NOV 09 "War never changes."

[Carravaggio]

While trawling through the depths of my FF achives trying to locate an obscure mesh, i came across this skin (unfortunately), the first one i ever attempted. I tried to make an american patriot hero...and i stole the hair from Dark Jared's mutant X havok i think. back then i skinned at 256x256 and i sucked. here it is larger


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Ok, we all had our laugh? Good.
That was 2001 i think...years later and i'm still skinning, although, thankfully, not how i once did...



My latest  self-imposed project is a whole slew of bad guys, from undead cults to subterranean races, all hell-bent on conquering your little patch of planet earth!
I was watching a friend play city of villains the other day...(GW FTW!!11!!)i liked the way they had tiered villains in gangs as enemies (as all games do i suppose). anyway these villains were all themed and i got to thinking about the general lack of villains and how much fun it could be to make up a whole bunch of different gangs of supervillains and their various flunkies...
i came up with a bunch of ideas, but i like the thought of an evil circus most of all, and managed to come up with 15(!) different members of the terrible troupe.
the one above is the leader of this as yet unnamed circus/carnival. I'm thinking he is some malevolent force masquerading as a human, thats why although he has human features, they are distorted, and too shiny (im planning on using a very very low reflect layer to make his skin look like its hard plastic rather than flesh, remember this being is trying to look like a human, but not doing a very good job!)
Following him are firebreathers, strongmen, tumblers, clowns, swordswollowers, snake charmers, an extensive freakshow, animal tamers (complete with attack lions!) and a whole lot more!

[electro]

the face looks very cool & sinister :blink:

[UnkoMan]

That face! Splended! Individual teeth, too... I was going to try that on a new skin, but it looked awful. Could it be because I still cling to 512x512? No, it's probably just that it's difficult.
It's very creepy. I can't wait to see him finished, and the rest of the carnival.

[Carravaggio]

Actually this is the first time i have ever tried skinning at 1024x1024. its a bit of an adjustment. i'm not ready to switch to the darkside yet, but it helps on these higher detail skins i'm aiming for.
EDIT: scratch that, for faces at least i'm switching to 1024x1024!

[UnfluffyBunny]

nice work, i'm not very keen on what appears to be his cheels coming in above his lips... or how deep the ridges along his jawline look, but thats just personal taste, would you mind showing use a flat just of the head? :)
on the 512 vs 1024 debate , I think it's just a case of whatever you plan on releasing it as, i'm very inat-skinning in 1024 and resizing to 512, as it takes away the accuracy of your details, and any fine details you need 1024 for will be lost anyway

[Carravaggio]

Love to...



I'd like to change the cheeks a bit, mainly cos i want to skin a mo in there and i have left myself no room. i'm aiming for his flesh to look like its been almost sculpted onto an inhuman visage, a flesh mask that barely passes for human.
Thanks for looking in guys, more to come very soon!

[UnfluffyBunny]

thanks for posting that (was more me wanting a better look at your work than anything else :P ) after reading your vision, I take back my comments on the cheeks and jawline and congratulate you on achieving just what you were after, and I hope to see alot more work of this level from you :)
(out of interest, how will you be doing the neck? and what base will you be using? i've found when I paint a full head from scratch that I have an extremely hard time matching a base and having to paint alot more than I intended >_> )

[Carravaggio]

A generic tumbler/acrobat. In game they will have very high agility snd use a lot of jumping attacks and multi-hit melees, so dont go bareknuckle against these guys...i hope to recolour them so there will be a few variations, as well as different faces, hair colour and facial hair...and a female version.
The example above, well i hope he looks like a smug S.O.B, cos thats what he is.

Syn: i chose my initial colours from the range available in the base skin i used (my own variation on paradox's base) so it matched nicely. i'd hate to do the neck from scratch as well as a face!
And as far as work of this level, well i can't attest to how successful i'll be each time, but my goal is to never use the generic base face i have relied on for so long, i'm looking to make each face unique to the character.
Thanks again for your input and interest.

[AfghanAnt]

Wow, I really need to a few lessons from you guys because that face is amazing. Like Unko, I'm all about the 512x512 maybe one day I'll join the big boys club.

[Carravaggio]

Funny you should say that AA, cos it was your habit of making unique faces for each skin that got me thinking about it. then when i saw Syn's recent skins and deathsjester's character faces, i just knew i had to get in on it, so blame yourself! :)

[Lunarman]

wow, you've been really busy. I love these two!

Awesome work

[BentonGrey]

Great work man, and those faces are really unique. I have a suggestion, though.  It seems to me like the skin tone on the Tumbler's face is just a tad lighter than it should be, in comparisson with the rest of his skin.

[UnkoMan]

Yes, I was going to mention that. The head and chest colours don't match up. It actually looks a bit less saturated, to me. Also, while very good (I think I'm going to redo my Creeper eyebrows to something similar to these) some of the facial highlights are a bit too blocky for my taste. Specifically lip, chin, and those two random ones on the ends of the jaw. If this guy is also wearing a faked skin sure, but from the non-warpedness... coughcough... he looks like he's suppose to be human. I'd just blend them a bit more, so they are there but not so harsh.

