AfghanAnt Artistic Advances 7/8/16 - Marvel Adventures Exclusives

[John Jr.]

Beautiful Dagger, AA. Cloak's face is pretty good too.
Impressive work, as always

[AfghanAnt]

How coincidental... I was just wondering what your opinion on that one-shot was in the Marvel Thread, AA, heh. Anyway, I like what I see, and I'm so glad they decided to move Dagger's "X" to her lower stomach instead of its original placement.

I thought it was good setup for an ongoing but the same creative team. I liked that it seemed like a lot of ideas from the http://savetherobot.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/cloak-and-dagger-get-new-series-in-2009/ were used. I feel like I understand Ty and Tandy a little better.

Scratches Cloak and Dagger off list.

Very nice looking AA. Does Cloak have a hood up version?

Yes, he has an alpha-enabled hood.

Beautiful Dagger, AA. Cloak's face is pretty good too.
Impressive work, as always

Thanks.

[murs47]

Those are sweet, AA. Did you use multiple capes to skope Cloak?

[AfghanAnt]

Those are sweet, AA. Did you use multiple capes to skope Cloak?

Well Beard did for his Cloak mesh.

[laughing paradox]

Firstly.. yeah, I really liked those boots.

Secondly.. Cloak and Dagger look exquisite. I want to use that Cloak mesh to skope up a Phantazia character, from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. k

[AfghanAnt]

So I thought pasting some unfinished work would inspire me so here it is.

Spoiler

Here is a Psylocke I started for DM's Psylocke skope. I lost a lot of steam on it after I did her hair and face (which I enjoyed doing).

Spoiler

Mimic's wing are the default wings. I believe C6's but it was a Matrix skin. This will probably never be released.

More Added:

Spoiler

My Warlock and Red Hulkling with Asgardian and Powerboy.

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Authority Redesigns: Engineer and Swift

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My Lanterns. They need a face lift and I still needed to an Orange, Green, and Red one. I guess a white one too but I don't think they would have him...

Spoiler

Update to my Cable - I have a X-Man/Nate Grey too but he's just a face at this point.

[BentonGrey]

AA, I think that the face on that Psyloke is really fantastic.  The eyes have some real personality, as does the way you've drawn her mouth.  That's some really stellar work.

[Podmark]

Wow that some really amazing stuff there AA. I'd love to see you finish any of it. Especially that Cable.

[murs47]

I'm with Pod, that Cable is looking pretty spectacular so far. All of these look great in fact. But that Cable, wow! I can tell you spent a great deal of time on the face.

[Blkcasanova247]

Fantastic work on all of 'em...as usual AA. The face on Cable...WOW....the best you've ever done! Hmm.....why no release on Mimic? The Wings?

[Tomato]

I won't bother adding myself to the growing list of people saying you should absolutely finish ____, (though Psylocke and Cable do look sweet) but might I suggest possibly switching Indigo AA to a TM base mesh? I use different mapping for feet.

[deano_ue]

do i even need to say it.

[laughing paradox]

Oh, AA.. always with the awesome stuff.

Psylocke looks even better than your previous classic skin of her, which is no easy feat. The only nitpick I have on her is that her lower lip looks like it has a cut on it.. maybe lighten the dark middle part of her lip just a slight.

Those Authority redesigns look like they're going to be insane. I hope you finish those up, just so we can see what your final vision of them is like.

Would you consider, if you wanted to finish Mimic, putting him on a vxmale_wing mesh?

[Cyber Burn]

Always impressed with your work. However, it may just be me, but the headgear on the Star Sapphire looks a little bit off center. I have to agree with everyone else, Cable's face is phenominal.

[area34]

If you don't want to finish Mimic would you just release the skin as is? That skin awesome and after seeing it I don't plan on finishing my version...

[AfghanAnt]

Area, Mimic nor any of these others will be released - they are sitting on a thumb drive with all my other pdfs which is where they will stay until I lose it knowing me. You should do one.
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If you've been over in promotion or seen my forum status, I'm now officially retired. This does not mean I'm gonna run away from the forum it just means I realized whatever kept me skinning since 2002 (wow 8 years!) has fled and in its places is a newfound love for handheld consoles, next gen games, and work.

So I was being nostalgic today and looking at my thread in the archive forums and realized that I regret not finishing up the Matrix Avenger tribute skin to accompany the X-Men one I did.

