For the past 3 posts, I have been showcasing armor mods, so in this post, I'll do a random outfit instead. As suggested by the title, it will be a Ballerina outfit. Hmmm...where did I get the idea to make a Ballerina Outfit? Well... In AION 4.0, NCSoft introduced a new class known as Songweaver, who uses Harp as a weapon and are given graceful animations (although their idle animation does gives a "stoned" or "lost" kind of feel, in my opinion ~.~ ). And, it is their motions that reminds me of ballerina in a ballet performance.
In fact, AION has plenty of examples for matching outfits to animations, such as Bruce Lee's fighting suit and his Kung Fu animations; boxing attire and boxing animations; diving suit and diving animations; baseball outfit and pitching animations; and the list goes on. Look at these images taken from AION NA's online shop, Black Cloud Marketplace.
Baseball Outfit with Batter animation
(Image from Black Cloud Marketplace)
Dragon Training Suit with Dragon Taunt animation
(Image from Black Cloud Marketplace)
Ninja Outfit with Ninja animation
(Image from Black Cloud Marketplace)
So, I thought to myself why don't I mod a ballerina outfit to match the Songweaver's animations. :3
I started off by searching the internet for examples of ballerina outfit and decided to mod a classic outfit, which is basically a tight fitting pink bodysuit with a tutu. In case you are wondering what's a tutu, it is the fluffy layered skirt worn around the waist or hip of a ballerina.
With the design decided, I then need to find some armors or costumes in AION that can fit those criteria. There are in fact several costumes such as "Ornate Butterfly", "Cute Devil Outfit", "Black Swan Outfit", that come close to the classic ballerina outfit. Unfortunately, they do not have that really skin tight effect on the torso area.
Cute Devil, Black Swan and Ornate Butterfly
Finally, I decided to use 2 separate chest and pants armors to create the ballerina outfit.
For the chest part, I chose to use the "Sea Feast" series armor because it has a pure skin mesh without abnormal protrusion on the skin surface. This gives the possibility to create a really skin tight effect required for the torso part of the outfit. Another reason is.... well you guys will see later. :p
As for the leg, I found 2 possibilities, namely the "Dreamstrider Pants" and "Kaisinel Legging". Both are of the skirt and panties design, with the skirt looking similar to a tutu (although not a perfect match >.< ).
In order to match the outfit, I will also need to source for a suitable shoe and this is a big problem. Why? That's because almost all AION shoe armors have heels! I am not sure how many shoes I had to look at before finally finding one without heels, namely "Remodeled Danuar Shoe". >.< Unfortunately for me, the shoe has a pair of socks like wrappings around the ankle, which I will have to live with. ~.~
Let us now look at the final result which includes a modified "Sea Feast Tunic", modified "Remodeled Danuar Shoe" and slightly trimmed "Kaisinel Legging".
Front View
Front View - Close-up
The outfit at torso looks really skin tight, isn't it? That's because the outfit is basically painted right over the skin surface. :p And oh my... Is she the most busty ballerina I've ever seen? XD This is the work of the "Sea Feast" chest armor's "Bust-boosting" effect, which I said you guys would surely notice. >.<
Rear View
Rear View - Close-up
Side View
Front Bottom View - Dreamstrider vs Kaisinel
So, do you guys think this outfit can pass off as a ballerina outfit? Which pants (Dreamstrider vs Kaisinel) would you use to match the top?
In this post, We'll be looking at the very first skin that is related to one of the Dragon Lords, Tiamat, who was defeated in AION 3.5 (Tiamat's Ruin) due to the betrayal of Beritra, another Dragon Lord. This armor set drops off Tiamat herself (Glimmering Dragon Lord's Jerkin and Glowing Dragon Lord's Jerkin) and shared the same model, except for the base color scheme, with the above mentioned armor, Tiamat Guard's Jerkin. The model came in 2 base color schemes of black and red if I recalled correctly; and is so sort after by players, at that time, that AION NA even sell them on the online shop, Black Cloud Market Place (BCM), some months after the armor sets are made available in game. Tease-then-sell, good strategy... XD
For readers who are wondering what a Dragon Lord looks like in AION, check out Tiamat in her majestic Dragon form battling with Empyrean Lord Marchutan below. By the way, if you are a gamer and find the name somewhat familiar; Tiamat is actually a primordial goddess of the Mesopotamian religion and was famously used in games like Final Fantasy to name huge draconic creatures or summons. So, we learn a little history today... :D
Dragon Lord Tiamat - AION Cinematic Capture
Tiamat vs Marchutan - AION Cinematic Capture
Anyway, let's get back to the mod and look at the original tight fitting, full body leather armor which is a 2-in-1 (chest and pants) chest piece. In this post's images, I have used my favorite shoulder, Archangel Shoulder again. And I left her barefooted because I did not mod the shoe of this set and being barefooted will fit in better with the mod version.
