Area34's Area - BEEP BEEP mandroid BEEP BEEP

[area34]

Seeing as how I'm a kittbashing ambiguously foreborn and I have a lot of skopes that aren't released because I want them to have a skin I'm going to try to actually skin some of my skopes...  

I'm starting with the WIP Umen since they are black and white and should be easy. I'm using the AIM_rifle skin Court as a reference and have been airbrushing on solid black trying to give a leather/plastic look. I haven't messed with the legs much yet and I'm having problems getting the glass panel to look right but I think I did a decent job on the backpack and arms.

Any tips or critiques is appreciated.

Spoiler

[Tomato]

single question... if you can do this, why on earth do you kittbash at all?

[murs47]

single question... if you can do this, why on earth do you kittbash at all?

Seriously, you're like Outcast(FR member) v2...hiding your talent from us.

[Outcast]

Thanks for thinking i have talent Murs.

Area34, I've seen the kitbash skins that you do and I think they're pretty good. I think you've got a good eye and judgement on how to make skins look better. Yes. Based on those, i've always thought you could have made great looking skins by yourself if you so wanted.

So far, I really like how you did the cables on the backpack as well as the lens on the helmet. Great work.

[area34]

Thanks for the kind words. For the most part I kittbash faces and this doesn't have a face so it helps. I will say though I owe a huge debt to Courts work since it's his texturing style I'm trying to ape with this.

[area34]

Spoiler

Legs now done but still need the feet... I'm still experimenting with the glass face. In the bottom pic is where I tried doing a fogged face behind the glass. It looks fine from straight on angles but anything else and it looks like a picture flat against the plate.

[detourne_me]

Leaps and bounds man, leaps and bounds!
can't wait for you to release this guy!

[area34]

I added more whites to the legs- darkened the backback and I'm still playing with the face but I did finish the flamethrower variants armor so I'm nearly finished with him... I'm hoping BlkCas can get the mouth tube done then it's just tweeks.

Spoiler

DOH! I just noticed that the armor variant didn't have the updated legs... SO imagine more whites

[area34]

Ok, Aside from the one tube the UMEN are done. I decided to scrap the face in the glass since it only looked right at some angles. My questions to everyone is how shiny should they be?

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[BentonGrey]

Great work man!  These guys look fantastic!

[Podmark]

They really do look great.

[Tomato]

Fantastic work man, truly stellar

[area34]

Prev wanted to use my Hellfire skope with his holiday mod but I skinned it on top of courts work so it was a no-no. I promised to get to making a legal skin and then the UMen sidetracked me... So sticking with skinning people with no faces.-

Spoiler

It's a start of the base. I know from seeing Murs' amazing base building that I need to do more tweeking to the colors to make it look more realistic but I'm trying to get the skeleton of the highlights before I go in there and really define everything.

[Podmark]

Nice job. I can see more cool skins in your future.

[area34]

That's the plan Pod. If I can get a couple bases done I can use my kittbashing skills to kittbash my own stuff.

Almost done (I love slow work days).

Spoiler

Edited to add -
BASE in action

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Now to go home...

[Outcast]

Knew you could do it.

Awesome starting base. So far, that hellfire club soldier's uniform looks pretty cool man.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

Keep up the great work. 

[BentonGrey]

Very nice Area.  You're using your colors very well. 

[area34]

Spoiler

Finished?
I went ahead and made two versions. Rifle Soldier and Pistol soldier. I think I went a little to far on the face so any input would be great. I just wish I could get the recessed mouth... (FH sent me a nose for the skope but it just doesn't look right without the mouth (but thanks for the nif I'm sure I'll use it eventually).

[Courtnall6]

ok...I don't want to start something huge here but this base looks awfully familiar to me. It honestly looks like you just "traced" over my work and then added to it...or you simply just modified one of my skins.

Spoiler

[area34]

I didn't do it on top of your skin but I did have some of your skins (one of your old bases and cyclops) on my other monitor for a reference. They are similar but different. I'm sure you can see that your work is better. I airbrush and smudge where I think your stuff is more precise. If you want I can post the a jpg of the male_basic so you can see.

[Courtnall6]

Regardless of how it was done...it's too similar really. This seems like a kitbashing work around to me.

"I can't use so and so's work...so I'll just copy his/her work as close as I can get it...and I'm good!"

It deuniques(is that a word?) my work and basically pegs you as a "Similar6". I'm not against people using my stuff as a reference..but add some of your own style in there.

