Hello everyone! Welcome back to Aion Skin Mod and in this week's post, we are going to work on the leather version of the Ophidan armor set. Just for a bit of information, the Ophidan set belongs under the category of "Balic" armor, which we have seen before in my previous posts, such as the "Noble Sky Dragon" set.
The NPC merchants who sold the designs for these armor sets were initially based in Katalam. But when the continent was submerged under sea by Beritra, when he broke an ancient seal, the NPCs were relocated to the individual bases of Asmodian (Dragonrest Temple in Enshar) and Elyos (Aequis Headquarters in Cygnea) respectively.
I can still remember back in the days, prior to AION 5.0, when we had to watch our backs while shopping for these designs in Katalam. XD
Why is that so? Well, back in those days, Katalam was an open world PvP map, and the NPCs who sell these designs are based in camps, which can be attacked and captured by opposite faction (Asmodian or Elyos). Hence, your faction will need to capture the camp from opposite faction through PvP, or rather ZvZ (Zerg vs Zerg as some AION players would call it), before you can have access to these merchants.
And when your faction does capture the camp and you have access to the merchants, it is not the end of it yet. Since the map is open to PvP, any opposite faction players can attack you while you are happily browsing for your designs. Had that happened to me a few times. ~.~
I always have that tingling feeling that there's an assassin peeping at me, in stealth mode, and sharpening their daggers while I am browsing the list of designs. Such suspense... >.<"
Well, now that the merchants have been relocated to a safe spot within a well guarded area, we can take our own sweet time looking through all the designs. :p
So, let us look at the original armor below.
Front View - Original Armor
In the background we can see the floating capital of the Elyos - Sanctum. :D
Front Close-up View - Original Armor
Rear View - Original Armor
Rear Close-up View - Original Armor
Side Close-up View - Original Armor
The original armor is a full black-colored body armor. But after dyeing, it reveals more details than expected.
And oh... Am I seeing double? Some of the designs on this armor was borrowed from an older level 55 "Balic" armor. You may be able to see the similarity if you refer to my previous post "Noble Sky Dragon's Tunic". But I guess it is natural to re-use since they are under the same "Balic" (a.k.a draconic) category. XD
Anyway, let's see what the armor look like after mod.
Front View
As usual, all "extra" materials were stripped and the full body armor now looks like a 2 piece (top & bottom) armor. :p
Front Close-up View
The bra area was also trimmed but not that much because under that bra is a hole. o.o
Rear View
Rear Close-up View
Most of the accessories are kept intact because they fit in nicely with the 2 piece armor. Or maybe I am just too lazy to remove them? XD
Side View
Oh by the way, if you are still wondering what is "Zerg vs Zerg", it is a term coined by AION players when one whole group or alliance (or simply a large number) of players from both factions get into world PvP. I think the term "zerg" comes from another game (i.e. StarCraft by Blizzard Entertainment) because in that game, there is an alien race (sort of similar to insect in nature) called Zerg and their tactics in battle is to overwhelm their enemies by sheer numbers. XD
So, that's all for this post. View the comparison and dancing video for a better look.
On a side note, how I hate that "play" icon that seems to always overlay her face. :(
Hello everyone! It's time for a chain armor mod again, and in this post, we'll be looking at the chain version of "Divine Tunic of the Arena Conqueror". The reason why I want to mod this armor is that, as I had mentioned in previous post, it is currently a popular armor due to its re-introduction. Besides, it is a cool armor set with the spider crests and design.
Without any further delay, let us look at the original armor.
Front View - Original Armor
Rear View - Original Armor
Do you guys think the chain (hauberk) version looks very similar to the cloth (tunic) version? Basically, they have the same dress with similar texture (i.e. vertical lines running from top to bottom), except for the chest area and the length of the dress.
For the tunic, the chest area is made of some black, fluffy material, that is similar to those on the hauberk's shoulder, while the hauberk's chest area is just a normal piece of cloth. However, it is this difference in the chest area that enables this naughty XFormer to do something like this. :p
Side Close-up View
In the case of the tunic, the chest surface is made of a fluffy mesh, which does not retain the shape of the breasts, and removing that surface would leave a hole. On the other hand, the hauberk has a mesh that retains the shape of the breasts, at least at the sides. Though unfortunately, for the center portion, there's nothing that can be done because it is a piece of cloth covering the cleavage, and removing that would leave a hole. DX
So, what does the mod armor looks like? Take a look below.
Front Views
Rear and Side Views
Other than revealing the sides, the armor now also has a bare-back look. The full dress has now been transformed into a two piece chest (or rather, some kind of clip-on bra? XD ) and skirt, connected by two straps. In addition, the skirt has been shortened to reveal more of the upper thighs.
