AfghanAnt Artistic Advances 7/8/16 - Marvel Adventures Exclusives

[deano_ue]

dood seriously knock it on the head, you're making the rest of us on the site look bad.


bloody hell man these are fantastic

[Gremlin]

While I dont want to drop any details on Secret Origins (which I need to get refocused on) I will say her basic design was inspired by Irrational's Million Dollar Man makeover for Microwave and the default Action Girl mesh skin from  .

Million Dollar Man Microwave? When was this ish?

[BentonGrey]

You've seen it:
http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/15161/freedom-force/images/freedom-force-20090626030209931.html

[steamteck]

Very very cool! I just love your stuff.

[laughing paradox]

I want to replace all the default meshes/skins in Freedom Force and replace them with yours.

I'm glad you went with that released Microwave picture as your inspiration for Macrowave.. it's pretty sweet.

[herodad1]

all the concept pictures are cool.the villians rock too.that minuteman pic makes him look tougher.

[BentonGrey]

all the concept pictures are cool.the villians rock too.that minuteman pic makes him look tougher.

It was for the proposed "Ultimate Freedom Force" idea....thank heaven they didn't go with that one.

[AfghanAnt]

So I've been reading Geoff Johns' boring yet endearing SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGINS (which is more retelling things than "secret") and Jeff Parker's MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN (slow but I love the 50's backups). I started thinking about how these two characters had so much in common yet so incredibly different. Kal El goes to Earth and becomes this Earth superhero, Bob Grayson goes to Uranus and becomes this Uranian diplomat. The more I read the more my brain started lining up their history and spin-off characters (whether in title/name or relationship).

Superman = The Uranian
Superboy = Marvel Boy
Conner Kent/Kon El = Noh Varr (Marvel Boy name only)
Superboy Prime = Crusader (crazy Uranian clone thingie)
Steel = Blue Marvel (Again name only but oddly both Black)

Anyway, reading this titles made skin (plus I'm having troubles with a FF:SO design). I'm actually going to finish my Noh Varr for those who are a fan of the character. So yah - it only took like three years.

Spoiler

Spoiler

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Thanks to Vertex, Tommyboy, Beyonder, Ink, Tomato, and Renegade for the original geometry.

[Previsionary]

... AA, we need to be better friends because we apparently like a lot of the same characters. Atlas mod... it needs to happen! I think Marvel boy is my favorite of the batch thus far.

[John Jr.]

AA, you never ceases to amaze me! Superboy and Marvel Boy are just perfect!
Looking forward to get my hands on them!
BTW, count me on the Atlas fan club, best Marvel concept in ages.

[AfghanAnt]

... AA, we need to be better friends because we apparently like a lot of the same characters. Atlas mod... it needs to happen! I think Marvel boy is my favorite of the batch thus far.

He's mine too and I actually think that would be a good idea if I get to do a redhead and mega watt blonde version of Venus.

[John Jr.]

So I've been reading Geoff Johns' boring yet endearing SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGINS (which is more retelling things than "secret") and Jeff Parker's MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN (slow but I love the 50's backups). I started thinking about how these two characters had so much in common yet so incredibly different. Kal El goes to Earth because this Earth superhero, Bob Grayson goes to Uranus and becomes this Uranian diplomat. The more I read the more my brain started lining up their history and spin-off characters (whether in title/name or relationship).

Superman = The Uranian
Superboy = Marvel Boy
Conner Kent/Kon El = Noh Varr (Marvel Boy name only)
Superboy Prime = Crusader (crazy Uranian clone thingie)
Steel = Blue Marvel (Again name only but oddly both Black)

Great insight about Kal-El and Bob Grayson, a very interesting concept.

[AfghanAnt]

So I've been reading Geoff Johns' boring yet endearing SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGINS (which is more retelling things than "secret") and Jeff Parker's MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN (slow but I love the 50's backups). I started thinking about how these two characters had so much in common yet so incredibly different. Kal El goes to Earth because this Earth superhero, Bob Grayson goes to Uranus and becomes this Uranian diplomat. The more I read the more my brain started lining up their history and spin-off characters (whether in title/name or relationship).

Superman = The Uranian
Superboy = Marvel Boy
Conner Kent/Kon El = Noh Varr (Marvel Boy name only)
Superboy Prime = Crusader (crazy Uranian clone thingie)
Steel = Blue Marvel (Again name only but oddly both Black)

Great insight about Kal-El and Bob Grayson, a very interesting concept.

