Benji's Community Suggestion & Critique Thread

Benjeezy

Benjeezy

[12] Conqueror
Hello, all!

I'm pretty bad at coming up with new characters to make in CAS. I got no imagination. That's why I'm coming to you.

I need y'all to help me come up with a base for characters in SC's 3, 4, and when it hits, 5.

I'm willing to accept any type of character- Fan Characters, characters from various media, even mods of the original cast!

Feel free to provide me with reference materials- I'll need all the help I can get x.x

And once I confirm I can take decent pictures of them, I'll upload them here. That way, you can tell me how well/poorly I've done!

Please help me fill my CAS slots with awesome souls!

REQUIRED:

-Game # to use: 3, 4, or 5, once it launches.
-Name
-Any details/backstory, etc
-Any reference material you care to post.

Thank you! :)
 
Long ramble of venting to help.

My best advice is to start by thinking of an inspirational fetish to get you started. And always experiment. Even if it looks bad, toss it away for future uses.

I'm always a sucker for kunoichis and female samurais thanks to anime and japanese culture. Now how do I make a character of these inspirations? Simple. Experiment trial and error. Find the best look for your character that just makes it look....."wow". You want to do that to an impatient and ignorant fool. Wow them to say nice cas.

I'll use my original Rei Hayashi for an example. Not many people care on story, but generally about how a character looks in general. Let me show you how I got Gatsu's attention for instance.

Rei at first started as the typical cliche anime chick with a spunky attitude.
Inspiration first began here:
rei-hayashi-png.6011


My thoughts were just remaking this character in the best way I could. My result was this:
58-jpg.4815


Not bad for a start right? Wrong. Though this is average start of character with potential, one thing you must always stay away from and I repeat stay away from, is looking too cliche and trendy. Cliches are fine, but they need to be unique. Online has many chicks named Sasha or Jill or whatever anime fantasy chick I find wearing this same armor. They're cute, but they're forgettable. You don't want to have people say "cool story bro" and then just leave it be. No, you want them to look and praise your creations without any sugarcoat bs. That's why it's best to try something new to keep it unique.


That being said, I found this outfit to be basic for the typical samurai chick. But as I saw better customs from others than this particular look for Rei, I became competitive. Being competitive is always good. Being a mushy gushy humble guy is my style, but being competitive brings out the best in everyone. So after I saw some great CAS and style from certain people like Gatsu, I felt I wanted to improve and be more experimental.


So I googled and searched. Another thing you should always do for "fetish ideas". I found nothing until bam I found and unlikely source.......this pokemon. Suddenly, I felt it could help with my character Rei Hayashi in terms of making her look cool yet odd at the same time.

Here's a pic of inspiration that improved my original Rei Hayashi. It's name is Bisharp. It looks like a power ranger/kamen rider but screams don't underestimate me. I felt this could suit Rei.
103px-625Bisharp.png


My initial thoughts were to recreate and follow the color scheme meticulously and find parts similar to this pokemon. But as I build it, I happened to get inspiration from Ayane from Dead or alive in terms of her fashion. And my end result got me a Gatsu like. And to me, I'm astounded of how far she's improved. Anyways, her new look.
rei-1-jpg.7101

rei-4-jpg.7104
rei-3-jpg.7103

Basically a tldr version is rip ideas from you favorite characters or any fetish in fashion and culture and try to combine them as one.


As for story, well make it cliche believable. In this case, Rei's gist of a story is a tomboyish, nice, and sassy Samurai lass that loves to fight. Rei is prone to be a bit quick tempered if you treat her wrong. Although she uses Dual Katanas which was my main objective for this ex samurai girl, a Katana and Wakazashi is fine. But at least with this look, I can picture as a minor character for the Manjitou. Who look odd yet awesome for ninjas......another inspiration...



Hope this long ramble helps.
 
I'll just drop my thoughts here, for what it's worth.

