What did you have in mind when making your CaS and what was your inspiration?

[HydroJames]

It's been too long since someone posted in this thread...

Thanks to my capture card cooperating, I can get clear quality of my 360 creations.

Well, here are three color-themed sisters.

Rosella

The oldest of the three sisters. Her signature color is red. What lies in her soul is Wisdom. She was born in July, making her birthstone the Ruby. As she is the oldest and wisest of her sisters, I gave her design a since of elegance, with her wearing a long dress and wielding the style of Pyrrha Omega, who is almost a direct port of Sophitia.

Gabrielle

She is the middle child. Her trademark color is green. What lies in her soul is Bravery. She was born in May, making her birthstone the Emerald. She is the reckless tomboy of the trio. To reflect her personality, she is the only one who is genre savvy enough to wear pants to battle instead of a skirt. Her design takes cues from Patroklos, with the shirt with a tail, puffy pants, boots, and scarf as well as the masculine Sword and Shield Style.

Azalea

She is the youngest. Her signature color is blue. What lies lies in her soul is innocence. She was born in September, making her birthstone the Sapphire. She is the cute and naive one. I had a bit of trouble figuring out what design I should give her, but I wanted to give her a short skirt to emphasize her cuteness. I finally decided to give her Pyrrha's dress and add my own touches from there.

 

[brucege]

It's impressive how much thought you put into these sisters. You certainly have a very unique approach to character design.

I like the subtle patterns on Rosella. Interesting that you chose red, a color normally associated with youth, virility, and aggression, to represent maturity. Red and gold taken together usually represent royalty, arrogance, and ruthlessness, e.g. GoT Lannisters. A couple suggestions. The junction between the top and the skirt don't quite align. You might want to cover it up with some special equipment, sticker work, or both. The armor on her arms and shoulders contrasts too much with the rest of the design. You might want to try some lighter gauntlets/pauldrons and add more armor elsewhere for balance.

The color green is usually associated with peaceful, gentle, and nurturing dispositions, i.e. mother nature. Applying it to a rowdy, genki-type charactera is a unique approach. You do combine the green with some khaki and grey, so the result is a pretty convincing hunter/ranger-like design. The flared coattails combined with the bulky boots make the design somewhat bottom heavy though. And those Sci-Fi shoulder pads kinda break from the whole nature-vibe, so I'd recommend switching those out.

Again, interesting approach to color. Blue is usually associated with maturity. When it's combined with gold, it's almost always indicative of nobility, authority, or royalty. Like kings or paladins. The pigtails do carry the theme of youth and innocence though, which creates an interesting contrast with the outfit. It's a nicely blinged-out Pyrrha alt. The only thing I'd swap out are the gauntlets, which are still kinda heavy.

I'm a really mean critic, so don't take what I say too seriously. I do like these new characters though. They're some of the finest I've seen from you. Keep up the good work, James.

 

[HydroJames]

It's impressive how much thought you put into these sisters. You certainly have a very unique approach to character design.

I like the subtle patterns on Rosella. Interesting that you chose red, a color normally associated with youth, virility, and aggression, to represent maturity. Red and gold taken together usually represent royalty, arrogance, and ruthlessness, e.g. GoT Lannisters. A couple suggestions. The junction between the top and the skirt don't quite align. You might want to cover it up with some special equipment, sticker work, or both. The armor on her arms and shoulders contrasts too much with the rest of the design. You might want to try some lighter gauntlets/pauldrons and add more armor elsewhere for balance.

The color green is usually associated with peaceful, gentle, and nurturing dispositions, i.e. mother nature. Applying it to a rowdy, genki-type charactera is a unique approach. You do combine the green with some khaki and grey, so the result is a pretty convincing hunter/ranger-like design. The flared coattails combined with the bulky boots make the design somewhat bottom heavy though. And those Sci-Fi shoulder pads kinda break from the whole nature-vibe, so I'd recommend switching those out.

Again, interesting approach to color. Blue is usually associated with maturity. When it's combined with gold, it's almost always indicative of nobility, authority, or royalty. Like kings or paladins. The pigtails do carry the theme of youth and innocence though, which creates an interesting contrast with the outfit. It's a nicely blinged-out Pyrrha alt. The only thing I'd swap out are the gauntlets, which are still kinda heavy.

I'm a really mean critic, so don't take what I say too seriously. I do like these new characters though. They're some of the finest I've seen from you. Keep up the good work, James.

Thanks for your input, @brucege, it is very well appreciated. But I want some advice...

