Mirage Skin - Crystal Mirage

[StarryEyed85]

Hey All,

I've been working on this Mirage Skin, I feel like it's missing some small details and warframe like bevels, what do you think?  I haven't done the materials yet, but I intend to make the veins metal, and pink parts crystal like, with a scrolling emissive.  Just added latest version below.

 

                                                               

Edited April 15, 2020 by StarryEyed85
Adding pic of latest version of skin

[Glaive-012]

I would say that it looks a little too cartoon-esque, somewhat deviant of the organic art styles many Tennogen skins have. The crystals look a bit blocky and artificial, and the helmet seems to lack in complexity and emotion. The general patterns on the body itself looks unique and appealing, but the ''veins'' covering the crystals seem a bit too repetitive and distracting, drawing away the attentiveness of the viewer from the crystals themselves.

The crystals don't necessarily need to look blocky and cumbersome, but instead might look more carved with streamlined grooves, as if made by a master craftsman. The horns could also share this motif as well. Both the details on the body and helmet are somewhat lacking in complexity, which might be improved upon with the addition of organic/bio-mechanical details. It could also help to analyze previously successful Mirage skins to give reference in improving your concept.

Edited March 12, 2020 by (NSW)Glaive-012

[StarryEyed85]

16 hours ago, (NSW)Glaive-012 said:

I would say that it looks a little too cartoon-esque, somewhat deviant of the organic art styles many Tennogen skins have. The crystals look a bit blocky and artificial, and the helmet seems to lack in complexity and emotion. The general patterns on the body itself looks unique and appealing, but the ''veins'' covering the crystals seem a bit too repetitive and distracting, drawing away the attentiveness of the viewer from the crystals themselves.

The crystals don't necessarily need to look blocky and cumbersome, but instead might look more carved with streamlined grooves, as if made by a master craftsman. The horns could also share this motif as well. Both the details on the body and helmet are somewhat lacking in complexity, which might be improved upon with the addition of organic/bio-mechanical details. It could also help to analyze previously successful Mirage skins to give reference in improving your concept.

Thanks for the feed back, will take to heart.  I especially like the carved out part for the crystals and I agree with the blocky helmet.   The veins need some work, I think I'll simplify it.

[StarryEyed85]

Just an Update, taking Glaive's advice about veins covering too much of the crystal, intend to add some more shape to them too but haven't gotten there yet.  Also added some small details and tidied some of the trim work.  Also started changing the helmet.

[StarryEyed85]

Just another update, still tweaking veins, drastic change to the helmet, added some small detail in between the plates.

Edited March 18, 2020 by StarryEyed85
put image in between text

[(PSN)Frost_Nephilim]

Thats HOT!!! YES please!!!! Id have a Icy/demonic looking mirager which is my favorite combination! Much love for this idea!

 

What if the horns kind of bled into the helmet facial area a little bit, like cracks in the helemt slowly exposing the horn

Edited March 18, 2020 by (PS4)IIFrost_GhostII

[StarryEyed85]

8 hours ago, (PS4)IIFrost_GhostII said:

What if the horns kind of bled into the helmet facial area a little bit, like cracks in the helemt slowly exposing the horn

I love that idea! I'll give a go tomorrow.

[StarryEyed85]

Okay so not much change this time, I tried some things but didn't quite work.  I filled in the space between the plate more and warped the rest of the crystals, as per Glaive's suggestion, looks a lot nicer.

[(NSW)Gufuu]

I love this concept and design, forgive me but it reminds me vaguely of NiGHTS Journey Into Dreams. It looks amazing, perhaps adding some kind of 'sheen'  to the more exposed crystals? Maybe taking a hint from geology and having a smooth base near the joints with sharper edges towards the ends Like Stalactites or Stalagmites. Something that at first glance looks soft and gentle, but hides this lethally sharp edge.

[StarryEyed85]

11 hours ago, (NSW)Gufuu said:

I love this concept and design, forgive me but it reminds me vaguely of NiGHTS Journey Into Dreams. It looks amazing, perhaps adding some kind of 'sheen'  to the more exposed crystals? Maybe taking a hint from geology and having a smooth base near the joints with sharper edges towards the ends Like Stalactites or Stalagmites. Something that at first glance looks soft and gentle, but hides this lethally sharp edge.

I just looked up NiGHTS, and your right they do have some similarities with the colors and the helmet, the helmet style is based on Mirage's Harlequinn and Prime helmets and the colors because I'm really into pale indigo at the moment and I was thinking of the Heart Nyth Stone for the pink.  I couldn't remember what the NiGHTS character looked like, but I did have a demo for that game way back when it came out for the Sega Saturn, maybe there was something subconscious going on there as well. 

When I start working on the shaders, I'll make sure the edges pop more.

[StarryEyed85]

On 2020-03-18 at 1:45 PM, (PS4)IIFrost_GhostII said:

What if the horns kind of bled into the helmet facial area a little bit, like cracks in the helemt slowly exposing the horn

I just realized I read this wrong, and thought you said to bleed into the face more... oh well I like the results anyway.  