Multiple Views - Original Armor
As we can see, the original armor is really tight, showing the body curves clearly and a slit, running from her neck down towards her abdomen, between 2 snake like curves. Also, the "tail" accessory at the back of her left thigh has a chunk of white fur, which I reckon was "plucked" off Tiamat because they really look like the ones on Tiamat. ~.~
Another thing about this skin is that it has a butt-line! :D So far, this is one of the only two armors that I have found with that sexy butt line; the other being Vasharti Brigade General's Jerkin. For readers who are baffled by what a butt line means, you can refer to my earlier post Malefic Jerkin.
So, is there really a butt line? Check below.
Bottom View - Original Armor
With the presence of this precious gem, the devil horns on my head grew and you guys can guess what happen in the mod... Yes! A G-string bottom! :p
Other than being hell-bent on including the G-string, I was not very sure what else I should do for the mod, so I virtually stripped away all the leather leaving the accessories. Luckily, for readers who want to know what the skin looks like without the leather, I have taken a few screen shots to help me figure out what I should do and so I will share the half completed mod image here too. But please don't get overly excited because it looks just like an undecorated mannequin. >.<
Front View - Partially Completed Mod
After much thought, I figured that since I had decided to used a G-string on the bottom armor, it only makes sense to give her a bikini top as well. And because I can't remove the 2 snake like curves, due to the fact that they are embedded on and protruding out over the skin surface, I had to extend the bikini top out from them instead of totally replacing them with skin or bikini color. >.<
So let's take a look at the mod result.
Front View
Front View - Close-up
Rear View
Rear View - Close-up
Side View
It was not until I finished up all the work and look at her in the world view, that I realized that I had been too stingy on the material for her bikini. I think it looks more like a micro bikini @.@ But I am too lazy to rework it, so I just left it alone. Let me just pretend that I had skinned too little leather from the defeated Tiamat. >.<
Hmm...that's all for this post. You can watch the YouTube video below which was recorded at Inggison Illusion Fortress where Tiamat's ruin begins (for Elyos version, that is).
First of all, I want to apologize for missing posts for the past 1 week; or maybe it is just my imagination that I have readers eagerly waiting for my next post? >.<" Well... Anyway, the past week has been an unfruitful one with multiple family/personal issues happening simultaneously, messing up all my planning and thus missing out on the posts. But I guess no one will be interested to hear my rantings, so let's just throw them all behind and continue to our next mod. XD
In this post, we will be looking at the Lunatic Modor's Breastplate since I have promised to do more mods on plate armor. The skin or model of this plate armor is also shared by a few other plate armors, such as Breastplate of the Labyrinth (Archive of Eternity), Enraged Hyperion's Breastplate (Infinity Shard) and Ageless Breastplate (world drop). And as we will see later, it is a hard skin to mod due to some constraints around the tummy area.
Let us now look at the original armor which is nice but err... uninteresting. Oh, by the way, I have used the shoulder from another costume (Archangel shoulder) because it is my new favorite. :D
Multiple view - Original armor
As seen in the above image, the armor provides full protection from neck to toe with no skin to show at all. ~.~ So how should I go about making it more "interesting"?
Hmm... actually I have been trying to do an armor similar to the one worn by the main character, Ryuko Mataoi, from the Japanese anime "Kill la Kill". The fun part about Ryuko's armor is that it is actually a sentient sailor suit, which forces itself onto her after having tasted her blood in an accidental fall. It even has a name "Senketsu" (or Godrobe), speaks in a male (of course..) voice and looks really skimpy (of course, again..).
Take a look at this screen capture from the anime and decides for yourself whether you consider it skimpy. :p
Kill la Kill Anime Screen Capture
Basically, Senketsu protects only the upper part of her body, covering the upper part of Ryuko's breasts and 2 red straps joining to her panties. However, looks can be deceiving because the armor grants her super powers and certain level of invulnerability, even at areas where it is not covering; though they are granted in exchange for her blood. O.O
Well, enough talk about the anime. So which part of Senketsu did I try to emulate? If you guys have been following me, you might have guess. XD
Take a look at this image and see for yourself. :p
Multiple views - Modified armor
As you can see, the modified armor's chest area is as skimpy as that of Ryuko's except that it did not have straps running down because if I did that, it would look unnatural as the straps will follow the contour of the breasts, instead of running straight down. This is because there is no other mesh layer above this skin layer so the straps will have to be drawn directly onto the skin, giving an unnatural look.
