Tomato's skinwork: Atomik (01/09/21)

[Tomato]

Haven't even gotten the costume design narrowed down yet, but here's what I have of Colossus' face skin (based on actor Daniel Cudmore) and metalic form (loosely based on the movie one)

[Tomato]

Base is done. now to get a grip on what I want the costume to actually look like 

So, for those who don't know, this was and is part of an ongoing project... See, even though I can understand WHY the X-men films went with the black leather outfits, I've always been kind of disappointed that we never got true X-men movie costumes... especially now that we're finally seeing real, semi-comic-accurate costumes in just about every Marvel film. The idea that Wolverine's mask "can't be done realistically" is nonsense in light of the fact that Nite Owl's mask in Watchmen was pretty flippin close and no one seemed to have a problem with it.

So, while ToF was still going, I started this project up. But it's kind of died off, both because of my own burnout (Wolverine's boots were a NIGHTMARE) and because ToF is now more or less defunct. However, I thought I'd open the floor up now that Wolverine is done. Would anyone else be interested in contributing to a proper X-men movie universe, even if it's just something simple like a set of micros?

[Podmark]

Looking very good. You're quite good at getting the likeness of the actors and blending it with your own skinning.
Curious to see what you do with the costume.

[Tomato]

So, I tried a few different ways of trying to get the shirt to look more like his classic duds, with the yellow on the inside of the red. However, my attempts to do it on paper didn't really work that well, either being too much yellow (as it would have been if I'd tried to just flip the colors of Wolverine's shirt) or didn't fit his personality (one attempt had him with the vest unzipped in a casual fashion... that's more something I'd see James do, not Piotr). Beyond that too, I felt like having 20,000 different designs for the costumes kinda defeats the point of having them wear a uniform... Sure, there can be little things that distinguish them (wolverine not tucking in his shirt, sleeves length, etc.) but I want it to feel like this is something they're more or less using the same basic design pattern for.

So yeah, I went with the lazy option. Still, it looks just fine to me  . Got the boots, belt, and wristbands left to skin.

[Figure Fan]

I actually think that this design looks really cool, despite being more simplistic. The details at the knees really do remind me of his knee pads/boots from the comics. I like the face too.

Maybe you could put a subtle pattern in the metal skin to make the overall design more unique (if you're still wanting to go that route)? In X2 he sort of had a metallic muscled look going on with lots of little lines.

[Tomato]

Er... I did skin the lines from the film in. It may not be as obvious from that shot because it's further away, but the second preview was just to showcase them.

Either way, this one shows it better



I don't plan on going nearly as detailed with Colossus as with Wolverine, at least not overall. Whereas I can see Wolverine wearing biker gloves and combat boots, I feel like Piotr would be more basic... simple black boots, a set of simple wristbands (the type you'd see someone wear to the gym), and more or less the standard sleeveless uniform.

[Figure Fan]

Oh I see it now. I thought that was the reflection layer acting goofy in a resized photo or something.

[BentonGrey]

Very nice 'Mato!  The face work on both Wolverine and Colossus is extremely impressive.

[Tomato]

Almost done already (Boots left). So yeah, Wolverine took me forever, but Colossus might be done in under a week? Grah! No sense.

Edit: 2 days? Really? Grah. Wevs.

[Mystik]

very nice are you doin a team or just those 2?

[Tomato]

At this point... I don't know. See, this is something I set up to try and collaborate with the rest of the FF community, even going so far as offering to release my base and give additional help (face skins, the costume templates I made for Wolverine, etc.) to anyone who was willing to skin at least one character (I'm even open to people just doing their own sketches/pictures/micros/whatever). But there hasn't really been anyone interested, so at this point I feel like I'm doing these just for myself... which is fine, but it does kill part of the motivation for continuing to do new characters.

We'll see. I'm officially on leave as of tomorrow morning, so I might use some extra time to get one or two more characters in.

[detourne_me]

Amazing work Tomato!  Love your designs, and the likeness to the actors is great.
You've got me thinking about a Nightcrawler done in that vein.
Same uniform design, but I don't know if it would be better with Red as the main colour and black on the sides or vice versa, and obviously, barefeet instead of boots, maybe knee-length like bike shorts for him, to balance with the bare arms.

[Figure Fan]

Nightcrawler and Cyclops would be cool to see, or maybe even some of the X-women like Storm or Phoenix. Colossus turned out super cool.

