one of my favorite things about the final arc sequence in FMAB is that all the female characters are drawn just as disheveled, tired, bloody, dirty, and destroyed as the men who were fighting alongside them. riza, izumi, olivier, mei, and lan fan all take some pretty serious damage during their respective final battles, and they’re allowed to show it. they all bleed, cry, sweat, show visible impact like scratches and bruises, get their clothes torn, and their hair messed up—all in realistic, respectful, and appropriate ways given the unique situations they each endured.
i know this is much more common in live action media for female characters to walk out of a battle with perfect hair/makeup and no blood/tears/sweat/any signs of damage or dishevelment to speak of (except for maybe the token papercut-sized scar on her face, if the creators are bold enough to show even that much), but this problem of course happens in animation too. and it was something i didn’t quite realize i was missing until i saw it.
[Background]
It was just a random day in a peaceful Insomnia, until Ignis found a lost baby behemoth in an alleyway. He took it home with the intention of letting it go once he patched it up, but the little purple critter had…other plans. :3
So anyway yes say hello to the smol behemoth called Gladio.
・Loves meat—raw, cooked, anything goes. Bonus points if it’s something Ignis made. Also, instant noodles. ・Wants to fight everything in the house that hums and is bigger than itself (especially the vacuum cleaner).
・Likes getting picked up and cuddled—the best position to snooze off in.
*throws cress seeds at an abandoned warehouse* be the change you want to see in the world
Alright guys! Listen up! Its story time..
Does anyone wanna know why my user name is the-bluebonnet-bandit? No? Well I’m going to tell you anyway.
Its because a long time ago back in highschool my home town was slowly begining to be re-developed. A field I had loved as a kid moving in became a series of storage units. So basically, under the presumption of the myth that bluebonnets are illegal to pick in Texas, I decided the best way for me to handle this was to go out and buy a pack of bluebonnet seeds to basically chuck ‘em at the field in question. It takes time for a peice of land to be purchased and for a structure to take place, so if I planted some bluebonnet seeds in the field in early October, by next season there would be a whole field of them right? And then they couldn’t build there, hazzah!
Except its not as easy as it sounds. And now as an ecology major with a focus in plants, I know that. See, many empty fields in the suburbs are filled with agressive and non-native plants that would make it hard to establish something like a bluebonmet in just one season. I would need to remove those plants in a certain desired area around my square of bluebonnets then make sure each seed survives to flower. And then ideally I’d want to keep expanding my target patch, or establish a different patch the next year at a key place on the field.
Even if not illegal, destroying a field of our state flower, or a beautiful field of wildflowers is a harder sell to the public. It creates more dialogue. Draws more attention. And if you pair this with, say, a grassroots community campaign to spare the land in question you definately have more of a chance of achieving your group’s goal if it looks like the backdrop to someone’s family photo. Plus, planting wildflowers, helps the community and wildlife.
I’m not saying go out and chuck seeds at stuff until you re-claim your space and use gardening and tree planting (tree graffiti, or tree-fiti if you will…) as counter meaaures for over-development and urban sprawl.
I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I finally had the time to work on a really simple walkthrough of my design process for armors! Hope it can be useful 😀
Before designing the attire I like to define first who this character is going to be, based on their alignment, their role, job and so on. I used a random dnd character generator and found a simple but cool prompt:
Based on this brief description the first step to take is to get a good silhouette and pose. Figure drawing and silhouette studies are a good method of exercise: they train you to think without any sort of detail. The pose alone should convey the whole mood. I wanted my human paladin to be an aged veteran knight in medium build, ready to strike and prepared to carry her weight in battle with two swords.
Armor is a tricky subject but only when you don’t know it. I study a lot from real traditional armor, because before designing something I have to figure out how it actually works in real life. I could recommend lots of book to buy but Pinterest does an amazing job in providing you with an endless stream of inspiration and photos/illustrations to study (Osprey Publishing has fantastic books about armor, weapons and military from 10th century and before to 20th century). I believe in functionality over beauty but with a middle ground that makes both aspects look good together instead of clashing (I’m looking at you, Korean concept artists): it’s my job to find a compromise between them. A good example to study is something like this:
Simple, readable, every rivet shown makes it understandable to know how to move into an armor like this. I also take lots of inspiration from fashion design but it’s another whole world lol, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows is pretty much the Bible for that since there’s a complete list of every season of pret-a-porter and couture from 1990 to the present day. It’s a fun game to play!