For this first one, what hip equipment should I use? The faulds I tried to used either clipped through the skirt or got rid of it entirely? As for gauntlets and pauldrons, what do you think I should use? As for the armor, I tried to balance it out by using the Honor Boots, thigh-high boots with shin-guards attached to them.

As for the second one, I thought the shininess of the Guardian Stone Shoulders matched well with the Silver Gauntlets. How did they remind you of a Sci-Fi? Anyway, if they must be replaced, the most likely candidate would be the Fur Pauldrons.

As for the third one, I'm thinking about replacing the Iron Gauntlets with the Tiger Lily Gauntlets and giving them a similar color palette to the armband that comes with Pyrrha's dress.

 

[HydroJames]

Aw, this has been collecting dust again... Time to dust this thread off once more.

Caped Alpha Patroklos

I don't make a lot of male creations, as I don't think they are as good as my female ones.
However, I have finally made one I felt really good about showing off.

I picked aPat, because I felt his movements would make this outfit, especially the capes, look great in combat. I had a hard time finding anybody else who could make the outfit look as dynamic as he could.

Speaking of capes, I decided to use the neck-and-hip cape again and hopefully it worked better than my last attempt...

The two capes for aPat's look like they go together better.

The Guardian Stone Shoulders are back! I picked them for the costume because they seem to match the Silver Gauntlets quite well and had less clipping issues than other shoulder pads. But, I'm sure @brucege would probably detest the repeated use of the "sci-fi shoulders". Maybe because they look like the shoulder pads worn by this particular fellow...

As for colors, I picked out the ones that would make him look like a high-ranking or elite soldier. The primary color is black with a blue-ish tint with the capes having a red patterned underside.

 

[Draggonnfs]

Cool thread. Cool, but it made me realize, how shitty and casual of a creator I am XD. Basically, pretty much all of my creations are female, and I just try to use whatever there is to make something I consider beautiful. I don't do stuff that others would see as sexy, interesting, or anything like that. And that leads to most of my characters being very similiar. Also because I almost never use colors other than gold/bronze, white, pink and occasionally red or black (I only use black in the combination with gold/bronze if it simply looks better than with white). I'm kind of obsessed with angels, so I do a lot of heavenly characters that I see as beautiful. What I miss in SCV Creation is more decorated armor. There is one torso piece that I use all the time, but I really need more. I also don't do that many ridiculously minimalistic armor designs. i know, I once did a chracter with just the underwear, gauntlets and greaves, but that was pretty much the only one like that. I like to use armor, because sometimes I also want to make my characters realistic, as much as the game allows me to. And that went well with my favourite Siegfried style creation in full armor. So, almost everything I do I just want to be beautiful, which obviously leads to most of them being similiar XD. Anyway, if you're interested, you can check my creations out in mah lil' creation thread linked below. And your creations are cool too :3

 

[Gauntlet]

I really like the concept of the "dark" aPat @HydroJamesAqua! Nice job on the color scheme, red/black match perfectly and the silver details on the armor pieces add a lot to the design, but I think you can do more to enrich your already great CaS.

For example, may I suggest you try to use some pocket stickers on the sides of the pants? It would chanege the texture of the item and improve the technical level of your creation. With this you'll have tons of options, like matching the stickers with the red shirt, for example.

Another thing is the belt's cape. I really respect the idea to blend it with the cape and you've done an amazing work on that, but did you try to put the cloth on the front as well? Imo, I guess it will convey the idea of the "dark paladin" concept even more (Well, if that was your concept in the first place I mean...). Anyway, great job man!

@Draggonnfs, I was excatly where you are now. First thing I did was searching for new concepts, you have everything you need on 8wayrun's threads. I know it's hard to make something outside the comfort zone, but you'll never know unless you try.

Check out threads like @brucege, @Gatsu, @VILARCANE, or even mine (if you want to XD) to get inspiration and techniques, but, above everything else, try man! Experiment every equip, SpecEq., stickers and look for results that you'll be proud. Not only it'll help you make even more amazing Cas, but it'll also give you a good time.

Keep it up, both of you!

 

[brucege]

@HydroJamesAqua: Hmm...the design has potential. It's an interesting equipment combination that I may not have seen before. As @Gauntlet suggested, definitely try out that waist item with both front and back flaps for the Sith Lord look. I know you really love those metal arms on your CaS, but this one's silver arms stand out too much. I'd paint 'em black. In fact, I'd paint the whole outfit black and apply that snowflake pattern (in black, of course) for the texture.

 

[HydroJames]

I'm back again. I've been slacking off. Now, I'm ready to show more creations.

