Character Art Profiles!

[Sonicandfriends]

Hey everyone! I don't think there is a word for what I do, but I've been doing to for years. I'm a sort of artist who likes to use game character editors as my canvas. These characters are more than just appearance, I try to tailor equipment, skills, emotes, playstyle and more to build the best reflection of the character I am trying to emulate that I can. In this game, many may know me as Sonicthehedgehog, my most commonly used in-game character. Here is a closer look at my work in creating that character:

Sonic!

IGN: Sonicthehedgehog

As you can see, he's not perfect, the limitations in hair and skin make it very difficult to create something that looks right. Some people have called him "female sonic", while the character model is female that's just to access different features in the character editor like larger eyes and, in the case of dwarfs, not all looking like the same fat man. I've tried to pick a glider that most closely resembles Sonic's spines, which was very challenging. I've gone with the small wings of terror, because they are small, stick out, and as they pulsate they kinda look bluish sometimes. It's not ideal, but it's the best I can do for now.

I've used a crest T shirt with a crest stamp of a pink circle to approximate his stomach. I've used the blue leggings from the marketplace for the legs and the redtoe sneakers, which isn't perfect but surprisingly closer than I expected to find. I used the lullaby mittens to get the cartoony gloves and made some handicraft eggs to get the ears, although them being white and not blue does drive me crazy haha.

In terms of other things I've added to make him more authentic include various speed buffs and all my equipment is geared towards move speed, including max move speed gems, frosts and stats. Eventually I would love to go full erenor to get an even meatier passive speed buff. I'm not very useful in PVP because of these choices, but it is fun to be able to run alongside sprinting mounts in Halcy.

More of my creations to come!

 

[Sonicandfriends]

IT'S-A-ME, MARIO!

IGN: MarioMario

Little known fact - that is actually Mario's full name. And yes, that means Luigi is called Luigi Mario. Hence "Mario bros". Talk about being in your brother's shadow, huh?

So, first problem with this creation is he ended up a bit more... Stalin-y than I intended. Mainly because it's hard to find a hat that works, the Dawnsdrop was the least bad but it has a rather more beret-like appearance than a cap. There is also a slightly better moustache I could use, but ironically, when I go big head mode, most of it disappears, leaving a Hitler-stache. Who knew Mario was so authoritarian??

In terms of skills, I've gone with a mix of melee and mage. Again, this will leave him less than useful in PVP, but it's more about the concept than being a functional character. I went mage to give him fireballs, which is just about the only attack Mario has other than jumping on things, which, other than ancestral overwhelm, it hard to build a combat style around. For melee weapons, I would have given him a big cartoon wrench if such a thing existed, but I decided to settle for great club, since Mario does use a hammer in Paper Mario, and it's about the best you'll find for him wielding weapons.

As you can see, the crest stamp is far from perfect, as there is red underneath the stamp of his dungaree buttons, but I did my best. I think that when using the big head buff this is pretty good approximation of the character I was going for.

Something interesting I've noticed is that when I am playing Sonic, he gets a lot of attention, but no one seems to care about Mario, even though he arguably looks more like the character I was going for than sonic does. I guess for sonic it's just the speed that is more impressive to people. But either way, I'm pretty happy with the result. The face was something I worked particularly hard on. You'd think male dwarf would lend itself easily to it, but getting a nearly perfectly spherical nose that doesn't look like a horrific golfing accident is surprisingly difficult.

More to come!