How would you make a Panda?

Now, I've grown out of the habit of making these costume help threads, but something has been eating at me all day, and I just can't seem to find a good enough solution to it. Does anyone have any idea how I could make a convincing panda girl? I did a bit of research as to what a panda should look like, but I can't seem to transcribe that knowledge of animals onto a humanoid costume subject.

Here's what I know about pandas: They have a white head, with black ears, black circles around the eyes, a black nose and black lips. Their bodies are almost entirely white, but they have black front and rear paws, with a black "tank top" liking the front two paws across the chest. I've not been able to ascertain whether they have tails at all (though ought to) and what those tails might look like, but Kung Fu Panda suggests a black tail.

Now, I did what I could, but I'm not sure how well that came out. Here is what I have so far, and I'm not very happy with it. First of all, I've had to cover the face's human ears because it looks really odd to have two sets, and only a very few hairstyles actually do that. I've already used the one I have in the picture, but not in this colour, so it's passable, but I wouldn't be opposed to a better alternative. I've also struggled to find a good way to make the eyes black. I tried the black eye spots, but ended up going with this heavy-handed black make-up, in large part because I wanted black lips like a real panda. I'm not averse to getting rid of the black mouth, though, because it looks... Well, really grumpy. That's also the problem with the with the Feline face in general - it's so grumpy! I don't remember it scowling quite as badly on this character, but then that might be because I covered the mean and nasty eyebrows.

Beyond that, the lower body was easy, though for lack of fur, I'm not sure how good the result was. I've worked with these kinds of costumes before, and it's a fine line to thread between "that's actually her skin" and "That's a woman in a coloured cat suit. Given that her face is white and drawn with fur (or at least I think it is), it shouldn't be too hard to perceive the rest of the body as that of a panda, rather than a white woman in black latex. But that's the best I can do, and I suspect that leaving her pantsless should force the look through. Either that, or look really creepy, though hopefully not creepy enough to get me genericed. I mean seriously, that's what a panda looks like.

However, what I have is very rudimentary at this point (and, as you can see, I haven't even worked on actual clothes, but that comes later) and I would be very much interested in seeing if anyone has an idea as to how to enhance the effect a little bit and evoke the image of a panda a little bit more and the image of a scowling woman a little bit less.

Any ideas?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

that's pretty much what I had in mind. The little fluffy bunny tail would probably be on there were I making it, and as for making it look more furry, there's an option that comes with the magic booster pack. I think it's a shoulders piece. That might help.

Hmmm...

Try replacing the leg pattern with Blend, so you lose the sharp lines. It means less overall white on the legs, but it would likely look more natural.

As for the face, have you tried fiddling around with masks? If you have the Science pack, one of the Detail 2 breathers might be a decent stand-in for a muzzle. And pandas don't have whiskers, so you're free to drop those anyway.

And to lose the scowliness, I'd just try a few normal faces. Between the eyes and the mask, you won't see terribly much of it if you're concerned with it not looking beastly enough.

Edit: Since I needed an excuse to log on anyway, have a look at my attempt. I wandered across a more evocative hairstyle, though I forgot which direction Blend went in. It still came out good, though, and combining both Science breather and goggles made a very cute Robo-Panda design that I wish I had a use for.

A panda generally has the "dark soulless" eyes that most animals have... so just use the "Supernatural" face that has the black eyes. As far as the rest goes, I HAVE seen pandas in the game, a pair of them actually, one male and one female and at cursory glance they looked pretty good. It's quite possible. I also think they used the cotton bunny tail if I remember right.

Aha! I found it! After looking around at the advise I got and trying some of it on, I learned a few things - a woman with that costume and a human face looks not just weird, but CREEPY. And if it's creepy to me, I just know it's going to look scary to almost everybody else. I tried to use a human face, and I just can't.

Getting rid of the whiskers helped, as did getting rid of the black mouth. Yeah, it's a little less panda without the black nose and black lips, but it's a little bit more appealing. I stuck with the Feline face and went with the Dark Eyes pattern. It worked like a charm!

