Creation In The State Of Art - A SCV Gallery by King Slender

[King Slender]

At this late stage of the game (no pun intended) it's nice when you can still pull off a design that you would consider a personal top-5 best. Historical uniforms are some of the most difficult to pull off convincingly, but this game was aching for what are pretty much the ultimate bad-asses of the 18th and 19th centuries: the Hussars. Mine is a Napoleonic example of whose battlefield zeal is the stuff of legend. A deceptively difficult build, the iconic Hussar hat was the most challenging aspect. I tried several variations before deciding on this fez/cylinder/crescent moon combination, dressed-up with several strategically-placed stickers.



I also reworked my warrior woman, which is a rare example of how the fuller (albeit exaggerated) female figure can be used to good effect.



That's all for now. Thanks guys.

 

[VILARCANE]

First off, i love the Hussard. I haven't done that many historically accurate costumes myself ).
And yes, you don't have to convince me that doing the hat build was the most complicated thing to pull off. The sticker work is discreet and elegant, well done. Colors are functional but you could have given the fabric a bit of texture for added "relief". Many possibilities there while keeping it true to life...I have never seen a Hussard CAS on this board i guess, so novelty is another achievement for you...hat-off ? I would like to see your take on a WWI french soldier, because you know...:) Some of your CAS would definitely crave for in-gameplay pics because i am sure they'd look so much better in stance and under stage lighting, but i know it is easier to just take a screenshot on PS3.

Oh, and btw : "I'll be sure to check out your designs. Je Suis Charlie!" hum...you know this board is hanging by a thread, so we gotta make this a dialogue somehow...

If you do, you might wanna check out some warrior women in the vid or thread (check out mayan designs or cavegirl or Tora) that could help you improve on an already great warrior female foundation...what i miss on this particular CAS is a distinctive cultural unity and visual flair ; i mean outside the uber cool nose piercing, and the chubby amazone look (ala Dragon Crown) which made me giggle, the choice of equipment parts confuse me...what culture/people does she belong to ?

brucege is just giving you likes right now because he has a very hectic life (not that i haven't)... that and i gave him extra homework, oh my !...:)

 

[brucege]

Spectacular work with that soldier, especially with the hat. As for the Aztec girl, great work with the colors and detail. I think I already mentioned it before, but you're much better off using the ant antennae for the nose piercing. Just shove the wrinkly portion of the antennae into the nose, and leave the the straight stick parts showing. And yes, it's possible. I already tested it out on an unfinished CaS of mine. Best wishes.

 

[King Slender]

Thanks for the comments guys; I still check out the Create-A-Soul threads here often to see what everyone is up to. And just when I thought my best creations were well behind me, I got inspired and pulled off something that I think ranks with some of my best work:



Key here is that I found that the Adept's Sleeves remove those awful puffy shoulders that are normally part of this blouse and the long lace-up boots really slim down the cowboy pants, totally removing their bagginess and making them much more appropriate for female characters. If you don't like their overall look, try breaking them up as I did with faux knee pads via a pocket sticker. Also, rather than use the standard "geisha" or Peking Opera makeup, I just made the skin totally white and mixed my own sort-of doll makeup on top, which produced an effect more in line with what I was trying to achieve. Finally, the Chinese character she wears on the back of her coat is kong, meaning "empty", an important concept in Buddhist/Daoist philosophy.

Keep up the good work everyone! Are there any other games where one can create characters as detailed as those in SCV? Bloodborne was pretty good for faces, skin tones and hair -though not for outfits, of course. I was tempted to download Black Desert Online just for the character creator, but I have a Mac...

 

[VILARCANE]

Good amount of research and sound technical and artistic execution. I like this new one a lot !
I would have refined the head/hat build a little bit by adding some more peps like texture or sticker work on the hat, the color and size of the horns makes them kinda stick out like a (or two :) sore thumbs and is not optimally placed imo.
I like the work on gradients and colors, but they do appear a little dull / faded for a chinese opera girl or any other pleasure girl (if that's what you went after ?). What were you after idk, and if you can name it, it might give you better ideas on how to make your CAS more readable and theme-strong. You can find pointers on that looking at my some of my asian themed CAS in the vid if you need (not begging for comments at all, just trying to help)

Again, instead of saying you are checking other threads out like you do, and since you got a good command of the editor, you should definitely comment a little bit on your peers' creations, or all that you'll eventually get are likes which will give you no indication on how you work is received or how to improve. Provided you are interesting in carrying on. I for one only come here to post one CAS a year or so (when i take my 360 out of its dusty box) or help others out.
2nd and last friendly "warning" from me. I can tell you guys like brucege are just as sensitive to good forum ethics as i am, and he is both admin and mentor for many of the CAS artists still lurking & posting.

If you ask me, your best creations are well before you, i can easily sense the untapped potential in you :)

 

[brucege]

I'm actually quite a fan of your recent girl creation. You do a great job pulling off an that crazy green/yellow/black/white/red color combination by lowering saturation. You also found some cool tricks to slim down her profile like using the sleeves and the boots. That's bizarre hat design too. I honestly have no idea what you're going for with that hat, but it what it lacks in aesthetics, it makes up in uniqueness and intrigue (which is really more important in the long run). Is she some kind of onmyouji or Buddhist exorcist? The hat, the calligraphy, and the makeup definitely point to something Asian and magical,

Keep up the awesome work! And yeah, replying to reviews encourages people to come back ;p

 

[King Slender]

Thanks for the encouragement! That girl originally started out in a sort-of Dunesque Stilsuit:

But the makeup, which I stumbled across -and liked- started to take it in a more Asian direction. The palate been so muted that I thought it really needed a shot in the arm in the form of an almost punk-rock inspired jacket. So, there's nothing really deep going on there; fashion.