For eagle-eyed readers, you will probably noticed that the thighs seem to be so "thick". Just for clarification, I did not create the character with such thick thighs. This seems to be the thigh-boost effect of the armor (i.e. the mesh).
Interestingly, if you guys can remember my rumbling, about the super slim legs, in my previous post on the cloth version, a scenario strangely comes to mind. XD
Could it be that the Quality Control department of the developer had noticed the super slim legs on the cloth version, and thus, informed the designer about the issue; But unfortunately, gave them the name of the chain version instead of the cloth version. The designer was like "Oh! make the legs of this chain armor thicker" and tadaaah.... super slim legs remaining on the tunic while the hauberk got the enhanced thick legs. XDDDD Anyway, that's just my imagination. :p
Watch the video to check out the legs yourself, if it isn't obvious enough in the images. XD
For the second post of the week, we will be looking at a chest armor which has been reintroduced in AION (NA) 5.1. Hmm... Why did I use the word reintroduced? That's because this armor first appeared in AION 4.0, when the Arenas were introduced. These are armors with PvP stats and bought using medals (Courage Insignia) that are awarded for taking part in Arena battles.
With AION 5.0, Daeva can now become Archdaeva who are level 66+. This causes a huge level gap between Arena fighters, in which lower level players find it hard to compete against higher level players. Thus, with AION 5.1, the arena system is now segregated into Daeva and Archdaeva. The newer Archdaeva arena awards new medals (Valor Insignia) which can then be used to purchase higher level PvP armors. These new armors use the same skin as the old Arena armors, except for some color differences. That's why I use the term reintroduced. :p
Since the skin will now be more popular due to its reintroduction, what better time than now to do some mods on it. :D
So let us take a look at the original armor below.
Front Views - Original Armor
Rear Views - Original Armor
As seen in the above images, the original armor looks like a long dress with bare shoulder and a slit that runs from the upper left thigh down to the bottom. Did I just describe a night party dress? Well... May be, but the armor is also laced with "thorns" on the outside of both arms. o.O
Looking at the mesh of this armor, the upper part of the dress actually made up the entire torso. This means that the upper part of the dress cannot be removed at all else it will leave holes. Thus, I can only mod the lower part of the dress but not the torso area. >.<
What can I do if I can only mod the lower part of the dress then?
If we look carefully at the dress, we can notice that it has vertical lines running down, right from the top. That gave me an idea to shred (and I mean literally shred) the lower part of the dress. XD
What do I mean by literally shredding the dress? Take a look below.
Front Views
Rear Views
And so, I have modify the tummy area into skin texture (i.e. exposing the tummy) and turned the lower portion of the long dress into a shot skirt, with dangling vertical threads. Does it looks like the dress has been ran through a shredding machine? :p
But as usual this stingy XFormer, a.k.a. me, ran low on budget and the skirt ends up revealing some part of the panties. ~.~
Another thing that I noticed is that the legs seem to be so much slimmer after putting on this armor. Seems to be another miraculous body transformation effect by the armor, I guess. >.<
Unfortunately, when I am all done and started video capturing in the game, I noticed that the threads dangling from the skirt are behaving strangely. They seem to stretch weirdly when her legs moves apart, as evidently captured in the video. That's probably because they are actually part of a piece of cloth (i.e. the original dress), instead of being free falling bodies. As such, they stretch and move together as one, instead of behaving like individual strings. What an oversight! ~.~
Due to this issue, I decided to made another mod with the skirt but without the dangling threads. So you can choose the one that you like from the link below.
Well, that's all for this mod. Check out the video below.
Ah! Finally! We have the mod for the plate version of Kunax's armor! Is this what the plate wearers are thinking now? :p Well, actually I have been looking at this armor for quite sometime but it is already beautiful and sexy as it is, such that I can't really think of further improvement to it. So just to avoid any disappointment later, there isn't much changes to the armor after mod. >.< If you guys have any suggestion for further improvement, you can let me know. :D
But why mod it if it's really that perfect? Basically, I want to complete the 4 sets of Kunax armor, of which I had already done for the "Kunax's Hauberk" and "Kunax's Tunic" in my previous posts, and what's missing is the plate and leather version. So, I choose to show the mod on the plate now and the leather one later. In addition, there are also 2 things that I have been itching to do on this armor. XD
So, what are the 2 things that I want to mod? If you are a Kunax's armor wearer, you will have probably noticed that the exposed skin layer is normally darker compared to the character's actual skin color, as if there's a translucent layer over the skin. It may be the designer's intent to make it a characteristic of the Kunax's armor set but I find that this layer is kind of redundant on the plate armor though.
