All Things Character Art

Hello everybody! Welcome to the "All Things Art" thread, Dink Style! in this thread we will discuss anything Character/Costume related wether it be an idea for an upcoming pack or maybe just a question you might have.

Before we get started let’s review the ground rules:

1. Gotta keep it real: Ongoing development is always the highest priority, so my ability to respond to posts will also be limited. If you don't get a direct reply here, don't worry, I will try to read everything that appears in this thread.

2.Patience is a virtue!: Posting on this thread won't necessarily expedite that special part you've wanted forever, but it'll at least keep it on the radar. We're always striving to give you guys what you want, but that comes in two flavors: variations on existing stuff, and brand-new stuff that expands the game into exciting new territory. Though we try to honor older requests, it has to happen as a part of overall development.

3.This is why we can't have nice things: Certain things just aren't on the agenda, and why dwell on those when we could be talking about all the awesome stuff that you get instead?!

4. Rein it in there, cowboy:Let's try to keep the dialogue measured and constructive. It's helpful to know what you like and don't like, but play it cool, y'know?

Some of the other Character Artists may pop in here from time to time to answer some questions ^_^

Have at it!

My big want is non-normal thickness body parts.

skeleton body parts - only bone thick
wooden body parts that are stick like
missing bodyparts - gloves that do not connect at the wrist, or a head floating above the shoulders with no neck

we have some robot parts that are thin - skeletal robotic arms, and a peg leg

I want to be able to make a skeleton, a stickman scarecrow/puppet, and a ghost which is a hooded robe with gloves and boots but no arms or legs

• Animal characters in the game are currently red hot and with that in mind, would a reptile theme pack be on the agenda as a possibility? While i know it doesnt belong in this thread, but you could also have a path aura of snakes following the player as an option in the pack.
• Foreshadow/Mirror Spirit are some of the nicest looking NPCs in the game currently, since they are not used in any content currently [as fighting], would it be possible to port over some of their material to us players?
• I personally am a huge fan of the little kitten on the shoulder that females get, while i am not sure if we are getting that little green alien in the retro pack anymore it does want me to ask if there will be future additions to this section as a shoulder option.

I know this is a bit silly. But I think its time. This game now has the mechanics for it anyway. Time for 4 legged (for now) or dare I say it down the road ---- 4 armed body types. Not that I want to become a dog, wouldnt want the flea and tick problems.

As an initial post, I want to keep this brief and paired down to my one eternal request dating as far back as David's original thread:

Muscular females. I even have pictures:



This is Xanta using nothing more complex than the Male tights texture for chest and legs in place of the Female skin texture. It was a fairly easy swap, the textures line up pretty well and they conform to the body without looking too off. And I did this with somebody else's outdated software and not an ounce of artistic talent. Just imagine how great a variant an actual artist could produce

My request remains the same - I want to see an alternate option for female skin that is considerably more muscular than what we have in the game right now. This doesn't have to affect the model mesh in any way, it doesn't have to affect the sliders. I just want to see muscle definition. Men get to have it, so I find it's only fair that women get to have it, as well. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the costume editor is capable of producing far worse designs right now, and this has the potential to look quite good. I've seen this concept drawn up in other games and I've enjoyed it greatly.

I actually *ahem* know there is an "athletic" female skin in the game's data files already that looks a lot like the male, but with more appropriate chest musculature. It's just not usable in the actual game (and its bump map seems off). Last I heard on the subject... Two years ago... Was David saying there was some UI work to be done and that this was being looked into. I assume he was referring to the fact that you can't actually choose your skin texture under Tights with Skin. I suggest, then, that all Tights with Skin options that are actual colour mask patterns be moved into a subcategory of the larger category of "skin" under Tops With Skin and Bottoms With Skin, in much the same way as I can pick between Tights, Smooth Tights, Shiny Tights and so forth. You can have those two be first with a MANDATORY colour pattern, then have all the other tops and bottoms that are actually one whole texture with skin AND fabric in one come afterwards. I wouldn't dream of asking that all of those be redone.

This should be enough to keep me happy for a few more years. Bonus points if the difference between regular female skin and this new more muscular one is bigger and more evident so there's a point to doing this.

*edit*
A few more reference pics:
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

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.

With the release of the Retro Scifi bundle


the only thing I can think of is Bomber Jackets

My practical requests are for more high resolution faces like the ones in the Retro Sci-Fi Pack, and more details hairstyles, especially one using a combo of Shag and Shy, so i can have ny RL hair inthe game

My less practical requests are for animated hair, animated faces, like blinking eyes and so on, separate fingers for our hands, more realistic bust shapes, and an increased polygon count for the basic avatar models so we have more curves and less noticable straight lines.

Heya Dink and thank you for the thread.
The highest wish I got for one or more characters is... well take a look at the Sybils in Cimerora or Sorceress Serene.
From the waist down the sybils and Serene has a (its late and my vocabulary seems to be going away) nice piece of cloth.
I was wondering if we can get a similar piece on our characters, as a skirt (or at worst a belt).
Can we get Dink? Please? (With sugar on top)
It would fit my nature and magic users... alot (and I'm certain I'm not the only one)

Hmmmmm....