The next two girls are sort-of counterparts to each other (if admittedly a bit pedestrian in design), celebrating diversity in 18th century American beauty:

Little Fang (named after my actual wife!)

AElfgyva

Most of the face presets are beautiful, but this chick is totally a babe and a half:


Now, on to something completely different! I had experimented before with making overweight characters, but they really turn out just looking big all-over rather than fat; the arms are a problem, as is the stomach (which is still generally flat). But the biggest issue comes from what I mentioned above: most of the face presets are quite beautiful -and decidedly svelte. So... with a little creative use of the sphere... you can really change a character's look!

The "cutest" face gets the "chubby-cute" treatment (Samantha):

This is normally a beautiful face too (perhaps it still is), but she now comes off as rather "dumpy". The pants, which also involve a well-placed flattened sphere, exacerbate the situation (Parminder):

This technique probably has a fairly limited scope, but give it a try with your most beautiful characters -the effect is surprisingly striking.

 

[VILARCANE]

Nice Indian Squaw and the (real) name is really cool...now i want a picture of your real wife :) is she/are you indian american somehow ? You know there is a "introduce yourself" thread somewhere in the pinned section i guess...
About the CAS itself, it is good looking but somehow i don't know if you went for the authenticity (hence the rather plain looks / sticker work / texturing) or for the goofy (hence the 2 hip pistols, arm tattoo, strange boot pick and stuff...).
Looks like a WIP to me...if i can point you to some ideas of a more coherent approach, you can check there my Leixquaw :
https://8wayrun.com/threads/a-tale-of-souls-and-swords-eternally-retold.11292/page-51

The second one is simple but cute and coherent in all aspects...except maybe, i would have picked a different weapon style (raph ? Tira ?)

The chubby faces are extremely well done (not a new technique though, has been done before). I never did a fat CAS, oh yes the ones from the Animal Kingdom (ie. Po the Panda) or mythology (ie. Dyonisus), never had much interested in doing one actually, but yours are of epic proportions...the Fat Esmeralda is especially...chubbeautiful !

 

[King Slender]

Aww... your Indian gal is cute! I'm especially digging the short skirt. You know I always go for authenticity! Well... mostly ;-) I used the chiton (finally), slimmed it down significantly with the slit skirt, and then hid the break with a belt. And I will defend those boots -check out the bead pattern!

Chubby characters, ugly characters, non-human characters... we keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with CAS -I'm just so ready to put my PS3 into permanent hibernation and move on to SC6... seems like it might be a while.

Oh, and my wife is actually from southwest China, near Tibet. It's a region where the minority peoples (of which there are 56 groups in China) are actually the majority and they often look quite different from the Chinese we usually see from along the eastern seaboard. It's a pretty fascinating place; I lived there for four years, though I can't really recommend it to Western travelers; it's a tough place for us . Things also got palpably worse during my stay there in terms of government censorship and social restrictions. When I left, it was well past the time I probably should have -but I guess I got what I wanted.

 

[VILARCANE]

Aww... your Indian gal is cute! I'm especially digging the short skirt. You know I always go for authenticity! Well... mostly ;-) I used the chiton (finally), slimmed it down significantly with the slit skirt, and then hid the break with a belt. And I will defend those boots -check out the bead pattern!

Chubby characters, ugly characters, non-human characters... we keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with CAS -I'm just so ready to put my PS3 into permanent hibernation and move on to SC6... seems like it might be a while.

Oh, and my wife is actually from southwest China, near Tibet. It's a region where the minority peoples (of which there are 56 groups in China) are actually the majority and they often look quite different from the Chinese we usually see from along the eastern seaboard. It's a pretty fascinating place; I lived there for four years, though I can't really recommend it to Western travelers; it's a tough place for us . Things also got palpably worse during my stay there in terms of government censorship and social restrictions. When I left, it was well past the time I probably should have -but I guess I got what I wanted.

Thanks, Leixquaw is a Leixia 3P, so it comes with its limitations (no makeup), but it just seemed like a good fit...

You can defend the boots as long as you want :), but thing is, the bead pattern is barely noticeable (i had to peel my eyes real good to see it), meaning in-game you couldn't even spot it in the first place. And if it doesn't add to the magic of the in-game feel, go for something more visible and with more impact. I mean if you can't see the different bead patterns on mine, you are probably blind as a mole...Not saying that everyone notices the kitty impaled on Leixquaw's arrow, but he makes a nice and unmistakable meow sound in-game (typical of this DCL item), so you look for it and then...OMG, she hunts kitties, commanche girls are heartless ! (lol)

Thanks for the personal information, maybe your wife looks a little bit like Leixia then :) so intriguing and interesting...never been to Asia, probably never will, and you spent 4 years there, quite impressive, did you work there or what is just time-off from a busy life, idk.
My wife is danish btw, exotic (for me) but i didn't have so far to go to find her :)