9/19 - W.I.P. Zivon + next char in line

House Quake · June 23, 2009, 08:15:08 PM

OK.. maybe you can

The past couple of years have been times spent dealing with one major crisis after another... In both my personal life and with in this community. I had lost all motivation and inspiration I had for contributing in any aspect. But... I could never pull to far away. Well... I'm back, both motivated and inspired.

I really want to thank people like Afghan Ant, Carravaggio, Tomato, Billdamn22 and several others for stepping up over the past couple years and raising the bar for original characters. Seeing what they were doing is primarily what kept my interest in the community. Add to them all of the original stuff coming from the skopers... wow! It just seams like me and the NPI crew were the only ones pushing the 'original' envelope for so long... It just really feels good to see the community embrace original creations , which was the supposed focus of Freedom Force to begin with.

Since any old skinning thread of mine would be a thing of the past... I've decided to re-introduce myself (esp to the new peeps) with a sample of what I have done and what you can expect in the future. If you didn't know... I'm a 100% original guy. I'll leave the DC and Marvel stuff to the others. Every character in my stable is more than just a skin.. they are part of the ever growing New Power INC Universe. Each has thier own story and no one is an island. Over a dozen other skinners and meshers, both past and present have added characters and stories to NPI over the years. However, even with literally hundreds of characters and such... a cohesive continuity was always maintained. When NPI re-opens in a couple of days... check it out... you may find something kinda different and interesting.

But here is a selct sample of what I have done...

And this is the most recent x6 (I couldn't make up my mind)...

When ever I get the skinning bug... I always redo my ace character. Hopefully you'll enjoy this version. I went a little simpler vs. the last version... I think I got too carried away at the time goung for an 'awe' look vs. just a solid design, which IMO always works best. He and the rest will be available for DL in a couple of days. I'm still going over which chars need new skins and/or new skopes as well as prepping to do chars which I previously hadn't skinned.

AfghanAnt · June 23, 2009, 08:25:13 PM

I am really digging Firehawk's costume design. Especially the white version (damn I wish I had thought up those leg details).

Iris · June 23, 2009, 08:32:34 PM

Looks great! I Like Pulsar and Fyrehawk.

murs47 · June 24, 2009, 12:07:50 AM

That Fyrehawk design is mighty impressive.

herodad1 · June 24, 2009, 01:43:44 AM

hey, cool job on your originals.whats C M F's powers/abilities?

House Quake · June 24, 2009, 02:02:21 AM

Quote from: herodad1 on June 24, 2009, 01:43:44 AM
hey, cool job on your originals.whats C M F's powers/abilities?

C.M.F.'s powers are primarily cold/ice generation and control. The 'C' stands for 'cold'... the rest I'll let you figure it out.

cascarudo · June 24, 2009, 02:27:33 AM

they look great

Outcast · June 25, 2009, 07:17:58 AM

It's good to see you skinning again HouseQuake. The skins and characters look very cool. Eagerly anticipating the next batch of skins.

Volsung · June 25, 2009, 08:10:48 AM

I dig Fyrehawk too.
Originals are good for health ^^

laughing paradox · June 25, 2009, 07:46:57 PM

I like Fyrehawk's design but I really like that Colonel's skin.. nice job on it.

House Quake · August 31, 2009, 11:37:16 PM

Last week I took the time to update my personal base skin. A few may recall years back, that I was one of the initiators responsible for breaking the status quo with base skins. Up to that point, 65% on the skins done were on a C6 base... with another 30% on Gryphon's... with Strangefate and a few personal custom bases filling out the rest. I'll admit to being part of the conversation in the chat shack which came up with the derogatory 'Sim6' reference... ie people's who skins looked good, not because of what they did.. but rather because it was a C6 base. It was ridiculous how every thing looked like C6... but not quite as good.

Virtually every member of NPI led the drive for creating a slew of base skins for the community to use to break up the monotony. Other members of the community also made bases for both public and personal use. Whether they made the new bases from scratch or heavily augmented an existing base. I actually had to 'cough' 'cough', call a few members out who claimed they made their base from scratch but really just modified an existing base (there was never any shame on going that route.. only pride). Any who, both routes seamed to work to create new diversity which hadn't existed before. Even C6 created a new personal base because he was tired of looking too 'Sim6'. I'm happy to say that for the most part, most of the skins created now stand on thier own merits and people still go for the individual look.

I went the route of customizing the base I used primarily up till that time, Gryphon's. I probably could have went from scratch... but 'meh'... too much work. The area's I altered to my taste where the chest, abdominal, shoulder, thigh, groin, waist, jaw and chin, a little on the back, skin tone, highlights (see why I should have just did it from scratch lol) On the left is Gryphon's base.. to the right is my old base.. and in the center is my updated base.

I still need to redo my heavily' muscular and female basis. But I think I've improved over the 'natural' route I went for prior.

And oh yeah.... the current skin I'm working on... Fury. Skoped by Zivon based on my colored sketch.

Comments are always appreciated.

Bloodshadow · September 01, 2009, 02:43:15 AM

I really like Col. Control,and Fury is just a sweet design,Nice job big guy

Ewzzy · September 01, 2009, 05:44:49 PM

I love the texture on the red parts. It makes it look more like a real costume.