How much does having to deal with the UI limit (or not!) the sorts of things you can consider?

For instance, asking for the older patterns - some of which is fairly badly "pixelly" or "jaggy" - to be updated, given some "depth" and the like is a request that comes up fairly often, but there are some people who like/want the older ones just as they are (the painted look, I suppose.)

For instance, just going down the costume "sets" in the creator, female, Armored - ok, Average, ok, Bare - jaggy, angle-y top and bottom (worse on top,) Genie - you can see it along the bottom of the bandeau top, etc.

How can we get stuff like this on the schedule to be cleaned up? And is it a major pain to have two versions for the people (I think samuel_tow keeps chiming in on this one) to keep the jaggy, "painted" version?

See my Guides and Tutorials

My humble request is hats for Monsterous Heads.

Zombie Fryer would love a costume with a top hat. Or a baseball cap.

Thank you for the consideration

[ @Zombie Fryer ][ @Zombie Smasher ]
| Home Server: Virtue |

Twitter: @ZFLikesNachos Save City of Heroes (Titan Network) [Successful "The Really Hard Way" runs: 4] [Click ^]

More supeheroes.

Less generic geek culture.

What I'd like to see:

1) Black Knight armour made available to players.
2) Further exploration of plant-themed costume pieces.

I'd like to see clothing with more folds. Something that adds weight to the fabric. Doesn't have to be dynamic, but stuff like the bustle-looking thing for females from the Steam punk pack.

Oooh, somewhere else to pitch my ideas! *grin*

Here we go:


Egyptian Set:
Animal Heads usable with the Nemes cloth (the Egyptian Hat under Hats)
Jackal, Cobra/Snake, Vulture beast heads
The Red and White Crowns of Egypt
The Blue War Crown
Vulture Crown (for women)
Skirts, the shendyt
Tops with folded cloth/heavy pleats
Jeweled belt several varieties of Egyptian clothing styles
Collars and Pectorals
Bracers
Sandals (without wings!)
Earrings
Braided hair
Underarm Wings

Mask Set
Porcelain face style masks, with a matte and metallic version
Comedy/Tragedy
Tribal
War Paint (Native American and Celtic)
A Variety of Textured Masks (instead of the painted-on versions we currently have)
Masks with large eyes (such as Spider-Man, Spider-Woman) with glow/non-glow versions
Masks With Hair (such as Huntress) (we can get these WITHOUT hair… why not with?)
Feathered Masks (Carnival and Mardi Gras style)
Venetian Masks
Bizarre! (mask with three faces and/or half-heads of animals such as wolf, fox, raven, butterfly, dragon –can even be located under Hoods)
Japanese (Oni, Noh)
Clown (happy, sad, scary)
Pig Nose
Groucho Glasses, with nose and mustache

Native American
Fringed leather shirt with/without sleeves; with/without beads
Fringed leather pants;with/without beads
Fringed leather skirt; with/without beads
Feathered headdress/hair pieces
Beaded headband
Beaded belt, with/without fringe
Braided hair, single and double
Bone chest detail
Feathered cape
Bow for Archery
Quivers
Flint-napped (lithic) knives
War Paint mask designs
Beaded necklaces/chokers

Mythological Creatures
Dragon heads, with horns, fins, and manes available
Fox heads
Furry Monster head (Yeti/Bigfoot)
Bat head
Raven head
Shark/Fish head
Single Spiral horn
Double Spiral horn
Dragon Wings (without spots!)
Lion Mane (hair)
Mermaid hair (really really long, tangled, with/without starfish!)
New skin maps (dragonscales, rough skin, fishscales, short fur, long fur)
Shoulder fur/lion mane extension
Dragon tail (with fins or mane choice)
Chest Detail: Seashell bra!
Reptile hands
Paw hands

Aliens
New faces –one eye, three eyes, eye-stalks, overlarge eyes, too small eyes, noseless, earless, giant mouth, no mouth, tentacle mouth (Cthulhu!)
Detail 1 Third Eye with solid color choice
New skin maps: rough/bumpyu, slimy, exoskeleton
Hands with off-number of fingers (3, 5, 6... with or without thumbs!)
Tentacle arms/hands
Tentacle belt
Tentacle legs
Fins for head placed under Detail 1 –treated as horns are (able to take two colors, glow/non-glow versions)
Fin shoulder details (like the Illium but more fin-like and able to take two colors, glow/non-glow versions)
Elemental hair
Elemental tails

Weapons Pack
Port all sword styles to all sword-using powersets
Port all pistol styles to all pistol-using powersets
Port all rifle styles to all rifle-using powersets (including VEATS)
Additional staff weapons:

• Naginata
• Khakkhara
• Spear
• long gnarled tree branch
• Magician’s Staff
• Egyptian staff

• Shillelagh
• Halberd
• Macuahuitl
• Really Big Axe
• NoDaichi

• Shillelagh
• Macuahuitl

Probably not on the radar but I'll drop a mention anyway. The Carnival of Light pack was fantastic but obviously very limited since the unique pieces are all on female NPCs so they all got ported to the female PC model.

