Pascuzzi's Blog Posts About Nothing

[ThePascuzzi]

snip

Thanks. You know, we have each other on PSN, so we should get a couple matches in, sometime. Don't worry, I only really know one character, so I'm pretty horrible with 95% of my CaS.

What you're looking at on Yoko's midsection part of the Great Wave of Kanagawa sticker, which is what I used to impart that draped-over-the-shoulder effect. This design is actually quite light on the stickers, though, so it won't be impossible to fix. That's honestly something I totally failed to consider, so thanks for pointing that out.

If only it were possible to change the size of the glasses. I could just use the big frames or aviators, but the shape is all wrong. I don't think there are enough special equipment slots left, either, so that's not an option.

By the way, I think you totally owe it to yourself to finish Tsuritama. I'm quite particular with my anime and I'm not exaggerating when I say it's one of the few series that have gotten me very excited about it. It's definitely one I can't recommend enough. Honestly, though, I've got some finishing of my own to do. I'm in the middle of Valkyria Chronicles, so once I get through that, I'll be able to put more time into JSR, maybe even catch the anime for VC, as well. Such a huge backlog of video games and anime and there isn't enough time for it all!

 

[Leona]

<snip!>

We totally should! My time's been pretty scattered lately with last week's vacation, school, and anime / other video games (read: Little Big Planet 2) all competing for my attention, but it'd still be discernibly awesome to pit our creations against each other like the malevolent lords creators we are. I'll try and make sure to sign in when I start playing, even if I'm just intending to mess around with creation, and maybe we can set something up some time soon. :)

Ahh, fair enough; I was thinking the other glass options would give a more approximate size, but I hadn't considered the shape. They're kinda a slanty oval shape if I recall correctly (I'm going off Jet Set Radio Future myself, so the designs I'm used to are probably a little different), which would be kinda hard to emulate with most of the other glasses.

Actually, thinking about it, the Jet Set series and Tsuritama kinda have some similarities to them, don't they? In particular, they both have this really vibrant, off-beat aesthetic to them. Also, a penchant for breaking out into dance when left alone too long. Replace 'turf wars, skates and tagging' with 'coming-of-age, alien water guns and fishing' and you pretty much have it! ... kinda. Maybe? Anyway, I'm going to see if I can't squeeze in an episode or two tonight. XD

 

[ThePascuzzi]

Actually, thinking about it, the Jet Set series and Tsuritama kinda have some similarities to them, don't they? In particular, they both have this really vibrant, off-beat aesthetic to them. Also, a penchant for breaking out into dance when left alone too long. Replace 'turf wars, skates and tagging' with 'coming-of-age, alien water guns and fishing' and you pretty much have it! ... kinda. Maybe?

Haha, yeah, that's one way to look at them. Don't forget their soundtracks, too. Both have great music.

 

[ThePascuzzi]

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I like that you're into CaS and anime, but this thread isn't the right space for them. You should make your own personal thread and post them there. I'm not trying to be mean or anything; it's just how things work around here. Everyone makes their own threads in which to show off their CaS collection. You generally don't want to go around posting your stuff in other peoples' threads unless asked.

 

[JIAC-DarkLight]

Oops, I saw so many CaS and I didnt notice that they were all yours, I assumed that different people posted CaS here, sorry. I take my message and leave.

 

[ThePascuzzi]

I only caught the final four of NEC, but those matches were super intense. They were enough to get me to start playing the game again. As a result, I have new CaS to share: one recreation and a whole bunch of recolors. The recolors will go into the recolor thread for now, but I'll post the recreation here.

Spoiler: Quailman

Design Notes:
- The head belt thing is a Hero's Band combined with the snake special equipment. The snakes' mouths make the belt buckle.
- The Q insignia is a red circle, a green circle, and a 1 superimposed on each other in that order.
- Two white denim pocket stickers, one each on the front and back of the shorts, recreate the underwear over Quailman's shorts.
- The cape is patterned with the basic pattern that has stripes of different widths. Then, squares that blend in with the cape cover all but the last pair.