As for the second thing, it would be those two swords and a piece of cloth on the butt area. I mean the armor has a really coolly designed hot pants but then have it hidden away, behind two swords and a piece of cloth? Really? ~.~
Well, enough words. Let us look at the combined before and after images. I have placed the before and after mod screen capture side by side because it is the only way to compare the change in skin layer color.
Front View
Front Close-up View
It isn't very obvious but do you notice that the skin color on the left image is darker than the one on the right?
Rear View
The above image (on the left side) shows the two obstructing swords and cloth, while the right image does not have them after the mod.
Rear Close-up View
Yeah! Now we can admire those hot pants! :D
By the way, this is one of the most tightly-designed armor (as in mesh structure) that I have seen so far, because other than the swords and cloth, any other texture removal would leave a hole. o.o
That's all for this short post. Watch the video for a better view.
Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! Hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and New Year holiday. :D
How many new year resolutions did you managed to achieve last year? Great work if you have managed to achieve all of them. But if you have some left over, well, you are not alone... I have plenty left unachieved too... DX
So, have you planned your new resolution for this new year then? Let us strive and hope that we can achieve all of them by the end of the year!
But for now, let us get to the first post of the new year and as the title suggested, this post will be showcasing a mod on an assassin outfit. What drove me to work on this mod? Well... In my previous post, I had worked on a "Harley Quinn Outfit" and while I was looking into the details for Harley Quinn's outfit, another character from the movie "Suicide Squad" attracted my attention. If it is still not obvious enough for you, it's "Katana" (performed by Karen Fukuhara).
The white mask contrasted by her black hair; white wrapping cloth on her torso, contrasted by a black jacket laced with Japanese-styled ribbons, patterns and banner; combined to give her an unique look, in a way. Not forgetting the katana that Katana wields (Hmm... that sounded strange ~.~ ) is said to be cursed and will absorb the souls of its victims, while driving an evil wielder to commit evil acts. O.O Fortunately, she's not evil and thus, not driven to perform evil act.
Just for a bit of information, katana is a kind of Japanese sword used by Samurai in ancient feudal Japan. Tatsu Yamashiro (a.k.a. "Katana") probably adopts the name from the type of weapon she mainly use. Hence, a katana-wielding Katana. XD
For those who have not watched the movie, this is how Katana looks like.
Katana in Suicide Squad Movie Poster
Within AION, there're 2 costumes (Mad Biker and Biker) that I think can be mod to closely resemble Katana's outfit as both wears a jacket with a tight pants. By covering up the legs and modifying the patterns on the jacket and torso we probably can get a close enough match. However, there will be a problem for the ribbons and banners, since I cannot modify the mesh to include them. :(
Mad Biker & Biker Costume
So I decided not to fully duplicate Katana's look and do it in another way, following the torso wrapping but without the jacket, or rather draping a "jacket" over her shoulder.
Surprisingly, trying to find a suitable chest piece actually took me a lot more time than expected. The chest piece needed to not show the cleavage, as expected of a chest wrapping, while the shoulder and tummy area needs to be skin layer. I had tried on several chest armors and all failed because of the requirement for tummy and shoulder skin layers. D:
Fortunately, AION never lets me down. When I am almost loosing hope, I decided to take a final look at costumes instead of armor, and alas, I found the "Bard's Look" set. As we can recall from my initial few posts, costumes in AION normally come in a 5-in-1 piece fashion, where the chest, pants, shoulder, gloves and shoes are all combined into the chest piece. This means that if the character equipped the chest costume, its all other 4 parts (pants, shoulder, glove and shoe) will be replaced as well.
But for the "Bard's Look" set, it comes in 5 separate pieces and the chest piece (Bard's Blouse) is very close to what I needed. It has everything from covered cleavage to skin layer shoulder and tummy. The only unwanted parts are the 2 cloth "buns" on the upper arm, which I have to keep, because we will be looking at missing upper arms if they are removed. :(
The other armor pieces that I have chosen for this mod are the "Vasharti Brigade General's Vambraces", "Anuhart Breeches" and "Kaisinel Protector's Shoulderguard", which I have used to 'fake' the jacket that is draping from the shoulder. But in my opinion, any tight pants, such as the "Veteran Hunter's Breeches" would fit in nicely with the mod too.
What does the final mod looks like?
Front Views
As shown in the image above, I had turned the torso area into wrappings and also removed the leg guards from the "Anuhart Breeches" to reveal her full leg. The mask was also modified to be full white and slightly trimmed.
Rear View
Front and Rear Views - No Shoulder
From the last image in which the shoulder has been unequipped, you can clearly see the 2 "buns", on her upper arms, that I have been forced to keep. >.< But I did fixed the color to a red-black combo.
Finally, watch the video for the assassin in action. The video is a little dark as it was taken during the in-game night time, since assassin usually strikes in the night. :p