[StarryEyed85]

Added some chest details which I plan to carry down to the hips.

[(PSN)i7081277]

In my opinion I think the head should be a teensy bit smaller it looks too big. Also, if you want to submit this for tennogen you can't change the body's shape in any way.

Edited March 28, 2020 by (PS4)i7081277

[StarryEyed85]

On 2020-03-26 at 4:27 PM, (PS4)i7081277 said:

In my opinion I think the head should be a teensy bit smaller it looks to big. Also, if you want to submit this for tennogen you can't change the body's shape in any way.

Okay, I can do that easily enough, in my next update.  Thanks for the advice.

[StarryEyed85]

Okay just found out you can apply materials per subtool in zbrush and had some fun with that, also to show in which direction I'm going in.

[(NSW)0nuku]

While this is a beautiful skin (especially if there is some way to get that same crystal effect in-game) with a clever concept, I fear it won't be accepted because of the styling. Others have mentioned it feels cartoony, perhaps because of the big blocks of solid colors. It could use some more texturing and detail than the ridges you have added now.

Also, Warframe designs tend to flow with the body's natural contours. While the designs here are interesting, they show little to no regard for the mesh and body beneath it. I'd recommend looking at some muscle reference diagrams and Mirage's other skins to get an idea of how to make your design flow with the body more. The legs are a good start actually, but most of the torso could use another look.

Hope this helps, good luck with your skin!

[StarryEyed85]

3 hours ago, (NSW)0nuku said:

While this is a beautiful skin (especially if there is some way to get that same crystal effect in-game) with a clever concept, I fear it won't be accepted because of the styling. Others have mentioned it feels cartoony, perhaps because of the big blocks of solid colors. It could use some more texturing and detail than the ridges you have added now.

Also, Warframe designs tend to flow with the body's natural contours. While the designs here are interesting, they show little to no regard for the mesh and body beneath it. I'd recommend looking at some muscle reference diagrams and Mirage's other skins to get an idea of how to make your design flow with the body more. The legs are a good start actually, but most of the torso could use another look.

Hope this helps, good luck with your skin!

Thanks for the advice, I'm still working on the details and the sort of liquid like look of most warframes.  I won't be changing the torso design in a mayor the way though, I see it more of like a costume, like a frost, limbo or hydroid.  I'm also calculating for some better flow when it's baked to the original mesh.  Thanks for critique 🙂

[Skyeraikes]

This is a beautiful skin, and you've come a really long way with the initial concept!
When I started designing for Tennogen, I got a lot of advice from Lukinu (of Mithra fame) which helped a lot - I thought I'd do the same and share some of my design experience to help you make this more amazing than it already is.
The primary issue at the moment is that you can't adjust the silhouette at all for Tennogen - I think this would be easy to get around, by adding more facets to the crystal areas on her armor. You could also make it more tenno-y by looking at some of the orokin metallic details and adjusting the 'veins' to match. And lastly very obvious geometric details tend to get shot down - it might serve the skin better to break those up a little bit.  I hope it helps and wish you all the best with the skin!!

[StarryEyed85]

On 2020-04-01 at 12:02 PM, Skyeraikes said:

This is a beautiful skin, and you've come a really long way with the initial concept!
When I started designing for Tennogen, I got a lot of advice from Lukinu (of Mithra fame) which helped a lot - I thought I'd do the same and share some of my design experience to help you make this more amazing than it already is.
The primary issue at the moment is that you can't adjust the silhouette at all for Tennogen - I think this would be easy to get around, by adding more facets to the crystal areas on her armor. You could also make it more tenno-y by looking at some of the orokin metallic details and adjusting the 'veins' to match. And lastly very obvious geometric details tend to get shot down - it might serve the skin better to break those up a little bit.  I hope it helps and wish you all the best with the skin!!

Thanks so much for the advice, it's exactly what I'm trying to accomplish.  I did a test bake awhile back, I know I won't get the same silhouette, but it actually turned out very good.  It's funny that you mentioned breaking stuff apart, I started doing exactly that after my last post.  The orokin stuff is probably the closest to this type of design, I will study it a bit more closely.  Thanks again.

[StarryEyed85]

Update, Helmet change again, wanted to bring the chest trim to the helmet, also made the head a little bit smaller as per (PS4)i7081277's suggestion and brought in the horns a bit

Torso, started to cut apart the bigger plates and bring some of the color from the trim around the rest of the body as per (NSW)0nuku's suggestion.  Playing with a detail for the trim around the chest, not sure about this one yet may take some time to look at the orokin stuff pull something from that as per Skyeraikes's suggestion.  Started dealing with the neck.

[StarryEyed85]

Distorted the crystals around chest and hips a bit more to break up geometric look as per Skyeraikes suggestion and exaggerated the dark tendrils around the chest and hips.

[StarryEyed85]

Okay so continued breaking apart the plates and adding trim details.  I've also decided that I want to try to make a more organic/traditional warframe version of this skin, but will finish this one off and see how it bakes and textures first before I do that.