MotU by j-bird

Originally Posted by Niki

Wow.

A lot of thought went into your Azrog becomes Evil Seed idea. And it could work but Evil Seed is a pure plant being, if you ask me. So making him an apprentice of Azrog would work for me.

The blue version looks nice but the red version is stunning if you ask me.

I like the shading and and color gradient on him. Great work and even though you went with his avocado head design he looks menacing cool stuff!

Thanks - I think the blue version ties him more to Azrog's look, but the warmer version is more 200x and seems to be more popular in general so far, so I think that might be the direction I lean in terms of color.

I also see Evilseed as a being of pure plant material; my thought was that somehow Azrog's body was destroyed (by Orko or Montork ???) and he infused himself into the plant life in the immediate area, enabling him to reshape his body and making him harder to defeat in any kind of permanent way (i.e. you kill his current plant body and his essence temporarily disperses until he can grow himself a new one).

In terms of overall story, I would eventually use him to introduce Lord Tyrin and Lady Valtira (from the Filmation cartoon): Either Moss Man goes to explore a disturbance in the plant world and finds the dessicated remains of Evilseed or Evilseed drags himself to the palace gates.

Before he withers away completely, he utters the phrase "The sleepers ... awaken ..." (the name of the cartoon episode in which Tyrin and Valtira appeared).

Originally Posted by gbagok

I really like how your Evilseed looks, and I probably like the green and rust colored one the most. Personally I missed the red capes on Elmora and Shokoti, to me they complete the look, so seeing a red cape on Evilseed is really nice and surprisingly exciting even though I'd never thought he needed one. I like what you're doing with the canon behind them, elevating Azrog a bit and tying in all the Infinitia stuff. I agree the similar elements of Trollans and Gar is a tempting thread to pick up so it works well here IMO.

RE Azrog, I think maybe Azrog's eyes are too small and piggy compared with Evilseed and maybe that's where he could use some development? His face seems pinched and nonthreatening compared to others but I really like how you're developing his costume and the rest of his features. I know it's hard with that character since he's so cartoony in design but had a very serious and mean personality.

Also I still thoroughly love your King He-Man design.

Thank you; I'm glad the story elements seem to hold together at this point. From somebody who's done as much backstory work as you have, that carries a fair bit of weight with me.

As far as the art, Evilseed did have a brown cloak in his Filmation appearance, and I decided to try and work that in since I was trying to incorporate elements of both versions into my take on him.

Yeah, I see what you mean about Azrog's face ... he felt kind of pinched in the Filmation cartoon, but perhaps I need to explore more there, especially since Evilseed has kind of big "crazy" eyes. I might try something as simple as giving him pupils and see what that does. Otherwise, I will see what I can come up with ...

Originally Posted by Charlie Brown

amazing art, as usual!

for some reasons azrog's attire made me think of kirby's eternals: it's not a bad look, but maybe has a kinda superhero-esque vibe to me.

evilseed is great: the warm colors palette is my favourite too, though the cool ones seem to be more fitting for eternian evildoers.

i'd rather see them linked than being the same character.

the whole trolla/infinita concept is very well conceived: i really like the different councils idea - maybe they all could be named after a gemstone (matching the colors of the clans) - and the different type of magic they wield.

ps
maybe the horde wraiths are somehow linked to the shadow council?

Thanks! I will always take a Kirby-vibe as a compliment, but I can see where you're coming from re: the whole superhero thing on Azrog. Perhaps if the entire outfit wasn't skin-tight it might lessen that effect (looser sleeves / leggings maybe?).

With regard to the councils, I specifically steered away from giving them all gemstone-based names, but the thought did occur to me. That was at least partially because the Crimson Council was named as such (I believe) in the old cartoon, and I wanted to incorporate existing canonical elements when I could.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for the feedback. I'm working on Azrog and will see where he goes from here.

Originally Posted by j-bird

Here's another piece I started a while ago and just got around to finishing up.


I think Lord Dactys (Dactus, however you want to spell it) is one of the coolest characters to come from the MYP cartoon, so I wanted to try my hand at him. There are a couple of things I would change about him if I started him over now (specifically the tail; it kind of bugs me).

EDIT:

The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to update some things on Dactys ...


I went more faithful to his original look in terms of the armor, getting rid of the greaves and adding thigh-armor and changing some of what was skin in the first version to armor / clothing (arms / abs). I tweaked the colors a bit as well. I also changed his tail. I'm still not 100% on him, but I'm getting closer ... suggestions / feedback are welcome.

