Dragalia Lost Some Clothes, Part 1

It’s quite unfortunate that Dragalia Lost ended up being another waifu collector mobile game, cause the gameplay mechanics were fun and interesting (before I got bored, as usual). We picked some of these ladies to give them clothes more appropriate for their station/role.

I personally found this image of Nefaria, who’s described as “a beautiful woman clad in foreign garb.” Now, I’m not saying that I hate this because she’s a woman of color, but it certainly doesn’t help.

My work culminated in 3 significant changes: I changed her face slightly to be less generic, I gave her an actual logical top that connects to her little tabbard, and I gave her cool pants. This was another project where I was trying to make the point that you can have cool designs that aren’t too different from the “sexy” version. It wouldn’t have been too much effort for a higher-up to request the changes I made.

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I stayed with the “subtle nose highlight” style but made it a larger highlight, implying a larger nose. Give girls noses! It’s 2019! 

Also, some pants.

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They’re still fun, they still got a cut down the side, but now they’re waist-high pants. You don’t notice how low the shorts are on her hips in the original until you focus on it, and then it’s just ridiculous.

I also took her heels away, just for good measure. I love ruining the fun, as you all know.

-Icy

A New Take on The Old Republic costumes

Star Wars: The Old Republic typically has pretty good gender equality in their armors, but rarely there pop up some designs that are just old-fashioned. Not cause they’re 18th century tuxedos, it’s the double standard that’s old-fashioned… let’s just get into it.

Darth Sion Armor Set

I completely forgot about this guy cause I played Knights of the Old Republic 2 162 years ago, but Darth Sion is a shirtless angry man with scars(?), and this is his SWTOR armor set. I wasn’t too mad about the bare midriff in this since the dude version is bare-chested. 

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I was, however, and will continue to be, petty about the default for “lady equivalent of a shirtless man” being a literal bikini top. They had it so good with the back, but then dipped the neckline so far down in the front that it lost all of its support. There’s a reason sports bras have more than just an underwire.

(On the other hand, just adding a top means the pauldron isn’t nailed into her shoulder blade, like it is for the dudes.)

So my main effort went into adding the support back in, as well as giving her some girth. That’s my main complaint about the ladies in SWTOR: They’re all sticks! Even the “thicc” body type is miles off from the dude version. Granted, I didn’t give her the buff woman build I’d usually go for, but that’s because I was trying to prove a point; that the initial model wouldn’t have to change much to make her look like a fighter.

I also gave her some Sick Veins, cause that’s what the Siths get in SWTOR. (Where are my cool crackled-rock-scars, BioWare??) But I only drew that on one of the closeups, cause it was One of Those Days.

-Icy

Bold Hellion’s Armor Set

How anything about this glorified biker costume, male or female, says “armor”, I do not comprehend. 

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Since the dude version is also shirtless, I took much more issue with the suspicious dimorphism in how their bodies are depicted and gendered double standard in the cut of the costume, rather than with protective value.

It was one of Those Days, so I limited the redesign to giving the lady version a non-stick-figure body, which included replacing her teeny crop jacket with his, that also covered a lot more of her mid-section. 

Basically my lowest effort redo so far, yet still just making her buff made quite a difference, I’d say.  

~Ozzie

The Masculine Beauty of Superhero Figure, Part 2

I decided to empower Daredevil, cause his premise lends itself well to wearing a skimpy outfit. After all, he’s an acrobat who cares about mobility and flexibility. He dodged all those shurikens(?) by doing all those backflips (I haven’t seen the movie since it came out, okay?)! Him doing that while fully-clothed was the most unrealistic part of that movie, honestly. Also, the rustling of the cloth against his skin would get in the way of him hearing important things. His design was really careless. :

So to improve it, I started by cutting out some key pieces of his existing bodysuit, to increase his mobility and reduce fabric noise. I also made sure that we can tell exactly how big his empowerment is. Rendering those abs was a lot of fun! (And the belt buckle says “Juicy” thanks to a viewer suggestion.)

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I also adjusted his face a bit. I got rid of his laugh lines and gave him fuller, more shaped lips. He’s supposed to be hot, Elektra kissed him and everything! And since his face is now hotter, I removed some of his mask to show it off. Mmm, that crisp jawline!