Side view
I have also trimmed the cloth on the butt area because they are seriously blocking my view >.< and also modified the full pants into a panties styled armor, but unfortunately, a mesh constraint on her tummy forced me to have a piece of armor there. This is due to the discontinuity between the upper and lower body mesh, where the upper body mesh floats slightly above the lower body mesh. This means that if I had painted both of them with skin color, we will see the upper body skin flapping above the lower body skin. And if I had removed the upper body skin, it would create a hole. Thus, it is more logical to put a piece of armor to overcome this constraint since we won't mind if a piece of armor flaps over the body skin or another armor skin. :p
Well, that conclude the mod for this armor but sadly, while admiring the finished work, I noticed mesh defects on the lower side of her left breast and upper left thigh when she moves. Initially, I thought it was bump defect (on the bump map) but after checking, I conclude that it is in fact a defect on the mesh-skeleton, where the mesh moves with the skeleton movement when it shouldn't. And this is something beyond my mod capability. Q.Q
You probably can see the defect more clearly in the video as she moves around.
As requested by a reader and perhaps a fellow AION player, I'll have to hold back plate armor for a little longer and look into the Malefic Hauberk. As the chain counterpart of Malefic Jerkin, the hauberk similarly has that draconic essence in its design and in fact has a similar 3D dragon head crest. Unfortunately, the hauberk doesn't has a dragon body so I could not apply the same concept of "wearing only a dragon" to it, like I had done for the leather. >.<
So, what should I do then for this armor mod? Well... I figures if he/she likes the Malefic Jerkin mod, I should probably do something that is similar in style. But if you guys take a look at the image below, you will know that this hauberk is already quite sexy with a huge opening on her torso running down, past her belly button and real metallic claws (unlike the one I did >.<" ) on the bra area.
Front view - Original armor
Rear view - Original armor
Readers who have been with me for awhile may have guess what will happen... :p
Ya... Off goes the long pants for the love of those leggy legs and off goes the cloth that hinder my view of the butt area. XD
So what's left after that? Take a look below.
Front view - Modified
Hmmm... In the process of removing the materials around those 2 above-mentioned areas, the materials on the front and back torso are gone as well. XD
Another modification is the 3 metal plates that made up the bra, which I think is an overkill, was reduced to 1. Actually... I can't remove that last piece because there's a mesh that forms it; meaning that if I modify that last piece of claw into skin, it would give an irregular surface (i.e. a lump on the breast), instead of a smooth contour. But I'm fine with that because it gave me excuse for not making her go topless. :D
Rear view - Modified
Side view
Does this mod closely resembles that of its leather counterpart? Except that it's a 2-piece top and bottom armor, without connection between them.
Well, that 's the end for this post and hopefully, I can get to work on some plate armor soon.
In the last post (Malefic Jerkin Mod), a reader has requested for more plate armor mods. I have to agree that I have been neglecting the plate class, partly because a lot of plate armor has bulky parts, that leave holes on the skin when they are removed. Another reason is that I don't have a high level plate class. D: Anyway, I will start to look further into plate armors but for this post, we are going for a little 'super' fun time. :D
For readers who don't play AION, I guess you might be asking "What is a Nyerkcarrier?". Well, I think a little explanation is needed for the benefit of all. To make it sound simple, "Nyerk" is a common term used by "Shugo" (AI NPC) in AION, for example, "No more kinah? You sure? Check pockets, nyerk!" or "Watch it! Daeva almost stepped on shugo's tail, nyerk!". Based on this explanation and looking at the image below will probably answer all your questions.
A Shugo
Rear view - Nyerkcarrier
Yes, the costume actually consists of a backpack that is designed to look like a Shugo and hence the name "Nyerkcarrier". See.... I didn't make the name up. XD
Check out this video for a few funny Shugo talk. :p
So... What actually got me to work on this costume? Well, I think you can remember the Mummy Outfit that I had shown 2 posts back? That costume, "Spooky Spandex", has this transformation in and out of combat mode; glowing skeleton when in combat and just plain color when out of combat. And while I was working on it, I recalled the "Nyerkcarrier" which have this kind of transformation, except that it transforms from a normal shirt and shorts combo into a caped Shugo warrior. So that got me thinking whether it is possible to mod it into a super hero costume, since we also have flight capability in AION. :p
With the idea set, I got to redesign the Shugo warrior costume into a more modern super hero feel. But where should I start though? Well, first of all, I would need a color scheme for the costume, followed by some logo or crest or symbol.
