A tale of souls and swords, eternally retold...

OMG. The sexy outfit + facial hair combo is completely absurd. The mustache you added takes this CaS up to a whole new level of insanity. I've been here longer than anyone, but I've never been quite as confused (in a good way) over a CaS as I am with this one. I'm also quite a fan of the overall simplicity. The snowflake pattern adds just the right amount of glamour. No pocket stickers needed here. One thing I would have added is something to transition the top and skirt. The abrupt disappearance of the fur trimming on the top as is tucks into the skirt can be jarring to some viewers. Perhaps you could sticker in a border on the upper edge of the skirt or whiten the little bow tie thing. No matter what you choose to do, she is an utterly fascinating creation. Keep it up, bro.
 
Thx glad it gave you a brain boner :) i tried with various belts for transition but wasn't pleased so yeah why not a fake sticker transition good advice...I like how this board has gotten a few talented artists (new or returning) posting good stuff ...
 
A first attempt at drawing/coloring with WACOM intuos pen tablet...still a lot to learn, but hey, i did this for my goddaughter for our upcoming happy new year reunion, and my wife found it cute, so it should get me a few giggles :)...
Like a female version of this guy maybe ?
images


 
Very cute. A perfect companion for your man mouse. I love the sparkles all around her. Some days (most actually), I feel like I'm walking in my own cloud of sparkles, judging from the way girls gawk at me. The girl to guy ratio is like 80:20 in New York lol.
 
80/20, lucky you ! All girls gawk at you i am sure, you handsome lab rat back-to-schoolboy :)
Thanks for the comment on the sketch, why didn't you try to translate the french, i am sure you can without stealth-googling it
 
VILARCANE said:
Reembed for Kieve and GF :

Click to expand...
There certainly is a lot to take in, but I watched your video in its entirety. Overall, its easy to see the hand of someone who has devoted much time and effort to both experimentation and crafting, i.e., building a character layer by layer and pattern by pattern. I feel this method yields characters with that added depth of realism -and the difference really comes down to time invested and care taken. Obviously, you understand this; your characters display the telltale signs of having been worked -one shade lighter or darker, one click up or down, one more angle adjustment -until they are filled with life.

In Particular, your work on facial hair is excellent (consider using the tiger pattern to add faint hair lines to the horns) , as are your African ladies, which have an air of authenticity. Working within the confines of the medium is, of course, the challenge -and you inspire me. I look forward to more of your designs.
 
CORTOsy of Vilarcane for taking the time to drop by...



About your comments, let me first say your analysis is spot-on and humbles me.
In more details my comments below :

YOU : There certainly is a lot to take in, but I watched your video in its entirety.

ME :
I AGREE, BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER TO WATCH A VID THAN BROWSE THROUGH 120 PAGES, PLUS YOU CAN EASILY PAUSE AND SCRUTINIZE THE CAS YOU LIKE THE MOST AND LEARN FROM THEM


YOU : Overall, its easy to see the hand of someone who has devoted much time and effort to both experimentation and crafting, i.e., building a character layer by layer and pattern by pattern.

Me : I HAVE A WORKFLOW WHICH IS PRETTY IDENTICAL AND ALWAYS STARTS WITH ONE QUESTION : HAVE A STRONG DESIGN DIRECTION AND AN IDEA THAT MOTIVATES ME. STARTING WITHOUT THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO END UP WITH A BLAND DESIGN. THEN I EXACTLY DO WHAT YOU SAY, LAYER BY LAYER : STARTING WITH STYLE/ BODY / FACE / HAIR / VOICE then underwear then EQ, then basic colors working with and not against each other and complementing the theme, then ExEq, then textures and stickers, ExEq placement and texturing, then weapon choice / coloring, texturing and careful pick of SFX, only to end with a cool thumbnail & name.
I usually test them in-game and refine what ain't working if needed. When it all works together, the result is stunning and i consider tons of CAS on this board to have a lot more flair and character than the standard CASt.

YOU : I feel this method yields characters with that added depth of realism -and the difference really comes down to time invested and care taken. Obviously, you understand this; your characters display the telltale signs of having been worked -one shade lighter or darker, one click up or down, one more angle adjustment -until they are filled with life.

ME : filled with life hum : couldn't have hoped for a better compliment...i encourage you to watch some of the vids of the AI or real online fights on my channel to see how far i went to give them digital life :) What people usually underestimate is the importance of the face preset and make-up and other gimmicks (stickers, exeq, eye color, brows, haircut) that works towards strengthening the theme and making the whole as CASritmatic as can be. The face and eyes are the soul of any chara design.
Rarely used (or considered ugly) presets can make a random CAS a striking one. A good example of this is my mexican pistolero with the butt-ugly "broken nose" face preset, one you can see in a gameplay vid.


