"World of He-Man" (Sllohcin-vision 2.0)

Originally Posted by Sllohcin

I wasn't sure what people would think of this "different" take on Scare Glow. I just fell in love with the alien head design concept. I actually see him very similar in movement and creepiness as the "Angel of Death" character in Hellboy II or like the Ambassador in LotR (Return of the King) that comes out on his own at the Black Gates (the creepy teeth guy.)
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The Mouth of Sauron? Yeah, that herky-jerky type of movement would suit this Scareglow well. He really has a great alien look too, kind of reminds me of the crystal skull from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Looks very extraterrestrial, and the mouth has an almost insect-like quality to it, adding to his creepy appearance.

Originally Posted by Sllohcin

Now we come to Faker.

I chose him so that I could experiment with the whole steampunk feel. A few gears and small changes is all he would need at most. Skeletor's armour but different. I'm kind of torn though. I'm not sure he's a success.

Also, I felt his sticker needed to be taken to a new level so I went the route of it being "embedded" in his chest.

I like this Faker design a lot, but what about putting the gears in the recess of his chest and making the cross-bones part of his armor a clear, frosted bronze color? Then carry that design motif over to his sword too, make the center diamond-like shape clear bronze too, and put visible gears inside of it as well. That, in my mind, could show his sword being empowered by the same infernal machinery as he is, making his sword an even better-matched evil counterpart to the true power-sword.

I'd maybe even drop the "impostor" pretense (which never made sense anyway, as he is bright blue and wears neon orange Skeletor armor, and could never truly be confused with He-Man) and go even more mechanical in his look, putting some rivets and the gear motif throughout his body, and re-dub him "Evil Mechanical He-Man Rival"

Either that or drop the machine concept altogether and make him a promethean; a Frankenstein-like creature stitched together from the remains of the He-Men from throughout the ages, like Oo-Lar, Wun-Dar and all those guys. Maybe he is new flesh grafted onto those ancient bones, so having covered in stitches, staples, scars and clamps all over would make sense. So he is a reanimated zombie He-Man, in the truest sense of the word, empowered by dark magic, and with a strength to match He-Man's own!

Faker : Evil Zombie He-Man!!!

Originally Posted by BlueLobster1979

I like this Faker design a lot, but what about putting the gears in the recess of his chest and making the cross-bones part of his armor a clear, frosted bronze color? Then carry that design motif over to his sword too, make the center diamond-like shape clear bronze too, and put visible gears inside of it as well. That, in my mind, could show his sword being empowered by the same infernal machinery as he is, making his sword an even better-matched evil counterpart to the true power-sword.

This ^. I really dig the gears on the armor, but in my opinion they feel too disconnected from Faker himself; like the armor is clockwork, not Faker himself.

I would just have proposed a similar gear-design on the sticker rather than making the armor transparent, but I like the transparent armor idea better.

I also think internal gears would be a neat idea, combined of course with the embedded sticker route.

Originally Posted by bobtheodd

That Faker is pure awesome!

Thanks

Originally Posted by BlueLobster1979

I like this Faker design a lot, but what about putting the gears in the recess of his chest and making the cross-bones part of his armor a clear, frosted bronze color? Then carry that design motif over to his sword too, make the center diamond-like shape clear bronze too, and put visible gears inside of it as well. That, in my mind, could show his sword being empowered by the same infernal machinery as he is, making his sword an even better-matched evil counterpart to the true power-sword.

I'd maybe even drop the "impostor" pretense (which never made sense anyway, as he is bright blue and wears neon orange Skeletor armor, and could never truly be confused with He-Man) and go even more mechanical in his look, putting some rivets and the gear motif throughout his body, and re-dub him "Evil Mechanical He-Man Rival"

Excellent ideas! I'm going to take another crack at him and go the route of "Evil Mechanical He-Man Rival". It's too perfect for this. The problem I'm having with going too far is that I don't mind "some" changes but I don't want to lose what each character is/represents (or how they look in toy form.) Faker looks like He-Man and is a fake He-Man. I want to retain that he could pass for He-Man save for the colours. I always saw Faker as having the ability to 100% disguise himself as He-Man for periods of time (colour, etc.)

I just have to figure out how to incorporate the steampunk or rather a clockwork/alchemical look (which is pretty much summed up as an "Impractical Science". Completely fitting for MOTU.) Your ideas are awesome so I'm going to see how I can make them work (the sword works as you said but Faker needs some work.)

Originally Posted by j-bird

This ^. I really dig the gears on the armor, but in my opinion they feel too disconnected from Faker himself; like the armor is clockwork, not Faker himself.

I would just have proposed a similar gear-design on the sticker rather than making the armor transparent, but I like the transparent armor idea better.

