With a very few exceptions, pretty much every time I see a game brag about diverse body shapes – I wonder if they hired the same “expert” consultant that Levi’s did:
Since everyone can predict us talking again about Overwatch in the near future, this week’s throwback is the video game industry’s bafflingly narrow definition of what “diversity” among female characters looks like.
~Ozzie
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We don’t have a title for this new segment yet, but as Ozzie and I have been doing livestreams for a while now (thanks to everyone who chimes in, whether you’re active in chat or not!), we wanted to show our redesigns on the blog. I started out doing streams solo, so this and the next few posts will be just on my process.
One of the first redraws I did on stream was Caitlyn from League of Legends. I read her backstory blurb, and she’s apparently a sheriff, though she doesn’t have a badge or… wear a uniform? ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Guess she’s too Strong and Independent™ for that. My redesign was basically to give her actual clothes an officer of the law in a technology-based steampunk city might wear (and a badge!). This was also the stream that started the Poofy Pants tradition of BABD streams.
Poofy Pants: For Any Occasion ~
For people interested in seeing more redraws, check out our redraw and redesign tags, which is mostly filled with fan submissions at the moment, and the Repair Her Armor blog, though it has been on hiatus for a while.
In
relation to the “Super Manga Matrix” book, I actually have a fairly
similar book called the “costume matrix” and well… It’s far more helpful
than what I’ve seen of the other book.
its
basically the same concept, take a “base” clothing style (school
uniform, military uniform, japanese clothes, gothic/formal, casual,
foreign cultures) and mix it with another base, or with a “motif”
(animal, elements, scifi/mecha, seasons, plants).
each section of
the book has one of the bases and combines it, usually showing at least
two designs (in terms of motifs though, there may be more than one
design but they would use something different i.e. having four school
uniform x animal examples but with four different specific animals) so
there’s a little more variety
It’s
mostly a reference book rather than a “how to draw” and even then they
have a little brainstorming game using web diagrams and word association
to make a design
It’s got absolutely no escher girl posing however they do have a few slightly questionable designs
the worst of the bunch being this girl
it
is combining Military clothing as a base (specifically armor) and a
dragon and they got this. Granted its far better than what I’ve seen of
most womens’ armor(even by the same author) but it is a disappointing
one compared to everything else
I guess what I’m trying to say is, here is the same concept, with better designers
That’s really cool! And it does seem very helpful for brainstorming, especially since they show you a variety of combinations and bases!
The dragon armor amuses me, but I do like how the dragon design wraps around her, even if it’s bikini armor x3
Thanks for sharing!
Sigh, even in a practical interesting book that helps with costume design there had to be a physics-denying bikini armor, huh?
So, I’d like to start this post by saying if you haven’t seen Black Panther – go see Black Panther. As soon as humanly possible.
From a BABD perspective, there’s a couple of really interesting and exciting aspects of the armor of the Dora Milaje (royal guard, aka bald women in red).
Firstly is while they do put an odd amount of emphasis of broadcasting that the wearer has breasts – they still read quite clearly as practical (very decorative, but practical) battle attire. It doesn’t rely on the lore to convey the purpose, and is easily some of the best female attire in a Marvel movie to date (and much, much better than the previously featuredcomic, seriously).
And they look so amazing when they’re together as a unit:
(Also if you love costume design in general you’ll want to see this movie simply to appreciate the authentically African inspired Wakandan outfits)
The second is that the all female royal guard, in Africa, is not without historical precedent. The Dahomey Minos (referred to as amazons by Europeans because… colonialism) who started as royal guards, became a militia and ultimately fought in wars against colonizers (who spoke highly of their courage and ability)
Oh boy, it’s what I’ve been dreading when the Soul Calibur VI character releases started; another uninspired lingerie-esque outfit for Ivy!
[ x5 ]
It’s so aggressively boring that the details they added, like the lace on her stockings and the cords around her sides, somehow make it even less interesting. She looks like she’s cosplaying herself. They also seem to have removed the snake motifs she had previously, and replaced them with… uhh, generic skulls, I guess? Cause that’s intimidating and not overdone at all.
[Ivy, thinking “What, you thought this was going to be a good design? Ha!” with a knowing smile]
I guess I’ll give the devs credit for giving her a boob window while also showing off about 70% of her breasts (the lace doesn’t count as covering). That’s some next-level dedication.
What is it with companies thinking that professional, Machiavellian female characters wear fetish outfits?