Question yourself when you design, “can I wear this? How? If I were to make a cosplay of this, how would I layer everything?”, if you’re aiming for realism you have to follow certain rules and guidelines. Speaking of guidelines, this is a simplification of the parts of the armor I want for this character.
You can call it a day and be done with it by refining the sketch a bit now. This is a good design, boring but functional. How do we make it more interesting? By using shapes and patterns to create a general theme, adding cloth parts like a cape and undershirt and all the elements needed like belts, chain mail and so on. Rectangles? Amazing. Circles into rectangles?? Beautiful craftsmanship (go wild)
This is looking like a real character now, congrats! Here’s where the fun really begins though: details. Once the silhouette is defined you can customize the character all the way and make it look like there’s a story to be told even in the armor. I like to think of a theme and apply it to pretty much everything, it’s usually animals or flowers because often times knights had themes like those. This woman is a fierce, fearless mom figure, tired but wise, willing to help the young adventurers to see them leave the nest and fly on their own… like a bird… but like, a cool bird? Like a cool bird often associated with freedom?
Eagle theme are all over the armor: it intrigues the viewer and makes the design look complex enough to be interesting on its own. The knee and elbow parts are wings now, one of the pauldrons has a raging eagle coming out of it (asymmetrical details are cool!), the important parts connecting the armor are shown with little details that make it look like a custom made set. At this point I’m satisfied and can go onto colors, then rendering.
Colors take a big part into the character design but it’s not something I feel good enough to cover lol, the only advice I can share regarding this is to have in mind the materials of the outfit. Right now the breastplate is in a grey zone: a slight change in material can turn a decorated breastplate into a half coat. Defining material when you’re sketching is a neat way to save yourself some time and get a bit less stressed when you get to painting.
And it’s done! Hope it was helpful!
I just realized how terribly short her right arm is LOL please don’t shame me
bruce banner has 7 phds? thats so excessive.. if i met someone with 7 phds i would honestly just be like wtf is wrong with you? its not even the fact that it would take so much time and effort to get them its that there is literally no situation where 7 phds is necessary. thats never gonna happen. hes honestly gotta be so stupid to think for some reason he needs 7 phds.
this reads like a bitter scientist who is very jealous of dr bruce banner
this was ghostwritten by hank pym
Bruce Banner was broke as shit but really good at getting graduate assistantships/scholarships (less good at getting Real World Jobs) so he just went from PhD to PhD for like a decade, just churning out dissertations while weeping and muttering under his breath “i have no real-world skills i have no real-world skills i hAVE NO REAL WORLD SKILLS AAAAAAAHHH”
I guess that’s why he has anger issues. I can understand what so many years in academia has done to Dr. Banner.
Whenever he needs to hulk out he just thinks about his student loans.
It’s okay to take a break.
– We all need time to recharge, and your fans will still be there when you get back!
It’s okay to go from fandom to fandom.
– Nobody is going to criticize you for following your muse, and if they do, then you know who not to associate with in the future!
It’s okay to have a niche.
– If smut is where it’s at, then write smut. If you’re all about the fluff, then schmoop away. If angst is what does it for you, then invest in tissues. Nobody has the right to tell you that you should be doing something else if that isn’t what interests you!
It’s okay to be critical of your own work.
– Just don’t allow yourself to become so self-deprecating that you freeze!
It’s okay to ask for help.
– If you’re unsure of a trope, concept, fact or universe, reach out to your circle of friends. Chances are, they’ll be more than happy to help you because they want to see you succeed!
It’s okay to ignore criticism.
– Constructive criticism is only constructive if it helps you. If someone says something that doesn’t assist or improve you in any way, then please feel free to ignore whatever nugget they are imparting, because chances are good they don’t have the best of intentions for you!
It’s okay to stop writing all together.
– Your fans will miss you (and chances are good you have way more than you realize,) but sometimes, you just gotta do you!
It’s okay to write with whatever method works for you.
– Long writing marathons where you bang out 12,000 words in one day? Great! Linear, dry style that means you occassionally get stuck because you can’t figure out this scene, but it’s all worth it in the end? Rad! Piecemeal work that you thread together at the end? Fabulous! As long as it works for you, there is no wrong way to write!
It’s okay to have fun.
– I think this goes without saying, no? But it seems that sometimes, authors need permission. So consider this permission to wile the hell out, and enjoy the ride!
I think there’s a few of us needing this right now, myself included.
Plot Designing 