SU Lucina's Museum of Oddities

[SULucina]

Yet another reason why I don't stay quiet:


That freaking hand of Roll's, dang nabbit! Man, I hate drawing hands. 

  Well, it's finally here! This is the very thing standing between LSSJ Roll and total domination of Terra. Having under gone the fusion dance, the two final bosses of the series combine and become Jera, the Ultimate Destroyer Unit. Equipped with Juno's arms, it (what the heck am I supposed to address this character as? Seriously...) can shoot various kinds of lazers at its opponents with the same strength and intensity as Sera's own variant of the Shining Laser. Additionally, having the energy capacity of both units, Jera is able to shoot several different types of these attacks similtaneously and can easily overwhelm an opponent.

  Who will stand victorious? The "gods" of old who choose the fate of the people of Terra, or the primal wrath of a young mechanic? Tune in next week for the next exciting episode of Rockman DASH Legends Z!

   I'll let that be for you all to decide, because I'm NOT going to be the one calling the shots. I could make a poll to see who people want to win out of this brawl... or not. I don't know.

   Well, that's it for June's updates. Next month might be a bit patchy as far as progress goes given all the stuff that's going on with my house, but on the other hand, I've got no shortage of potential ideas for future pieces. As far as the theme goes, I want that to remain a little secret until then - you'll just have to wait and see!

[Rockman Striker]

That's the most amazing piece of art I've ever seen! Juno is my favorite boss from the Legends trilogy, and Sera's second form is the best ultimate transformation on all Megaman games in my opinion (Copy X from Megaman Zero is also one of my favorites just because he looks pretty similar to Juno and Sera's second forms) but I never ever imagined how would they looked like while fused, now I now it's so amazing that I'm crying 😭
I don't think Roll would stand a chance against them, not by herself at least, but maybe if she were to fuse with Tron and transform into supersaiyan 4... 😏😏

Here's a funny story: I have the theory that Sera's ultimate form is the result of her fusing with Gatz, I believe that, while Sera was fighting against Megaman for the first time, Gatz tried to assimilate her in an attempt to stop her or slow her movements, that's why she says something like: "Gatz is trying to assist you by interfering with my internal systems" but due to Sera being stronger than Gatz, she instead "absorbed" Gatz into her system, that's why she has those big wings and long arms, similar to Gatz's wings/feet and gains new powers, so after watching your drawing I think we are seeing Juno fused with Sera while she's fused with Gatz, similar to how Picollo fused with that other Namek guy and then fused with Kami.

[SULucina]

Jun 27, 2020 20:59:47 GMT -5 Rockman Striker said:

That's the most amazing piece of art I've ever seen! Juno is my favorite boss from the Legends trilogy, and Sera's second form is the best ultimate transformation on all Megaman games in my opinion (Copy X from Megaman Zero is also one of my favorites just because he looks pretty similar to Juno and Sera's second forms) but I never ever imagined how would they looked like while fused, now I now it's so amazing that I'm crying 😭
I don't think Roll would stand a chance against them, not by herself at least, but maybe if she were to fuse with Tron and transform into supersaiyan 4... 😏😏

Here's a funny story: I have the theory that Sera's ultimate form is the result of her fusing with Gatz, I believe that, while Sera was fighting against Megaman for the first time, Gatz tried to assimilate her in an attempt to stop her or slow her movements, that's why she says something like: "Gatz is trying to assist you by interfering with my internal systems" but due to Sera being stronger than Gatz, she instead "absorbed" Gatz into her system, that's why she has those big wings and long arms, similar to Gatz's wings/feet and gains new powers, so after watching your drawing I think we are seeing Juno fused with Sera while she's fused with Gatz, similar to how Picollo fused with that other Namek guy and then fused with Kami.

Tron would likely would need to do some more training, though. A. Lot. More. At least in my book. Yeah, I don't think there's anything at this rate to stop Jera from defeating LSSJ Roll solo. I took a little inspiration from Galeem in SSB Ultimate for the appearance of the multiple "Shining Lazers." So, if you know what happens when Galeem's light beams hit their target well, yeah, that's what will happen to Roll here.

I've heard of that theory before where Sera transforms due to her absorbing Gatz's programming (specifically his transformation ability) to obtain her ultimate OP "angel of doom" form. Really interesting theory, though; fusing with other units is not that farfetched of an idea if they all shared that same ability. If it wasn't for the fact that Sera ranks as high as she does, it would be a bit confusing to see how they all would operate that body at once. Or, perhaps their central programs would merge together and create a new program (mind/soul) out of it...


*Sigh* It's been a long wait, hasn't it?

This might be another short one (again.) There's been too way much crazy bullcrap getting in my way this month, and I'm still in the process of getting the rest of these pieces spiffied up. A case of depression or two will do that to ya.