Spoiler: Alpha/Patroklos Recolors

White and Blue

Black and Gold

Red and Gold

Patroklos Omega

Irish

Black Ice

Desert Gold

Thalassan

Spoiler: Leixia Recolors

Sea

Flame

Snow

Rose

Leaf

Spoiler: Pyrrha/Omega Recolors

Alpha Pyrrha

Black and Gold

Sophitia SC1/2 1P Colors

Hellfire

Cassandra SC4 1P Colors

Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite)/Alice (American McGee's) Colors

Sophitia SC3 2P Colors

Cassandra SC3 1P Colors

Spoiler: Raphael Recolors

Black and White

SC2 1P Colors

 

[brucege]

So many cool designs. Far too many for my finals-addled brains to comprehend. Your creation notes have been extremely helpful too. Kudos for pulling off the "Pain in the Cas" line.

 

[ThePascuzzi]

So many cool designs. Far too many for my finals-addled brains to comprehend. Your creation notes have been extremely helpful too. Kudos for pulling off the "Pain in the Cas" line.

Thanks for taking a study break in my thread. I appreciate the comments. Good luck on your finals!

 

[TiraRules]

I only caught the final four of NEC, but those matches were super intense. They were enough to get me to start playing the game again. As a result, I have new CaS to share: one recreation and a whole bunch of recolors. The recolors will go into the recolor thread for now, but I'll post the recreation here.

Spoiler: Quailman

Design Notes:
- The head belt thing is a Hero's Band combined with the snake special equipment. The snakes' mouths make the belt buckle.
- The Q insignia is a red circle, a green circle, and a 1 superimposed on each other in that order.
- Two white denim pocket stickers, one each on the front and back of the shorts, recreate the underwear over Quailman's shorts.
- The cape is patterned with the basic pattern that has stripes of different widths. Then, squares that blend in with the cape cover all but the last pair.

i assume that you are fan of Nickelodeon's Doug? i remember this Nicktoon show! 1990s Nick shows was awesome.. yeah i was the 90s kid back there lol

 

[ThePascuzzi]

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Yeah, it might just be nostalgia, but the 90s was like some kind of golden age of cartoons. I also had a Spinelli (from Recess) CaS for a while, but i figured it was a little too boring to keep.

 

[ThePascuzzi]

I went back through some of my oldest creations and realized something: a lot of them suck. At the very least, they don't live up to the standards I have right now. So, I'll be focusing on going back and updating those designs. Tonight, I have two updates and three recolors.
UPDATED 1/9/13

Spoiler: Hiro, a. k. a. "Hero"

When I saw the Tyrfing under Mitsurugi's style, I also wanted to make a knight CaS for it. I didn't have a knight CaS at the time, save for Genericus, so this was the perfect opportunity. In contrast to Ken, Hiro was imported from Japan early in life and is now a skilled knight in the castles of Medieval Europe.

Design Notes:
- I wanted to do something different than all the other knights out there with thick plate armor, so I kept the armor light.
- Red and silver was chosen as the color scheme to serve as counterpoint to Ken's light blue and black.
- The Turtle Shell shield hangs on his right shoulder to block attacks from the front. It works really well when blocking.
- The cape is given a very small sized zig-zag pattern for texture. This also happens on the front flap.
- The bottom half of the Schwarzwind logo sticker was used to add detail to the Steel Pauldrons.

UPDATE 1/9/13

Spoiler: Setsuka

Design Notes:
- The Chiton was chosen because it shows a lot of skin and it has a built in scarf/half-cape, which I used to simulate the unused sleeve on Setsuka's SC4 1P.
- Naturally, the Chiton and Pareo are physically separated. I corrected for this by inserting a pair of horns into the midsection to cover the gap.
- Two circles, placed by view from the top-down perspective and a third circle on the ribbon define a tied belt around the Pareo.
- The majority of the Chiton is colored with a max size square and a circle placed by view from a top-down perspective.
- The front hair knot is a flattened Apple patterned with the tricolor stripes pattern.