Voltimax · September 01, 2009, 07:14:14 PM

Nice work HQ. I like the new base. I've been trying to get Gryphon's old base to my liking, but never seem to get there. Wanna explain to me again how you do it?

murs47 · September 01, 2009, 07:54:34 PM

looks real good HQ

UnkoMan · September 01, 2009, 09:05:40 PM

Hurm. I actually think there's a better face piece you could use than the Wolverine ears. Tomato did a mesh of Syn with something more similar to your sketch. I don't know where you'd find it anymore, but you could ask him.

Anyhow, it's a really cool design, and the skin is looking swell so far. The armpit wings look a little funny, but that's more a mapping issue really.

Artemis · September 01, 2009, 09:45:39 PM

Very nice work HQ!

cascarudo · September 02, 2009, 12:36:35 AM

really great skins is looking very good i can t wait to see him finish

riddler07 · September 02, 2009, 01:58:08 AM

Fury looks awesome! Keep up the great work.

House Quake · September 02, 2009, 02:28:41 AM

Quote from: UnkoMan on September 01, 2009, 09:05:40 PM
Hurm. I actually think there's a better face piece you could use than the Wolverine ears. Tomato did a mesh of Syn with something more similar to your sketch. I don't know where you'd find it anymore, but you could ask him.

Anyhow, it's a really cool design, and the skin is looking swell so far. The armpit wings look a little funny, but that's more a mapping issue really.

I'll look into that definitely seeing that i ran into a conversion issue with the skope

. The armwings and belt I hadn't done yet, actually. They're from the Submariner mesh's standard Zivon used as a base.

Quote from: Voltimax on September 01, 2009, 07:14:14 PM
Nice work HQ. I like the new base. I've been trying to get Gryphon's old base to my liking, but never seem to get there. Wanna explain to me again how you do it?

If I told you... I'ld have to kill you. LOL Yeah... you know I'm always willing to share a few tricks here and there.

More to come (I hope)

Aly Cat · September 03, 2009, 05:44:55 AM

Oooooo.....You know I loves me some custom bases; gives your skins their own unique style; lookin good so far

Outcast · September 08, 2009, 09:25:39 AM

Great job on Fury so far House Quake.

Nice texture. And the details are spot on. I'm sure he will be more awesome with the mask and effects on.

House Quake · September 11, 2009, 12:51:24 AM

This took a little longer than I expected. The original skope created by Zivon23 to specification... looked and worked great. But due to issues with the particle emissions... had conversion problems. We opted to go the route of making a FFvt3R version as well while he was working on another skope for me. Meanwhile, I decided to revisit Nifskope again after my initial explorations left me lost and confused. All I can say after that is that something snapped in my brain and a moment of clarity over whelmed me. I got it... I suddenly got it! Still got a long way to go on the learning side... but I figured out enough via tuturials and some trial and error to accomplish what I needed.

Skope: Base mesh by Texas Jack w/ a shout out to Grenadier. The body is from Renegade. Head gear/mask and boot parts from Tommyboy
*note head FX of actual mesh are indeed similar to those in pic.

Bio exert (full text will be available on NPI and with the skin/skope)...
"Enraged at the fact that the ?real? Fyrehawk had come back?the clone was furious and a massive battle between the two solar energized beings ensued. Fury proved to be more aggressive and combined with his knowledge of Fyrehawk's combat techniques.... he bettered him in battle. However, merely beating him was not enough?he wanted to destroy him. He could not stand the fact that he was not unique..that he was not alone. As he prepared to deliver the final blow? the other members of the Vindicators stepped in. This was all they needed to see in order to know who the ?real? Fyrehawk was. They knew the true hero they had known for years?would have never struck down a fallen foe."

next up
Zivon (avatar)

Core · September 11, 2009, 01:06:39 AM

Wow that turned out amazing! Excellent job on the skope too.

Quote*note head FX of actual mesh are indeed similar to those in pic

Does that mean the nif has a flame effect on the head?

John Jr. · September 11, 2009, 01:20:08 AM

They are all impressive and have, each one, a distinctive look.
Great face on Colonel Control, expressive and really looks older than the other ones.
Congrats!

House Quake · September 11, 2009, 01:43:46 AM

Quote from: Core on September 11, 2009, 01:06:39 AM
Wow that turned out amazing! Excellent job on the skope too.

Quote*note head FX of actual mesh are indeed similar to those in pic

Does that mean the nif has a flame effect on the head?

Affirmative

And its made for FF1 and has been verified convertible to FFvt3R

Bloodshadow · September 11, 2009, 03:31:28 AM

Very nice job on design,skope and skin :thumbup:I am impressed (and a little jealous

)

Outcast · September 19, 2009, 07:28:33 AM

Fury turned out really great HQ! Glad to see you finally getting the hang of nifskope. And that drawing of Zivon looks great too. Looking forward to seeing your work on him.

House Quake · September 19, 2009, 01:22:21 PM

Here is the 80% complete Zivon. Mesh is a pre-VX created a while back by Vertex. There's a kink or two I have to work out (or see if Zivon or Vertex will have an answer) concerning the mapping of the hair and the meshes glow layer before I put the finishing touches on.

In the meanwhile.. I'll be starting on my next original... Superstar.

He'll be on a mesh which uses parts created by Bearded and skoped by Zivon on a Renegade mesh as a base.

Outcast · September 19, 2009, 03:17:06 PM

Looking good HQ. Looking good.

Will his costume be black with blue highlights? or dark blue with blue highlights? Just curious.

News:

9/19 - W.I.P. Zivon + next char in line