There's 2 ways I've found to be helpful:

1. Watch the actual fighting styles in action and determine if you could put a different twist on it. Zasalamel's style is very controlled and dominant whereas Yeon Seong's is energetic, Xianghua's is graceful, Voldo's is unorthodox etc. If you you use the style as a starting point you've already given yourself and foundation on which to build a character. You know how the character fights, therefore you should have an idea of what looks will and won't work. Weapons also play a role here, is there a totally different weapon which uses the same style? Astaroth's Great Maul (giant war hammer) springs to mind. A hammer looks and feels different from a bladed axe. SC is a fighting game, your characters express themselves through how they beat the bejesus out of the other poor sap. An armour clad behemoth wouldn't fanny around with a giant hula-hoop. Probably. Maybe. I'll get back to you on that.

2. Just sift through parts until something jumps out at you. As Pocky Yoshi said there is alot of trial and error involved. In SCIV there were things like Kunoichi Robes or Caretaker's Goggles (Voldo's thing, forgot the exact name) which could help define a character's look. Even faces can be used if you don't cover them up with helmets. I hardly see any CAS with the "old man" face which I think is perfect for that grizzled veteran look. Once you've found that spark start building things around it. It doesn't matter if, when you're done, it looks a total mess because then you start figuring out why you've made something that looks like it got kicked violently through a Monty Python sketch-backwards. Is it the colour? The shoulders? Face? Tweak and experiment until you get something you prefer.

"Why?" is probably the best question to ask yourself when making a character. I'm not spouting generic philosophical tripe, except for the times that I am. Give him a Nightmare helm? Why? You're making a monk with Kilik's staff- what's the rationale behind it? The answers vary ofcourse and there isn't really a wrong one (even "because it's cool/badass") because at the end of the day created characters and their appeal are purely subjective concepts. I personally don't like CAS which have been ripped off from things like FF or comics or the like but they are easily the most popular ones. Anyway as long as you ask yourself why you're making the character the way you are while you're making it you should be able to get something coherent. Do those flowery pink trousers fit the battle hardened veteran you're going for or do they just not fit? Why not? Logic is a better friend than "badass" (THAT's generic philosophical tripe).

Well...that was most likely unintelligible. Feel free to check out my topic (not whoring myself out at all, here) where I will totally not contradict everything I've just said! Click.
 
Inspiration is not something you find, it's something that finds you. I usually can't just go into CaS and start making characters, that's not how it works for me. As pocky yoshi has said, start with a basic idea of what you're gonna do, and then experiment over and over again, mixing it up with random stuff you see.Playing online helps a lot, and something that helps even more is having your friends make characters and then try to "fix" them. Let's take a look at my characters and what inspired them:
  • My knights have a cultural meaning, since each of them represent a deity from Greek mythology. For example, my "Obisdious" is a knight in a black armor. His outfit represents the depth and width of the majestic Mediterranean Sea, with a Pegasus theme representing Poseidon, and bronze strokes symbolizing Hellenic cultures as a whole. His weapon -a bronze maze with an emerald in the middle- represents his rude and overly violent attitude, as well as it adds to the sea theme with the green gem. My first idea for him was actually pretty simple: Rock's style looks weird without something spiky in his head. In the same way, one of my characters people have liked the most is Kronus. Based on the Greek titan Cronus, this started as just an experiment with the helmet he's using.
  • One of my favorites is Sinclair, at 0:49. I had just ended up reading a book about templars, and was fascinated by them, so I tried to remake the main character from the book just the way he is described. Then I changed a few details, and we have a solid design.
  • My Bolivar, although awkward looking with Any's style, is an actual person that existed in history, and used swords that look just like the one he has. I also based my "Kining" on Vlad the Impaler, and the legend of Dracula, which perfectly fits Raphael's style.
  • Azaneth is also one of my favorites. My obsession with Egyptian and Greek ancient cultures has led me to making some interesting characters like her, which more than one person has already tried to imitate online.
  • My Andrea is actually my cousin Andrea's creation after some severe modifications, just like my Aeolos is a rival to Zenon.
That's some basics on how diverse inspiration can be. Now just a few tips:
  • Imitate a culture. This is one of the most effective methods, and it is the main way I (and Gatsu, and Pocky Yoshi, and several more) get ideas.
  • Try to make something specifically for a style (Vampire for Raph, ninja for Taki, etc).
  • Test your characters. A lot. Getting the right color or piece takes some fights.
  • DO NOT use ridiculously saturated/intense colors. This just looks weird.
  • Make stuff that is consistent. A ballerina with a dragon skull as a helmet and wooden nuchaku doesn't make any sense at all.
 
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