Darth Stigma AKA Black Caped Alpha Patroklos

Here it is! The dark spin on the aPat Creation I have displayed earlier. To give it a Sith Lord look, I have made the following adjustments...

• The all black color, obviously.
• The emblem on the cape is the symbol of the Grandall Empire from Soul Calibur III's Chronicles of the Sword mode, to show his allegiance to an evil empire.
• You can't see it, but the weapon trail is colored red, as a reference to the Red Lightsabers wielded by Sith.
• The snowflake pattern on the cape's underside is in subtle shades of black.
• The front and back waist capes as you requested.

I nicknamed this version as Darth Stigma. I came up with this name because...

• This name is a reference to the Stigma Sword, the name of the weapon used in his other style. Also, the name of the weapon he used when he served under Graf Dumas and had taken the lives of innocent people that were falsely accused of being malfested.
• Stigma is a synonym for...
  • Shame
  • Disgrace
  • Dishonor
  • Humiliation

Phoenix (Snake Dress)

I made this in attempt to make a snake themed outfit. The armlets and collar were the only part that really did it for me, so I had to work around that. I wasn't sure about showing this off due it's simple design, but I've shown it to a few people and they liked it. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Questions...

I would like to ask...

What is your favorite creation from me?
What other characters would look good in the outfits I made?

 

[brucege]

Snake dress Phoenix is quite lovely. The snake theme makes for pretty obvious equipment choices, but the pieces all look great together. The red and green really pop. I would also try on a more serpentine color scheme like blue, green, or purple for the lulz.

My favorite creation from you is Gabrielle the hunter. Although she isn't the most beautiful of your creations, she's certainly the most interesting. Like the extreme contrast between those ugly fur boots and those awkward SciFi shoulders. She's all personality and raw energy.

 

[HydroJames]

Snake dress Phoenix is quite lovely. The snake theme makes for pretty obvious equipment choices, but the pieces all look great together. The red and green really pop. I would also try on a more serpentine color scheme like blue, green, or purple for the lulz.

My favorite creation from you is Gabrielle the hunter. Although she isn't the most beautiful of your creations, she's certainly the most interesting. Like the extreme contrast between those ugly fur boots and those awkward SciFi shoulders. She's all personality and raw energy.

Gabrielle must have that "so bad it's good" feel because of those parts. Thanks to your feedback, I can make creations that are just plain good.

 

[HydroJames]

SHAMEFUL! It's been almost a year since anything has been posted here. I'm very lazy...

@brucege

Silvia (Snake Dress)

I made the revisions you suggested. However, I used a different model this time.

I used the snake-like colors:

• The pale blue is used for the metal parts: the breastplate, shinguards, and armlets.
• The purple is used to color the skirt.
• The snake decorations stayed green from before.

When you really pay attention to her design, she appears to be quite villainous:

• Her snake motif.
• Her revealing attire.
• Her color scheme. She has orange hair, green snake accessories, and a purple skirt. I've heard that many villain characters wear secondary colors to contrast themselves from hero characters whose color selection involves primary colors like red, blue, and yellow.

Looks can be deceiving, though. She is not bad person, I assure you.

 

[brucege]

Whoops, totally didn't see your post for like 3 months haha.

Anyways, Silvia's looking good! As you said, a pretty villainous color palette. Very RPG-ish. I like it! I like that tiny bit of red on her tiara. I'm not sure why you removed the pattern on her skirt though. I thought it was pretty cool.

I do find it odd that you insist on her not being a "bad person." It sounds like you've planned out an origin story for her or something. Most of my own characters tend to be morally "grey," possibly leaning towards "good." Like my dryad here: https://8wayrun.com/threads/a-mini-gallery.12594/
Usually just people who do what they gotta do. Maybe help out a friend if they got some time on their schedules. Kinda how I used to be haha.

Of all my creations, my favorites are somehow the straight up evil ones though. Like Mildred: https://8wayrun.com/threads/a-mini-gallery.12594/page-10#post-674441
This one butchered her husband for the insurance money and enjoyed it so much that she went on to marry and kill a dozen more men, each time in a new city with a different identity. With each murder, she cared less and less about the insurance money ... and more and more about the thrill of the kill. Satan was so proud of her work that he blessed her with eternal life and beauty and a wardrobe that would put RuPaul's to shame. Sure she's a pretty terrible person, but since when was "good" fun? Besides, we all have a bit of darkness tucked away in the deep corners of our hearts. Buried under years of cheap whiskey, stale cigarettes, and abusive relationships. Embrace the dark - just as you embrace the light, and life becomes much more stimulating :P