YOU : In Particular, your work on facial hair is excellent (consider using the tiger pattern to add faint hair lines to the horns) , as are your African ladies, which have an air of authenticity. Working within the confines of the medium is, of course, the challenge -and you inspire me. I look forward to more of your designs.

ME :

African ladies : you mean the mayans, or the masai queen maybe ? not sure which one you refer too...
Yes, what motivated me is thinking outside the box and pushing the editor to the limits, and sometimes using the bugs too.
Your reply as a whole is really interesting and i could conclude by (almost) exactly the same sentence as yours : i look forward to more of your designs, applying the exact same workflow and artistic intention and energy. I would be there to review them, and some others probably too...
If you have things intriguing you or stuff you wanna ask about, learn from, comment on, feel free...
 
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VILARCANE said:
CORTOsy of Vilarcane for taking the time to drop by...



About your comments, let me first say your analysis is spot-on and humbles me.
In more details my comments below :

YOU : There certainly is a lot to take in, but I watched your video in its entirety.

ME :
I AGREE, BUT I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER TO WATCH A VID THAN BROWSE THROUGH 120 PAGES, PLUS YOU CAN EASILY PAUSE AND SCRUTINIZE THE CAS YOU LIKE THE MOST AND LEARN FROM THEM


YOU : Overall, its easy to see the hand of someone who has devoted much time and effort to both experimentation and crafting, i.e., building a character layer by layer and pattern by pattern.

Me : I HAVE A WORKFLOW WHICH IS PRETTY IDENTICAL AND ALWAYS STARTS WITH ONE QUESTION : HAVE A STRONG DESIGN DIRECTION AND AN IDEA THAT MOTIVATES ME. STARTING WITHOUT THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO END UP WITH A BLAND DESIGN. THEN I EXACTLY DO WHAT YOU SAY, LAYER BY LAYER : STARTING WITH STYLE/ BODY / FACE / HAIR / VOICE then underwear then EQ, then basic colors working with and not against each other and complementing the theme, then ExEq, then textures and stickers, ExEq placement and texturing, then weapon choice / coloring, texturing and careful pick of SFX, only to end with a cool thumbnail & name.
I usually test them in-game and refine what ain't working if needed. When it all works together, the result is stunning and i consider tons of CAS on this board to have a lot more flair and character than the standard CASt.

YOU : I feel this method yields characters with that added depth of realism -and the difference really comes down to time invested and care taken. Obviously, you understand this; your characters display the telltale signs of having been worked -one shade lighter or darker, one click up or down, one more angle adjustment -until they are filled with life.

ME : filled with life hum : couldn't have hoped for a better compliment...i encourage you to watch some of the vids of the AI or real online fights on my channel to see how far i went to give them digital life :) What people usually underestimate is the importance of the face preset and make-up and other gimmicks (stickers, exeq, eye color, brows, haircut) that works towards strengthening the theme and making the whole as CASritmatic as can be. The face and eyes are the soul of any chara design.
Rarely used (or considered ugly) presets can make a random CAS a striking one. A good example of this is my mexican pistolero with the butt-ugly "broken nose" face preset, one you can see in a gameplay vid.


YOU : In Particular, your work on facial hair is excellent (consider using the tiger pattern to add faint hair lines to the horns) , as are your African ladies, which have an air of authenticity. Working within the confines of the medium is, of course, the challenge -and you inspire me. I look forward to more of your designs.

ME :

African ladies : you mean the mayans, or the masai queen maybe ? not sure which one you refer too...
Yes, what motivated me is thinking outside the box and pushing the editor to the limits, and sometimes using the bugs too.
Your reply as a whole is really interesting and i could conclude by (almost) exactly the same sentence as yours : i look forward to more of your designs, applying the exact same workflow and artistic intention and energy. I would be there to review them, and some others probably too...
If you have things intriguing you or stuff you wanna ask about, learn from, comment on, feel free...
Click to expand...

corto.jpg

Ah... Corto Maltese - I wish he was better known here in the States. I only discovered him myself on a trip to France (in the pre-Internet era).

I couldn't agree more with you about the face/makeup being the soul of character design and it's something that I think a lot of people overlook. The looks just with the makeup -different races, beauty/ugliness, young/old- are practically infinite with the right tweaks and can look completely different on different presets. I've been trying some different face effects out recently that I'll post in my own thread. It's kind-of funny; I always design in layers too, from the undergarments out, with each layer's color and pattern selected -even if they won't be visible in the final build. I always feel like the character will know it's there!

Oh, and about the African ladies I was referring to... maybe the Masai queen? Very black skin, extremely slender and with rainbow feathers -amazing.
 
A very interesting discussion we are having...