Are we going to get porcelain masks or something similar for males/huge any time? I'd be happy with even the CoL pieces ported over, but it'd be kind of nice to have some actual -masks- like that for everyone.

Guys, wait. I've got dibs.

Wait for it.























Kheldian Sashes.

On a more serious note, I would love if you took a look at proper robes. And, on a recent classic super heroes jive going around, more textured tights that look like they might have hidden (thin)armor plates on the shoulders or the like.(NOT like the Alpha pattern.)

Like such:

I would like to see the Beam Rifle models ported over to Bots MMs, and I would also like to see Beam Rifle get Rikti Rifles and Crey Rifles.

Blaster gloves/gauntlets (gloves with guns in 'em!)

Glow options for all current patterns

More chest details in the same vein as the Large Skulls (Lion's Head, Gorgon's Head, Olympian Faces (male/female)

Taking the above and applying it to Shoulder and Shield options as well

Taking it one step further and having the face actually be the shield

Fix color options for Dark Shield (no matter what's chosen it stays at default color)

Animal Cowls and Helmets

Animal Masks (divided into top and bottom halves)

Devising the tech that would allow all current Shoulder and Glove pieces be available asymmetrically as well as the standard option

Same as above but for Eye and Hand Auras

Devising the tech that would allow players to choose a surface texture for any costume piece (matte, leather, shiny, metallic, glass (both styles))

Fur lined Barbarian Gloves

Grass Skirts, Boots, Gloves and Shoulder pieces

Baby carrier back pack, lol

No cape option for the High Collar

Sharing weapon skins between Assault Rifle and Beam Rifle

Toon versions of animal heads (like TMNT, Howard the Duck, teddy bear styled heads)

More Babylon 5/Amidala hair

Make-up option that places a layer of color right over the eyeball (also made available with glow)

Non-face scars

Suspended-from-the-body costume options (Detail 1, 2; Over-sized Gloves, chest-plates, wings)

Being allowed to utilize separate combat and non-combat auras

Alignment exclusive costume sets.

I would love to see some ghostly-looking costume pieces. I've long wanted to make a ghost character that actually looks ghostly, but I generally have to settle for something plain jane with a stealth IO in sprint or whatever. I'd like some tattered, floaty-looking bits (would be especially cool if we could have something like tattered bandages that are wrapped around the hands/wrists and have trailing bits with cape animation on them.), that sort of thing. I know this is also slightly outside the scope of the thread, but I've pitched a Ghost Pack in the past that would include a power similar to Ninja/Beast run that would make your character float and give them a ghostly transparency/aura. Nothing like actual stealth, just slight see-throughness for a ghostly effect. Wouldn't be an actual flight power, just something with movement comparable to ninja run to make the character drift around instead of walking.

I would also like to see some more non-human options. We have plenty of options for human/humanoid characters, but I'd like to see a second animal pack with Lizard/Reptile, Primate/Monkey/Ape/Gorilla, Bear, Fox, etc. parts. I'd also like to see some non-animal stuff like mutants/stranger aliens, like someone mentioned. This could include eye-stalks, HUGE eyes, mouthless faces, etc. Give us some freaky-looking stuff.

And also, someone mentioned once and David said he was putting it on a list but apparently never did. We have a blindfold with chain or barbed wire, and an option for just the chain or wire, but no option for JUST a blindfold. Would be much appreciated if we could get this option. I have a charcter that would love to have a blindfold under her hood.

EDIT -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paradox Fate Alignment exclusive costume sets.

No. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD Idea. With a capital BAD. It's bad enough that Ascencion is restricted to 50's and Arachnos uniforms to the VEATS. Any costume parts aside from those that aren't available universally are an awful idea and should not exist. Now, alignment themed sets, that's another story. Something that's made to be very sinister-looking and evil for villains, and something more shiny and epic for heroes but that can be used by either sounds great, but don't restrict them to anything, that's just bad practice and makes people angry that they want to use a certain piece on a character but can't because they'd have to play one specific side of the game to do so.

Gotta add it here because it always needs to be said: Pulp
Jodhpurs! I will never not want them.
30s-40s hairstyles for men and women--Victory Rolls! Marcelled hair! Veronica Lake wave!
More hats--women's hats: cloche hat, fascinator, etc.
Pith helmet
Sam Browne belt
Holsters!
Jewelry
Bomber jacket (with shearling) is a great idea as per Vyver above
Tailored jackets for men and women--big shoulders a la Joan Crawford, zoot suits, peplum jacket, big lapels
Realistic textures, leather and cloth
Double breasted trenchcoat