Crashfreeze's Guide to making an AWESOME costume
By
Antaean,
Posted on: 2007-02-14 14:17 in Player Guides
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1005/viccz1.png
The Amazing Vic Riot. 4 colors, and complimented often.
I can't believe I havent seen this guide until now. I spent a couple last night in fact making a bunch of alts, just to play around with the costume creator. Great guide!
Very helpful Guide! Some of my alts have turned out great, costume-wise. Others look terrible (including a couple I did last night). I could never figure out why some are tough to create, while others almost build themselves. I think your Guide will be very helpful on my next alt.
I get into trouble when I "know" what I want, can't find the exact right pattern in the costume creator, and then start taking the "close-enough" approach. I end up with a lot of close-enough pieces that, taken together, aren't close-enough at all!
Please try my arcs:
Arc# 63910 "Why Do Bad Girls Like Bad Boys?" (length=Long, levels 40+)
Arc# 401500 "How to Be a Successful Professional Criminal" (length=Very Long, levels 1-10)
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9. Avoid monsters. I'm sorry monster people, there are some very good monstrous outfits out there and I would even say use them for alternate outfits but throughout comic book history no "monster" character really goes onto greatness, they are always teammates and never great stand-alone heroes (with the possible exception of Beast).
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While I enjoyed reading the rest, this was more than a little frivolous (had nothing to do with the discussion of good costume design) and not all that accurate. Lets see - Swamp Thing, The Thing, Beast, The Hulk, Sasquatch, Ghost Rider, Hellboy, Nightcrawler, Gargoyle, Beta Ray Bill, Man Thing, Rintrah, Warlock, The Demon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...
It is true that monstrous heroes are less common than spandex wearing heroes, but that doesn't have anything to do with costume aesthetics or hero popularity. Back in the early 50s, they were relatively common - then Dr. Wertham testified at Senate hearings about the "seduction of the innocent", suggesting that Batman and Robin were luring innocents into homosexuality and that horror comics, like the EC titles, were harmful and dangerous to impressionable youth. The comic industry responded by censoring itself for the better part of two decades (mid fifties to mid seventies) with the Comics Code Authority and washing all of the creepy characters away. It wasn't until the late seventies that the industry started pushing the boundaries of the Code and bringing the monstrous heroes back.
There's no rational reason we, MMORPG players in the 21st century, should let the fears and prejudices of the 1950s impact our hero concepts or costume designs - we have more than enough modern day fears and prejudices to work with.
critique my 3 toons if you guys may
1st toon demon look
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...mastermind.jpg
2nd, tuff chick look
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...z28/tanker.jpg
3rd, my main going for hte vampire look
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...8/scrapper.jpg
This is a great Costume Design 101. I think some of the points by other posts here are also important, but this is an excellent launching point. Too often, I take for granted that people are familiar with basic color design concepts such as "warm" and "cold" colors. If I'd add anything to that discussion, it would be an elaboration on consistency of a bright color scheme vs. pastels vs. monochromatic combinations.
I think an important additional point was already touched on by Furry Saint with his "triangle" of gloves, belt, & boots. This is a good rule applied all over the costume -- coordination of colors or hues between major costume parts (chest, pants), secondary parts (head, gloves, belt, boots) and/or accessories (cape, weapons, aura) can add a structure or symmetry to a costume design that looks great.
A specific CoX design concern for me is texture. Certain costume options have coloring schemes that are tailored specifically for them (e.g., Justice, Sinister, Exoproto, Stealth). I find myself choosing these texture/color combinations far more often then the spandex & assorted style options, probably because they work with more mature, modern character concepts.
I think the two-color and "KISS" rules are safe and work well, but limit you to 3-4 star costumes. 5-star costumes often break these rules, but are very careful in how they do it -- the best costume I've seen lately had a black base and 3 other colors conscientiously chosen and placed.
I don't think any written guide can be made on how to make the "best" costumes, but if you want to put someone on the road to success, you've done a fine job here, Crashfreeze.
im just wondering why we need to look heroic. I prefer playing villainous characters and will always create an outfit that will break at least one of those rules
I'd add another simple addition... and it follows the old KISS rule... Keep It Simple Stupid.
It is one thing to have an elaborate costume... it is another thing altogether to have an elaborate costume for no apparent reason. I can't count the number of costumes I've seen where I swear the main thought crossing the mind of the creator was "more detail means better looking."
The costume on my current toon Reactor is very simple... using the three colour system mentioned above (Red, Black and a yellow logo). It is almost Golden Age-ish in its simplicity. Last night, I had two unsolicited compliments on my costume... I was stunned!
Having found tutorials on you tube for things like Final Curt Express how about the OP make a tutorial on how to use the costume creator? I take time in designing my costumes to make functional sense so I would be interested in another way of using it.
Guardian
Hot Alix 50 Fire/Kin/Psy:Main
Mora Victory Tri-Ice Tanker
Jasper Stone 50 Emp/ Elec:1st hero
Lady Courage 32 BS/SR
Cleo Cat 50 Ill/Kin
Max Multiplicity 35 MM Thug/Traps
Ripoffs are tacky and taboo. Be original!!
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Purple and Yellow ? Yeah just like..no wait.....yeah there pretty much isn't anyone in comics running around in purple and yellow.
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sentry does it, and pulls it off very nicley as a major character
Don't forget Mongul.
While your colour theory is not wrong, it is incomplete. Contrasting combinations work, but are not the only valid combinations. Yellow & green, which you criticized, do complement well (technically better than a contrast, which clashes), and are one of the more common pairs in commercial design (especially now that the "green" movement has adopted the same colour scheme as John Deere). A number of well-known superheroes and supervillains have also worn that combination.
The trick to these complements is that you are pairing two colours that are next to one another (analogous) on the wheel. DC's Geo Force started out with such a scheme using two shades of brown with orange and yellow hues (Marvel's Wolverine also wore a popular costume in that scheme), and later changed it to the green & yellow combo. Marvel's Magneto uses a magenta and purple combination, which has since caught on with a lot of other characters in the X-Men titles. Apocalypse went the other direction and paired purple with blue, for a cooler combo. And so on...
I forget if you pointed out the triad combinations -- pairing up colours like green & purple or yellow & blue, but that's very popular with the superheroes (the Incredible Hulk with his purple pants and all of the X-Men in their original team outfits). Probably you did, since you mentioned Superman and Spiderman.
Also remember that the lighting is different in-game than in the costume creator, therefore your costume will look different. This is rather important for those costumes requiring a particular colour shade.
In case no one else has pointed out, having the same color but in different tones works well too! Really depends on your character concept, but it's quite possible to have a character using varying shades of green or blue or red or w/e and pull it off nicely.
As an example I've made several ice-based characters who's costumes include black or white with varying shades of blue. If anyone is interested I'll include pics.
My Virtue Projects
AE: 38959 - Invasion of the Dark Realm
I agree with most of your Guide. Honestly I found that 3 is the magic number. Two is usually boring, 1 is usually horrid. I've seen good costumes of both types, but they're very rare. Three, usually with 2 dominant colours and 1 for colours in specific area(s) makes a great costume.
According to the wheel, Gold and Green would have been horrible partners, but because Gold can pair with Black and Green with White, I guess, it has made an appealing image. What do you think?
Actually, I made a costume with 4 (Gold, Green, Black and White) and I have received compliments.