Your Corto is good esp hat build n sideburns great stuff ! I havent tried to recreate him but i might._.
The only elements of critique would be the face preset precisely, Corto is young, yes, but also a sea dog so maybe use the makeup adding some more angles in the face (sure you see which one i am talking about), or chosing another preset altogether (i haven't checked if there is any better one)...have you just experimented with the face in a concept CAS fashion or did you actually render the full CAS.
He is also rather slender, and your coat makes him look a bit too "fluffy"/wide from the little i can see :)
Something you could adjust with the body proportions maybe

Somehow, i got an idea on a good twist for a Corto CAS, using B&W like in the "BD" (Bande Dessinée, or comic strip, but we don't say comics in France, because "comique" means funny, Corto certainly has its share of humorous dialogue, but the settings are usually dark and mature as you know, so he ain't comique, rather "tragicomique" or "dramatique").

About the CAS, you mean that one, right ? One of my very early CAS indeed...
Yup masai queen has a pretty expressive face.

c2w72r7on8fyrmibx.jpg
 
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VILARCANE said:
A very interesting discussion we are having...

Your Corto is good esp hat build n sideburns great stuff ! I havent tried to recreate him but i might._.
The only elements of critique would be the face preset precisely, Corto is young, yes, but also a sea dog so maybe use the makeup adding some more angles in the face (sure you see which one i am talking about), or chosing another preset altogether (i haven't checked if there is any better one)...have you just experimented with the face in a concept CAS fashion or did you actually render the full CAS.
He is also rather slender, and your coat makes him look a bit too "fluffy"/wide from the little i can see :)
Something you could adjust with the body proportions maybe

Somehow, i got an idea on a good twist for a Corto CAS, using B&W like in the "BD" (Bande Dessinée, or comic strip, but we don't say comics in France, because "comique" means funny, Corto certainly has its share of humorous dialogue, but the settings are usually dark and mature as you know, so he ain't comique, rather "tragicomique" or "dramatique").

About the CAS, you mean that one, right ? One of my very early CAS indeed...
Yup masai queen has a pretty expressive face.

c2w72r7on8fyrmibx.jpg
Click to expand...
I've done only a handful of CAS character recreations (Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, Ziggy Stardust, Elvis, etc.) and, as such, I don't consider Corto to be one of my "official" releases. He could probably use some help -but he's a tough build... The white bellbottoms are spot-on, but his iconic pea coat is a big problem. The fur coat actually looks better than the trench coat -except for the fur, of course. And though presumably you could get rid of the fur at the cuffs with the Adept's Sleeves, it's just too much of a stretch at the collar and hem to be convincing. It's kind-of a shame... otherwise he'd be pretty good with a little tweaking. Maybe you could do better; I don't use any of the DLC packs, so I couldn't say if there were any better options. Doing an all black-and-white version of him is a great idea!

I think if you're in the know here -that is, you appreciate comics to begin with- people have generally heard of European comic characters, but part of the problem is that many haven't been widely translated. Asterix and Tintin are perhaps the most famous, the later having had a big boost from the animated film, but Corto is far less well-known. Most of his English-language catalog went out of print in the 1990s and has been difficult to get a hold of. Moebius still has a dedicated following, so I think Pratt could too; especially with the WWI centenary sparking some interest in Corto's time period.

That's the African lady I was talking about. It might be an early one for you, but she's effective! No doubt, by this time many of us here have spent far more time designing our characters than the guys at Namco. I wish there was a game where that was all you did; a people-bulider of sorts...
 
The hat build on Corto is amazing! I'd skip over the trench coat and go straight to that jacket you used on the hussar. Set the trench coat to black, paint the front white with a giant number one sticker (the edges of this faux "shirt" will be fuzzy, but you'll cover them up). Wrap a giant pocket sticker (the one with the button) around the torso for the actual trench coat. You might be able to create the red lapels with a downward angled place-by-view red pocket sticker (the plain blue one) and cutting down the center with another white sticker (to merge it back in with the white "shirt". 4 stickers total. You can see the trench coat I made below for reference.

brucege said:
4. SHERLOCK FUCKIN' HOLMES (my hero)
View attachment 35571
View attachment 35569
View attachment 35570

Creation notes: Horns make the pipe and two pairs of rabbit ears for the front and back flaps on the deerstalker cap. Two pocket stickers on left and right side of cap to simulate flaps. Tiger stripe pattern on the pants for the grungy texture. Max size pocket sticker placed by axis on "entire body" setting for texture. Ribbon sticker underneath to simulate vest/waistcoat. Giant number one sticker underneath to make inside shirt grey.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you can make it work. Slavish pursuit of accuracy rarely produces aesthetically-pleasing designs. You'll usually get better results crafting something different but in the same spirit of the original. Like the changes in SCV Mitsurugi's outfits from game to game.
 
brucege said:
The hat build on Corto is amazing! I'd skip over the trench coat and go straight to that jacket you used on the hussar. Set the trench coat to black, paint the front white with a giant number one sticker (the edges of this faux "shirt" will be fuzzy, but you'll cover them up). Wrap a giant pocket sticker (the one with the button) around the torso for the actual trench coat. You might be able to create the red lapels with a downward angled place-by-view red pocket sticker (the plain blue one) and cutting down the center with another white sticker (to merge it back in with the white "shirt". 4 stickers total. You can see the trench coat I made below for reference.



