Area34's Fisting Area... Er... Iron Area

area34 · February 09, 2011, 10:04:25 PM

I guess for starters. Apologies to all for my disappearing act. Real life issues came up that made drawing both difficult and depressing so I avoided the topic altogether for awhile. To keep things short and not to get into many things. Last year on my way home from work I was in a car accident caused by a stupid kid texting and it left me with some nerve damage to my right hand. I couldn't hold a stylus and could barely use a mouse. In the last couple months though I've rehabbed enough to be able to skope/cut and paste/whatever so I've been slowly coming back to the community and have been doing what I can to contribute to the board.

With that out the way. For those with long memories you might remember before my sabbatical I had a lot of skopes and skins that I had done by kitting Courts unreleased base and was in the process of reskinning some of them so they could be released. Luckily I still have the PSD's for nearly everything I've done so I'm able to swap new bases in and then they just need to have the colores rebalanced and that's something that can be done with little dexterity with mouse.

So-

Booster Gold skope that was kitt'd and can't be released, now becomes-

Booster Gold skope built out of Mur's base.

I still need to do the face's and hair which might be a problem but I'll probably use faces from other skins I've done until I think my freehand ability looks right again. As for the skope, that's Ren's Invincible combined with Vert's Booster. I redid the UV maping on the gauntlets so each gauntlet can be unique like in the comics. I never got around to Skeets though.

My plan for right now is to release some of my old skopes/all in ones and fix the skins as best I can. So again. apologies to everyone for dropping off.

John Jr. · February 09, 2011, 10:20:34 PM

Good to have you back.
I hope you have a speed recovery. I know how health issues can be depressing, but keep the mind occupied with fun things (like this forum and FF in general) always helped me. I'm sure it'll help you too.
Once again, welcome back!

spydermann93 · February 09, 2011, 10:50:22 PM

Glad to hear that you've recovered (more or less) from your unfortunate accident. I hope you heal back to 100% (or better) soon

Also, lovely skopes you have there. They are defenitely some of the best around.

Sioux City Dynamo · February 09, 2011, 11:06:52 PM

Welcome back! Look forward to your new material.

President Raygun · February 09, 2011, 11:38:17 PM

Good to have you back Area,

glad to hear your doing better

herodad1 · February 09, 2011, 11:55:16 PM

dude, didnt know about the accident. glad your getting better and glad your back!

Tomato · February 10, 2011, 12:53:16 AM

Sorry to hear about your car accident. That really sucks, but it is good to know you made it through ok. And don't worry about being behind on skins... I've made meshes for skinners who weren't in car crashes that still have yet to be done *looks sideways at TUE, AA, Pod, and Murs* so I think we can live with a bit of a wait.

As to the skins, I do have a few suggestions if/when you feel up to it. On the yellow, instead of using the bright yellow, try going for a muted yellow... I've found that, especially with metals, it's better to go for a desaturated color and then let the reflect bring that color out. I'd also try and balance the yellow a bit more... It's probably just the base, but the strong highlights on the pecs don't match the legs at all.

UnkoMan · February 10, 2011, 01:20:25 AM

Yikes! That's terrible. Good to see you are coming through it.

As to the skins, I actually think the bright yellow works very well for Booster. At least for earlier versions. I also think the new skins are actually much better than the old ones.
I will agree the legs look like they need stronger highlights, but a lot of that also seems to be on the refl file. The blue highlights are a bit white for my tastes, but that's my style. I like it when colours punch you in the eyeballs.

Tomato · February 10, 2011, 01:41:15 AM

Quote from: UnkoMan on February 10, 2011, 01:20:25 AM
Yikes! That's terrible. Good to see you are coming through it.

As to the skins, I actually think the bright yellow works very well for Booster. At least for earlier versions. I also think the new skins are actually much better than the old ones.
I will agree the legs look like they need stronger highlights, but a lot of that also seems to be on the refl file. The blue highlights are a bit white for my tastes, but that's my style. I like it when colours punch you in the eyeballs.

You misunderstood my intent... I'm not saying to take the bright color out, I'm saying put that strong color in the refl rather than on the basic skin... I've found the contrast of desaturated skin and bright refl makes that yellow refl pop MORE than if it was just in the skin itself.

laughing paradox · February 10, 2011, 01:57:01 AM

Area, I'm glad to see you posting again, and that you're feeling well enough to attempt the skinning/skoping again. There's no need to even write an apology.. even though I've been waiting for The Hand for about a year. (I'm kidding! Just a joke.)

The updated Booster Gold is looking great.

Figure Fan · February 10, 2011, 03:10:45 AM

I'm glad that you're okay and that you're recovering. These Booster Gold skins look really sharp.

docdelorean88 · February 10, 2011, 03:19:22 AM

Great to hear you are doing alright! Im glad you are doing alright my best wishes to a speedy recovery! And these booster golds look wonderful!!!

UnkoMan · February 10, 2011, 04:44:19 AM

Quote from: Tomato on February 10, 2011, 01:41:15 AM
You misunderstood my intent... I'm not saying to take the bright color out, I'm saying put that strong color in the refl rather than on the basic skin... I've found the contrast of desaturated skin and bright refl makes that yellow refl pop MORE than if it was just in the skin itself.