Firstly, the last of the wireframe sculpts, starring the MML3 cast and a certain female cop:


Barrett                                                               Aero                                                                    Tinker



Denise Marmalade


Barrett: Probably the face of MML3 for sure, this one was not as hard as I thought it was going to be when I was planning out this model. Of this batch, Barrett's model is perhaps my 2nd favorite of this set. Too bad his eyebrows are seem to blend in with the rest of his hair, though. Oh, and since this is the last set of wireframe sculpts, you may have noticed that I've decided to forego the 3-color rule and put more effort into this final hurrah.

Aero: Not a bad attempt at trying to adapt a character whose shapes are almost entirely composed of curved, organic shapes. I was going to give her making two peace signs but ran out of time for it. Personally, I thought Aero's hair was harder to construct properly than Barrett's, especially with the way her locks from this sorta weird conical shape.

Tinker: Believe it or not, I consider this one to be my favorite one of the bunch here. Sure, he's cute, but that's not the only resaon why I like this sculpt the most. Out of all these characters, I could only obtain one reference for this guy, and no way of knowing what his side or back would look like (correct me if I'm wrong, but there doesn't seem to be any other references for Tinker besides this. From what I know, he didn't get a 3D model.) Because of this, Tinker's model was the only one where I had some constructive freedom with respect to his overall body shape, which was a plus. It's a shame though that the black "mask" on his eyes are barely visible in this model though...

Denise: If anything, I should be under arrest for forgetting the badge on her hat, whoops. Not a bad model, though I have to state that I don't like how her chest ending up looking like, therefore making this the weakest of the four for me. But I do have to say that without the star badges on her shoulders, and had I not omitted the color rule, this model would have turned out as bland as most random MML NPCs (yes, that means you, museum girl in the orange dress; I always thought the painting was prettier than you!)


Well, like I stated before, this is it for the MMX2-styled MML wireframe models. If you want me to make more, tell me who (or what) to make.
I'll always have an ear for new ideas!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Remember me saying during my introduction that I got into the Legends series because I was accidentally stumbled upon it while looking for a copy of Kirby 64 back in the day? You wondered why I wanted to get Kirby 64 despite the fact that my older siblings owned no Kirby games? A commercial? A Nintendo Power issue? None of these. Ultimately, it was freaking Smash Bros. 64 that got me seeking out the pink puffball.

  Before I made this account on ProBoards to be here with you guys and to find a place to fit in, I had one lone Miiverse account. Yeah, I know, but keep in mind I was (and still am) a little skittish about conversing and sharing my stuff with total strangers who were not even close friends, which is perhaps why I still to this day do not have any social media accounts whatsoever. Anyhow, the next set of images belong to my old 2017-2018 archive of the stuff I used to draw using that snapshot editor thingy in the Wii U version of Smash 4. Note: If you want to see the new stuff and not these old dust-covered files, scroll to the bottom of this post. Also, this is not a full repertoire of all Smash drawings I've ever made/posted on Miiverse.

(2017) A fake Smash reveal of Bass from the classic series Mega Man. Before someone points it out, yes, I'm well aware that I accidentally capitalized all the letter's in Bass' name. Don't ask why his tagline's "butts in." Ironic to note that Bass did get an appearance in Mega Man's Final Smash in Ultimate
.


(2017) Well, well. Guess who's back. For context, this pic was originally supposed to serve to as my Miiverse profile background thing or whatever it's called but never posted it because literally after I drew this, I was told that Miiverse was going to shut down later that year. I thought it wasn't worth it then, although I now think that I should have still done it just for the heck of it. Oh well. If this drawing of the Servitor Unit looks familiar, well that's because it's a redraw from this other 2017 Lucy pic.



(2017) Anybody remember Mario Paint? I tried drawing everything here to look like it was created in said SNES game, but set in the Miiverse stage in Smash 4. Between me and my older siblings, I made the most use out of Mario Paint.


Case in point, from yours truly.
Drawn in Mario Paint with the crappiest working mouse in existence. (Also, sorry for the crap quality. Couldn't take screenshots at the time.)


(2017) Despite this being made approximately a week before Miiverse was to be no more, this pic of the Flutter, like the earlier Servitor Unit Lucina pic was meant to be posted but for whatever reason I decided not to. It was meant to be sort of a farewell picture, symbolic of my departure from Nintendo's dying social media outlet and heading towards new adventure. More specifically, that new adventure would have been this site, ironically enough.


(2018) Even after the death of Miiverse, I still kept drawing Lucy's image using this application (why, though?) I drew this after beating Classic Mode's 8.0 difficulty without stat boosters shortly after beating the Subspace Emissary in Brawl (to train, apparently. I was so proud of that achievment, despite the fact it's not the hardest difficulty. I never did get my Mii characer to beat 9.0 difficulty.)


(2018) ...annnd there's a reason why I don't draw little Miss Lucy from all angles. I mean, she does wear a crotch piece that covers her underparts and I even attempted to cover it up by re-angling her skirt, but even I knew that would that I knew it wouldn't look right. This was made after failing to beat Classic Mode on a higher difficulty, essentially me whining about continuously losing.