EDIT²:


Aaand trying again ... something about the second version wasn't working for me either. So, I went back to the classics-style greaves and added some detail to the arm / midriff armor, kept the new tail and feet and new colors (mostly). I'm still not sure, but I might let him sit a bit and see what I think later.

EDIT³:

I tweaked the colors on the last version more toward violet, skewing away from the maroon / brick-ish color on the armor, and I think that might have done it for me ... we'll see.

All those URL's are broken...


--Asp'r

Originally Posted by SnakeMenPriest

All those URL's are broken...


--Asp'r

I think I have fixed them; thanks for bringing it to my attention.

EDIT:

I have updated Azrog's face ... I'm hoping it reads more sinister / menacing / something than the previous version. I also tweaked the colors a bit.



I also tried some different things with his facial markings ...



The first version is more like his markings from the Filmation cartoon.

The third is what I'm calling the Traitor's Mark, something he would have been branded with after his treachery was discovered by the other Overlords of Trolla. Note that out of spite it's something he has worked into his costume.

The second is a combination of the two ... not entirely sure that would work, not entirely sure it wouldn't. I kind of liked it when I initially tried it, though, so I thought I'd see what people thought.

Anyway, let me know what you all think of the updated Azrog.

My thoughts for his face:

I like the dark markings around his eyes i also like the traitors Mark BUT i don´t like that they are combined together.

The shape of his forehead would allow to minimize the traitors Mark so that it is seen completely and is not interfering with his "natural" markings.

Am i making myself clear enough?

the fading of the color in the tritors Mark is great but right now it looks like he is getting the flue if you ask me

Originally Posted by Niki

My thoughts for his face:

I like the dark markings around his eyes i also like the traitors Mark BUT i don´t like that they are combined together.

The shape of his forehead would allow to minimize the traitors Mark so that it is seen completely and is not interfering with his "natural" markings.

Am i making myself clear enough?

the fading of the color in the tritors Mark is great but right now it looks like he is getting the flue if you ask me

So you're saying maybe make the Traitor's Mark smaller and move it up onto his forehead? I kind of like it coming up from his eyes, but I think if I decide to use both then you're probably right and having the Traitor's Mark on the forehead instead might work better.

Does anyone else have any preference? I've been kind of leaning toward using one or the other (rather than a combo of both), but I'm not set on that. Also, what do you all think of the colors of the costume - do you guys like the darker version or the brighter version better, or am I still not quite there yet?

In the meantime, I've been working on concepts for the City-State (Queendom) of Arcadia (from the old Filmation episode "Trouble in Arcadia").



We've got Queen Sumana in the front in the red-toned dress, then her chief slave Ananda to the right, and some generic Arcadian warrior-women in the back. The one on the left would probably be some kind of general / military advisor.

On the women, I incorporated some design elements from one of the bald female elders from the 200x/MYP series (gbagok has named her Galadria, and that works for me). I imagine that at some point Galadria was the leader of what would eventually become "modern day" Arcadia. I was inspired by gbagok's bio of her as the leader of a clan of Amazon-like warrior women, which naturally led me to the Filmation episode.

I still see them as being isolationist, partially because the majority of Eternian society is fairly male-dominated, and partially because in addition to a small trade in Arcolite (Arcalite? - in my canon, they haven't over-mined to the point their city is ready to collapse), Arcadia also dabbles in the slave-trade (surplus male slaves / prisoners of war) with some neutral and dark-aligned city-states.

I wouldn't quite have Arcadia be so ready to ally with Eternos, but instead would give them a sort of uneasy alliance. Neither wants Skeletor to rule, but Queen Sumana can't quite be comfortable with the idea of her warriors potentially acting at the direction of He-Man and Randor. On the other side, Eternos isn't comfortable with the idea that some of their warriors could potentially end up in the Arcadian slave-mines. I envision Teela as being the primary liaison with Arcadia.

I have a notion that, at some point in her training, Teela went to Arcadia to study under their soldiers and generals for a time.

I like a somewhat more mature tone for my canon, with a little more intrigue, both political and interpersonal. This is part of the reason Queen Sumana doesn't meet He-Man and Teela and, half an hour later, completely abandon the socio-economic structure of her realm.