I had to change the hair. I tried the one Ian suggested, and it still showed the brows. In fact, ALL other hairstyles I tried showed the brows, and they were just too scowling for me to work with. So I went with something else entirely. I went with with the Strange hair, and that was good for two reasons. One is the obvious - it hid her eyebrows, making the face look a lot less threatening and a lot more like how I wanted it to. The other, however, has to do with how it interacts with the rest of the body. Pandas have barely any neck of shoulders, their head just sort of melds into their torso, hiving them a very distinct "fat head" look, which simply cannot be replicated with the female model's slender neck. However, that big, long hairstyle is the perfect shape and transition to give me that form, so now she actually LOOKS more like a panda AND looks better

I also solved the Sharp problem. Instead of using a white base with black pattern the same as the top, I used a black base with a white pattern and just used the Athletic Shorts pattern. This gave me a less... Fancy colour line that was still not as blurry as the Blend line. I actually like this one a lot. Now I just need to thing of, you know... CLOTHES for her to wear and I'm all set for Dual Handguns to arrive some time next year.

Man, that promise to myself to not make new characters until Going Rogue arrives is REALLY backfiring on me. Now instead of new characters, I have zillions of new concepts with costumes saved. Damn you, impatience!

*edit*
I also made the model slightly (a little less than slightly, actually) thicker and more heavy. She's a panda, after all. Doesn't make sense for her to be THAT skinny

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

For the top, I believe that Diamond Blend would create the same effect without the sharp line, though it's not as perfect a match.

Is it wrong that the first thing that popped into my head is "sometimes when a mummy panda and a daddy panda love each other very much..."

The Nemesis Method of Panda Creation:

1) Using various plots and subterfuges gather parts and components for the Power Assimilation Transfer Thermal Yugoslavian Compressor And Kinetic Energizer.

2) Assemble the P.A.T.T.Y.C.A.K.E.

3) Infiltrate the Ouroboros Time Mender organization; possibly scramble letters of name to provide good alias.

4) After learning the ins and outs of Time Travel, journey back to the day Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden.

5) While the Almighty is distracted with lecturing the world's first juvenile delinquents, slide the PATTYCAKE beneath his feet and activate.

6) Absorb some of his phenomenal cosmic power! Note that battery space in the PATTYCAKE is limited; so a complete absorption is impossible. Remember... Phenomenal Cosmic Power > Itty Bitty Storage Space.

7) Travel back to present time.

8) Using the near omnipotent power of the Almighty... create panda.

At the risk of condemming this thread to a horrible death by posting in it, I will give my formula for a Panda girl.

Face: Young 6/Dark Eyes
Hair: Gamine
Ears: Teddy Bear

Upper Body: Tight
Chest: Tights
Gloves: Smooth/Bare / Full / Blend
Belt: Bunny Tail

Lower Body: Bottoms
Bottom: Tights / Bikini 2
Boots: Flat / Tights / Blend

Body and Face Slider settings (pulled from the .costume file)

Scale -15
BoneScale 0.2815
ShoulderScale -0.6796
ChestScale -0.448
WaistScale 0.1814
HipScale 0.2356
LegScale -0.1
HeadScales 0.5, 0.41, 0.42
BrowScales 0.06, 0.33, 0.19
CheekScales 0.19, 0.3, 0.17
ChinScales -1, -1, -1
CraniumScales 0, 0, 0
JawScales -1, -1, -1
NoseScales -1, -1, -1

That gave the base design for Pyra Painda:



And then various clothing fashions added to taste:

I would find a mommy panda and a daddy panda who loved each other very very much.

I hadn't made a girl panda. But I do have a big boy one

Mine fits more in the vein of a cartoonish version of a City of panda.

this is my panda. i didn't work too hard on it, so it's not so great.

Stone/dark melee tank

Hmm... Since I don't want to quote entire pictures, here's a make-shift compound quote:

Willowpaw

Interesting design, to be sure, but I'm not sure I can see that as a panda, especially without the clothes. With the human face, the grey fur and only slightly black hands and feet, it actually looks a lot like a woman. Especially when you put her in the Tights with Skin clothes, it just looks very much like a pale woman in sexy lingerie. Which... Isn't actually a bad thing, just not what I'm after Not entirely, anyway.

The other big problem I have is that, which this pattern and, err... Fur tone, she actually looks more like a raccoon. Appropriate, I suppose, since my inspiration was a raccoon lady, but again, not what I'm after with this one.

Zekiran

Interesting. I guess the Huge model is a lot easier to make that "fat head" look with, as it comes without a neck right out the box, and it doesn't look nearly as bad without hair on. A bald man I can kind of see. A bald woman is... Ugh! I'm not sure I can work with the breather, though, or with the two sets of ears. That's part of why I had such a problem coming up with a hairstyle - I needed one that covered the ears.