  Alright, you may be thinking that these might seem kind of pointless to show and would rather see my new stuff, but they and this next image serve as a segue towards the more current update. You see, around July of 2017, I decided to go on a limb and post something that was not necessarily Smash Bros-related (didn't see why not; many other people were posting drawings of OCs on there anyway. ) This time, I wanted everyone who saw that post to know, whether they be random Miiverse lurkers, moderators, and possibly even employees at Nintendo, that I was hurt over the cancellation of MML3 and that I will be eternally awaiting for the return of this much needed sequel, regardless of whether they knew what the post was about


And so, I drew Servitor Unit Lucina staring up at Elysium, wondering if that ex-Purifier will ever return to Terra. But upon looking at this image, I feel as though as it's missing something. Needs more impact...


Now, that's more like it.

   Honestly, I could have posted something like this instead if I wasn't so insistent on sharing stuff drawn only in the Smash 4 application and not from more advanced software like Photoshop or even GIMP (which I didn't get until the next year. And I'm too cheap for Photoshop. Meh. ) I'm still not sure how I feel about her reposing; having splayed legs in the original didn't make much sense in the original, but this pose seems too static, I don't know. Her arms are supposed to be folded, and because of the lighting, the fingers on her right hand are obscured by the shadow casted by her left arm.

But I think I got the point across. Even after 3 years, I've haven't moved from this spot. I'm still waiting for Legends 3 and if you zoom out, you'll see a whole crowd of people doing the same. Since this pic's pretty big height-wise, it's kinda difficult to get a feel for the overall composition of it.



Guess that's small enough.

[Rockman Striker]

I don't think Sera and Gatz's fusion is similar to the fusion dance or the earrings fusion, it's an assimilation of another entity, just like when Majin Boo fuses with the other warriors; the assimilated subject gets unconscious but provides the powers and abilities to the host.

(Right now I'm on mobile browsing the forum via Tapatalk, its highly inconvenient when I'm trying to quote a post, specifically a really lengthy post like yours so I'll write whatever I have to say and expect you to understand what I'm talking about 😅😉)

I do think exactly the opposite way you think about sharing stuff with unknown people, I get really nervous when someone close to me watches my works or try to speak with me about it, but I'm ok if an unknown person knows about it, mostly because I won't feel discouraged if it speaks trash about what I do because I don't care about the way they look at me...

I'm a big fan of people who manages to craft amazing stuff with limited resources or simple, cheap or free software, I think you can clearly see the talent and potential of people who makes the most out of whatever they have or love to use even if it's not 100% suitable for the job. I hate that I can't give you some solid positive feedback so you can keep improving your skills (My own shading and composition skills are not so good as yours) but I want you to know that I'm your fan 😉

[SULucina]

Jul 27, 2020 21:32:02 GMT -5 Rockman Striker said:

I don't think Sera and Gatz's fusion is similar to the fusion dance or the earrings fusion, it's an assimilation of another entity, just like when Majin Boo fuses with the other warriors; the assimilated subject gets unconscious but provides the powers and abilities to the host.

  As evident in the events in-game, since that's clearly Sera's consciousness and voice that we are listening to after defeating her. It was just a random idea I had about fusing the programming of two different units together. But yeah, hierarchy probably plays an important role in that regard.

Jul 27, 2020 21:32:02 GMT -5 Rockman Striker said:

I do think exactly the opposite way you think about sharing stuff with unknown people, I get really nervous when someone close to me watches my works or try to speak with me about it, but I'm ok if an unknown person knows about it, mostly because I won't feel discouraged if it speaks trash about what I do because I don't care about the way they look at me...

  True, there in lies that protective veil of privacy online than in person. Though, it just depends upon where you post you art though. My main problem is more about being harrassed for drawing something they think is potentially "offensive" or "racist" for whatever reason he/she sees fit (looking at you, Twitter.) That kind of toxicity I cannot stand/stand for.

Jul 27, 2020 21:32:02 GMT -5 Rockman Striker said:

I'm a big fan of people who manages to craft amazing stuff with limited resources or simple, cheap or free software, I think you can clearly see the talent and potential of people who makes the most out of whatever they have or love to use even if it's not 100% suitable for the job. I hate that I can't give you some solid positive feedback so you can keep improving your skills (My own shading and composition skills are not so good as yours) but I want you to know that I'm your fan 😉

  Aww, thanks! The main thing I'm at most not satisfied with my work is inevitably my speed. These drawings take so much time to create that it's not at all practical to use this freebie duo of software in the professional field. In the future, I'll eventually have to download some kind of arting software that can do everything and more (and uses true vector graphics so I can finally get those crisp, non fuzzy lines I wanted for a long time.) But I hate the idea of spending money on something like Photoshop and not being able to do everything I want done because the user friendliness is less than intuitive and ironically take more time because of the lack of a sound user interface and quit using it out of frustration. I've used it briefly during my college years but never fully committed to learning to draw from it because I was always left drawing with a mouse (and by the way, until last year, I used to exclusively draw with nothing but a mouse.) Additionally, I'm never completely satisfied with what I make; I almost always find something to criticize about my work. I'm aware of the imperfections in my pieces, and I think another problem that arises from that is lack of consistency, which may stem from lack of some serious practice and sometimes bad brain chemistry (especially nowadays...)