Spoiler: Cervantes 1P Blue and Gold

Spoiler: Leixia 1P Blue and Gold

Spoiler: Leixia 2P Blue and Gold

Spoiler: Pyrrha Omega Blue and Gold

 

[rdmunhoz]

very nice that "blue and gold CAS"... your cervantes is batter than the original in my opinion!!!

 

[brucege]

Interesting originals! Here's what I think about them.

Hiro: The red and silver color scheme is bold and masculine, and the cape's insignia is pretty snazzy. I find the shoulder shield a bit impractical, but I'm sure it makes more sense in action. As for the character concept itself, I think you could highlight his Eastern origins by adding Asian patterns or samurai gear, like shoulder pads or helmet ornaments (that reminds me, I should attempt an original Meiji-era samurai/knight hybrid sometime.)

Setsuka: The groundwork, like the hair and the chiton, is solid. However, I feel you could enhance the asymmetry of the design. My recent tribal priestess, for example, was designed around a letter "Z" shape. Some carefully tilted ribbon, pocket, or Schwarzwind stickers might do the trick. Also, if you have the extra slots, Setsuka would profit from more hair ornaments.

Don't get me wrong. A CaS artist of your caliber isn't gonna miss any of the fundamentals, so the rest is really subjective. These suggestions are merely the angles I would pursue for my own creations. Keep up the good work!

P.S. You've also managed to initiate a headphone craze in the forums, including me and Vilarcane. You rock.

 

[ThePascuzzi]

Hiro:
- I find the shoulder shield a bit impractical, but I'm sure it makes more sense in action.
- I think you could highlight his Eastern origins by adding Asian patterns or samurai gear

Setsuka:
- I feel you could enhance the asymmetry of the design...Some carefully tilted ribbon, pocket, or Schwarzwind stickers might do the trick.
- Also, if you have the extra slots, Setsuka would profit from more hair ornaments.

P.S. You've also managed to initiate a headphone craze in the forums, including me and Vilarcane. You rock.

I've noticed your guys' headphone-wearing CaS, both of which are very good. This is my first time hearing of a full-blown "craze," though. I guess I'm sort of flattered, lol.

The shoulder shield does make more sense in-game, where it clashes with hits coming in from the right. I would orient it with its face facing a little more towards the opponent, but it clips with the sword when guarding. As for adding more eastern influence into the design, I could try something small, but there's little room for that with the way I envisioned the character. He was meant to be a foil to another character, Ken, a Samurai who was brought over from Europe at a very young age. Heritage aside, these characters identify with their new settings, so any influence from their origins besides their fighting styles (Ken uses the giant katana under Sieg's style) would have to be small.

When I make recreations, I come in with the intention of making them as close a 1:1 recreation as possible, so I miss a lot of opportunities to make them look cool. As far as asymmetry goes, I used to have a bird sticker on the pareo that showed up much better than the bamboo leaves that's on there right now. I might put that back; it looked better, so it might be a good trade. Also, I think I have one special equipment slot left, so I'll see what I can do with that.

 

[VILARCANE]

Recolor is a venue i just recently explored...before, it seemed uninteresting and boring to me, but then i realized it is a good way to turn some of the most boring 1P/2P into something that looks good or great.

Your recolors are good and show a great deal of attention to detail, a thing we all know and love from your very litterate walls of text reviews...

Yet, what i would suggest considering those first successful attempts would be to do recolors on costumes i personnally think are sorely lacking in the personality department...that was the art direction i took with mine, which you can still see in the slideshow (CAS-ppy new year thread, free ad, sorry ;o)...
Meaning, costumes like Siegfried 1 and 2P, Asta 2P, or even Yoshi 1P were the ones i thought could use some work, and benefit a more coherent or vibrant approach to coloring.
I had fun customizing Maxi 1P and Voldo's awesome 2P as well, to respectively create more colorful and glittery versions.
I even spent time doing a true lizard man, all in green hues (3 of them) and shiny armor to create the appropriate level of contrast.

And of course, the possibility to change weapon and personalize thumbnail is a way to create a better variant IMO.