 

[HydroJames]

If you want more backstory and characters in my creations, I guess I'll start with Rosella, Gabrielle, and Azalea...

https://8wayrun.com/threads/what-di...was-your-inspiration.18682/page-2#post-703300

During the events of SCII-IV, they were little children raised by their mother, Yelena, and their father who assisted in the fight Soul Edge and provided for their family. However, their father would be slain during the war, leaving Yelena widowed and alone to raise and protect her young. Realizing that Soul Edge and its wielder, Nightmare, could attack her home and children with no way to defend themselves, she prayed that there would be a solution to her dilemma. Luckily for her, a guardian angel would appear. She reassured her that a young man wielding a giant crystal sword was on a quest to destroy the evil sword and she shouldn't worry. However, Yelena wasn't convinced that the man could achieve his mission, at least not by himself. She stubbornly insisted that she would personally ensure Soul Edge's destruction. Reluctantly, the guardian angel agreed to train and equip her for her mission, while keeping an eye on her children. Though she tracked down Soul Edge and fought through enemies to get there, it was ultimately the man with the crystal sword that beat her to defeating Nightmare and destroying Soul Edge. Unfulfilled, but relieved, Yelena returns home safely. The Guardian Angel compliments her on bravery to set out on a dangerous mission to protect her young and carry her out husband's mission, even if her efforts turned out fruitless. She urges Yelena to try to live her life as normal and tell her children the tales of her husband, herself, and Soul Edge.

Fast forward to SCV, 17 years later.

The guardian angel would return to inform Yelena that the threat of Soul Edge has resurfaced and that they should be on their guard. Little did they know, Azalea was (albeit unintentionally) eavesdropping on their conversation and was quick to inform her sisters about the return of the cursed sword. They made the decision to sneak out of their home, knowing their mother would not approve of them going out on such a dangerous mission, to set out on a quest to go after the evil sword. Their mother would inevitably notice her children were missing and would send out the angel to look for them and ensure their safety. The angel would catch them travel between towns, having already bought equipment, planning to set on an adventure after Soul Edge. The angel advises them to return as Soul Edge's wielder, Nightmare, is a powerful warrior in a league of his own, especially against warriors who are unskilled and weak such as themselves. However, the three sisters were not willing to give up that easily, expressed their determination to live up to their parents' example and set to (attempt) to cause Soul Edge's destruction. Not wanting to run off to their deaths (out of respect for their mother's wishes and out of her own good will), but also valuing more warriors against Soul Edge, she decides to let them go on their quest if she lets them train them, which they agreed to.

Believe it or not, the outfits they are pictured wearing are not what they started out with. What they did begin their adventure with was looked rather boring, but was practical for protection while still being lightweight enough for decent mobility.

Equipment Used:
Undergarments: Chain Mail
Upper Body: Linen Shirt
Upper Body Covering: Holster (Body)
Arms: Silver Gauntlets
Shoulders: Steel Pauldrons
Ankles: Shinobi Tabi
Feet: Cuffs Boots

Rosella () - Weapon: Brave One
Gabrielle () - Weapon: Icicle
Azalea () - Weapon: Brave One

I would dub this outfit set "Soldier".

I also have them wear "Amazon" and "Valkyrie", while I label the outfits I linked to at the top "Special", and it is the only equipment type the gives the three sisters their own unique set of clothes.

Each character individually on their personality and motivation:

Rosella:

The eldest of the three sisters and the self-proclaimed leader of the trio. She takes heavily after her mother and takes it upon herself to keep Gabrielle bringing harm to herself and others and guide the naive and the inexperienced Azalea when their mother is not around.

Motivation: Her motivation is not only to take after her parents and keep her sisters safe but also to save the world simply because it was the right thing to do. She admired those her risked their lives to fight the evil sword, including her own parents and the man with the crystal sword who had successfully destroyed Soul Edge. She vowed that if she had the chance to, she would venture after Soul Edge to destroy it.

Relationships:
Gabrielle - She does not get along with her often. Due to Gabrielle's rebellious nature, she often butts heads with her when she tries to lead. She is wary of her reckless behavior putting herself and herself in danger. She often sees her actions as ill-advised attempts to be impressive.
Azalea - She gets along with her quite well. She sees it as her responsibility to lead her as much as it is for Gabrielle. However, she has a much easier to time getting her to cooperate. As for Azalea's naive nature, she will often advise her to better decisions in a polite way that acknowledges that she had good intentions.