And this is why you don't kill off Tron and blow up Terra...


Hey, don't look at me! I might have set you into the dead of space, little yellow one, but I was not the one responsible for this mess!

  A bit on the absurd side, I know, as Servbots are probably more akin to traditional robots than are the carbons; I'm aware that I'm stretching things a little too much. But couldn't resist making this ridiculous jest regarding the red head parts in MoTB. I mean, sure, we know that its purpose is to show which one of the 40+ Servbots is Tron's favorite, but maybe it also makes other changes to that particular individual wearing it. Canonically, the favorite is shown to have more leadership skills as he's the one who led a small group during the final fight between the Bonnes and the Loaths piloting the Colossus without Tron guiding them. So, I figured that I'd factor that as a hypothetical property of head piece in this alternate universe where MML characters all have hidden fighting potential. In the case with the favorite, he additionally becomes Tron's magnum opus - the one and only SSJ God Kobun, bearing emotions as fiery as the aura engulfing him. If you're wondering what has become of all the System satellites, I'd imagine they got blown away by the resulting shockwave caused by Terra's demise.

  Which Servbot has been chosen for this role? Could be #10, could be #22 for an extra powerful Bonne Bazooka Blaster (kamehameha,) or could be the default #1. Or maybe this takes place in the distant future where Tron has over a thousand Servbots employed in her family.

  Thinking back to the MML3 Devroom, I was reminded of the avatars there used to represent members of the development crew, the many modded Servbots, often dressed as other popular and favorite video game characters or pop culture figures. Though I would have opted for the persona of a Servbot possessed and corrupted by yours truly, I think this one would had more flavor and meaning to it. Then again, neither Servitor Unit Lucina nor Dragon Ball Super (the translated version at least) had come to past in the year 2010, so I guess this would only apply if they resurrected the project with fan input enabled. That said, I'm not giving my hopes up on MML3; rather, I'm just a tad skeptical whether or not they'll be any sort of direct fan involvement if they are in fact in the process of rebooting it right now in secret, alongside the much needed MML Legacy Collection to go with it... (just a possibility and wishful thinking on my part; I in fact know nothing about that assertion that they are making the game.)

Regardless or not, that doesn't stop me from imagining myself having my prescience in the MML3 Devroom being represented as such. Time paradox or not, I wouldn't have it any other way.

[SULucina]

Disclaimer: the following image is of a fake character reveal and should not be taken as evidence of a certain Mega Man Legends character being added to Super Smash Bros Ultimate. I am not a leaker nor do I claim to know anything regarding Smash Ultimate's DLC 2nd Party Pass entries. That said, the following image is just merely a prime example of wishful thinking and this Unit advises all viewers to avoid heavy speculation on the subject.


...Ugh, watch this show up as an idea for a Smash speculation video on YouTube (but to the people watching who do take that stuff seriously, please. Seriously... just don't.)


  So, I've had this idea in the back of my head for a few months, rather it had to do with Barrett being possibly considered for Smash 4 back in the early 2010s and not Ultimate. I wanted to draw Barrett to pay tribute to a game that I had not the opportunity to partake in its fan-directed development. I had some trouble trying to create a subtitle befitting for Barrett, since we don't know too much about him other than a few notes about his personality and some footage from the prototype demo. But, I settled with this, considering that he was the one to pilot the rocket to get Triggs off of Elysium. As for the background, because I didn't want it to be a simple backdrop with the character and text, I decided to set the reveal in a big city of sorts (location unknown.)

  Not a bad attempt at another lineless piece, though not perfect; this work reeks with those "why the heck did I do that" moments made in the process of making this now that I'm looking back at it. I started out with a messy rough sketch in Paint and then took it into GIMP to color sections of Barrett's body. Looking back on it, I should have continued to color over the lines with their base colors in Paint and then shrunk and sharpen in later in GIMP (also that shadowy mass behind him is exactly that - a shadow - only there because it's present in most of the real McCoys. Though, it looks out of place now with it situated behind a bright source of light.) Not to mention, I kinda cheated with the background and constructed the shapes in 3D Builder and then drew in the windows because I forgot to sculpt them before I took the screen capture (oy.) Regarding the letters, I don't think I have to tell you that the s's are a bit screwed up since I was trying to copy the font from a reference. And it would've definitely been easier if I knew how to model Barrett in a more sophisticated 3D modeling program, but doing that wouldn't have served as practice on my illustrative skills, wouldn't it?

  Complaining aside, I enjoyed creating this mock up of a theoretical character reveal, though I personally would have preferred to have Juno in Smash over Barrett so I could reinitialize the heck out of the competition.