Good idea and I'm 100% with you on the disconnected feel. Regarding the art itself it looks like I just pasted some gears on his armour. Unfortunately I'm in love with the sticker though so I think I'm going to do my best to keep it in the design... if I can make it work.

Originally Posted by SlyVenom

I also think internal gears would be a neat idea, combined of course with the embedded sticker route.

Yep. A combination of a semi-transparent blue torso with the sticker as a sort of control panel might work.

Originally Posted by Sllohcin

Regarding the art itself it looks like I just pasted some gears on his armour. Unfortunately I'm in love with the sticker though so I think I'm going to do my best to keep it in the design... if I can make it work.

What if he had one large gear behind the crossbones and on smaller in front of them, and you also included one for the gem on his belt, to help tie them together?

And I really enjoy these. I usually prefer my Teela a bit curvier, but I wouldn't not make this one breakfast.

Originally Posted by Sllohcin

Thanks
Yep. A combination of a semi-transparent blue torso with the sticker as a sort of control panel might work.

That's it! Make him and Roboto of the same buck, just put the reel-to-reel tape / old-school computer memory panel (the sticker) embedded in the chest, but have the torso a clear blue with visible gears underneath. If it works, you could do the chest part clear, and the back solid colored, maybe painted silver inside? or with a circuit board pattern printed inside? (although I realize that may be getting kind of busy design-wise) Also, I'd definitely paint his joint pins orange too, to make them seem more like rivets rather than organic joints.

Then when you do Roboto, you could put the "heart" chip in the sticker recess.

You could even use the transparent gear torso for other characters if you wanted, like Mekanek.

OK, that gives me a final idea, hahaha, solid colored back, clear front, gears affixed or printed / painted into the clear front portion. Then if you did use the Roboto / Faker / gears-inside-buck for Mekanek, you could paint a circuit pattern onto the telescoping neck so you could see it though the gears in his chest, making him look all the more cybernetic.

P.S. I have to say one thing right now, I know everyone (myself included) loved the look of Sllohcin-Vision version 1.0, but the fact that this project is still "live" and we can offer ideas for it (and you actually lend an open ear to them!) just gave this series a cool collaborative feel that made me fall in love with this project in a whole new way! Long live the World of He-Man!!!

I updated the design. I like it a lot better.

Originally Posted by josh

What if he had one large gear behind the crossbones and on smaller in front of them, and you also included one for the gem on his belt, to help tie them together?

Good suggestion. I tried it but it just didn't look like it was enough. It looked more like a sigil than actual working cogs, etc.

Originally Posted by BlueLobster1979

That's it! Make him and Roboto of the same buck, just put the reel-to-reel tape / old-school computer memory panel (the sticker) embedded in the chest, but have the torso a clear blue with visible gears underneath. If it works, you could do the chest part clear, and the back solid colored, maybe painted silver inside? or with a circuit board pattern printed inside? (although I realize that may be getting kind of busy design-wise) Also, I'd definitely paint his joint pins orange too, to make them seem more like rivets rather than organic joints.

I tried lots of things like gears in the sword and coloured rivets and even cogs in the elbows. Everything looked too much for the design save for the transparent torso he is sporting now. Great ideas overall but aesthetically not a whole lot worked when I actually did them. I also felt he looked better with a gradient transparency up to his neck over having it completely clear.

This does change the clockwork feel for me. In a good way. It brings me full circle back to the industrial/cybernetic vibe. Powerful hydraulics versus dainty intricate cogs. It's a crazy way of describing it but it works in my head. There's probably a happy medium but I'm actually quite satisfied. I hope you all are too

Originally Posted by BlueLobster1979

P.S. I have to say one thing right now, I know everyone (myself included) loved the look of Sllohcin-Vision version 1.0, but the fact that this project is still "live" and we can offer ideas for it (and you actually lend an open ear to them!) just gave this series a cool collaborative feel that made me fall in love with this project in a whole new way! Long live the World of He-Man!!!

Thanks I'm designing them as I go with the intent of having fun. It's not so enjoyable if you don't have people enjoying it with you. Not only that but you all have excellent ideas. I haven't approached anything in this project with a closed attitude save for the style and the fact that I want them to look like toys (as well as being heavily reminiscent of their Mattel takes.)

looks sweet.

I liked Faker more, like he was before....but that's just me.

I prefer the 2nd Faker, that's a cool idea!! Kind of got that Roboto-vibe now!!

I love the look of Faker 2.0!!! He looks great with the clear torso and the enchanted gears working beneath the skin! Very cool!

Whoa...Roboto and Faker combined into one figure of awesomeness. I love it!

Originally Posted by Sllohcin

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/2613/wohfaker.jpg

That gradient from opaque to translucent? AWESOME!!!

