Drunkard's Walk Forums

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?

Both versions look very nice, Logan, but I see and understand your point about the deficiencies in each system. Me, when I run into stuff like that I just shrug and say the artist drawing that issue has problems with drawing the character.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Those look awesome. I mean wow. Some of the flight pics are epic. The Helmet and face from the COH version are pretty much right. Combine both of them and you're pretty much bang on. Jet's not exactly a Knight Saber... she's been modified, especially after a few years worth of modifications, repairs and part replacements due to action in the runnup to 2019 (Jet's current 'now') .

Jet does have an onboard HuD... that's how she navigates, or for that matter, plays games or reads a book. It's sort of added to her field of vision, rather than being physically present.
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Quote:Both versions look very nice, Logan, but I see and understand your point
about the deficiencies in each system. Me, when I run into stuff like
that I just shrug and say the artist drawing that issue has problems
with drawing the character.

Heh. Well this artist wants to get it right. I just have some additional visualization tools. ^_^

Quote:Those look awesome. I mean wow. Some of the flight pics are epic.

Thanks!
Just framing the shots, man. (I like to think I have a good eye for
"composing" a photograph shot. And it's even easier when I can crop out
what I don't need. ^_^)

Quote:The
Helmet and face from the COH version are pretty much right. Combine both
of them and you're pretty much bang on. Jet's not exactly a Knight
Saber... she's been modified, especially after a few years worth of
modifications, repairs and part replacements due to action in the runnup
to 2019 (Jet's current 'now') .

So definitely the face and helm from the CoH version. *Nod* Kinda what I
thought. What about the rest? Can you be specific as to which pieces
you prefer? (Cause if I do attempt to draw hir, I kinda want to know)

Quote:Jet does have an onboard HuD... that's how she navigates, or for that
matter, plays games or reads a book. It's sort of added to her field of
vision, rather than being physically present.

Oh yeah. I knew the "HUD" pic there was extraneous. ^_^

Alright... the closest is probably the Champion's Online version with the narrow boots. Add longer wings, and a second shorter, thinner set just underneath them (Jet's Radar/Long Range Radio Antennae). I really like the forearms on the Champions version, because they have mounting points for the elbow-blades Jet wears in combat. The only other difference, is that Jet's feet are a more like Sylia's hardsuit from Bubblegum Crisis.... high heeled and solid-ankled.

The CoH face is grand. Maybe without the Grille on the jaw bar of the helmet, but otherwise cool.

Everything else... just think, a heavily modified version of Sylia Stingray's hardsuit... maybe mixed with a little of Nene's. I can always edit Jet's description to match what you do... it only exists fully in something I'm still working on.

And well.... about comic book artists getting the models in an issue wrong... well, Jet's sure going to give TL-191 American artists something to think about after a mission she pulls off in the TSIR side story.
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