Pyro's Stuff -- Digibashes - Storm Shadow added!

[Pyroclasm]

I'm going to use this thread for miscellaneous stuff I put together.

As seen in the GI Joe Movie thread, I've been doing some digibashes of some production photos.  I just wanted to try my hand at making the characters have a closer feel to their original counterparts.  Feel free to discuss the digibashes in this thread, but please keep discussion of the actual movie in the Movie thread.

First up is Scarlett.  The image I had to work with at the time didn't really show that much.  All I knew was her movie costume was all black and IMO is not suitable for her.  She needs color!
Basically just changed the main suit to a bluish color and made the armor plating a coppery color.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Next up is the Baroness.  My favorite character.  At least they dressed her in Black leather, but I felt they missed so many important little details that add up to a big miss.  I lightened her skin, darkened and reddened her lips, blackened her hair, added back the fingers to her gloves, added her cobra belt buckle (from the toy), added her cobra chest emblem, and most importantly, gave her glasses!
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I just completed Duke.  I was never a big fan of Duke, and I was surprised to find out he's had 24 different figures made of him!  His traditional colors are tan and green.  I used those in the first version.  However, I liked the browns I found in some other versions, so I had a second go at it.  Not sure which I like best, but I'm leaning toward the brown one.  I also added his army paratrooper insignia that is normally on his figures.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[zuludelta]

I think there was an early/mid-1990s Duke action figure that had segmented armor similar to the one in the film pictures... if you're trying to go for a "toy-accurate" look (as opposed to re-colouring the movie outfit in his traditional tan and green), you might want to give it a look (yojoe.com is down right now, but IIRC, it was basically tan armor over a crimson body-suit).

[Pyroclasm]

When I picked Duke's colors, I went through all 24 figures to pick what I thought worked.  I didn't see any segmented armor among those.  He did have a few with a flak vest in later versions, but the colors were too odd to really work, IMO.  Originally, I did find a tan and red version (Tan outfit with red trim and camo pattern), but the red armor over tan suit was so gaudy it morphed into the brownish outfit in v2.

Now for Hawk.  He's probably the one that needs the least "correction".  Still, I am not fond of the black and greys the costume designer likes.  So, I gave him green camo pants and made his jacket brown.  I beefed up his jacket arms a bit so he wouldn't look so wimpy.  He normally wears what looks like a flight jacket, so Hawk always looked like a big guy to me.  I didn't think he should go into a fight wearing medals and ribbons, so I opted to not add those in.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[detourne_me]

I hope you're posting these elsewhere too,  maybe the FX team for the movie will have a look and make some changes.

[zuludelta]

When I picked Duke's colors, I went through all 24 figures to pick what I thought worked.  I didn't see any segmented armor among those.

My bad... I sort of amalgamated in my (already shoddy) memory the GI Joe Sigma Six Duke toy with the 1992 Duke toy.

Neat Hawk, by the way. I just wish they hadn't given him a beret (although it makes a lot of sense, especially since the black beret has become standard headgear in the US Army)... I always associated the beret with Flint and Stalker, though.

[RTTingle]

When I picked Duke's colors, I went through all 24 figures to pick what I thought worked.  I didn't see any segmented armor among those.  He did have a few with a flak vest in later versions, but the colors were too odd to really work, IMO.  Originally, I did find a tan and red version (Tan outfit with red trim and camo pattern), but the red armor over tan suit was so gaudy it morphed into the brownish outfit in v2.

Now for Hawk.  He's probably the one that needs the least "correction".  Still, I am not fond of the black and greys the costume designer likes.  So, I gave him green camo pants and made his jacket brown.  I beefed up his jacket arms a bit so he wouldn't look so wimpy.  He normally wears what looks like a flight jacket, so Hawk always looked like a big guy to me.  I didn't think he should go into a fight wearing medals and ribbons, so I opted to not add those in.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Man, that Hawk is TIGHT.

Nice!

So true.  Someone needs to email these to studio.

Pyro.... when the movie comes out to home market, can you didgibash my DVD?  I think it's the only way I'll be able to stomach it.