As for your recreations, they are all great and in my book, this is your forte, because you have a very good technique with stickers and a good eye for colors...
of all your originals, the chicken is still my absolute favourite, apologize if you somehow feel it is offensive (it is not ;o)

 

[ThePascuzzi]

Recolor is a venue i just recently explored...before, it seemed uninteresting and boring to me, but then i realized it is a good way to turn some of the most boring 1P/2P into something that looks good or great.

what i would suggest considering those first successful attempts would be to do recolors on costumes i personnally think are sorely lacking in the personality department

I got into doing recolors because I had some characters I wanted to get better with and I wanted to have some variety in their models without having to worry about CaS hitbox issues, so it's kind of unlikely that I'll venture outside of recolors for Pat, Pyrrha, Leixia, Natsu, Raph, Cervy, Alpha, and Omega. However, I do agree with you in that they can be good ways to add or highlight certain details in certain 1Ps and 2Ps. In my case, I use it to explore different character ideas. That's what I did when I made my Patroklos Omega and Alpha Pyrrha recolors; I was considering what their character designs might look like if Pat got Soul Edge and Pyrrha got Soul Calibur. I'm also toying with the idea of making a Nightmare palette recolor of Omega and maybe even one of Sieg, if I feel like being generous with a data slot.

 

[VILARCANE]

Ok, i understand...interesting ideas for Nighty and Sieg as well

 

[ThePascuzzi]

Here are the results from the first half of my CaS revamp project, plus a new recreation. I'll write creation notes for each one later, because I really should be in bed right now.

EDIT: Design notes are now up. Feel free to gloss over them absentmindedly.

Spoiler: Amy

Design Notes:
- During the Soul series' storyline, it's inferred that Amy and Raphael became vampires. Then, in SC5, fanon dictates that Viola is Amy, just with amnesia. However, we don't see any vampiric characteristics in Viola's character, so if we are to believe that Viola is Amy, she must've overcome her vampirism somewhere down the line. This design is my attempt to depict an Amy who has regained her memory and has ascended her vampirism.

- I took Viola's color scheme and lightened it up a bit to show the theme of ascension that I mentioned before.

- Note that the flowers are white to denote purity, instead of the usual red that denotes blood.

- I wanted to use the shawl that Viola has, but with the hood down. That's what I tried to construct with Jun's shawl and the bat wing special equipment.

Spoiler: Black Mage

Design notes:
- Mummified underwear at 0:43,31 (darkest color in the editor) turns the character's body into a ghastly shadow given humanoid form.

- The trademark glowing yellow eyes are glasses with the lenses shaded yellow and the frames colored 0:43,31 to blend in with the shadow body.

- The cape and coat are both patterned with Oriental 1, because I wanted the detail on the coat's torso everywhere else.

Spoiler: Cassandra

After giving myself a headache trying to recreate her SC4 1P, I decided to switch directions and try for something inspired by her SC3 1P. The result is a classier Cassandra that still has her trademark moxie.

Design notes:
- The Congratulatory Shirt is split into a jacket, a shirt, and a vest. The top layer is sectioned off from the lower two by the denim pocket sticker.

- Two Turtle Shells with metallic scale patterns are used as the shoulder armor.

- Unfortunately, the skirt from the Congratulatory Shirt sits too high up to be used by itself as waist equipment without significantly increasing a CaS' slut factor. In light of this, I used the Mini Dress to add some cover to the waist and hips. It's patterned with Basic 5 in gold and blue.

Spoiler: Female Yun-Seong

Again, the same problem as Hwang in that the closest style in the game has some distinctly female animations.

Design notes:
- Yun-seong has spiky hair, like Hwang, but it isn't as tall as the latter's. I used Natsu's 1P hair on my Female Hwang design, so to keep the parallel of the understated alternative, I used Natsu's 2P hair in this design.

- Xiaoyu's dress, Leixia's 2P breeches, and Ivy's 2P gloves are all used together for their furry bands as a nod to Yun-seong's SC4 2P.

- The Ring Pants underwear will poke out through any pants item that cuts short (e.g. knee pants, cropped pants, etc.). Here, I used that to build boots combined with the exposed part of the Ring Pants, the shoes, and fur from breeches.