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I was going to give him a feather crown or something, but decided against it.

This one was definitely fun, especially since I never saw the TV show or read the comics, so my memory of DD came only from the unfortunate movie (you’re welcome for being reminded of it). Maybe we’ll empower Bullseye sometime too.

Hope you enjoyed!

-Icy

The Masculine Beauty of Superhero Figure, Part 1

Time to fix a Sideshow Toys figure! With male empowerment!

The modular design of Iron Man’s armor lent itself really great to a sexy redesign. Tons of clean lines to replace metal plates with some hot, hot bare skin and also anatomy-inspired detailing that served as a reference to painting his musculature. 

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I also decided while getting rid of the whole helmet might be against keeping Tony’s hero persona iconic, I did  leave out the lower part, giving it the jawline from the figure’s creepily realistic replacable Robert Downey Jr. head.

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The only actual changes to metal pieces on his costume I did were: 

  • moving those glowy things under his pecs to right over his nipples – glowy nipple armor for the win!
  • changing the shape of his shoes to super pointy heels (also very smol size, because if female designs aren’t allowed to have feet proportional to their bodies, why should male?)
  • giving him an oversized codpiece, so that we know he’s very confident in his masculinity ? 

While I went lazy on the rendering of repainted parts, I’m still quite happy with the results. Hope you guys agree. 

~Ozzie 

Fixing Some Grim Designs ?, Part 2

Thanks to my forgetfulness, Throwback Thursday and Wednesday redesign switched places this week. Hope you don’t mind! 

It’s the return of the bikini armor edition of Zenescope’s Baba Yaga! And she still looks like a rando shmexy lady, with no indication of being an old powerful hag from Slavic fairy tales. Because who needs knowing who a character is just from looking at her appearance? Certainly not the Grimm Fairy Tales porn comics! ? 

It wasn’t a very inspired stream for me, so I basically worked from a Zenescope artist’s default mindset. The difference is, my priority wasn’t “MOAR BEWB”.

Most major edit was sharperning her facial features, so that she looks like an old lady we expect Baba Yaga to be. She doesn’t need to be “sexy” to disguise her dangerous nature – looking like a grandma already did that! Also gave her greying eyebrows and got rid of those random golden rectangles (warpaint?) on her cheeks which, because of outlines, looked like adhesive bandages and added nothing to the design.

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I’m not as happy with her new, older face as I am with Arhian, but anything’s preferable to Generic Hot Lady Face #9575.

Another obvious fix was turning this bodypaint boobplate into something resembling a breastplate. Not my best edit, and I left the center of the chest kinda barren, but I did extend her pseudo-gorget to somewhat normal size for this armor piece. Now she can’t die of stabbing in the cleavage!

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The lesser edits, after those, were thickening of her noodly arms and putting a red dress under her plate armor pieces. Not exactly realistic or practical padding, but still preferable to gratuitous skin display. 

Definitely among my worse redesigns, but I hope you like it in comparison to the original anyway! 

~Ozzie

Fixing Some Grim Designs ?, Part 1

Well, it was inevitable that we’d tackle Zenescope in a livestream, considering the kinds of terrifying art that they pump out. And I’m not even talking about their Terror comics.

I decided to fix this cover from Grimm Fairy Tales, since I promised to y’all that I was going to redraw this gal. And I discovered what her name is! It’s Skye, and this is her… combat outfit? Her mom had a similar swimsuit, maybe she stole it off her corpse. Is that spoilers?

I basically ended up doing my usual: give the poor woman a breastplate and comfortable clothes, except I noticed that her bent leg looks weird. There aren’t a lot of comic heroes with physical disabilities that I know of, and I thought, why can’t we have a fairy tale about a disabled woman kicking ass? 

I actually liked her face in this one, so all I gave her were thicker brows and a few battle scars. I also tried to make her at least a bit distinct from her mother by giving her some red hair.

 Overall, I was going for a warrior who was plunged into the fighting life after her mom died, but maybe she still also wants a life of her own. I don’t know what the actual character motivations are, if they even exist.