Your pattern, on the other hand, is quite interesting. It's not exactly true to a panda, but it looks good and it has softer lines that would be more realistic. I'm not sure why you left him without a tail (is that how Pandas usually look?) but I don't think I can leave mine without one, since I like the cute little black bunny tail

I DO like your idea for wings, though. Sure, they're not typical panda biology, but then neither are boobs (or a waist, for that matter), so that's little concern. More importantly, I'm sort of rearing her to be a Blaster, and all my Blasters fly, so going with wings might actually be a pretty good idea. Interesting...

MDanger

Hey! You're probably the closest to what I had in mind The pattern is a little off a panda, but that looks is very much the most convincing one I've seen yet, in that when I look at this, my first thought is "Woah! Panda?" It's a little reminiscent of Po from Kung Fu Panda, which may or may not be what you were going for. I like it, anyway. What I find most amazing is that the pattern isn't right for a panda, yet it looks right nevertheless. I need to experiment!

That, and I actually think you have a good idea on the legs. I used Athletic Shorts to define the pattern on mine, but those are long, going down past mid-thigh. I'd probably be better off using the hotpants to bring the pattern up a little. Sweet, thanks!

mintmiki

Um... I'm not sure if it's the low-res textures or something else, but this looks a lot like a werewolf to me. And I know what the black pants were intended to represent, but that's just what they look like to me - black pants. The black on panda legs actually starts from upper thigh down. Their butts are white.

Interesting approach using Tech Crey to simulate a fur texture, though (when can we get a REAL fur texture?). I think the low texture resolution helps with the effect, however, as when I tried this on my end, it didn't look like fur so much as like armour.

---

In any event, I'll go see if I can't tweak my panda a little. I want to see if I can't give her a white chest and still have her look right, and maybe give her a pair of Valkyrie wings

Thanks, guys

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Hey, I have something I want to run by you, guys. I toyed around with the editor some and found a few more interesting parts I could use (and one part which is inexplicably missing), and I came up with this trifecta of possible pandas. Let me give you an explanation of what I used and I'd love to hear back from you on how each looks.

Leftmost: Diamond Blend top, Diamond Blend bottom. It's not ideal, as the patterns are all over the place, but that's the only option I have for blended, non-sharp-line patterns to use. Unfortunately, it feels like a little too much black to use on the model.

Middle: Bikini bottom, Tanker top. This one is clearly NOT a correct pattern for a panda (it lacks a stripe across the chest and back) but somehow looks the most like a cartoonish panda, at least to my eyes. I have no idea why. The problem with this is it looks a little bit like a jump suit, especially with that neck line between the white face and the white tights.

Is it me, or did they tweak white tights to look less like white skin? We had a huge discussion about that over at Suggestions, and things seem to have changed since then...

Rightmost: Sharp bottom and, err... I think Desire for the top. It looks pretty silly, actually, and I'm not sure why I went back to the Sharp bottom when I clearly didn't intend to use it. The Desire top is a little bit of a wildcard, too. Technically, it IS a black stripe across the chest, but it's very un-panda-like, in that it's clearly a push-up bra. The pants ruin the look, certainly, but does Desire even work with that?

And, for some odd reason, there are no Shorts (just shorts) in the Tights patterns. They only exist under Tights With Skin and Skirts and Short Pants. Why? They would have been perfect for my use here, but they just aren't here. Unpleasant.

As well, my problem here is the human form and my sliders choices. I prefer the aesthetic of longer legs, but because the legs on this girl make up about half her body length, that's just a LOT of black on the costume. Essentially, this girl is all legs and arms and very little torso, whereas an actual panda is mostly a big fat torso with smaller front and rear paws. Oh, and giant head. So a panda ends up being mostly white, but if I follow its pattern, my girl ends up being mostly black, so I may need to cheat somewhere, especially if I go with the Bikini pattern.

So, what do you think? I'm not marries to any of the specific top and bottom combinations, so I'm not at all opposed to taking the top from one and the bottom from another, or just taking the bottom from one and a top I didn't use at all. Let me know what you think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Thanks, Samuel! I think I was going for a Kung-Fu Panda like imagry there. (Fuller disclosure: he's a katana/sr.) I made him quite some time ago so I don't remember what I was looking at for inspiration. It may have been sneezing panda or it may have been Po himself. Probably Po, if I had to guess, as his name is pan-pan. I also made and deleted a version that used the Ominichi tights to get some texture on the body.

I like the middle one the most, but I will readily admit to being biased. I also remembered I had a picture of triplet pandas sitting around somewhere. It looks like they used the Belly-Tee Long to get that stripe across the chest and the bikini brief bottom.