- A Bolt and an appopriately-resized helment ornament combine to make a dagger. This is an allusion to SC3, where Yun-seong's style was included in the Thief class for CaS.

Spoiler: Guy Dudeman

Whenever a game has a character creation feature, I'll make one that's supposed to represent me. Since Pascusio already does that within SCV's setting, this one is meant to be a current-day version. This is what I usually try to look like on a casual outing. The problem is that modern-day practical fashion often comes out looking plain in Creation mode, so you really have to look out for ways to give your design details that stand out without making them look like they came out of a Japanese video game. It's very easy for modern-day design that are supposed to look sensible to instead be overdesign or boring and plain.

Design Notes:
- The design on the shirt is Basic 2 at a very small size with very similar colors in the black range.

- Slacks given zigzag patterns and dark denim colors go a long way in making a nice pair of jeans. The calves were narrowed as much as possible to give the jeans a slim, tapered look.

- Black boxing shoes with white laces and a sticker placed by view make for pretty good knock-off Chuck Taylors.

Spoiler: Habagat

Chaotic Good. They called him “Habagat,” because was like the monsoon; wherever the reckless youth went, it often looked as though a cyclone had just passed. As an orphan, he was part of a band of thief children, but after hearing that the wind priestess of the neighboring village just returned from a grand adventure, he begged her to take him in as her disciple, saying he wanted to grow up to be a hero. Talim became a big sister to the little boy and over the years, trained him to become a cunning warrior.

One night, while in town, he overhears rumors of the two swords. He saw this as his big break to become a hero. While sneaks back home to steal Talim’s blades, he is caught as he about to leave. She tells him that she sensed the presence of the swords from the wind and that if he is planning to defeat the swords, she won’t stop him. Ashamed for having been caught, yet thankful to his big sister and teacher, he sets off on his adventure.

Design notes:
- Since he's not from the capital or Europe, like the rest of the cast, his attire was based on Muslim Filipino and Tribal Filipino designs. Striped patterns are popular in these styles.

- The hunting blade was re-colored to have a carved wooden handle. The tiger stripe pattern imparts wood grain.

- The basic checker pattern is obscured by a very large square, exposed only along the inner edge. A single tribal-style sticker was placed along the front, styled to look like lightning, a reference to this character's speed and namesake (lightning is common with tropical cyclones).

- The tiger stripe pattern with both component colors made identical impart dirt and grit onto a surface. This is seen on the Knickerbockers, which I assume he stole from a Tailor's shop in town.

- The feathers, plucked from the wing plumage of a Philippine Eagle, are colored with a brown-white gradient.

Spoiler: Ken

Ever since I saw this giant katana under Siegfried's style, I had the idea to make a samurai CaS to wield it. However, I wasn't really happy with any of the Japanese-style CaS I came up with, until I messed around with Short Trunks (KING) last night. This guy is the finished version of the design from then.

Usually, I don't like seeing non-Japanese characters in Japanese clothing, but I don't think it's so bad, here. Basically, this guy's backstory involves leaving Europe at an early point in his life to be raised in Japan. Now, he's one of the most feared warriors in the warring states.

Design notes:
- The design kind of naturally gravitated toward an ice theme. The Warrior's Vest was patterned with Oriental 7 up top to simulate snow and Basic 15 on the bottom to look like mountains. The theme works well, considering Siggy's CE.

- The tasset is made of three pairs of Feathers of Strength. The sides are fixed to the thighs, while the front piece is fixed to the hips.

Spoiler: Kilik

Design Notes:

- This design draws on elements from Kilik's SC4 1P and 2P. The shirt and Pareo are colored similarly to blend together into the 1P's coat, while the armored pieces are a nod to the 2P.

Spoiler: Mariano

Neutral Good. Mariano’s family owned a tailor’s shop that had a reputation for good quality around the local neighborhood. Thus, his parents were able to send him and his siblings to school. Aspiring to serve his country, he entered the naval academy after his schooling, where his natural talent at fencing first became apparent. Being one of the top students in his class, he was immediately hired as an officer after graduation from the academy.