Yeah, it actually made me sad for Bob because he is infinitely more interesting than Superman if you ask me. Superman is alien who for all intents and purpose wants to be human and does so very easily because of the way he was raised. Until recently, Superman never had to deal with other Kryptonians but Bob, he's so unique. It's like a Chinese baby being raised in America his whole life and suddenly back in China and everyone is expecting him to act Chinese because he is Chinese. While I like what Parker is doing in the Uranian, I really wish Marvel would shine some more light on Bob. He was the classic Marvel Boy (but not the first one). He should be one of the big guns if you ask me - he has an interesting visual and he's got of history with established Avengers characters (Starforx was an Uranian Eternal after all). You know what as I typed this I realized that in a way Moondragon is sort of like a reverse Supergirl/Superwoman. I might just skin her too.

[John Jr.]

It's one of the reasons I miss the silver age Superman "strange in a stranger land" angle, he was too human to be a real kryptonian and too much of a kryptonian to be a normal human. The current version is not very interesting to me.
I believe Parker made Bob in one of the most interesting modern characters.  He's my favorite in Atlas and I'm liking his series too.
Back to your skinning, just want to say Marvel Boy and Superboy have great, expressive faces. They got the right young look, but also have a heroic aura. Two of your best!

[Previsionary]

Moondragon?! Don't tease, AA. Don't. While I'm not super impressed with some of her recent developments, she's another character I'm usually fond of. Next you'll be talking about doing the first Rocket Raccoon skin and I'll end up waking up from a coma in a cold sweat because such things certainly couldn't be possible.

[Podmark]

Nice work AA. I really like how you've depicted the two characters at different ages. Really well done there.

Also like that you're skinning a lesser known character like the Uranian. I haven't personally gotten into him but he seems like a cool character.

[laughing paradox]

I love how these came out,  particularly the two Marvels. Impressive as always.

And finally Prev and I can agree on a character: Moondragon was pretty spectacular... a skin/skope of ol' Baldy by you would be most appreciated. I hope you were contemplating her classic look.

[lugaru]

Great skins and between your original creations, mash ups and Marvel/DC work you are probably the biggest advocate for aliens/cosmic characters. Keep up the great work!

[Avalon]

I was waiting for you to finish The Uranian. Excellent work. What did you use for Marvel Boy? I had a skoped some but I wanted to change the belt and cape on the ones I skoped.

[AfghanAnt]

I was waiting for you to finish The Uranian. Excellent work. What did you use for Marvel Boy? I had a skoped some but I wanted to change the belt and cape on the ones I skoped.

Tommyboys parts, Beyonder's male_basic_teen_tall, and vertex hair.

Great skins and between your original creations, mash ups and Marvel/DC work you are probably the biggest advocate for aliens/cosmic characters. Keep up the great work!

To me they are just more interesting. I liked the X-Men and Batman and blah blah but I've always really enjoyed characters like Adam Warlock, Thor, and all these other characters that have their own little worlds to play in. Of course Batman has Gotham but he's always in Gotham, Superman isn't always in Metropolis. He's in outerspace, he's off-world, he's in other dimensions. Those big stories are always just fun to read. Plus cosmic characters always have better designs if you ask me.

Take for example: Noh Varr. I love his design. Sure it was tedious but it's really interesting to look at. Whether that is a good or bad, I'm not sure.


I've got some more skoping on him. I want to do his guns and armor plus this arm blade thing he used against She-Hulk. I'm considering doing an alternate Captain of the Marvel costume as well (the guy who talked about the belief engine in his mini).

[electro]

Once you go Cosmic you never go back

[murs47]

oh em gee, yes!

[laughing paradox]

The details on the boots are freakin' good. I usually have a problem with that area, because of the warping, but you show that it can be done well.

[AfghanAnt]

The details on the boots are freakin' good. I usually have a problem with that area, because of the warping, but you show that it can be done well.

You think it's good? It's took me three tries. In fact those damn boots took me the longest to skin. You can still see the warping but blah I think it's good enough.

[John Jr.]

He's great, AA! Your faces are getting better and better! The three "boys" are very expressive and and each one has a distinctive look.
Congrats!

[Podmark]

Noh-Varr - nice!

[detourne_me]

Dude, these cosmic characters are outstanding!
Noh Varr looks so good, and Marvel Boy is pretty wicked too.
(I hope the Authority wont sit too long on the backburner though)

[AfghanAnt]

Hopefully I'll get back to the Authority soon. I've skoped Engineer and Swift but I haven't thought about what I'd do with the Doctor or Jenny. Maybe I'll just keep them as is.

Anyway, here something I did pretty quick after reading Cloak and Dagger one-shot.

Unfortunately no big X on Cloak's cloak because of the mapping. I've also slightly updated the other skins as well and I'm probably going to get all these skins I've display up at HeroForce tomorrow.

[Previsionary]

How coincidental... I was just wondering what your opinion on that one-shot was in the Marvel Thread, AA, heh. Anyway, I like what I see, and I'm so glad they decided to move Dagger's "X" to her lower stomach instead of its original placement.

[Podmark]

Scratches Cloak and Dagger off list.

Very nice looking AA. Does Cloak have a hood up version?