RTT

[Pyroclasm]

Next up Stalker.  Yes, I know he is supposed to be Ripcord, but if they wanted to hire Marlon Wayans, I don't understand why they didn't give him any of the perfectly viable African-American G.I.Joes for him to play.  At first I thought I'd replace the actor to one more suitable for Ripcord, but decided against it.  Instead, I decided to just change the character.  First, I had to colorize his uniform an acceptable shade of green.  I then added the G.I.Joe Camo to the entire suit.  I added a beret from an army surplus catalog, and added the Airborne Rangers patch to the beret.  I'm not sure what division Stalker is supposed to represent, but his 25th anniversary action figure had an indistinct red patch on the beret (hence my choice in patch).
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[zuludelta]

Nice, Stalker was my favourite GI Joe character behind Storm-Shadow and Snake-Eyes.

If a sense of "real life" accuracy is a concern for you, though, you might want to consider going with a tan beret similar to this one... the black beret hasn't been part of the Ranger uniform for a few years now (the Army adopted the black beret as standard headgear a few years back, so the Rangers switched to a tan beret to remain distinct). Alternatively, you can probably just give him an Airborne maroon beret similar to the one shown here, since it's hard to get the tan Ranger beret to work with the darker colours of the movie costume, and IIRC, he is Airborne-qualified.

EDIT: just looked at the 25th anniversary toy... maybe that red patch means he's from the 319th FA of the 82nd Airborne... so maybe something like this might work.

[Pyroclasm]

Thanks, ZD.  I'll take a look at updating later this evening when I get home from work. :)

[style]

I say keep close to the original toy's color which I think is a dark green:
picture

[BentonGrey]

See, that's EXACTLY what I'm talking about!  Why NOT make him Stalker?  The man had a much bigger role in JOE lore, a solid reason to be in the first team, as he was one of the originals, and he actually had a sense of humor.........man.....I just don't get it.

[Pyroclasm]

Updated with a current airborne beret.  Thanks again ZD, for locating those images.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Thanks, Style for posting that image, but I have already seen it since I use YoJoe.com for my research.  (Probably not a good idea to embed their image.  Should be a link instead.)

[zuludelta]

Neat. The maroon Airborne beret certainly looks more distinct than the generic black Army beret.

[Glitch Girl]

(sigh) why don't they have people like you doing the costume designs?

I really love what you did with Scarlett - it's a simple change, but the yellow did wonders.  The rest I'm liking a lot too.  Nice work.

[Pyroclasm]

(sigh) why don't they have people like you doing the costume designs?

I really love what you did with Scarlett - it's a simple change, but the yellow did wonders.  The rest I'm liking a lot too.  Nice work.

Thanks, GG.  I think the problem that most established IPs face is the designers just don't "get" their subject.  They are hired because they are "good", not because they know and/or love the subject matter.  It doesn't help if (usually) the director and/or producer don't really know what they are making either.  I think that plays an important part in getting the design or "feel" of a character.  I grew up watching G.I.Joe.  I had some of the very first action figures and just started collecting the new 25th anniversary.  I may be a Cobra sympathizer, but I think I know the Joes well enough to pick out things that make the characters "click".

Oh yeah... Cobraaaaa!

[Pyroclasm]

I wanted to use one of the newer images that showed off more of Scarlett's costume.  I started by redoing the blue and yellow color scheme.  I then found a figure that was green and gold.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
I continued to look through various figures and found some that were a little less gaudy.  I think they complement her skin and hair better than the ones with the gold tones.  My favorite is v4 which also has the G.I.Joe camo pattern added to it.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I guess when it comes down to it, if they make good "movie" action figures, I will probably buy and repaint them.

[Pyroclasm]

This is my first attempt at recreating a character using miscellaneous images not associated with the G.I.Joe movie.  As far as I'm aware, Tomax and Xamot will not be making an appearance in the first movie but that didn't stop me from imagining what they might look like.  Besides being the Crimson Guard Commanders, they also run Cobra's "legal" businesses.  The twins are mirror images of each other, save for the scar on Xamot's face.  The one person that I thought could pull off their signature hairstyle is Tom Welling of Smallville fame.  He can also do a pretty good "smug" look that I felt suited the snobbish brothers.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
It didn't turn out perfect, but I think it turned out well enough.
Thanks to Zuludelta for pointing me in the right direction for some nice suit images.

[detourne_me]

looking great Pyro!
as for the Stalker/Ripcord thing....  well c'mon what executives would approve of a hero named stalker in this day and age.  the word just has too many negative connotations with it now.  I wouldn't be surprised if he is pretty much the same character as stalker,  but with a little bit of ripcord thrown in.