Gabrielle:

The rowdy tomboyish middle child of the trio. She takes inspiration from her father. She looked up him to as this strong, tough man that was brave enough to stand up to someone who holds such immense power. When she heard of father's death, she vowed that she would stand up to any one of power, whether in strength or authority, even Nightmare if he ever reared his ugly head again. Even back when she was a child and after her mother told her and her sister bedtime stories of the rampages of the Azure Knight, she would boast to her sisters that she could take him on and win, despite being faced with skepticism from them. On the day that Azalea overheard the news of Nightmare's return and passed it on to her sisters, Gabrielle felt that the time had come for her to venture out to avenge her father by hunting down and destroying Nightmare.

Relationships:
Rosella - Gabrielle often argues with Rosella. She really does not like the idea of being bossed around, even by her. She has built a sibling rivalry with Rosella over the years, feeling that mother favored her more. She tries to follow what she thought was her father's direction in an attempt to prove herself to her older sister. While Rosella would chastise her for her disobedience, Gabrielle would retort, criticising her for her emphasis on obedience and claiming that one day she would learn that not always submitting to authority is a good idea.
Azalea - She thinks she is too soft. Unlike Rosella who would approach her mistakes with politeness, Gabrielle won't even bother to sugarcoat it when she thinks Azalea made a bad choice. She feels that Rosella's approach is insufficient in preparing Azalea for dangers she will eventually face. She feels that her own harsher teachings and methods combined with her brutal honesty will better train her for the outside world.

Azalea:

The idealistic youngest of the siblings. She was very young when she lost her father, and thus didn't remember much about him. However, from what she was told about him, she was assured that he was a great man. She also admired her mother who set out on a quest after Soul Edge in an attempt to save the world and defend her family. She wondered what would it be like to set out an adventure around the world like her parents. Azalea had always been a thrill seeker. She often looked for joy for herself and to share with others. She always believed that there was good in everyone she meets and continues to do so, even if it doesn't always work. Even when she experience events that made her feel great negative emotions, she is usually quick to get over it. When she overheard that Soul Edge returned to wreak havoc upon the world, she was quick to notify her sisters. When they express their intents to chase after it, she decides to tag along with them with a desire to travel around the world, meet many kinds of people and most likely face opponents in battle.

Relationships:
Rosella - She is perfectly willing to accept her as a leader. Even Azalea recognizes that Rosella is the best decision maker. She is more tolerant when she calls her out for her mistakes due to her more calm approach. Rosella would even break things up when Gabrielle would antagonize her. She is more of a big sister figure than Gabrielle to her.
Gabrielle - Her relation to Gabrielle is complicated. At times, she doesn't get along with her due to her mocking her and her world views but is quick to realize that she is trying to protect her. She will sometimes play along with her antics, being the thrillseeker that she is.

 

[HydroJames]

Creation Dump Time!

So many custom costumes that I've been sitting on in the Xbox 360 version of Soulcalibur V.

Time to show some more.

Revised Outfits

Gabrielle had her boots and spaulders changed.

Azalea had her gauntlets modified.

Rosella, however, remains the same.

Soldier

This outfit was made with a boring, but practical approach. This outfit doesn't look flashy nor does the amount of metal allow for tons of movement, but at least will protect you.

Longcoated Alpha Patroklos

A successor to dual capes outfit. I imagine that Pat would prefer Longcoats as opposed to capes as capes would be a safety hazard. I gave this a military leader looker and decked it out with an armband and a couple of epaulets.

Phoenix (True Valkryie)

I have looked at the artwork of Valkryies on Google and envisioned Phoenix as an actual Valkryie. Inspired by what I saw, but limited by available parts, I came up with this.

Phoenix (Leather and Metal Armor)

This was inspired by a skin belonging to Mercy from Overwatch.

A Valkyrie inspired suit that has both leather fabrics and metal materials for protection. Again, I felt limited by the parts I was left with, but I did the best that felt I could do.

Power-hungry Magician, Midnight

I had this design for some of my earlier creations but felt that this had such a mage-like aesthetic that I felt that Viola or anyone with her style would wear it best.

A woman who somehow got access to magical powers after living a life of depression and/or boredom and plays with them like a child playing with their toys. Seeks Soul Edge to absorb its power and achieve greater heights.

Demonic Magician, Midnight

A "what if" Scenario if Midnight successfully got the cursed sword's power. She has changed in both appearance and personality. Perhaps Soul Edge has warped her mind...

Reiko, the Armored Ninja

This was inspired by the example given by @Pocky-Yoshi.

Witch Viola

A little late for Halloween, but better late than never.