  And that's all for this month, folks! Tune in August for the next update!

[SULucina]

*deep sigh*

  Boy, this month's been a doozy for me. Not only was there more work on the outside of the house making almost non-stop racket during the daytime but I also had one heck of a creative block throughout the start of the month. I don't know if it came from being stressed out by noise, something going awry with my brain chemistry/programming or a combination of the two. I also have this hunch that my own bloody immune system's been acting like the little mother of Paprika it is, and it tends to be worse during certain times of the month.

   On a more positive note, though, the hammering nightmare is almost at an end, and there should be a lot less noise interference there after (the roof work back in May didn't take nearly as much time...) I should be able to concentrate on putting out more stuff for the rest of this year.

  That said, I'm sick of having to make excuses for my lack of output as far as numbers go. Let's just get straight to the point and get started.



Proof that Servitor Unit Lucina has more fun than Triggs does in similar circumstances, namely regarding the "endless water" mentioned in the introduction to this series.

  Yeah, I know, it's basically a shameless re-skin of a favorite Reaverbot of mine - the Firushudot - and indeed, I shed no shame in creating this subspecies . Looking back the critter's original design from the first game, I came up with the idea of making an alternate version that resided in saltwater instead of freshwater that would serve as maritime transportation for Lucy, seeing as her "Reaverform" can't fly or swim very well; it's only meant for clearing large obstacles, from solid objects to hoards of angry Purifiers hunting down her, can't put enough quotations around it, "Abberant" butt. There's more to her story, but I'm afraid that this Unit does not wish to spoil much more of it.

  To break the ice, so to speak, I've had this idea since spring, but had the devil of a time trying to achieve the desired effect for this piece. That's because this is another example of me tackling yet another  one of my arting struggles aside from hands - foreshortening. Personally, I've never drawn anything that required a really firm grasp on perspective and 3D space, as almost every past piece I've made I've either tried to avoid it or it just simply wasn't necessary. This is probably the first time I have taken a more serious approach to it, and well, it turned out not exactly the way I had envisioned it those months ago. I was thinking more along the lines of the movement being more arc-like rather than being in a straight line, but no matter how many times I tried to draw Lucy and the reaver porpoise's features in this perspective it always looked off. I ended up resorting to using good ol' 3D Builder to make a rough model of both:


   Then, I positioned the two where they were supposed to be relative to each other and reoriented the Servitor Unit's arms, legs, torso, feet, and fingers (every individual section, one by one. Oh, and must I mention that 3D Builder does not have a rigging feature, so every time I had to re-angle an arm for example, I also have to move the adjusted limb back into the shoulder joint area.) I then turned the camera around until I got an angle that looked good and used this render as a reference, albeit a flawed one, for the drawing. Sure, I could try as I may with drawing out perspective lines and trying to guestimate what shape her legs would make in this view, but that approach to things was too cumbersome and I ended spending too much time screwing up her bodily proportions multiple times during the process. I was not getting a good enough feel for what her form looks like in a 3-dimensional space, so I did what I did. Sure, some people may label this as "cheating" considering that most folks who do 2D art have little to no experience with 3D modelling and feel as they are disadvantaged in this respect. But I only think it's cheating when you start to compare yourself with other artists; I believe that an artist should be able to use whatever tools are available to get the job done as long as they are not stealing someone else's IPs. Typically, I only directly insert 3D assets like this for background filler, especially when it consists of many of the same type of shape in a certain perspective. Case in point:


   I wanted to have something in the background other than 200 cubic miles of seawater, just to make the ocean seem less deserted. Initially I wanted to use schools of a real kind of fish, but then I later thought that they'd look out of place considering that the main subjects are artificial in nature. I could've used any of the existing fish-like Reavers from MML2 or my own repertoire for the effect, but none of them looked that great when many were placed in tight groups; Sukesori is a reef-dweller and is largely solitary. So I came up with these little nippers, whose sole purpose is to serve as food for other, larger oceanic Reavers. Well, at least that's its purpose in canon, but seriously, I just needed something to prevent the background from becoming another empty void of nothing (but blue.) To the nay-sayers, they're never meant to be the main center of attention in this work, so there.

   Also, about the line work here... um...I thought I could get away with working in a lower resolution and chose not to work on a larger scale. Why? Probably to save time methinks, considering that I usually start working on a larger canvas that's at least 1,000 pixels big or more, then shrink the finished image so it's small enough to be posted here. It's a darn shame, because this would make a sick poster if I had done this in a much higher resolution. At the very least, it does look decent when viewed at though Paint on my computer.

   Uh...whoops.

[HF]

The final piece is another great work of yours. Really liking the subtle water effects reflected off the surface of your Firushudot.
Also loving the models you used in the rough perspective shots for the final piece.

Don't have much to say, but nice to see your works after such a long time.
Also your crazy Dragon Ball stuff as always.

