a bit of luck and spamming for sure :).
I am happy with my perf considering it's just old skills from 5 since i haven't touched training mode and barely looked at new moves. I need to do this, since some of the new moves are great in efficiency and aesthetics.


... you can generally make costumes to compensate easily for 50% of breakage scenarios without losing overall aesthetic, and on 33% of breakage scenarios the likelihood of the costume aesthetic being broken is very likely without highly creative and unique strategies.
I always pay attention to all layers of costume, did you check Seung Maid Na underwear (middle armor break) as i prompted you to ?
Do it, don't be a pussy (you'll understand :)


But to my next point, after all you did request that I give you more a critique than initially offered in the post above, the above scenario is based on traditionally built CAS in my eyes. But through our playtime I realized a big difference between my creations and your creations, as I see it, is that your creations harness the absurd much more regularly than my own. My creations for example are framed generally within the context of the game (with the exception being my Schoolgirl, Wasp and Sci-fi Mi-na) whereas your creations, such as the Panda, Snail, and Rook embrace absurdity and pun in their creation. I would say we are opposites in our creation vision, whereas I currently maintain a 70/30 balance between fitting into the universe and creating for the sake of creation, you would be 30/70.
I beg to differ, but only slightly :) What exactly doesn't fit in the SC universe : does 2B fit in the SC universe ? i think she does, just because she wields a set of melee weapons, period.

The general SC lore is cliche and formulaic at best in the first place, because jap design usually borrows a lot from things they think are cool in Jap or elsewhere : if we take Raphael's moveset, it's clearly inspired by Zorro and Cape et d'epée movies, this just struck me when i did my Zorraph, just so damn perfect weapon style with all the teasing moves and parades and all, plus you can't help notice the face looks just like him, provided you add the stache and hat.

Over the SC5 span, i have done countless lore fitting CAS, i would say it was probably 50/50 in the end, but if you want to count them and see what i am talking about, consider both my SC5 (350CAS) compilation and my SC6 first 50 CAS compil (maybe you have seen the SC6 one ? otherwise, i can give you the links if you want in PM). I'd say i could do lore compat CAS all day in 5, but it was not a challenge nor a pleasure anymore, so i went the extra mile and totally out of the box thinking helped me reach a new level in CAS making :)
I doubt that when i submitted my T800 (a recreation) to the CAS contest most voters actually understood how much out of the box thinking it required to pull such a credible arnie T800 out of the editor's hat (at least in its current state), but that's okay.


My point is, once we get all the items back, it would make sense to either redesign and improve on old tradi CAS i did in 5, and create some new ones. If you take the Panda that struck you silly (that crane leg move is just hilarious hey ?), the only addition of the 2B
emil's head allowed me to reproduce the bulky chin and add bear teeth to an otherwise harmless looking panda in my SC5 versions.
Plus a few other tweaks and different design paths, including the stached version you didn't play against, yet :)


The reason I mention this, is I think that the very nature of our differences in creation style result in your CAS being more susceptible to costume breakage than my own. For example, both the Rook and Snail losing their helm will impact your costume aesthetic more than any of my characters losing their own (after all, a warrior without a helm will happen, but a horse demon without a head wouldn't, etc...). I think this is the challenge of your methodology due to the current limitations of the game (i.e. if we could set it to not break costumes components, this problem would no longer exist).
100% in agreement here !

Anyhoo, just my thoughts on the breakage concept, I have spent a lot of my time in the creator focused on the aesthetic of breakage and as you mentioned the unfortunate circumstance of your costumes breaking too quickly in our battles.
I can see you totally own the matter of armor / costume breakage and thanks a lot for teaching me all the subtleties mate :)