Ohhhh... Really? Hmm... I had never fooled around with that too much, but I will take your word. Disregard what I said then!

Podmark · February 10, 2011, 05:24:29 AM

Glad to hear you're doing better, that really sucks about the accident. The Boosters look really great. It's really cool seeing all the costumes together like that.

Quote from: Tomato on February 10, 2011, 12:53:16 AM
I've made meshes for skinners who weren't in car crashes that still have yet to be done *looks sideways at TUE, AA, Pod, and Murs* so I think we can live with a bit of a wait.

Hey I could've been in a car crash! I wasn't though. I'll definitely finish all your meshes by 2020 or something like that.

murs47 · February 10, 2011, 07:30:55 AM

Sorry to hear about the accident man. Glad to hear you're getting better and I'm really glad you're back.

Cyber Burn · February 10, 2011, 07:42:19 AM

Are these an all-in-one skope? They look great.

martialstorm · February 10, 2011, 08:23:15 AM

Great to have you back A34

crimsonquill · February 10, 2011, 01:18:29 PM

Great to have you back among us, A34.. *salutes with cup*

You were always a big help to me when I was messing around with skopes and looking forward to what you have planned to reveal.

- CQ

BentonGrey · February 11, 2011, 12:12:57 AM

Area, good heavens man! I'm pretty sure you don't need to apologize to ANYBODY because you were in a car accident! I'm really glad to hear that you are recovering. The fact that you've been working on this stuff as you recover is really cool. I can understand the desire to reclaim this part of your life. You are absolutely welcome back, and I hope you continue to recover more and more quickly.

As for your Boosters, they are excellent. I love the bright colors of your skins, and those skopes are nice.

Helix · February 11, 2011, 04:19:20 AM

Area...it's good to have you back. I know you don't know me, but I have used several of your skins. Booster Gold looks fantastic! I hope you have a quick recovery...and thank your for your great contributions to the FF community!

grenadier · February 11, 2011, 08:15:52 AM

That bites to be in that situation of rehabing. The only thing I can recommend is practice and practice some more. I hope that you'll be at your best soon.

I really like those skins. Your metallic effect is top of the line.

WyldFyre · February 11, 2011, 02:37:57 PM

Like everyone said man. No apology necessary. Just glad you're okay. And Booster looks great!

area34 · February 11, 2011, 07:06:25 PM

Thanks for the kind words. The apologies are more for all the people I left hanging. It wasn't very cool of me. I'm probably about half of what I was before but I've been pushing myself a lot more lately and am finally feeling more comfortable with how things look. I've done a bunch of kitt's just to get back into the process. I've had to learn some new techniques. Free handing edges is a lot harder now so I've been experimenting with stroking paths so they still have the brushed look. I wish I could just stroke an entire layer that way but I haven't figured out how to keep the brush effect. But I soldier on.

-
I agree with the group. I think the gold effect needs more tweeking. I'm going to play more with the highs and low levels on the base. I'll post the update after I try doing the face. My original PSD has all the shading and edges to the costume already done and on a separate set of layers so it's just a matter of doing the actual face. It shouldn't take to long.
-

I was playing with a certain Lantern I need to finish and somehow started this.

Yeah it was only in- I don't know- Three issues? But it's a green Spider-Man. It's a Spider-man that hasn't been done and it's green. I just have do it for my return. I've not done anything with the base yet. I plugged in the black one so I could see how the details look using the path tools. Other than the feet I think it works.

spydermann93 · February 11, 2011, 08:36:39 PM

That's really cool! I love the glow especially.

Spoiler

I can't wait for the Hammer Agents/Soldiers as well as Holocaust personally, but I'll be more than willing to wait for those

darkknight92 · February 11, 2011, 08:54:51 PM

Luv the spiderman. And as someone who has downloaded many of you skins from Champions, I want to say Thanks. Best wishes....

docdelorean88 · February 12, 2011, 12:21:54 AM

Wow! That looks great! But i think we all secretly want to see some of these: http://marvel.com/news/story/14404/marvel_unveils_tron_variant_covers

hahaha! Great work!

detourne_me · February 12, 2011, 05:31:46 PM

Welcome Back Area!! Heres to a steady and full recovery!

area34 · February 12, 2011, 11:50:58 PM

I don't think I'll be doing any tron skins. This was just a one off to play around with different line tools. See what kind of tweaks I can do to my unfinished skins. I have so many things on the backlog to add more to it would probably kill me

. Hammer agents need the glider to be fixed, the Power Packer girls need to be reskoped, the Hand need faces, I need to find Damian's psd, finish up Checkmate, finish up GL, finish BL, finish charlie27... ect... I should be able to finish most of those this week and then see what up.
-
Spidey- I went ahead and did the other colors the costume changed to depending on the mode it was in.

and

Spoiler

I just noticed as I uploaded the pics that is has the wrong base under it.

Podmark · February 12, 2011, 11:56:02 PM

Sweet stealth suit Spidey. It looks great too.

murs47 · February 13, 2011, 12:17:35 AM

Nice Area. What do the different modes do?

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Area34's Fisting Area... Er... Iron Area