Design Help

T

TJames

[05] Battler
Hi!

So in SC5, I noticed that Astaroth has this cool Egyptian weapon that I had played around with, and created a cool "what if Astaroth was a Pharaoh" character.

I have found that kind of hard to do in SC6, but I gave it a go with a mummy. It has kind of worked, but I feel it's lacking polish because I don't have the technical skill to make the headdress right.

I also am thrilled that there is an Orc race in the game, much less thrilled that we cannot put hair options on! I was trying to make an Uruk-hai from Lord of the Rings, Lurtz in particular. I tried making hair out of feathers but that proved impossible, so i just gave up and left him bald. He is intentionally a bit bland - regarding colour. I was going for a dirty orc feel.

Any tips would be appreciated for these two, they just don't feel quite completed.
 

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Textures, patterns, colours and motifs are almost always the reason a CaS can feel bland or lacking, and it's true in this case too. (That they're lacking not bland!)

Let's start with the Astaroth. The first thing I noticed was the vibrant colours. While there's nothing wrong with them being bright of course, it does depend on /where/ that brightness is used. Often if you have a metallic texture, the brighter you make something the more plastic-y it'll look, and therefore it looks cheap. Pharaohs are supposed to be regal and decadent, so my first suggestion is to mute the colours a little by de-saturating them, specifically the golds. The blue can remain bright at then it gives the eyes a rest. (The weapon itself looks like it's made of solid gold, or at least gold plated because a solid gold weapon would be a terrible idea. Note how compared to it, the headdress, waistcloth and the points as Azwel's... Floaty Thingies look a bit cheap and yellow?)

The bandages themselves could definitely do with a faded colour too, but how faded is based on your idea for the character. Has he been wearing them for a long time? More fade. Is it a recent thing? Less fade. I would also suggest adding a pattern in there that has two or more colour channels, and then making them /almost/ the same colour, just slightly variant. It's a subtle effect but it adds depth to the character and turns what's otherwise a big ol' block of white into something more appealing to look at.

Finally the design itself. The headpiece is actually quite well made and shows you have a good eye for design and other than the colouration there's nothing wrong with it in and of itself. What it DOES do it make the whole thing quite top-heavy. To counter that, footwear. This naturally depends upon your ideas for the character but a /general/ rule of thumb is that the bulkier the top half, the more the lower half should compensate. So try adding some wider foot/shinwear (perhaps the Samsara Leg guards?) to balance things out. You could even get away with editing the size of the legs to make them more muscular also. But the more you break up the white the better.

Finally after all that if it still seems lacking, consider a neckpiece. Again, the design is fine and well constructed but there's a lot of spaces of just whiteness and the eye needs to be drawn to something when looking over it.

All in all though it's an original concept for an Astaroth and I'm intrigued to see it develop. I hope my advice is received in the spirit with which it was given and doesn't discourage you at all :)

I'll talk about the Orc in a separate post.
 
Lurtz (whose name you have as Lurt, no z) is definitely a lot trickier. Recreating characters isn't really my forté but I can give some general tips from what I'm comparing to Google here.

Firstly, the handprint could perhaps benefit from bring a little bit bigger perhaps? It's placed well in relation to the specifics of what it's covering but perhaps maybe a teeny bit bigger would help? And then making it less bright, once again. It's going to stand out against the darker colours in this character anyway but right now it looks less like war paint and more like... Well a sticker. Less brightness and maybe even put one of the dirt motifs over it to add a bit of grit - He's a fearsome warrior so having some grime is gonna make him look the part much more.

The second thing is shoulders. Although the detail varies, he definitely has some shoulder armour on, it helps create that V shape his chest has. It's worth considering some smaller ones as they'll bulk him out and distract from the (accurately) plain arms.

His hair definitely is an iconic part of the design purely because it's one of the few ways of distinguishing him from other orcs, so not being able to recreate that is a bit of a shame (does he ever wear a helmet?). However if you can't mimic something, a common practice is to imagine something that looks thematically suitable and add that, as long as it doesn't stand out too much. If it looks like a detail that character might have, and it doesn't ruin the accuracy, consider it. You wanna drive this "mighty barbaric fighter" theme as much as you can without going overboard and making it unrecognisable.

I'd brighten up the feathers just a tad, gives a bit more excitement to an otherwise drab palette.

A nice and cheeky little way to do that is by adding blood splatters, again more dirt, signs of battle y'know? Scars and marks and the like. There's a thing I'm coining "The Maximilian Rule", which is a trick a lot of us do but, Maximillian_Dood is more famous than us and I'm fond of naming things so, there.
The trick is very simple - Which side of your character is the one that sees the brunt of the fighting? In this case Lurtz' right arm, being the sword-arm, is that one that would typically be most likely to be covered in the aforementioned blood-splatters and other bits of grime, so if you're adding that kind of detail it's worth considering. Add a bit of depth y'know?

Honestly this one is harder for me, when you're trying to mimic something there's less wriggle room, so I hope this helps in some way at least.
 
TJames said:
As a long time lurker I am excited that Le Bello himself gave advice. It was exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
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You flatter me too much :O

You asked for help, I had ideas that might help, wouldn't make sense not to share them. I wanna encourage more people to post and share their creativity so if I can help I absolutely will :)
 
TJames said:
As a long time lurker I am excited that Le Bello himself gave advice. It was exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
Click to expand...
That basically sums up me when i was still an "unofficial member" before i joined...officially, with a profile and whatnot😂
 
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