Regardless, to specific feedback as requested:
  • Indigenous Ivy: This costume is one of the most beautiful costumes I have seen in the game so far. The colour scheme is very solid, and realistic patterns were selected, further it has the perfect balance of mismatched patterns. PLUS that is one of the best pipes I have ever seen. Smoking hot she is :)
  • Mustache Taki: Love the use of the lipstick as the mustache, didn't consider this use of the sticker. It on top of the make up choices and patterns make it feel very old school European/Spanish to me. Oh, and Taki's hat was also amazing. I will definitely steal that Turtle shell idea to make a similar design. You might not need to if we get some items back from 5, it's a good workaround tho. You can also use the scar stickers colored black for great stache like on Zorraph, for any stache/facial hair enquiry, pm Spellcraft, he knows the craft as good as i do :)
  • Maid Mi-na: The addition of the small duster in the hand is a subtle detail that adds so much realism and personality to the costume.
    See, i can do realism, i have a motto for that :"dust do it !"
  • Panda: The design is great overall, and the skeleton underneath is great. The reason I was so shocked by this, is usually when I see skeleton's online it is a lazy design choice. But in my eyes, the detail of the panda contrasts the skeleton under-layer so dramatically that it makes it feel like you have literally blasted the flesh of off this warrior creature. This is the first time I have seen the skeleton used in a manner I found shockingly clever. And it all stems from the amazing quality in the panda design above it.
    Such was the exact intent, make you laugh out loud creating the perfect distraction for a sneaky grab or CE, it did work for the first round before i got...undressed :)
  • Overall Design Choices - Creativity: As mentioned above, your costumes embrace the absurd, which results in extremely creative outcomes. The quality of your design ability results in the clear transmission of the theme and vision you had in each creation.
    Well said :)
  • Overall Design Choices - Clarity, Too Much?: This is where I think we differ in our design choices, and it reflects the feedback you have given to me about crowding with patterns, I ask myself when looking at your costumes if the design is too clear to be realistic. For example, I believe your pattern choices, colours, and sizes make every pattern distinct and clear to the viewer, but in my eyes this contrasts reality which is often messy, muddled, and cluttered. Whereas you in your design focus on clearly defined patterns, colours, and themes to make the costumes visually appealing, viewable, and pop, I prefer a more organized chaos design approach to reflect what I view would be the reality of that environment (although I must admit even I struggle with this and often pull it back more than my initial intent).
    Ok, i see, i will try to illustrate what i mean by a few examples of my CAS that are not clean and lean towards your approach, in order for you to consider where i set the bar, even though if you ask brucege (our pro reviewer) he'll always tell you i use a lot of patterns and not always so obvious details while he uses a more surgical approach for his CAS looks. Stand by for next posts with those.
Anyhoo, those are my thoughts! And I still want that witch Mi-na!!! : ).
Mate, come on, you have earned another round of CAS show-off with this reply of yours, so you can get many more VilarCAS :)
As i said, in return, i'd like clips of you doing crazy stuff (can be online or in versus mode) i can watch and maybe use in a compil video that would be like a shared effort between your clips and my montage, unless of course you have montage / video editing talents and would do me the honor of bringing my CAS presentation to another level (once you have snatched all you want from my calibur of souls) ??? what do you say ?


Note: All the above feedback stems from my personal experience making costumes, BUT note I am new to this forum and have already learned so much just from looking at the amazing creations here, so please understand that my feedback is framed within my current context.
Totally respect and understand that disclaimer.
 
Realistic lore compat CAS from my SC5 collection, with the highlights in bold, back pic quality due to no screenshot function on xbox360
aged mitsu, hand dagger (which you can't see here) and sticker battle...
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Minibow, ninja scroll and Tiger medallion
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LiLong (mutton chops, girl medallion and second nunchuk)
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Ah yes nice. That Minibo and LiLong are nice.

I recently shared my SCV CAS on my forum, you guys motivated me to go back and grab them. Check them out when you have a chance!

PS - I found the hidden kitty after you first shared the Maid Mi-na with me! Haha. Another example of embracing the absurd in your creations to create creative CAS!
 
Thanks Spellcraft for the comments and critique : well, the lipstick is two round stickers side by side because lip stickers won't pop, is too grainy, so it doesn't look like chocolate sauce lipstick. Artifical looking face, i beg to differ...Chocolate coated skin for the face maybe :) facepaint, yeah, why not ? I went for a blend of Che Guevara look for Groh + SAS (shemag) + green beret (hat construct), but hell you are right his eye patch/visor haircut and stache could definitely hint at a modern age young Cervy...anyways, i could have done a desert camo variation (because of shemag), but i thought olive green based palette looked just the part :)

I like the way you question my designs / art direction, thank you !

Bonus CAS for you...









Pompadour, Ventrilock et Grand Vizir ont tous un design incroyable :)
Bravo
 
Holy damn dude... you’re killin’ it with all these crazy unique and out of the box creations.

I can’t even choose which one is my favorite, i like all of them.
 
Holy damn dude... you’re killin’ it with all these crazy unique and out of the box creations.

I can’t even choose which one is my favorite, i like all of them.
Why thx :) You wanna know my favourite then ? Libellule...idk how i brought her to life, it's like a fairy whispered the design to my ears...she's the whimsyCAS perfection (at least to me)
 
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