Originally Posted by j-bird

I think I have fixed them; thanks for bringing it to my attention.

You're welcome; and now that I can see them, I can give my view on Dactys:
Since the feet were kinda made a big deal, The feet from V1 appear the best for a Classics version of him, with the feet from V2 as a good (but not close) second. The finalized version's ones are more like boots with spikes attached to them, and the Speleans were never shown with boots. The tail from V1 is also a better fit, as it is the right length to not interfere with flying while still being useful if it were prehensile.

As for the armor, the violet/maroon color isn't bad, his arms look better without those sleeves under his armor, but most importantly the leg armor provided in V2 was a vast improvement, it really gives Lord Dactys a more regal, classy appearance; not to mention the existing piece of armor there appears a lot less like a codpiece with the additional leg armor. The lower leg armor is also just fine.


--Asp'r

Originally Posted by SnakeMenPriest

You're welcome; and now that I can see them, I can give my view on Dactys:
Since the feet were kinda made a big deal, The feet from V1 appear the best for a Classics version of him, with the feet from V2 as a good (but not close) second. The finalized version's ones are more like boots with spikes attached to them, and the Speleans were never shown with boots.

I'm not necessarily trying for a Classics version of him, although the first version is pretty similar to his MotUC figure; ultimately I found I was going for a sort of hybrid look for Dactys. In the finalized version, I was going for something along the lines of a Clawful / Whiplash / Buzz-Off kind of foot since I was using their thighs already. It never even occurred to me that it might look like a boot. Does it read that way to anyone else?

Originally Posted by SnakeMenPriest

The tail from V1 is also a better fit, as it is the right length to not interfere with flying while still being useful if it were prehensile.

I went with a tail more like his MYP appearance, which was longer than my initial version ... regardless of reality, it's a fairly standard fantasy convention that a flying creature can get by with a long tail (dragons, for example). It also helps balance out the visual "weight" of his wings.

Originally Posted by SnakeMenPriest

As for the armor, the violet/maroon color isn't bad, his arms look better without those sleeves under his armor, but most importantly the leg armor provided in V2 was a vast improvement, it really gives Lord Dactys a more regal, classy appearance; not to mention the existing piece of armor there appears a lot less like a codpiece with the additional leg armor. The lower leg armor is also just fine.


--Asp'r

The thigh armor was part of an attempt to bring him closer to his MYP appearance, but in the end it didn't work for me visually; bringing that bit of color to the lower legs felt like it balanced him better. I also wanted to keep the ridged thighs I'd been using. The sleeves / undertunic are elements from his MYP appearance that felt missing in the first version.

I appreciate you taking the time to give thoughtful, detailed feedback.

I've been continuing to explore some Filmation concepts and how I would work them into my personal canon. Most recently, I've been looking at the city of Tahrin from "Song of Celice." Here we have Lizardman, Celice, and Pangas.



If they were figures, Celice would share a head with my version of Peek-a-blue.

I am exploring the idea that Tahrin was built on the surface above the former underground city of Tundaria (home of Wun-Dar in the MotUC canon). They still retain close contact with their subterranean neighbors such as the Speleans. With this in mind, I incorporated some of the visual elements from Lord Dactys. I also used a stylized "W" as part of the pattern on Pangas' tunic. I feel like I would use that as the symbol on Wun-Dar's armor if I were to revisit him.

I feel like Tahrin is more racially diverse than many Eternian city-states, with approximately equal populations of humans, Speleans, and Reptons.



In the distant past, the dark sorceress Shokoti summoned the beast Yog, setting it loose on Tundaria. With the aid of the singer Dee-Vah, Wun-Dar was able to defeat Yog and send him back to his slumber.



Dee-Vah would be a straight-up repaint of Celice (again, if they were action figures). She would be Wun-Dar's love interest.

Eventually, sometime after Wun-Dar's death, Yog would awaken from his / its slumber and ravage Tundaria, driving the majority of its denizens above ground to relative safety, where they would eventually found the city-state of Tahrin. Dee-Vah's gifts would carry on through her bloodline in the Singers of Tahrin, all the way down to her descendant Celice.

Interestingly (or possibly not), I seem to be using the spelling of "Tahrin" from the 80's Panini sticker book. It is spelled "Tahryn" in the episode guide from the Entertainment Rights DVD release and in the .org Encyclopedia entry.

Anyway, that's what I've got there.

the idea of exploring different communities from the show is definitely interesting.

any recent update?

