How would you make a Panda?

I did some more poking and prodding with the creator and I think I've come closer to Girl Panda Who Isn't a Girl In a Panda Suit. At the end of the day I don't think there's any way to escape the Girl In A Suit look - especially staring at the somewhat static image in the creator. Running around in the city at whatever speed with the camera at distance and angle, a lot of these would fool the runner-by quite easily. That's something that I get a lot. I'll see a great costume that evokes, in this case, a certain animal - I remember a lot of puffins at one point, but when I recreate them in the costume editor being up close and personal with it I didn't feel the animal like I did in the city.

But, anyhoo, here's what I came up with. This time, looking at what the shape-disguising Baggy and Tucked In parts could offer. Diamond Blend seems to be the best option if you want a softer, furry-like, feel for the body. I used Rubber Gloves for the hands and Large>Matte for the boots to give that chunky paw appearance for the hands and feet. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's as close as I can get to the Not a Panda Suit barring further exploration and creativity from other folks. (The transition at the waste line is particularly bothersome from the costume creator perspective.) I mostly escaped the look of Girl Face by using the blankest slate provided by the Ninja mask with the Feline overlay. It's not easy to see but on the far right I used one of the dark greys for the secondary color on the face. The black seemed a bit to defining comparatively.

Interesting... I like what you did with the face. I'd have to play around with it to see if I can deal with those strong lines, but using a mouth-less face with the Feline pattern is INGENIOUS! I love it! As far as creativity goes, you win my medal of the day, MDanger This gives me black lips, a black nose and even something of a snout, but again, I'd have to see it for myself.

As for the baggy options... Well, I'm afraid I can't use those. Clearly I wanted something which would evoke the image of a panda, but I still wanted a girl at the end of the day It's a fine line to tread, but I want a certain balance between believability and visual appeal, and masking the human form goes farther than I'd like to go in the direction of believability. Even if we say I can live with the baggy clothes textures (and I can't - I just can't accept obvious make-shift items on my own costumes), they just distort the form a little bit too much, which then ends up defeating the purpose of making a panda girl in the first place. If I'll go Baggy, I might as well make a panda GUY, and... Well, that's not what I want.

Your changing the face does go around the problems of having to hide the eyebrows, but I just... Really don't like that hair. I've no idea what it was inspired by (Star Trek?) but I just can't stand that design. I'm also not sure if I don't actually like the Feline face as I had it set up. Certainly the Feline pattern makes for a good snout, but the nose on the Feline face actually counts for a lot.

Either way, thank you for your help. I'll go try these out in a bit.

*update*
Arck! Just as I suspected. I LOVE the creativity behind the Ninja Mask with the Cat pattern, but I just can't work with that. The mask texture is... Iffy. I suppose it could look like fur, but truth be told it just looks like wrinkles, like on an old man. As well, the Cat pattern is nice, but it only has colour for the upper lip and not the lower. This produces a kind of tiny, narrow mouth, and in a frown no less. The combination makes the face look like an old woman going "Bah humbug! You kids and your loud music these days!" The Feline face with just a Dark Eyes pattern, on the other hand, has a youthful, lively look to it, as well as a VERY obvious cat lip and, as I have my sliders, a very obvious cat nose that works almost like a snout. It's not perfect, but it's a lot less... Well, weird.

I do have ONE problem with it, though, and it's that, unlike the tights texture, it DOES still have the old brownish shading, so it doesn't match the white tights very well. However, if I have a neck line (or, push comes to shove, a collar) it can pass muster just fine.

On the other front are the patterns. I never quite found anything I could work with, including my own ideas, as they either looked un-panda-like or they added too much black to the costume. However, forcing some lateral thinking and switching colours a few times, I did come up with these two alternatives, which are what I'll probably end up using, or thereabout.

Left - This is the pattern I came upon first. It's the Disco top. It's not exactly a panda pattern, but it fits the basic criteria, which is black hands and a band around the chest and back. The reason I'd pick that over Belly Tee Full is that it actually gives the costume a lot more white, preventing her from looking like a penguin. I tried Belly Tee Full and Bikini and she just didn't look right at all, but this one has promise.