[zuludelta]

Awesome work on the Crimson Guard Commanders, Pyro... though one little nitpick: since you've got some shadowing on one side of either Tom Welling's face, it probably wouldn't hurt to extend some of that shadowing to the white collar of the dress shirt. As it stands, the whiteness and lack of shadowing on the collar sort of makes it "pop" out from the rest of the body.

as for the Stalker/Ripcord thing....  well c'mon what executives would approve of a hero named stalker in this day and age.  the word just has too many negative connotations with it now.  I wouldn't be surprised if he is pretty much the same character as stalker,  but with a little bit of ripcord thrown in.

Yeah, Hasbro executives have already tried to deflect any possible negative connotations of the "Stalker" character name by officially renaming the character as "Sgt. Stalker" in the toy-line (as early as 2004, IIRC). I dunno if it works, though... "Sgt. Stalker" just suggests a horribly wrong picture in my head of a psychotically obsessed sexual predator with a badge  :lol:

[Pyroclasm]

Not a G.I.Joe digibash, but continuing a "movie theme" with this one.
I came across this picture of Summer Glau and immediately thought of X-23.  This was a very simple digibash.  I gave her dark eyeshadow, removed some of the pink from her lips, darkened her har and darked her tank top.  Oh yeah...I added the claws to her hand.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
See? Simple.  I could see her in a future Wolverine movie...

[zuludelta]

Cool.

Not exactly how I picture X-23 though, to tell you the truth... I always thought that she, and Wolverine for that matter, were always drawn with vaguely Inuit/Native American features (maybe subconsciously motivated by artists' ideas of the "noble savage" in literature?), although the actress you chose to use does have a bit of that look going on from that particular angle. And yeah, I'm probably in the minority that thinks Hugh Jackman looks too "Anglo" to be Wolverine (his obvious passion for playing the character makes up for it, though).

[C4]

That is the perfect X-23, Now you must show marvel this  :P

[the_ultimate_evil]

brilliant casting and a great manip, are the claws drawn or taken from wolverine

[Pyroclasm]

brilliant casting and a great manip, are the claws drawn or taken from wolverine

Taken from Wolverine.  It was really hard trying to find his claws from the right angle, so I had to fake it.

[Pyroclasm]

It was hinted at in the new Iron Man movie, and the director has been quoted as saying Jim would have his own suit in the sequel.  So, using an image of Tony's Iron Man suit, some color tweaks and the addition of some weaponry, I present to you a movie poster for Iron Man II:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Uncle Yuan]

It was hinted at in the new Iron Man movie, and the director has been quoted as saying Jim would have his own suit in the sequel.  So, using an image of Tony's Iron Man suit, some color tweaks and the addition of some weaponry, I present to you a movie poster for Iron Man II:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I'm liking all this stuff, Pyro, even though I know 0/zero/nada/nichts/nothin about GI Joe.  I do like the War Machine, although he really should be a bit bulkier.  Did you catch the War Machine schematics during the closing credits?

[style]

Oh yeah thats FRESH!!!! :thumbup:

[Placebo]

Oh yeah thats FRESH!!!! :thumbup:

quoted for truth! lovin it!

[zuludelta]

Great looking War Machine mock-up. Reminds me of the cover to the 2001 U.S. War Machine limited series... was it a direct influence on the image?

[Pyroclasm]

Great looking War Machine mock-up. Reminds me of the cover to the 2001 U.S. War Machine limited series... was it a direct influence on the image?

Actually, it wasn't.  I'm only marginally familiar with War Machine as I am not an Iron Man reader.  Just took an existing movie Iron Man and modded the suit using one of the first War Machine images that popped up on Ask.com's search.

I do like the War Machine, although he really should be a bit bulkier.  Did you catch the War Machine schematics during the closing credits?

I was too busy gushing over the movie with my friends.

Right now I'm just contemplating my next Photoshop project.  Thought about doing something original, but it seems people get a kick out of these movie guys.
If anyone has an idea or request for a new digibash, send them via email or pm (Not in the thread).  Please don't beg or send multiple messages for the same idea.  I won't guarantee I will use you idea or fulfill a request, but maybe something will spark a new project.

For anyone who wanted to know, these are my "personal rules" when I work on these:
1) If a face can be seen, it should be an actor.  Not only am I doing a digibash, but I'm making casting choices.
2) Costumes should have "real world" weight.  I can't just take a sexy body and paint on the spandex.  So many people do that online.  I think it's tacky.
3) Try to make design choices that make sense for a character.  I'm trying to make a character work within a movie framework, not just throw everything out.
4) Make everything blend as seamless as possible.  Otherwise, what's the point?  To do anything else would be like using scissors and glue.