Originally Posted by Charlie Brown

the idea of exploring different communities from the show is definitely interesting.

any recent update?

Thanks; I'm glad someone's interested in these ideas . Unfortunately, no, I haven't had much chance to do any MotU work in a while. Maybe I'll have to see if there's something in the works that I can post to keep up interest.

EDIT: I had started a new version of Batros a while ago, and kind of let him fall to the wayside.

I wanted to go with the kind of Egyptian theme to tie him in with 200x King Hsss and the 200x Sorceress. I also wanted to alter the colors a little bit to make him look less part-of-the-Horde-but-nobody-talks-about-it and more of an individual.

I tried to envision him as though he were of mixed human and Spelean parentage; perhaps Dactys' illegitimate son? I don't know.

Anyway, I'm not fully satisfied with the way he's going, so any feedback ...

He looks cute...

Those ears reminds of those little boys who wear cute hats with some sort of sewed on animal ears.

His body looks amazing and i like all those textures you put on his outfit. The colors look great and even the hood itself looks good but those ears are ill fitting for my taste... but i know they are bat accurate.

I´m not really a help here i know...

Originally Posted by Niki

He looks cute...

Those ears reminds of those little boys who wear cute hats with some sort of sewed on animal ears.

Oh no, now that's all I can see when I look at him! Ah well, back to the drawing board.

i really like how you blend together all the different parts and nods to other characters...but, well, i do agree: he's tooooooo cute with those ears!

indeed, so cute!^^

After much delay, here's an updated version of my take on Batros (with less cutesy ears ). As I said before, I wanted to go with the kind of Egyptian theme to tie him in with 200x King Hsss and the 200x Sorceress. I also wanted to alter the colors a little bit to make him look less part-of-the-Horde-but-nobody-talks-about-it and more individualized.

In my backyard, he might be Dactys' (illegitimate half-human) son, the one he mentioned in "Underworld" when he first met Prince Adam and Randor apologized for his son's behavior.

Also, I didn't like his MotUC tagline (Evil Master of Theft), so I changed it. It was just sort of ... not-quite-right for how I envision the character.

Of course i miss the ears but you did well changing them.

The new colors look great, dark magenta is one of my favorite colors and so you could´t do anything wrong with me and my taste.

The tagline change makes sense and is much more appropriate than his MOTUC tagline, Good job there as well.

I really like all the thoughts you put into him and his design!

Originally Posted by Niki

Of course i miss the ears but you did well changing them.

The new colors look great, dark magenta is one of my favorite colors and so you could´t do anything wrong with me and my taste.

The tagline change makes sense and is much more appropriate than his MOTUC tagline, Good job there as well.

I really like all the thoughts you put into him and his design!

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate you taking the time to post.

What do you (or anyone) think about giving him "real" bat-wings instead of the "arm-wings"? Would that be cool or would that stray too far from the original? I can't quite decide if it's an idea worth trying or not ...

Originally Posted by j-bird

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate you taking the time to post.

What do you (or anyone) think about giving him "real" bat-wings instead of the "arm-wings"? Would that be cool or would that stray too far from the original? I can't quite decide if it's an idea worth trying or not ...

I don´t think he needs separated wings. The arm-wings you gave him look more practical than his original ones anyway.

His unique look makes him out to be the outsider he is/seems to be. But i like his uniqueness.

i was already liking him, but i must admit i'm really diggin' the new modified details and his background.

Originally Posted by j-bird

What do you (or anyone) think about giving him "real" bat-wings instead of the "arm-wings"? Would that be cool or would that stray too far from the original? I can't quite decide if it's an idea worth trying or not ...

uhm, generally speaking i tend to prefer big real wings on the back of the "aerials", but i think that in this case, due to fact that you envisioned him as half-human, the arm-gliders fit the character
and help setting him apart from the other speleans.

Originally Posted by Niki

I don´t think he needs separated wings. The arm-wings you gave him look more practical than his original ones anyway.

His unique look makes him out to be the outsider he is/seems to be. But i like his uniqueness.

Originally Posted by Charlie Brown

i was already liking him, but i must admit i'm really diggin' the new modified details and his background.

uhm, generally speaking i tend to prefer big real wings on the back of the "aerials", but i think that in this case, due to fact that you envisioned him as half-human, the arm-gliders fit the character and help setting him apart from the other speleans.