Very Cool. That turned out a lot better.

Awesomeness, Ric. I really like these, as much, if not more than, version 1. Everyone knows my love of Rescue Hero styled figures. These are beautiful.

Thanks everybody.

Now for Evil-Lyn. She's pretty standard in that she uses the female "buck" but I figured a few elements would probably be best changed to represent the evilness of her. Save for the head and cape, the only changes are the leaves to a demon skull and the mid-chest thing has slightly more twisted horns on it to go a tad more wicked looking.

I was also going to make a helmet less head in which I wanted to show off her elven ears (I have the thought that magic stems from (but is not limited to) different races of elves... in this case she is something much like a dark elf.) The pale yellow skin just doesn't mesh with my idea as a Dark Elf so I didn't really flesh it out past what you see. I still see her as an evil elf-like person of some sort. Maybe the elves on Eternia are flesh coloured, yellow, blue and green... a Sorceress high-elf type, Evil-Lyn's type, the Gar and the Goddess' type. Actually that almost covers every colour

*** UPDATED ***
I like the colours MUCH more now too! Thanks j-bird (see below.)

Awesome stuff! Love Evil-Lyn.

I really like what you ended up doing with Faker - win!

I like Evil-Lyn ... almost. I am intrigued by that elven idea you've got simmering there, but there's something about the colors that's putting me off; I think it's the red-tone of the cape and bracers.

That, and the lavender on the chest - the contrast between the light chest and the dark skirt kind of makes her look overly "hippy" to me. Teela has the darker color on top, so it works to balance her out more (since the females already have wider hips).

Of course, I tend to go too slim when I draw female hips, so I might be biased.

The skull and the twisted horns are great touches; I like that she's not a carbon-copy of Teela, but still has many of the same visual elements.

I hope these observations aren't out of line. If they are, I will gladly come back and edit them out.

Originally Posted by j-bird

I hope these observations aren't out of line. If they are, I will gladly come back and edit them out.

Not at all! Critiques are welcome as I'm creating these as I go and miss things or get stuck on an idea or even just don't go down a cool path. No promises that I'll like somebody else s idea better than my own but it's worth a look-see. Again, I know where I want the character to go in "general" but I don't always have a clear-cut idea of how to approach all the design elements.

I'm going to toy with her colours right now actually and I'll see what I can come up with. I do like the colours myself but your crits are sound. While the bracers are supposed to represent black and a lighter shade of black-ish, the cape's colour may not have a place in the design. It is sort of on its own.

Originally Posted by Sllohcin

I'm going to toy with her colours right now actually and I'll see what I can come up with. I do like the colours myself but your crits are sound. While the bracers are supposed to represent black and a lighter shade of black-ish, the cape's colour may not have a place in the design. It is sort of on its own.

I like the updated colors - it feels more balanced somehow, especially in the shaded/rendered version. I'm eager to see what you come up with in the end.

A couple of things I haven't mentioned:
1) I really enjoy your "alien" take on Scare Glow's head.
2) The font you're using for these is cool - strikes a nice balance between gritty (the texture-effect) and fun (the way the letters aren't all precisely lined up).

Evil-Lyn is one of the BEST yet!!

Evil-Lynn looks very cool, and I like the idea of the Sorceress / Witches being all of different races of Elf, that's very clever.

wow! i found these today and i think there awesome! I prefer these to your original fisher price sort of things but they were still cool. Skeletors face and tri klops's scale vizor are brilliant! Just one question thougth. When you did the fisher price version (is it ok if i call them that?) of Triklops you gave him 2 swords which i like because whenever i draw him i like to give him 2 twin swords too. why not in this version

*first in line, for when the toys & movie of these come out.*

Thanks all!

Originally Posted by skeletor98

wow! i found these today and i think there awesome! I prefer these to your original fisher price sort of things but they were still cool. Skeletors face and tri klops's scale vizor are brilliant! Just one question thougth. When you did the fisher price version (is it ok if i call them that?) of Triklops you gave him 2 swords which i like because whenever i draw him i like to give him 2 twin swords too. why not in this version

You know, honestly, I have no idea. I'm a fan of the dual wielding Tri-Klops and just didn't utilize it here. I must have had another thought path for him at the time that I simply can't remember. I'm still good with the one sword but I'm inclined to add a second now.

Okay folks, I've been working in-between Extendar and Moss Man (with Spikor close behind) but have decided to postpone them in the event of Christmas. What does that mean? Well, that means that I'm going to do up a small series of winter-y type characters. Now the question is... who? Give me some suggestions. Characters, beasts, common Eternian peonic monsters, non-humanoid creatures... I want to finish it off with a great beast though. I have a good idea of whom I could use for that... maybe.