[area34]

Doh. I was already queing this up-

Spoiler

I think it's clear that I didn't trace your work but I did use it as a reference. I do hope no offense was taken(I am one your biggest fans). I'm just trying to make a base that I can work off of. I'll scrap the psd but is it possible that I can still release the Hellfire guy just so he's done and I can move on?

[Tomato]

Area... I took your base image and laid it over the C6 one to the right... Even giving you the benefit of the doubt, 90% of the muscles on your base do not differ significantly from those on C6's, either in size(not counting the fact that you extended it out further with the base blue.) shape, or position. The ONE spot with significant difference is the diaphram. It is clear to me you traced it, and I have proof should you wish to contest that fact. I understand you want C6's base... hell, half the guys here want it. But don't try to con us, we WILL see through it.

Now, my suggestion is this: pull up the bases from several different skinners (C6's, AA's, mine, Murs', the ones on the base skin group, etc.) Then compare them all on MB... get a general sense of how the muscles are placed, decide what you think looks best, etc. Then, you start on your own base. Don't copy anyone's work, at best eyeball the general shape of whatever muscle and muck around until it looks right.

[Tomato]

I wanted to clarify my last post a bit because I wrote it in my irritation, and while that anger is justified(though maybe not explained well), I don't want it discouraging you from skinning.

You have talent Area, that's pretty clear to most of us here. You took a look at C6's old leather techniques and were able to take them to newer levels and adapt them toward what you wanted. You also clearly have the nescessary skills to do your own base, something even vets like pod and tue are reluctant to do (not that they can't mind...   ) And yet instead of going your own way, in the same way AA has, you are bound and determined to hide in C6's shadow (and in doing so unintentionally undermining what makes C6 unique in the first place).

I idolize C6 myself. In terms of technical skill alone (not to mention his astounding ability to do hundreds of skins in the same ammount of time as I can do one  ), he's been the head of the pack even since I've known him. In some ways, I'm even jealous of that, even now that I'm more or less mainly a mesher. But if he were to offer me his base right now, I wouldn't take it, nor would most of the skinners here. By holding his base back, C6 has forced us to take our own paths... And I think in the long term, it benefited both us and the community.

(Ok, on a computer now, heh)

I know your main reasoning behind trying to duplicate C6's base is so that your skins will fit with his. But I've never had any problem mixing up AA's newer skins or mine with his: the main issue is not exactly how the muscles fit, it's the general color use. Most of the more modern skins have a much brighter and cleaner color scheme, which is why as much as I wish they would, I can't use C6's older skins with his newer ones. You could put arm muscles on legs and leg muscles on arms, and as long as you had the appropriate color usage, it'd look fine.

[area34]

I've not had time to get on the net till today so Im not trying to duck any conversations. If this gets a little rambly I apologize. My two year old has to much energy right now...

To start with, I totally get why C6 says what he says and have no problem with it. In high school I was constantly given dren for drawing like Jim Lee. College I went from Larsen to Miller- nowadays I'm more of an Ottley. I've always been adept at mimicking things. If I had an art style it would be whatever I'm into at the time. So catching flack for being to similar to the ref is nothing new to me and he has every right to complain about it. The similar6 line though I think is a little harsh since most people here use his old bases already and can have that title applied to them as well (that's not a dig, I suck at faces- any thing I would do that needed a face or anything I needed help with I run to his bases too.)

As to this whole thing. Any one whose seen my skopes in the hex thread knows I take the skin from whatever the mesh was and use it as a "base" and do my stuff on top and it but it's not releasable that way so I was just trying to get a base I could use. The only reason I am/was doing a base myself was that the older released bases don't have the same level of tone and color that I do and to make it match would be more work than me just doing my own take on a base(which I guess was too good a take.) I'm not tying to be the next C6 or AA or anything. I'm just trying to give some newer stuff to the community.

[area34]

Not sure how to do this. This is a Hex and a skin. So for now I'm putting it in both threads..



I'm still tweeking the colors...

[area34]

Blue Beetle finished unless anyone has any critiques.

Made with the base Murs has given to me to run free with and with Courts smile base for the face.

[Blkcasanova247]

Very cool...nice work on the costume lines (although I might thicken the band on the leg to match the one on his arm)...really solid colors....great job. Keep at it Area.

[murs47]

Very nice Area. Like Cas said, the colors are excellent.

[area34]

Taking BLk's advice but flipping it, I thinned out the arm bands rather than the legs to match and I've toned down the eye goggles some..