Blood Red

[BloodRed]

This is a W.I.P. of my character, and I guess my avatar, Blood Red. Its for Vertex's vxmale_heels_helmet3, and I used a couple of base skins by Courtnall6. I'm also working on various material and energy versions since I gave him the Absorb Material and Absord Energy attributes.



Edit: Forgot to update the pic, though there isn't that much difference. The armor is more reflective, the hammer and sicle on the helment is gone, and the buckle doesnt have the prong. I'll put a new pic when I add or change some more stuff. Also, any suggestions on how I can work in some more yellow? I don't really want to change the color of anything, but I think it needs more yellow then just the belt.

[Tomato]

Just a few general suggestions, though you don't have to do all of them RIGHT NOW. Chances are if you're in the game long enough, you'll update your avatar later anyway (multiple times, if you're obsessive... *points at self*  :rolleyes:) so just some long term ideas.

-'Skope an actually meshed out belt on rather then trying to skin on a basic torso (like the one here). Again, not an immediate thing, but a skoped belt would look nicer and give some depth to the skin.
-Maybe something to break up the chest a bit? Add a tattoo or scar or something, maybe a logo that would stand out against the various elements you plan to have him transfrom into. Something to break up the blahness of the chest.

As for the adding gold, I have a few suggestions-

-Goggles or some kind of eye protection would definitely be my first priority (or at least yellow flames or something on the eyes). It would break up some of the red on the mask, add your gold, and still be absolutely awesome.
-Change the boots to yellow. It would be more striking than the uninteresting dark red on red that you have now, and it would (again) break up the colors you have.
-Maybe eliminate the highlights/ shadows in the areas around your metallic sections and replace them with yellow straps.
-Seams of some kind, similar to what Lionheart did with his semi-recent avatar redesign, with yellow instead of red. I don't know how you'd do it on this particular design, but it's worth suggesting.
-bands on the upper arms, maybe a one on the top of each glove.

Again, none of these are intended as immediate, just idea sparkers. As far as it goes, this is a decent first posted skin.

[BloodRed]

Thanks for the suggestions. Here's what I just got done.



I still kinda don't want to make the whole boots yellow. Might do something like the arm bands instead. Also, I'm working on some kind harness for the chest. I'm not really good with skoping, and actually messed-up nfskope on my computer. It doesn't even work right after uninstalling and then reinstalling. But I did have inmind the doudle belt from Renegade's Master Man mesh. I plan on redoing the armor sometime, and even making my own base skins.

[BloodRed]

Hate to update so much, but I had some ideas for the helmet, and how to his skin alittle more unique. Also I added nipples.



All I did to the skin was to blend together 2 different base skins. I did so simply putting one above the other and then using overlay, but I find just adjusting the opacity works well too. Though you might also have to mess around with the highlights and shadows abit.

Anyway, my plans for it now are body hair(though I'm gonna wait to do till I find the pen for my tablet, which I just lost!), bands for the upper arms, a shoulder strap with some various symbols and some dents for the helmet. If anyone knows a good way to do dents, please let me know.

[GGiant]

Try more highlights on the helmet, specifically those areas that you put refl layers on.....though I'm not so sure.

[BloodRed]

I'll give it a try, though I'm no good with highlights, now that I finnally found my pen. Word of advice, if you own cowboy boots, don't leave them near your computer. Stuff will fall into them. And yes, they were the last place I looked.

[Tomato]

This is starting to look pretty good... I would suggest however, that you make the bands on the boots (not the straps, those are fine) a red, and make the new arm bands red as well. Also tone down the refl on the metal, and just remove it entirely on the gold. Newer skinners tend to overdo refl (Yes, I did too) on metal to hide how bad a job they did skinning those areas, but your metal was good enough without it that you should only use a really mild refl for it.

As for nifskope... I have two suggestions for getting that to work.

1- Go back a version or two. I found that only every other version of nifskope worked on my computer for awhile, so that might be what's happening for you.
2- There's some sort of windows update thing that has to be installed on your computer for the latter versions to work. You can download it here
3- if that fails, try following the instructions here

[BloodRed]

The refl was like that just bacause I didn't feel like editing it right now. In all truth, I normally add to little refl. I just added all the parts I was thinking of adding reflect to to the tga and was planning on dimming it later. I'll try you both your suggestions about the boots, but I might make them a dark blue to add even more color. And wjhen I add the shoulder strap or whatever, I'll make it dark blue as well.

