These are some pics of Jet Jaguar that I've made using both City of Heroes and Champions Online character creators. Neither one is perfect for portraying Jet, and at some point soon I'd like to take this as a new project in my own artstyle into a drawing of her on my own, melding the best elements together.
Okay - just to explain some things in general.
Champions Online, while generally superior to City of Heroes in portraying mecha and Powersuit characters, has a curious "hole" in it's repertoire, that of a classic Knight Sabre's style Hard Suit, particularly the helmet! That's why most of these pics are of Jet without her helmet, because the only one I could do... well... It's just NOT a Knight Sabers helm. At. All.
It's also tough to really get that "skintight" look with the various mecha bits without it looking either too layered and built up, or too skintight with nothing that looks like powered armor. Especially for females.
Also - while Champions does do backpacks, and CoH does not, only one of the CO mecha backpacks has wings, and it's kinda angular and chunky looking. I used it anyway, because it was the closest I could get.
You'll also notice that some of the pics done with CO have slightly different armor bits. I was still futzing around with the design elements. Particularly those god-awful big chunky boots in the earlier pics. Just think of them as alternate concepts. The "final" version is the one that I show in flight here (with the boot jets going).
I was rather pleased with the face though. With one slight caveat. CO does have the option of putting round metal coverings over the ears. And I did use them. But the hairstyle I chose covered them up!
More notes down below when I get to the City of Heroes version.
Ok, Jet is much easier to get "right" in my minds eye in City of Heroes in a lot of ways, and absolutely impossible in some key points.
Overall I like the lines of the suit and helmet MUCH better on the CoH version. In fact, she'd fit right in with the "Saber" group that many of us play in the game. (Yes, we've definitely had practice building Sabers in CoH. ^_^)
But the two main things that just can't be done right. One is the jetboots. You actually can have Jet Boots in City of Heroes. It's a craft-able costume piece. But the jets don't come out of the soles of the feet like Jet's do, (or a proper Iron Man for that matter) instead they come off the sides of the calf, which... bleargh... Let's just say I don't do much with jetboot style characters in CoH. It's a purely cosmetic thing anyway. And CoH has some nice things for traditional "no visible supported flight" style characters.
So I did make a version of Jet's suit with the CoH style jetboots just for completeness sake, but I much prefer the boots that I have her wearing in the standing pics.
The backpack is another matter. There are none in CoH. Correction - there's ONE. And it's only a temp power that you can only have "on" for 30 seconds. Plus it doesn't really fit the idea. No wings. *Shrug* I activated it and put it in to a few pics just for completeness sake.
I am, if anything, even more pleased with her face and hair in this version, AND I could show the ear coverings too! ^_^
Oh - here's something I just tossed in. There's a "HUD" aura you can give your character in CoH. I don't think Jet has anything like this. But I thought I'd throw it in anyway.
I WAS kind of pleased with the last pic here. This was kind of by accident, but you could say it's Jet doing a high-G manuever.
Well, what do you think? Any commentary/criticism?
Okay - just to explain some things in general.
Champions Online, while generally superior to City of Heroes in portraying mecha and Powersuit characters, has a curious "hole" in it's repertoire, that of a classic Knight Sabre's style Hard Suit, particularly the helmet! That's why most of these pics are of Jet without her helmet, because the only one I could do... well... It's just NOT a Knight Sabers helm. At. All.
It's also tough to really get that "skintight" look with the various mecha bits without it looking either too layered and built up, or too skintight with nothing that looks like powered armor. Especially for females.
Also - while Champions does do backpacks, and CoH does not, only one of the CO mecha backpacks has wings, and it's kinda angular and chunky looking. I used it anyway, because it was the closest I could get.
You'll also notice that some of the pics done with CO have slightly different armor bits. I was still futzing around with the design elements. Particularly those god-awful big chunky boots in the earlier pics. Just think of them as alternate concepts. The "final" version is the one that I show in flight here (with the boot jets going).
I was rather pleased with the face though. With one slight caveat. CO does have the option of putting round metal coverings over the ears. And I did use them. But the hairstyle I chose covered them up!
More notes down below when I get to the City of Heroes version.
Ok, Jet is much easier to get "right" in my minds eye in City of Heroes in a lot of ways, and absolutely impossible in some key points.
Overall I like the lines of the suit and helmet MUCH better on the CoH version. In fact, she'd fit right in with the "Saber" group that many of us play in the game. (Yes, we've definitely had practice building Sabers in CoH. ^_^)
But the two main things that just can't be done right. One is the jetboots. You actually can have Jet Boots in City of Heroes. It's a craft-able costume piece. But the jets don't come out of the soles of the feet like Jet's do, (or a proper Iron Man for that matter) instead they come off the sides of the calf, which... bleargh... Let's just say I don't do much with jetboot style characters in CoH. It's a purely cosmetic thing anyway. And CoH has some nice things for traditional "no visible supported flight" style characters.
So I did make a version of Jet's suit with the CoH style jetboots just for completeness sake, but I much prefer the boots that I have her wearing in the standing pics.
The backpack is another matter. There are none in CoH. Correction - there's ONE. And it's only a temp power that you can only have "on" for 30 seconds. Plus it doesn't really fit the idea. No wings. *Shrug* I activated it and put it in to a few pics just for completeness sake.
I am, if anything, even more pleased with her face and hair in this version, AND I could show the ear coverings too! ^_^
Oh - here's something I just tossed in. There's a "HUD" aura you can give your character in CoH. I don't think Jet has anything like this. But I thought I'd throw it in anyway.
I WAS kind of pleased with the last pic here. This was kind of by accident, but you could say it's Jet doing a high-G manuever.
Well, what do you think? Any commentary/criticism?