Maybe I should have given her a different skirt shape…

-Icy

Fixin’ Up Some Figurines, part 2 –  Lizard Boobs Edition

While we’re likely to go back to fixing some Dark Sword Miniatures in the future, this here dragonkin lady was the reason I proposed redesigning the figurines in the first place. 
The butt cape window was always amazingly mesmerizing, considering it displays her very human glutes with no trace of reptilian tail, which would be much expected in such character design. 

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So I simply changed her metal thong into a decorative belt that rests on the base of her new big tail. 

Another obviously non-lizard anatomy on her were the human breasts, adorned with a really ugly boobplate. So I flattened her chest and redesigned the breastplate to be more interesting, while still exposing some of the pec. 

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Also added a tiara with a matching jewel, for some non-tiddy-based feminine touch. Her weapon/scepter got a matching jewel as well. 

It’s one of the subtler redesigns, but also one with more deliberate process behind it. Hope you like it! 

~Ozzie 

Fixin’ Up Some Figurines, part 1

It’s been a while since we redid some figurines, so here we are! I decided to redesign a vampire lady made by Dark Sword Miniatures. This was a pretty fun and lighthearted one for me; I wanted to keep her Killer Abs uncovered, so I decided to make her into a gym instructor, getting that blood pumping in her students! …. Get it, cause she’s a vampire…. I’m hilarious, okay?!

It’s not armor, but I just decided to have some fun with this, considering how awkward the original is. So yeah, I just gave her a workout outfit that I’ve seen at my local gym. Here’s an example off the Internet.

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I also gave her some muscles, and some dumbbells! I thought a ponytail would be more gym instructor-esque, but I was too lazy to redraw all the hair on her shoulders, so we got a… half pony. It’s fine. It’s not like she sweats… depending on which version of vampires you subscribe to.

Enjoy my terrible handwriting too!

-Icy

Wrestling with TERA’s anti-fashion Part 2

Yikes.

So I decided to challenge myself yet again by picking this number. Back in an older post on TERA, I talked about how some of the armor designs are good designs for runway fashion, and I think the high elves, which is what this lady is, embody that most of all. I think each race has their, like… fashion niche? Like the demons are all Victoria’s Secret angels, ironically. And we don’t talk about the children with animal ears.

(And because I needed to fill in all those little details, I didn’t have time to do the back of her :(. )

I started with the face as usual, because I honestly hate the original in this regard… Like, what is with this Stock 3D Model face?? I tried to make it less human-looking since, you know… she’s not a human. (I kind of ripped off Dragon Age 2 in this regard, I guess.)

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And then I changed…. everything else, as usual. Poofy pants, a whole 3 layers of shirts, and shoes you can actually walk in, we’ve got the whole package. I tried to make the shirt patterns work together, but I think I was a little overzealous… I also ran out of ideas. Oh well.

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Hopefully my redesign still looks more like actual cloth armor than that big empty void of skin.

-Icy

 Wrestling with TERA’s anti-fashion Part 1

It’s no secret that TERA Online is the quintessential of gratuitous skimpyness and double standard in character and costume design in video games. As Icy pointed out before, some of the costumes would work fine as pieces of high fashion, but definitely not a believable wear for a fantasy warrior. So we devoted a livestream to maybe try fixing that. 

Not my most inspired of redesigns, though I concluded that it’s a win as long as I make it wearable. Maybe with more time to think it through I’d give her a different colored second pant leg, but she had to do with just symmetrical jeans this time. 

As usual, one of the most important things to do was getting rid of this absurd cleavage that clings to her boobs. I shamelessly copypasted her metal (?) back piece and adjusted it slightly to now be a matching front collar. then just painted over the excessive fleshy parts. 
Copypasting pant leg also required adjusting the hem of her top, so I gave it a slightly different shape, with white trim to make it stand out better. Also, spikes on her gloves aren’t as ridiculously spiky anymore.

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The part I’m actually pretty satisfied with are the shoes, which I managed to turn into a lot flatter heels, without making the design completely unfamiliar. Also got rid of completely pointless (ha!) spikes at the sides. Now that’s wearable and can fit a human foot inside without liquefying it. 

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I admit, overall that’s far from my best, but with TERA you can’t go any more wrong than the original.

~Ozzie