The main problem I'm having is the the meshes load at on odd angle and are sometimes distorted in nifskope. Didn't at first, I think I messed with the wrong thing. I was worried about saving them with it like that, but I tested alittle while ago, and it seems to save okay. Still though, I think I'll go go back a version. I'm going to try to put the helmet onto the vxmalev2 mesh, and then the belt I wanted from the other mesh.

Not that I started skoping, a whole new world just opened up to me. So many new ideas.

[AfghanAnt]

I assume he lost his nipples in a fight?

[YoungHeros]

I assume he lost his nipple in a fight?

Ouch! That sounds painful! :blink:

[AfghanAnt]

Ah! Now I see his nipples! I really like the design. Good job on your ava.

[BloodRed]

Haha, I guess I need to make them stand out abit more.

[BloodRed]

I fixed the problem I was having with nifskope. It didn't effect it at all to uninstall and then reinstall, and installing different versions didn't do anything either. So I just opened regedit, used find to search for all nifskope entries and then deleted the ones that looked like they'd have an effect. It worked. Anyway, back to the hexing and then back to the skinning.

[BloodRed]

It to me so long to get to just the hax, cause of a computer virus, that I didn't have much time to add t the skin.



Anywho, I'm going to move the belt up and make it abit smaller. Can't think of much else to say except, I need some sleep. I've been up this whole time.

[GGiant]

It to me so long to get to just the hax, cause of a computer virus, that I didn't have much time to add t the skin.



Anywho, I'm going to move the belt up and make it abit smaller. Can't think of much else to say except, I need some sleep. I've been up this whole time.

Is that a ring on his finger?

[BloodRed]

Must have missed it in nifskope. Anyway, I'm about to do a whole system wipe and reinstall windows, so I won't be able to work on it for a while.

[bat1987]

Nipples, eh? You must be a Joel Schumacher fan. :P

Anyway, I like the skin overall. Maybe you should use the same yellow for belt and the stripes.

[Tomato]

Must have missed it in nifskope. Anyway, I'm about to do a whole system wipe and reinstall windows, so I won't be able to work on it for a while.

Ugh, just went through that recently myself... so not fun.

[BloodRed]

And whats worse is if I had done that in the first place instead of trying all these other fixes, I'd be posting this from my own computer right now. By the way, I'm thinking of cloning and moving the ring to make some knuckle "enhancements".

[BloodRed]

I've got everything installed and running now. But I got a problem. The refl doesn't show on the helmet. It does on the belt, which uses the same tga. I guess I'll test glow too to see if it shows up.

[GGiant]

I've got everything installed and running now. But I got a problem. The refl doesn't show on the helmet. It does on the belt, which uses the same tga. I guess I'll test glow too to see if it shows up.

I think you altered it black?

[BloodRed]

I've got everything installed and running now. But I got a problem. The refl doesn't show on the helmet. It does on the belt, which uses the same tga. I guess I'll test glow too to see if it shows up.

I think you altered it black?

No, though that was the first thing I checked. It wasn't set to the right texture or something. Anyway, I was able to fix it in nifskope. and here's what I got so far.

[BloodRed]

Okay, another update, not that anyone cares. It's a small update to the skin, plus some armor peices made in gmax and added in nifskope. I'm redoing the armor from scratch, trying to make it bigger. So far though, I like what I've done.

[BloodRed]

I've been busy with college, so I haven't updated the skin in a while. I felt like doing some work on it recently, and wanted to do Blood Red's face, even though he wears a helmet. Anyway, here's what I got so far, tell me what you think.



I tired to make his nose look broken. Other then that, I was just tring to make him look Russian.

[UnkoMan]

I'd say that's a very decent start. His eyes are a bit odd, like he's starring off in slightly different directions, and the lips may be a tad too large... then again, maybe that's how you want them.

The broken nose thing I understand. At first I thought it was just a mistake but after the explanation, I can see it. Maybe even exaggerate the dent a tad more? I'm not saying for sure, but see how it looks.

Otherwise, good job. I hope you get a chance to keep practicing and learning.