[SULucina]

Aug 25, 2020 7:58:02 GMT -5 HF said:

The final piece is another great work of yours. Really liking the subtle water effects reflected off the surface of your Firushudot.
Also loving the models you used in the rough perspective shots for the final piece.

Don't have much to say, but nice to see your works after such a long time.
Also your crazy Dragon Ball stuff as always.

  Oh, thanks! As for the lady and "Flipper," I've definitely had Finding Nemo on the brain when making it (or should I say "Finding Nino (how about no.)") Also, good seeing you again, HF!

  Yeah, these two and the previous piece are the only new stuff for August. If we didn't have events that would disturb my workflow, I'm sure I would have gotten at least one other piece done. But sadly, that isn't the case.

Well, enjoy the last two of the month's updates...



  I consider this one more of a dabble than a serious work, but I wanted to show you all an example of something I created with FireAlpaca, another freeware drawing program but has a better vector brush than GIMP does (and a curved line tool, too. Cool beans. ... however, GIMP still has a better selection of layering filters...) Like the aquatic adventuring piece before this, I had came up with the idea for this piece earlier in the year that I've just put on the backburner until now. Now that I think of it, I believe it was only a matter of time before I'd draw these two anyway. After all, I'm into trying to get each major character represented at least once. By now, I think you all have noticed that I have two separate 2D styles where I may sometimes integrate 3D stuff into a work. For this piece, I've decided to combine my lineless style, serving as the foundation for the two pirates' portraits done with the other linear one.

  A literal Bola and Klaymoor, as well as the weapons that they're named after. I've also made the attempt to try and make the weapons look a bit like the two. Also, I hope I've done any historical weapon enthusiast justice by depicting an approximation of a true claymore (a Scottish basketsword) and not a two-handed German broadsword which consists 95% of all search results for that thing, unfortunately. For those asking, no, I don't own these weapons and I probably won't be anytime in the future - I don't want any visitors getting the wrong idea about me.

Would've been nice if I could've just rented them, though. Would have made nice set pieces...


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   If only if you were here for a little longer, Striker...


  Well, it's finally done. At least, as much as I'm willing to work on it for the time being. Earlier in the year, I started working on this piece of Autonoma Mekanika Spirito fanart as a way of practicing how I would draw other's characters in my style (and not to mention because I was also really digging the idea of having OCs based on MML's System Units, too.) I didn't know what exactly to put in the background, so my mind defaulted to a starry galaxy scene. Most probably not entirely fitting for the series as I don't think Sol and Luna will venture into space in future issues of AMS, but I wanted something pretty-looking (and dark) for the background. About the only things that I don't care for about this work is the hair work; I wished I had started working with my newly acquired software instead of creating that illusion of thin strands of hair with GIMP's super skinny semi-transparent brush tool - not a very good substitute for a true double-tapered stroke.

  I also decided to re-design the main logo for the title card to something more akin to what I would have concocted; preserving the general shape but being edgier and metallic. I don't know, it just seems more polished this way, methinks. But nevertheless, the design credit still goes to Striker because he created the original title logo.


  Hopefully I'll have more ideas for next month, but I can't promise anything. Aside from October-Halloween-related things, fall's kind of a drought as far as ideas go. Sure, I could probably make something related to the changing leaves of trees, but nevertheless, I know that I shouldn't be solely relying on seasonal themes for my ideas.

  Well, we shall see what happens for September. Hopes to the best of luck, and until then!

[Rockman Striker]

I too believe that Luna and Sol would probably never go to space, but the background is fitting because of the moon and sun theme their characters are based on.
I love what you do with the shading and lighting, and that water effect on your past post is also amazing 🥰
I've honestly never got comfortable with the AMS logo, I had no idea what the logo should be at the time I was planning the comic, the only thing that came to my mind was to try different ways of merging together those letters, the colors are also not the best I could choose from, but at least I managed to make something kinda abstract that I could explain its meaning someday... I like the metallic shading you gave it, maybe I could change the color and materials of the logo depending on the mood of each chapter? I'm not sure how I would make that tough...
I would love to post your fan art on my social media even if you have none of them to appropriately credit you, but if you don't want I would still be as grateful to you as I am right now 😉

[SULucina]

Aug 31, 2020 23:48:22 GMT -5 Rockman Striker said:

I too believe that Luna and Sol would probably never go to space, but the background is fitting because of the moon and sun theme their characters are based on.
I love what you do with the shading and lighting, and that water effect on your past post is also amazing 🥰
I've honestly never got comfortable with the AMS logo, I had no idea what the logo should be at the time I was planning the comic, the only thing that came to my mind was to try different ways of merging together those letters, the colors are also not the best I could choose from, but at least I managed to make something kinda abstract that I could explain its meaning someday... I like the metallic shading you gave it, maybe I could change the color and materials of the logo depending on the mood of each chapter? I'm not sure how I would make that tough...
I would love to post your fan art on my social media even if you have none of them to appropriately credit you, but if you don't want I would still be as grateful to you as I am right now 😉

   Why, of course! I can send you a direct link of the image in a PM and then you can extract the file from there. Anything to help convince online visitors to your social medias that Autonoma Mekanika Spirito is worth checking out, because it is. Sorry for the belated reply; I hope I didn't keep you waiting too much.