For the first part, I looked around the comics world and ta-dah, what's more suitable than Supergirl! I mean, almost everybody in the world knows about the super girl, who was introduced by DC Comics in 1959, in her red-blue color-schemed costume, right? So, there we have it. A red-blue color scheme and the best part of it? The Shugo warrior costume closely resembles the basic version of Supergirl's costume! :D
As for the second part, I chose to use lightning symbol because yellow lightning goes very well with red costume, like the Flash, another DC Comics character.
So... What's the end result? Let us see the image below.
Front view
Front view - Close-up
As much as I would like to remove the hood and paddings on her shoulder, I can't because there's nothing below them. In other word, we will only be looking at a face without the back of her head and an invisible shoulder... >.<"
Therefore, I leave the shoulder as it is, with 2 lightning bolt symbols and trimmed the hood to replace the Shugo face with lightning symbols.
Rear view
Catch some super hero actions in the video below and decides whether this costume is super enough for you. :D
Oh, by the way, I made her wings' skin invisible so she really looks like she's flying in the wind on her own, in the video. :p
After looking at so many armor skins in AION, I have seen plenty that is based closely to draconic design, such as "Wise Dragon King" set, "White Dragon King" set and "Dragon Lord" set; which is no surprise since AION is set in a world where Human (Asmodian) vs Human (Elyos) vs Dragon (Balaur). Players can choose to play Asmodian or Elyos, while Balaur is mainly AI NPC (Artificial Intelligence Non-player character). So as in any other game, the AI NPCs become players' target that get put down, looted for skin, scale and what's not, which can then be crafted into armors or weapons. R.I.P to all the poor AI NPC in all games.. >.<"
Well... Seeing so many draconic themed armors, set me thinking whether it is possible to just basically wear a dragon. O.O This, of course, is a challenging task due to the constraints of meshes and the need to layout the dragon in such a way that all the important parts of the body are covered (you know what I am saying :p ). Plus, having a dragon head without 3D effect (can't change the mesh or surface structure) is simply not impressive enough, unless we settle for a 2D tattoo. ~.~
So, while looking through the massive armor skin collection, I noticed this leather 2-in-1 (chest and pants in 1) chest armor known as the "Malefic Jerkin". This armor set closely resembles those worn by Beritra's army and since Beritra is one of the Dragonlords, the armor have some essence of draconic design in it. What especially caught my attention is that this armor has a 3D crest of a dragon head on the chest area and a snake like body that runs from beneath the crest to the lower abdomen. In other words, it is like a whole whelp-styled dragon on the front portion of the armor and exactly what I needed. :D However, the armor is also a full body suit which covers the entire body, from neck to ankle. >.<"
And so, there I go again with my eraser, stripping off all the unwanted material, leaving only the dragon on the naked body and then deciding how to cover up those important areas. Sorry to disappoint you guys but I am not going to show this part of the unfinished mod. Besides, there is no details on the exposed parts and I can safely say that you probably missed nothing that is of interest. DX
So, let's compare the images, before and after mod, to see the differences and whether I have achieved my goals.
Front view
Front view - Close-up
From the 2 images above, you can see that a lot of the leather has been stripped off, since I had only wanted the dragon. :p
I had initially thought of extending the tail to run between her legs, from her lower abdomen to her back; but then, I feel that it is kind of crude to do that, so I scraped the idea and gave her a panties style pants instead. >.<
Let's take a closer look at her upper body in the image below.
Upper body
You can see the dragon head crest near her throat and there is only the dragon connecting the top and bottom pieces, with what looks like the dragon's claw on her breasts. I had to add the "claws" because the dragon body that runs down her torso does not fully cover her breasts, giving a nipple-slip kind of look. >.<" Probably looking at this next side view image will give you a better idea.
Side view
Well... I guess now you can see the reason why I had to add the "claws". >.<
Rear view
I am guessing some people may be asking why didn't I give her a G-string to make the armor sexier... Well... I have reason for that and that is because the butt area of the mesh is practically a flat piece without butt line. ~.~
If you don't get what that means, look at the images below, where I compare the Malefic Jerkin to the Vasharti General's Jerkin.
Below view of Malefic Jerkin
Below view of Vasharti General's Jerkin
So, now you probably understand why the 2 butts had to be handled differently. Hmm... that sounded wrong but you guys know what I am saying.
Rear view of Vasharti General & Malefic Jerkin
Well, that wraps things up for this post. Thank you for taking time to read this and see you next time. :D
Side notes: Malefic set is sold by NPC in the Arena area (Kaisinel Academy for Elyos and Marchutan Priory for Asmodian) and only available for purchase, using Abyss points (points rewarded for fighting Balaur or opposing faction), by players who are ranked 1-Star Officer and above.