I'm sure you can make it work. Slavish pursuit of accuracy rarely produces aesthetically-pleasing designs. You'll usually get better results crafting something different but in the same spirit of the original. Like the changes in SCV Mitsurugi's outfits from game to game.
Click to expand...

This one is in my top 3 favourite of yours, instant classic.
The tips are definitely useful too, you always amaze me with your sense of practical abstraction recreating complex techniques out of memory, like a chess player in a blind game. I agree with you, it is all about thinking outside the box and capturing the soul of the character rather than going for the 1 to 1 recreation, which is most of the time completely impossible anyways. But hey, that is where the fun is to be had...
 
King Slender said:
I've done only a handful of CAS character recreations (Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, Ziggy Stardust, Elvis, etc.) and, as such, I don't consider Corto to be one of my "official" releases. He could probably use some help -but he's a tough build... The white bellbottoms are spot-on, but his iconic pea coat is a big problem. The fur coat actually looks better than the trench coat -except for the fur, of course. And though presumably you could get rid of the fur at the cuffs with the Adept's Sleeves, it's just too much of a stretch at the collar and hem to be convincing. It's kind-of a shame... otherwise he'd be pretty good with a little tweaking. Maybe you could do better; I don't use any of the DLC packs, so I couldn't say if there were any better options. Doing an all black-and-white version of him is a great idea!

I think if you're in the know here -that is, you appreciate comics to begin with- people have generally heard of European comic characters, but part of the problem is that many haven't been widely translated. Asterix and Tintin are perhaps the most famous, the later having had a big boost from the animated film, but Corto is far less well-known. Most of his English-language catalog went out of print in the 1990s and has been difficult to get a hold of. Moebius still has a dedicated following, so I think Pratt could too; especially with the WWI centenary sparking some interest in Corto's time period.

That's the African lady I was talking about. It might be an early one for you, but she's effective! No doubt, by this time many of us here have spent far more time designing our characters than the guys at Namco. I wish there was a game where that was all you did; a people-bulider of sorts...
Click to expand...

Yeah, i came to realize that european comics are not so well known when most of the people on this board never heard of him, Marsu being a famous BD character from one of the most iconic cartoon artist in France called Adnré Franquin (Gaston Lagaffe, Idées Noires, Marsupilami, Spirou etc.).


One of the people i revere is André Chéret, author of Rahan, fond childhood memories of comics with a soul...

Of the most recent ones, check out Delaby and the Murena series (having done my share of roman themed CAS :), great art ! Sadly, guy deceased last year.

I am fond of american comics as well, some of them are extremely good, like Capullo Locke&Key series which completely captivated me...

Go for the black and white version using Brucege's tips, you wouldn't need a DLC to do that, i'll gladly lend you the idea provided i have little time to do it myself...
 
Very a propos, another attempt with wacom tablet (only for painting here) using a whole new process based on overlay blending mode and less bright colors...
Always had the idea behind what has been an ink sketch for years to do a night/rain effect render out of it.
feel free to tell me if you like the end-result...
Called Marsupluielanuit ! (wordlplay : can you figure it out in french ?)
Also, can you find the cubs she is after, playing hide and seek ?

 
VILARCANE said:
Very a propos, another attempt with wacom tablet (only for painting here) using a whole new process based on overlay blending mode and less bright colors...
Always had the idea behind what has been an ink sketch for years to do a night/rain effect render out of it.
feel free to tell me if you like the end-result...
Called Marsupluielanuit ! (wordlplay : can you figure it out in french ?)
Also, can you find the cubs she is after, playing hide and seek ?
Click to expand...
Long time.... :)
I just checked out your DA account :)
I still don't know this character :) but it seems you did a good job capturing his likeness. :)
 
OMG, you two of all people...so happy to read a few words from ya and to learn you are still around and lurking once in a while.
Thanks for the comment on DA (yeah, pretty proud of my Cobra Space Adventure tryptich).
I will have a lot of catching up to do on your gallery, which at first glance is already gutwrenching...a few things caught my eyes, like that slender dragon...

If you ever wanna catch up with my SC stuff, you can browse a few pages back for a few new ones + watch the 350CAS vid. on my youtube channel.

How are things shaping up for you otherwise, after the sad events you had to go through ?

Gotta go, conf calls await !
 
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