   But yeah, as far as the title logo goes, I tried to keep its essence intact while changing it's appearance to look more polished. In the end, I think the reader can still discern the initials from my variant, but hey, I'm only applying what I know from designing text logos; some take more liberties on how letters appear and therefore appear more abstract. So the takeaway I've seen from major companies do is "simpler design = more sophisticated/professional (?)" [scratches head] I guess? There's probably someone out there more qualified to talk to you about designing logos than this Unit.

   (Looks at clock) Boy, I'm almost never here that late...

   Alright, onto this month's entries! I'll start of with these first two works:


   Ah, fall. The cool breezes, the changing colors and the falling natural confetti of tree leaves. The time of year where one begins to don on warmer clothes and imagine tiny miniature Servbots drifting on the leaves as they fall... that is if you're already a MML fan. And if you are not, dear viewer, I suggest you should still check out the games regardless if you haven't for full enlightenment. Then you shall see the little Bonne minions more clearly the next time you should be walking in the park, watching trees shed their shades. Personally, I could imagine one of them yelling "cowabunga!" like a ninja turtle as they gently make their descent to the ground.

   Another go with perspective, and overall it turned out quite well. Definitely very atmospheric. Looking back on this piece now, though, I can say that I definitely should've taken more time with the foliage and actually draw each leaf in individually, because I know somewhere out there that there's somebody scoffing at my use of one of the leaf brushes provided by this software (FireAlpaca.) Unlike with the underwater scene from last month, the environment here is just as important as the subjects which occupy the space, so it's at least expected that they look more detailed than what I did with the previous work. It's really the only one of two parts that really annoy me about this piece - the other being those light shafts looking a little flat in the color mixing department. In the future, if I ever have to make another autumn scene again (most probably likely,) I'll probably make up a myriad of pre-shaded leaf brushes instead... or I could just do everything the long and hard way because it would've looked more natural even though it would've inevitably have taken more time to make, grumble grumble...

   Speaking of taking a long time to make...


   Originally, this was supposed to be a sort of tribute to the minion characters in the series, but unable to figure out how to arrange all the subjects in a sound composition properly, I gave up on that initial idea and instead did this. The bit that remained the same, the painted-on busts of the two Servitor Units Gatz and Geetz, was going to be part of a background for a scene where a Servbot and Birdbot were to be sitting on the curb in a back alleyway somewhere in Kattelox City enjoying some drinks. The thing is, doing this would also have put the two System Units symbolically of lesser importance, which is when I came to this realization, I ultimately decided to keep them front and center instead (because I'm biased and I'm just a big fan of the System concept thing so no way I'm gonna leave them behind, don't mind me. ) And in place of the two I had replaced them with Paprika, who's holding a paintbrush in his mouth. Doesn't make much sense, you say? Well, let's just say that the pupper's not feeling like himself...

...I'll leave it at that for you to speculate the reason for Paprika's behavior. You'll just have to wait 'til next month for the truth behind it all! [evil chuckling]

   As for the technicalities of this piece, this was another attempt to plaster a 2D design on a 3-dimensional surface, not unlike the Bola and Klaymoor bit from last month. Though, this time, I deliberately thickened the lines to make it look more like stylized graffiti art, and I'm kinda digging it. To be honest, I don't know how many times I tried reworking this one: first I wasn't too happy about the quality of the big thick black outline surrounding the two units, then I found myself wincing at the texturing mudding up the graffiti too much so I removed most of it, then the colors appeared too flat so I made them a little richer/punchier, attempted to restore a texture on the concrete wall again using MS Paint's airbrush tool to create the texture... could've taken a nice high quality photo from some website, but all the really good ones have those watermarks of doom on them for shame. It's not like I'm currently trying to profit off these pics, you darn stock photo sharing sites of sadness and endless disappointment because your "give me your money!" mentality, what the heck...

   I could go on, but I'd rather not bore you with details about my trudging through the muck to get to this point in the piece. Overall, it still turned out pretty nice, just not satisfactory on the textural stuff or not consulting a reference to help me remember details (I screwed up especially getting the "chest cannon" areas right as well as the look of the Units' uniforms. And the fact that Geetz's wing cut off like that was already big no-no, but I was struggling to find a way to fit the whole paint job into a roughly circular composition while also minding the brick wall on the right side.) Oy.


   Stick around later for the finale later in the week; I'm trying to condense my posts in the future so that there are few individual posts while at the same time each containing more stuff...

[SULucina]

*sigh* Once again, it appears that I may have to delay another work yet again because quite frankly, I'm not exactly liking the look of it. Oh well, just going to have to save it for a later date.