Anyhow, I like the character. I love giant collars for some reason. If you can find a way to get the female version on the same mesh so we can just have one character set to random, that would be sweet, but... Well Rev and detourne have been doing some crazy nifskoping.

[Carravaggio]

needs boots, bracer detail/colour and his own face (swiped the tumbler's til further notice, the faces ar ethe fun part so i leave'em til last!) detail on his briefs and some slightly grotesque veins and he should be done.
i'm really going for the over the top simon bisley musculature here, this guy is the generic slow dumb and uber strong guy, so dont get too close.
with the boots and briefs i hope he will look like an old school prowrestler. i'm looking forward to skinning his face, round and dumb, that'll be an interesting challenge...
as for th issue of the tumbler's face not matching his neck, yeah you guys are right turns out the featureless base i used to build his face on had been slightly desaturated for the ringmaster, but its a simple fix.

...i'm afraid to stop skinning, if i stop, it might go away...and its 3:30 in the morning...but i still have 12 more characters to go in the circus!

[UnfluffyBunny]

Heh your definately on a roll, I like the little higltights, tho a few of them look a tad over-random.
i'll just keep watching as the circus unfolds ^_^

[Carravaggio]

last update for the night, its time for some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's. i couldn't let the big galoot be stuck with some other guys face, so here is the strongman's look...yeah he's a real charmer alright. He still needs eyebrows, but meh, zzzzz's, thats what 'I' need.
G'night FR, more to come tomorrow (hopefully).

[Shazam]

Bloody hell Carr! You're skinning prowess just grew over night. Next time we speak you're gonna have to give me some pointers mate. Excellent work  :thumbup:

[Revenant]

Yeah your faces are on a whole new level!  Nice work!

[Lunarman]

Wow, that is simply amazing. It great to see you skinning again especially with such awesome ideas! Incredible facework as well, you've really outdone yourself.

[Carravaggio]

Thanks guys, i appreciate the feedback and comments, make syou feel somone other than you gives a damn :)

And just to prove i haven't slacked off...



Yeah...scary clown i hope. There will be a bunch of these guys, (i'm hoping for five variations, but we'll see, there is no end of reference material for scary clowns these days, there is even an article about them on Wikipedia!).

Truth is i've spent my time well, 'skoping a bunch of meshes to function as the circus. After a little trial and error, and some help from a few FR'ers, i've managed to get a handle on that particular skill. For the most part the introduction of Nifskope is whats motivated me to get back into skinning with a vengeance. with so much opportunity now available, i can't not skin...
in retrospect i need to shrink and redo the eyes (he looks stoned), change the red on the mouth to be dirtier and apply a highlight to the nose

[UnkoMan]

I think I just pooped my pants a little bit.
Seriously that clown scared it right out. Tinier, beady eyes will just improve upon it. Maybe do something about the inside corners of the mouth, where it's just white. I guess you want to contrast with the lips but it seems like this should be more shadow than anything. These new faces of yours, though, are blowing me away. It's like everybody's gotten suddenly even more talented...

As for the strongman... I say don't give him any eyebrows. Makes him look even more neanderthalic.

[FLASH_22798]

Man!!! No wonder why my wife hates clowns.    Those look great, amazing detail on the faces.

[Haljack]

Man everybody can do great faces bar me :angry: Fantastic work and I like it when you guys show your first works makes the rest of us feel better.

[Carravaggio]

He'll be done once i remember where the hell his bowtie is mapped, and when i can get motivated to skin white on white cloth wrinkles (yuck).



Aside from that he is just about complete. i tried to match the colours, not always so easy as many of you will attest i'm sure.
One down, too damn many to go ;)

[Xenolith]

Is the Ringmaster on a Tommyboy mesh?  If so, I really like how you did the feet on this guy.  That square toe looks round.  Great job on the plastic faces.  You idea reminds me of the Overlords from T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.  They were "aliens" who turned out to be from the earths core.  Keep it up, they look great.

[Burnout]

those skins face look pretty freaky to me lol

[kkhohoho]

Looks pretty good.  Maby if the're all completed, hero files could made to download.

[detourne_me]

Car,   Your faces have just gotten so good,  and the texturing of the ringmasters jacket looks sweet!
this is definately one group of baddies i can't wait to see in action!

[Carravaggio]

Thanks Detourne, im having a great time putting these guys together-i cant wait til they are done either!

Looks pretty good.  Maby if the're all completed, hero files could made to download.

I am definitely including hero files when i do them. i'll prolly release the hero files in related zips/rar, i.e. all the church in one zip, all the circus in one zip etc.

[Alphanaut]

Wow, that is some intense work there, Carr! Definitely digging the Ringmaster, and what I've seen so far of the clown is great. Maybe I should finish up working on my MUA clown voicepack to go with it...