This is a thread to talk about character design.
Design Discussion Thread
- This topic has 294 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 6 months ago by
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Yeah, that is nice.
The most important question when it comes to costumes is “how do they go to the bathroom?”
Looking back at the creation of the classic superhero costume, the main inspiration was manifold.
First, artistically, drawing “nudes” is much faster and more dynamic than complex clothing and costumes. A hero that is essentially mostly naked will draw the attention quite well. At the same time, a hero in a tuxedo and turban will do the same thing if everyone else is wearing business suits. It’s an easy technique to focus the eye of the reader.
Second, historically, it would have been inspired by the circus performers, stage magicians, wrestlers etc. of the 20’s and 30’s. The hero of the comic strip were based on the common heroes of low class street theater. Colorful to attract the attention of children. However, these were in turn inspired by ancient conventions going all the way back to Hellenic times.
Third, I’m not sure if this is still very common, but I can’t believe it doesn’t still happen. Children on the verge of adolescence often go on nightly “romps” in their underwear (or “long johns” if you grew up in a cold climate). It was a common activity when I was a little kid and I think it probably still is. This is maybe the most interesting element of the superhero costume. It enables the engagement of the immature imagination as well as the attraction of the first hints of sexuality.
The subliminal appeal of the superhero is sexuality without guile. The metaphor of nudity without the understanding of being naked.
At heart, costumes need to be sexy without meaning to be. Superheroes do what they do because really they’d rather be having sex but are too innocent or immature to know what sex is. So they punch people like them instead.
If any psychoanalyst managed to get Bruce Wayne on the couch, he’d be set for life. However, the Joker would probably get lonely and kill the shrink before long. If I ever got the chance to write a Batman story, that would be the first one I’d tell.
“The Man (or Woman
)who Cured the Batman”1 user thanked author for this post.
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Here’s the new design I did for Storm, coming this spring to the X-MEN comics! ⚡️❌ pic.twitter.com/l8f3Ih7HWM
— Russell Dauterman (@rdauterman) December 7, 2021
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“Yeah, I did the whole “superhero” thing when I was a kid… shit ain’t cute.”
-Virgil Hawkins (2027)I don’t know what possessed me to draw an older, worn out, college aged Virgil… but here we are. pic.twitter.com/rEkXGyQ8Xh
— Nikolas Draper-Ivey (@NikDraperIvey) December 16, 2021
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Thunderbird is coming back and this will be his look when he does:
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And honestly it’s even more offensive than his OG one, not that I find that one particulalrly offensive, but somehow this does seem a bit offensive for some reason… probably ’cause he looks like the steretypical native american gangbanger or something…
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That doesn’t change the fact that it looks bad… but hey, listen, it might also be an unfortunate combination of the wrong artist and the wrong colors… Maybe another artist can make it look good… but it does at the bare minimum need a different color palette. Oh and the hoodie needs to go.
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Rediscovered this old Luke Cage redesign by Ray-Anthony Height:
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Thunderbird is coming back and this will be his look when he does:
Wow, I thought being left dead for decades was a burn, but that costume is just salting the wound.
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“I have partial invulnerability. But better have some knee pads too, because you never can be too careful.”
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What Thunderbird almost looked like:
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I don’t really see the problem with his OG design… plus apparently they retro-removed the feathers, not that it was an issue, tbh.
And with the right artist it looks pretty good too: (though on this one they fucked up the colors on the legs)
What I’d do is maybe change the color of the boots and the… what are they called, the filament thingies on the shoulders, to brown, maybe play a bit with more natural colors perhaps, but it still looks pretty solid and unique.
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Here we go again: the old “tassels versus fringes” argument, which has been raging since the first caveman draped a sabretooth skin over his shoulders.
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A basic key tassel is made by binding or otherwise gathering threads from cord and creating a knot. Tassels are normally decorative elements, and as such one often finds them attached along the bottom hem of garments and curtains. The first Guild of Passementiers was created in France in the 1600s. The tassel was its primary expression, but it also included fringes, ornamental cords, galloons, pompons, rosettes, and gimps. Tassels, pompons and rosettes are point ornaments; the others are linear ornaments.
Well, I never knew that before.
Actually, I never wanted to know that before.
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Another redesign by Ray-Anthony Height. This time: Triathlon
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That’s pretty good… which, let’s be honest, not hard to do since Triathlon has some of the lamest designs ever =P
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At least the red and green made sense when he was 3D Man.
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Night Thrasher redesign by Ray-Anthony Height:
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That looks really bad. Replacing his cape with a scarf is absolutely ridiculous.
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He never had a cape though… he had a skateboard =P
Also, both of those are terrible. Specially that pose… wtf…
There are several good Night Thrasher redesigns out there though:
and the one in that one game:
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Oh shit, yeah, the discount Spawn… the first one was Night Trasher, so I just glossed over the name change… either way, both designs are terrible. The Nightwatch one is even worse.
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And Spider-Man’s getting yet another new costume:
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https://www.cbr.com/superman-boyfriend-gives-man-steel-updated-cape-pride-one-shot-dc/
more Hellfire gala outfits
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Tying your arms behind your back is mind-bogglingly stupid clothing design. What if you need to pick something up?
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Tying your arms behind your back is mind-bogglingly stupid clothing design. What if you need to pick something up?
She’s telekinetic so she can pick it up with her mind.
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And Spider-Man’s getting yet another new costume:
When? Where?
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And Spider-Man’s getting yet another new costume:
When? Where?
July
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Harley Quinn design by Otto Schmidt:
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New Superman Family designs:
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Someone used the AI program Midjourney to generate images of different countries as super villains. Some of these designs are really cool.
Artificial intelligence imagines 41 countries as supervillains — including South Africa
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This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by
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This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by .
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This reply was modified 1 year, 12 months ago by .
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Spending time digging through old files and proposals… finding all sorts of stuff I'd forgotten about. In this case, my sketch for what eventually became known as "Electric Superman" where we used Ron Frenz's design. pic.twitter.com/SaOL44KAza
— Dan Jurgens (@thedanjurgens) January 18, 2023
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Fan redesign of Batman I found on Reddit:
The Bat pic.twitter.com/NjSZVRzE7G
— Taku (@Yotakuboi) April 2, 2023
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Fan redesign of Batman I found on Reddit:
The Bat pic.twitter.com/NjSZVRzE7G
— Taku (@Yotakuboi) April 2, 2023
It has a steampunk feel to it.
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