  So, enjoy this last Legends-related piece along with two other of what I like to call "practice pieces" where I take an image online and attempt to "transform" it (really though, I'm still just copying from said pics and changing only the slightest bits to make it somewhat different from the original. Again, the purpose is not for profit, but rather to serve as part of a "how to draw this" kind of thing for me.)

  Oh, and a fair warning/heads up, many of these practice images are not MML related and lean more into the realistic side, so if you don't want to look at them that's okay. They're only there for those who are curious about what other stuff I've been working on this past month and may become a regularity on this thread. However, need not to worry, as they won't replace my MML content, which is still my #1 priority here.

  So, may I ask you this - will it be the blue pill, or the red?



Looks as though that our Digger friend here's chosen the red...

   It's kind of a shame when the characters that are put into the games you like were going to be more complicated at one stage in development only to be relegated to a background NPC who shows clear evidence of their complexity on their sprite/model (though, it could have been worse.) Here we have Artillery, or Art for short, the blonde dude who you can see in various places during the events of MML1 who carries a holster with a gun with him at all times. Yeah, I know that he's probably not the most recognizable character in the series, but I'm about representation in the series, especially for the little peoples, and if for any reason I find even a random NPC in the series I find worthy of highlighting, then that's what I'm going to commit to. You may have noticed already that I tend to draw only what I feel like at the moment, and I tend to get bored of making multiple images of the same subject; so, if there's something you want me to draw all the time, well, that explains why I don't. It's just my way of doing things and I don't want numb my brain out on a specific subject and not want to draw them again. This piece at the very least was a breath of fresh air and went relatively quick as far as work time went.

  Undoubtedly, I was going for more of a Matrix-inspired look for this without going for the more obvious choice of a black void with the green coding environment. I imagined Art hurling himself through the 2nd floor window next to Mayor Amelia's desk during the scene where the characters met and discussed business involving the Diggers Guild. Why? I thought it'd look more dramatic (and an excuse to make this into a transparent explosion-type/sorta 4th wall breaking deal, don't mind me. {}) Heck, I even gave him a black trench coat and pants to match the theme.

  Despite the various errors made to the drawing that still made their way to the final result, this is practically my favorite one work of this entire update mainly because it was a piece where I kept working on it and ended up producing something cool in the end instead of being almost constantly discouraged and or have to delete large swaths of previous progress only to make changes that leave me feeling less than satisfied (phew, what a long sentence. Also, glaring back at that graffiti piece...) Sure, the colors aren't as punchy and vibrant as my other works, but a duller color scheme can work just as well and is more fitting for such a more serious scene like this. As for what went wrong, my biggest beef stems from Art's appearance; he seems a bit too young in this representation of him compared what he's supposed to look like from MML1. His hair style's a bit off, looking more like Trigger's, but I think it looks more interesting than having a basic short haircut with just spiky, downwards pointing bangs. And that freaking muzzle on his left hand's gun I've just realized is shorter than the right's "-_-.


  ...Aw, and I just realized that the transparent PNG format doesn't preserve layer effects (muzzle flash on right.) So my precious "Color" layer defaulted to "Normal" when I save with transparency on?! Boo. Gonna have to remember that for next time, darn it... least it's barely noticeable here.


   And that's it for the MML stuff for this month's update. I'm pumped for what's to come for October, not only because of the spooky scary themes I can really groove to but also something else...

   Stay tuned for next months MML madness!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Now, if you're curious about these practice drawings I was alluding to, then you've scrolled down to the right place. Here are a couple of the many examples to come for your viewing pleasure and to (hopefully) award your curiosity:

 
Reference source: indiaeyehealth.org

  ...I don't believe I have to tell you who the owner of this eye's is supposed to be, but I can tell you that's all of this lady I'm willing to depict in such high detail. I'll leave it at that.  Oh, and yay for trying to get skin tones to work with the more limited layering options of this program (fyi I started this in grayscale, just like the reference.) The only thing I'd change on this is her hair, for which I did not refer to another photo for since the stands look ridiculously thick compared to what hair really looks like.


 
Reference source: turbosquid.com

   Did I ever mention that I had played Ocarina of Time before I got my copy of MM64 over a year later? I reckon that my exposure and liking of the gameplay from this game greatly mitigated any neophobic tendencies I may have had towards the very differentness of MML when compared to the 2D games I've played in my earlier childhood. I also reminded myself earlier in the month that I'm terrible at drawing anatomically-accurate human skulls, so I made this Blue Bubble enemy from that title. Sadly, I couldn't find a reliable reference for the flames and had to use my imagination, so I'm sorry if it turned out kinda sloppy in a few areas.

[RockmanCosmo]

These practice images look great! Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to the next update!

[Rockman Striker]

I've been using these two images as wallpapers on my phone for the last week, all of your works are gorgeous, but these two are spectacular! the colors, the mood, the composition... I guess all they need to be perfect is a little bit of red... (Did you get that reference? of course everyone here gets it... it's a Legends reference after all)

[RockmanCosmo]

That lock screen is perfect.