Thanks!
That's not a grenade--That's her arm cannon. ^^;;;;;; The primary source for her various beams and missles with which she rains down destruction on all sorts of hostile lifeforms. :p
The Goddess of Infinite Gameplay by @migucast (Miguel Castaneda)
It's FINALLY -DOOOOOOOOOOOONE-!!!!!!! That took FOREVER to CG... >_<
As I said on the sketch, this was originally conceived of and drawn while waiting for Metroid Prime however... It took a while to get around to inking and CGing it. Of course... Most of the principle effort came AFTER a wad of cash was promised to me for the final work. [COUGH] I'm not really sure it'll be worth much, though... I probably should've put scales on Kraid and Ridley but it didn't occur to me to do that until WELL into CGing and at that point, it was too much of a hassle to implement something that should've been done at the line art level.. ^^;;;;;;;; Though, I DID try to texture Kraid, boy did I TRY... All attempts failed and I left him as he was. Oh, well. Noticable differences from the original... I fixed Samus' foot and completely REDREW the High Jump Boots. That there is one LONG night of playing with the Line Tool in Photoshop and staring at manuals and Smash Bros. to make the boots look better than their original version. The Chozo and Mother Brain were taken out and Samus and company were better centered. Other than that... Not much else to say... I kinda wish Zebes didn't come out so crumby buuuuuuut... I've never drawn a planet from space before and Zebes doesn't exactly have flattering reference art anyway (the Super Metroid manga made it look like Mars, Super Metroid itself, made it look like Jupiter, and both Metroid and Smash Bros. make it look like a brown moon, though in Smash Bros., it's a brown moon with clouds...)...
As I explained before... The whole deal of this picture is Samus in the Greek Goddess Mode. After all... She WAS the first action heroine in games and her games can be played almost forever since they're hard to put down--even AFTER you've gotten the best ending 10 times straight... ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Heh. How funny. As I wrap this up, Gaming FM is playing the boss music from Super Metroid. XD
Comments & Critiques (8)
Preferred comment/critique type for this content: Any Kind
Posted: Friday, 05 November, 2004 @ 10:44 AM
I'm impressed, Red. It may have taken a long time, but it's a great picture. The idea was cool and everything looks pretty good, as I said previously especially the metroids.
I'll speak to the background, since that's the part of the image I haven't seen before. It's really nifty, I especially like the colored gas in the upper right. Zebes itself looks fine, and I agree there really wasn't great reference for it...two other things there. I like how you had the bottom fade to black right along the bottom edge of the foreground (the feet and the metroids, I mean) because it has a cool effect that makes everything stand out a bit more. The other thing, with the upper edge of the planet, I think perhaps it looks a bit too sharp and could stand to be blurred, maybe, especially if it's supposed to be cloudy, which it is along the center portion as you've rendered it.
Other than that, looks awesome. I don't think I could do a better space background from scratch myself.
Posted: Saturday, 06 November, 2004 @ 04:08 AM
Thanks! ^^
Well.. It's sharp because that's where the line art went. ^^;;;;;; It's hard to blur existing lines.
Actually... The center portion is supposed to be an ice cap... ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
It's funny you should say that because the whole time I was struggling with the nebulae and the planet, I kept thinking you could've done a much better job since you're so good at painting stuff and.. .Really... Nebulae and planets often look like they were painted with a colossal brush. ^^;;;;;;;;;;
In anycase... You can thank my Astronomy text for as close as I was able to make it to real nebulae. ^^;;;;;;;;;
Posted: Friday, 05 November, 2004 @ 12:36 PM
I can see why this must have taken you so long. The detail in the metroids alone, even adding the slight reflection from the other monsters, is impressive. Samus' upper body is very well rendered - not that the bottom isn't, but that's what stands out to me. Nicely shaded all around and the background is very interesting. The colored dots (stars?) are a nice touch, as are the nebulae you put into the background, which really helps to break it up. I also agree that Zebes looks fine and the shadow on the underside of the background is a nice touch. Nice work all around.
Posted: Saturday, 06 November, 2004 @ 04:16 AM
Thanks! ^^
The detail at this level is nothing--there's a lot more detail at the original 300 dpi scan level that was lost in the scaling needed to post this here. Still... I guess it still looks okay at this level. ^^;;;;;;;;;
Yeah, those ARE stars. I guess some of them DO look a bit cheesy but getting the same kinda pretty glare that you see in telescope photos isn't something I know how to do in Photoshop. ^^;;;;;;;
Anyway, thanks! ^^
Posted: Monday, 22 November, 2004 @ 05:54 PM
Sorry it's taken a while to comment on this... ^^;;;; But wow, it really looks so amazing! O_O The Zebes surface is really nifty-looking... I don't know how realistic it is compared to Zebes in the games, but I really like how you rendered it! The nebula was a nice touch, too, though I don't think stars would be that colorful from so far away...
The characters themselves turned out really well as well. I especially like the detail in Samus's leaf crown, and the top half of her really did turn out well. And I think Ridley is probably my favorite part of the picture--he's so detailed and purple! The Metroids are so detailed, too, and the transparency effect is perfect! It's too bad that Kraid didn't have some small scales, but texturing can be a pain, and it doesn't really detract or anything.
You put a ton of attention and time into this picture, and it really shows! Awesome work, sweetie! ~huuuuuugs~
Posted: Monday, 10 January, 2005 @ 03:29 PM
Congratulations on finishing this, Red! Wonderful details in this image....the boot Kraid is holding, the metroids, Ridley, Samus's black boots (kind of odd for a Greek goddess to be wearing, but they look very nice!), the arm cannon, the laurel leaves, and so on...the details are definitely what I like best. I hope you'll feel more comfortable doing backgrounds in the future after this huge effort -- it really adds to the image ^_^ In fact, with all the cool stuff going on around her, Samus doesn't seem as glorious as you probably intended. Perhaps more dynamic lighting, a pose with more movement, or even a less vacant facial expression could've livened her up. Good work overall!
Cute picture...but whats wrong with her hand looks like a grenade...