Ok, so the arm-wings / -gliders have the vote at this point - thank you both for the feedback.

Originally Posted by j-bird

Ok, so the arm-wings / -gliders have the vote at this point - thank you both for the feedback.

YEAH! And you are welcome. Thanks for your constant inspiration

So I'm trying a thing where I'm drawing pieces / parts of MotU characters and then using Photoshop to "build" them, sort of like the old figures (i.e. I didn't draw Beast-Man and Stratos individually, I just re-used the parts (drawings) that match up).

I know I'm not the first person to try this little experiment (not even the first person on the .org), and obviously these pieces are pretty sketchy / haven't undergone much refinement (and don't have any armor or anything); I kind of wanted to see how it worked before I spent a whole lot of time on it.

Anyway, we'll see how far it goes / how much gets posted, but it's been kind of fun so far. Let me know what you think.



Also, a full front-on view from me, so that's new-ish.

EDIT:

A little more cleaned-up, a couple more characters ... I dunno, I'm still enjoying the experiment. The plan is to try and finish up a couple that share a significant number of "parts" to do a better compare / contrast kind of thing.

I get what you are going for but i´m not sure...

Something is off for me.

Normally i´m good with articulating my thoughts...

Maybe it´s an anatomy thing. I can´t tell but i´m coming back at you the second i´m sure.

Keep on doing what you do, i´m always impressed by your creativity. Mine is just on a very low level and almost not existing... oh well. It will come back to me

interesting experiment...
i suppose that would be the kind of graphic approach used into planning a toy line, right?

Originally Posted by Niki

I get what you are going for but i´m not sure...

Something is off for me.

Normally i´m good with articulating my thoughts...

Maybe it´s an anatomy thing. I can´t tell but i´m coming back at you the second i´m sure.

Keep on doing what you do, i´m always impressed by your creativity. Mine is just on a very low level and almost not existing... oh well. It will come back to me

Well, let me know if you think of whatever it is that's not working for you; I can always use the feedback.

Originally Posted by Charlie Brown

interesting experiment...
i suppose that would be the kind of graphic approach used into planning a toy line, right?

I would imagine a process something like this, yes, but having no experience in that field I couldn't say for sure. Regardless, I'm having some fun with it.



As promised, here's a lineup sharing similar parts for a better comparison / contrast.

Using the basic "Beast-Man" parts, we all know one can get Moss Man (new head and, in this case, de-clawed hands and feet) and Stratos (again, new head, armor, wings).

I decided to see what I could do with Chooblah, The Kulatak Elder (originally from the MYP series) as well. For him, in addition to a new head and feet (which I could also use for characters like Chief Carnivus, a generic Qadian warrior), he's just got a new armband and big furry "armor" piece.

It's perhaps worth noting that I would use a longer-than-standard forearm for these guys since, particularly for Beast-Man and Stratos, I wanted to accentuate that simian vibe. Chooblah and the Kulataks also had long forelimbs, and I can imagine Moss-Man swinging through the trees in a simian fashion as well (basically, there was logic behind it). I would use a standard-length forearm for a Qadian-type character.

As far as the feet, I tried the Beast-Man / Stratos feet on both the other guys ... I didn't like it on Moss-Man so much (though I could try a de-clawed version with the other "thumb" toe) and it didn't make sense for Chooblah (though I liked it on him). Obviously if this were the original line, they'd all have the same feet / etc, but in line like MotUC there'd be more opportunity for variation (since there are more individual pieces).

Anyway, I get a little wordy about these, so I'll stop here. As always, comments / critiques are appreciated.

EDIT:

A little more work on this project, this time with more of my "armored" and "royal" bodies.



EDIT₂:



King Miro in the style of this experiment. I've decided that, in my canon, King Miro was the king of Dyperia (instead of Eternia) so he can be "King Miro" and still keep the MYP idea of Randor being the first King of Eternos ... anyway, hope you all enjoy.

EDIT₃:
I tweaked a couple things on King Miro (highlights on the jewels, made it a full cape without the "swag" in the back).

EDIT₄:
I updated his gauntlets and cleaned up a few colors.

interesting update. i really like the armored base, it works well in linking the look of characters like man-at-arms (looking forward to see the final version), mekaneck and snout spout:
they actually look like part of an army. Designing mek's helmet with nod's to m-a-a's one is a cool touch, as well as king miro's shoulder guards.