While I've done tons of work over the years, there are a few things I'm extremely proud of such as how my skinning developed, my Hiveworld original skins, my work with Johnny Patches, Miracleman, the Weird World originals with Unkoman, the Astonishing X-Men pak, my Thor and Ares skopes/skins (a lot of love went into both Thor and Ares over the years), skinning Ink's meshes,  starting HeroForce, becoming a member of GPL working with Doc Mike on the Amazanuats, last but not least my avatar.

I still think its hilarious I attempted to skin Mario and Luigi.

[Artemis]

It's sad to think that you might never skin another freedom force creation AA, I can truly say that you have consistently been a source of inspiration to myself and, I'm sure the entire skinning/skoping/meshing community. It's good to know you'll still be around but, heartbreaking   in a way knowing that a incredibly talented creator will create no more.
Well, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for all of the time you have dedicated to FF, FR, your little tips and tricks for fellow skinners, and your comments and critique. I've been a fan since I first downloaded Ink's first Psylocke mesh, which you did the standard for. I will always continue to be a fan.

[deano_ue]

i'm not going to give a long post cause i'll still speak to you outside the boards and stuff, but you know my views on your work and i hope to see you working on anything art ways some time soon

[BentonGrey]

Well, whenever one of us says something like this, I find myself thinking "we'll see."  There is something about this game that seems to keep us coming back, and you never really know.  I know I have never managed to really walk away.  Anyway, I'm glad you're sticking around the boards man! 

[AfghanAnt]

@artemis thanks!

@TUE 

@Benton You know I really thought about it and I realized I haven't tried to skin since Feb and I hadn't released anything since Dec. After realizing that and seeing just how much of my computer was dedicated to FF and I wasn't even playing it, I decided this was the perfect time especially given all the amazing content still being made.

[Amazo Version 2.2]

@artemis thanks!

@TUE 

@Benton You know I really thought about it and I realized I haven't tried to skin since Feb and I hadn't released anything since Dec. After realizing that and seeing just how much of my computer was dedicated to FF and I wasn't even playing it, I decided this was the perfect time especially given all the amazing content still being made.

That being said, it's still a bummer that we won't see anything new from such a gifted creater.   

[herodad1]

when my computer bit the dust this last time i had considered giving up the game myself because ive gotten tired of re-building/loading all my characters,maps,and fx's.alot of fx's i tinkered with myself.i kept thinking to myself about an external hard drive and backing my whole c-drive up on it but didnt.when this last crash happened it really discouraged me.i'm going to hang on though.i really love this game and everything you guys/gals have done over the years.also, with grenadier coming back thats also a good reason to hang on.he's always been my one of my favorite meshers.AA, take some time in life and find what you want to do.hopefully you will come back. 

[Shogunn2517]

Psh.  AfghanAnt's finished?

I'll believe it when I see it...  Or not.... !?

[area34]

I too hope this isn't a permanent retirement (I was hoping to see your updated Phantomex)...

Your skin's are always amazing(and unique) but the effort and creativity you put in to skoping each one is what I'm always impressed with.

[Cyber Burn]

Damn, I saw the new postage, and got my hopes up. What a bummer.

[AfghanAnt]

Yes, I know what you are thinking but I just couldn't help myself. I was looking for Storm for my classic X-Men team was looking at Grenadier's Darkstar and thought "uhmmm she would be a great classic Storm". After some skoping and skinning here she is. However me returning is not the big surprise of this post (this is totally just an one-off. No more after this.)...the big surprise is below though...

Spoiler

That's right Storm generates wind shields to protect her from incoming attacks.

[Cyber Burn]

That is just sick...

[Artemis]

The skin is just wow. wonderful and incredible don't even have enough synonyms to describe it. I'd place it easily in your top 5 skins. It's actually just brilliant.

and the defense anims? inspired. really great. what's next? AA is going to become a mesher?

[Blkcasanova247]

Very cool bro. Now...make that "hurricane" a little bigger and we got us a winner. Only critique I have is that I think her face is a little "hard"...maybe it's the shadowing on her cheeks and jawline. Just my humble opinion.

[herodad1]

really cool AA! that would look cool also when she flies! you cant quit AA...youve still got the rest of the team to do. i bet you could do an awsome colossus!