I redesigned the X-Men movie uniforms back in late 2004 but never created skins for them. They were slightly similar to these, but much less practical with an ornate X design worked into the whole body (like the Alex Ross movie designs). However, I found that purple worked great as a uniform color for Nightcrawler and set him apart from Colossus and Storm who already had so much red and black (respectively).

[Tomato]

Really? I'd be interested to see them. Might give me some neat ideas. (PM them tho, no sense cluttering the thread)

I might have something to show you guys later on... working on the mapping for a new mesh piece.

[AfghanAnt]

At this point... I don't know. See, this is something I set up to try and collaborate with the rest of the FF community, even going so far as offering to release my base and give additional help (face skins, the costume templates I made for Wolverine, etc.) to anyone who was willing to skin at least one character (I'm even open to people just doing their own sketches/pictures/micros/whatever). But there hasn't really been anyone interested, so at this point I feel like I'm doing these just for myself... which is fine, but it does kill part of the motivation for continuing to do new characters.

We'll see. I'm officially on leave as of tomorrow morning, so I might use some extra time to get one or two more characters in.

I might give Psylocke a go. Great work on both of these 'Mato. Especially Pete.

[Figure Fan]

Really? I'd be interested to see them. Might give me some neat ideas. (PM them tho, no sense cluttering the thread)

I might have something to show you guys later on... working on the mapping for a new mesh piece.

I'll have to sort through my old art. If I can find them, I'll scan them in and PM you.

[Tomato]

@AA and FF... Awesome sauce. Can't wait to see what you guys have/will come up with!



Ignore the color scheme for the moment (using primaries to work on making a skin base for the costumes... part of the reason I'm specifically doing Cyclops next is because he's the type of person who would wear the full "standard" uniform)

[cmdrkoenig67]

You're X-Men skins are coming out great, T!  It's too bad they didn't go this route in the movies.

Dana

[Cyber Burn]

These are coming out great 'Mato! Glad to see you pursuing these.

[Podmark]

Sweet, Cyclops is my favorite X-Man. You got him right he's totally type to wear the standard uniform.
Looking forward to the final skin.

[Tomato]

Still playing with palettes here... Not sure whether I like the shade of yellow I have (I'm trying to evoke the FC uniforms, but I feel like it's almost too dark and gray) and I'm considering changing the side colors to blue as well.

[Cyber Burn]

My only suggestion would be a stronger contrast between the yellow and blue (maybe a lighter yellow?), otherwise, it looks pretty solid to me.

[Figure Fan]

My only suggestion would be a stronger contrast between the yellow and blue (maybe a lighter yellow?), otherwise, it looks pretty solid to me.

I actually really like the modern, neutral yellow. Cyclops looks totally awesome so far.

[Tomato]

Fiddled with the palette some more, settled on this for the moment. Tried to make the yellow slightly more saturated without being overly strong (Again, the idea is to match the First Class colors). I decided to make the underarm area black, in part because the gloves and boots already were going to be the same color (again, pulling from FC with the motif)

[UnkoMan]

I dig it like that. It looks more realistic. Or, like comics that want to be "realisitic" and use muted colour tones, anyway.

But I dig it. And the Colossus and Wolverine ones are really well done, too. It's a pretty cool uniform. I could see them wearing something like that.

[XStream]

Holy cow, Tomato! (What an odd statement....) Those look great.  I know that most people like the full cap Cyclops, but I like that you went with the hair being exposed. Definitely like the newest one. The color is great.

[murs47]

What the heck tom-tom!? Where is the Superman skin? Such a deceiving title. Quality Colossus and Slim.

[Tomato]

Holy cow, Tomato! (What an odd statement....) Those look great.  I know that most people like the full cap Cyclops, but I like that you went with the hair being exposed. Definitely like the newest one. The color is great.

I tend to prefer the cap in the comics, but I don't think I'd like it as much in a movie... it's hard to pull off masks like that to begin with, and his visor does a pretty good job of obscuring his identity anyway. The fact that he has brown hair means absolutely nothing to anyone.

Finally back to work on this, BTW. Yayz.

[Tomato]

I'm still working on this, so I'll hold off doing a better preview, but I've been working on the face skin and I just checked how he looks with the visor on.

[Tomato]

Cyclops is done, finally. Be happy, yo.

As much as I like the idea of this project, I'm gonna let the X-men movie thing go for awhile... maybe if something happens to get my interest up I'll pick it up later, but right now it's just become a drain to my energy. I had to begin another skin earlier this week (expect previews of that laterz) just to get enough mojo to finish Cyclops.

Still, I'm not unhappy with it. I really like how the face came out.