Right - This is the pattern that I think sold me, however. This is the pattern I might well end up using. Surprisingly, it's one of the oldest ones there, Pattern 2 all the way back from Launch in 2004. It's kind of lower-res and it has a bit of an odd shape, but this gives me exactly what I wanted - a white front and a white back, with a band around the chest and back at shoulder level. It also comes up to the neck, hiding my obvious neck line. It gives me a lot of white on the costume, as well. I think I'm very much sold on this.

Now... I just need to wait 6-8 months to actually use this panda. Oh, woe is me!

I do want to say, though - Thank, MDanger, for your help and your gesture. I really, really appreciate this. And thank you, everybody, for being able to take me seriously and help me out. Without your help, this idea would have probably fallen through and denied me what has the potential to be one of my favourite characters. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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.

Now that you've said it all I can see is Grumpy Old Panda.

"Back in my day we ate shoots and leaves! And we liked it!"

Perhaps you are thinking of our urban dwelling cousins. They're the ones who eat, shoot and leave.

Why do you have to wait 6-8 months to use this panda?

I like the Tanker top version better than the ones with black across the front/shoulders.

Man do we need more furry options...

I think I didn't put the tail on the panda because with the wings it just gets lost. He's MASSIVE. I mean, as big as you get massive. So that means not only can you not see over Icy Grip's head, his wings are also in your view too lol. Unfortunately he's on an inactive account or I'd show you the other costume he has, which is the same 'panda' looking head but with samurai armor in black and white. It looks gorgeous. God I wish I could support this habit more

Oh i guess you're right about the black across the chest, dunno but I just liked the fully white version for some reason.

I was going to post a reference picture of a panda but while googling I was overwhelmed by cute, and had to stop.

Ha! I finally cracked it! I have my panda! I simultaneously love you and hate you, guys, because now I WANT TO PLAY THIS CHARACTER! I didn't plan on switching, I didn't! Ugh...

Well, anyway, here's the final design. I went a little bit extra to force the the look, and I think this seals it. Here's what I did:

I shortened the legs significantly. I went from almost maximum legs to almost minimum legs. I wanted my panda to be chunky

I went for a LOT of weight with the physique slider, hence why she ended up looking so heavy. I wanted my panda to be plump

I went with Big boots and gloves. They both act well as big paws (sort of) and they make the whole model look that much more massive. I wanted my panda to be big

The one thing I don't think I did quite enough of was height. When you slash the legs from full maximum to full minimum, you lose a good half foot to a foot of height and the height slider isn't as powerful, so I ended up putting her at just over 6 feet. It's tall for a woman, but for a panda, it's a little on the low side. I'll have to look to my giant women for a better comparison, but it seems I'll be spending some costume tokens on this. Thank GOD I can alter height post-creation. That's probably the best $10 I've spent since I bought that elixir of life at a flea market.

I looked at all the available Claws options, and none of them really connected with me. All the Female claws are kind of small and compact, which I suppose is the point of the weapon, but they didn't look good on my larger-than-life panda. Well, all aside from the Original, good old rustic Legacy Claws. Because they're from a time before weapon scaling, they're HUGE on a female character, and because they've always been a shiny white metal, they fit right into the costume. Since I don't need to colour them anyway, why NOT use the Legacy claws? I was kind of tempted to use the Villain claws or the Pain Spikes or whatever those are called, but I just opted for the stylistic, obvious visual appeal of the Legacy Claws.

Pandala is currently sitting in Outbreak, waiting for me to get off work so I can give her a few levels and see how she plays. And, yes, I realise this is a BADLY uncreative name, but hey! It was my first choice and it wasn't taken, so neener neener! The name comes from something a colleague of mine said a couple of weeks ago. He was complaining about one of those desktop wallpaper management programmes not downloading pictures correctly, and to demonstrate, he picked a picture to download. He said "OK, let's try this panda. Wait, no, I mean koala. That's a koala." And, yes, it was a picture of a koala for a desktop. For some reason, my brain made the connection of "Hmm... Panda + Koala = Pandala. Ingenious!" and I've had pandas on my brain since then. A bit of extra research reveals that Pandala is actually a real place in Zambia, though I've no idea if it's a terrain landmark of a settlement. It was also taken on Pinnacle, but not on Victory (it is now, but still), so it's obviously not as creative as I thought it was.

So... Thank you for giving me a brand new character, I guess

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.

You're.... welcome?