With news that a new enemy might be on their way to their country’s shores, all high ranking officers were called together for a strategic briefing. After the briefing, he overhears that the higher-ups have found the sword that will conquer the world, Soul Calibur. He becomes suspicious of his superiors, their plans, and the sword, but pressed for time, he goes to make preparations for the battles ahead.

Design notes:
- The martial artist's shirt is used as a military shirt instead. A subtle zigzag pattern gives texture to the shirt.

- The zipper sticker was used to create the cord decorations seen on military shirts. Admittedly, it's not as convincing up close as it is from afar and in battle. The token on the headband is actually a gold-colored scroll.

- On his sleeve, his mother stitched an embroidery of a tikling, a brown bird that is known to bob and weave in and out of farmers' traps and hence has become a symbol for freedom.

Spoiler: Pyrrha 3P: Japanese

Design notes:
- The Archery Breastplate and the sticker under that are analogs for the leather armor that Pyrrha wears over her shirt.

- Pyrrha's shawl was re-imagined here as a shawl-scarf hybrid. I attempted to blend the scarf and the Rabbit Ears together for this purpose.

- The Tiger Lily Stockings were used here as analogs for the leg portion of Pyrrha's boots. Since they're underwear items, they unfortunately cannot be given any colors from the red-orange spectrum, where the right shade of brown is. Instead, I used a brown from the purple-red part of the spectrum.

Spoiler: Squall

Before, the only way I would settle on a short jacket was the use the cropped jacket available only to females. I've been experimenting with rebuilding jackets, since then, and I'm pretty satisfied with what I have, here.

Design notes:
- Like anywhere else, the collar feathers are simulated with raccoon tails. I used to not really like this piece, but I've been experimenting with it a lot lately and have come to accept more as part of a CaS maker's toolbox.

- The buttoned pocket sticker achieves two things here: 1) adds detail to the vest and 2) helps to visually tie the sleeves and shoulders of the shirt with the vest.

Spoiler: Taki

Design notes:
- The problem with Taki is that her plain, solid-color bodysuit makes up an overwhelming majority of her design. I circumvented this by using large pocket stickers to break up the suit while still keeping solid colors.

- Rabbit Ears tucked into arm circlets make good shoulder armor. This construction is an allusion to her SC2 3P.

Spoiler: Talim

I'm doubly fond of Talim, not just because of her fast and fluid style, but because she represents the Philippines, the country of my heritage, in the Soul Series.

Design notes:
- The necklace is patterned with gold-colored Oriental 2. The centerpiece was constructed with a red circle and yellow moon and circle stickers.

- The gold stripes on the vest were made with two pocket stickers superimposed onto each other, the top one being smaller than the bottom one.

Spoiler: Xianghua

Design notes:
- Xianghua's twin tails are reconstructed here with patterned beetle horns, colored to match the hair. A pair of horns are used here as hair ornaments.

- There is art of Xianghua's SC4/BD design that has her with a fan in the offhand, so I decided to include one here.

Spoiler: Z. W. E. I. 3P: Pokemon Master

Design notes:
- The hat is made from a Chinese Hat and a pair of Rabbit Ears. A square sticker can be made to color everything but the front section.

- The main part of the track jacket was patterned with red and white stripes to add detail to the front torso.

- A belt can be equipped to bring the sides of the Track Jacket in; the belt remains hidden under the jacket.

- Basic 1 at a large size can be used to color the top and bottom hemispheres of a pokeball.

 

[WindupSkeleton]

That Black Mage. DFUWHFI Makes me want to buy the rest of the DLC. (Someone should donate).

Also, Pokemon Master Z.W.E.I is inspired and beautiful.

 

[VILARCANE]

That Black Mage. DFUWHFI Makes me want to buy the rest of the DLC. (Someone should donate).

Also, Pokemon Master Z.W.E.I is inspired and beautiful.

Jury finds you guilty of adorable recreations with clever abuse of pocket stickers...bail is set at "show me the other half soon" ;o