Bikini Armor Battle Damage

caitsketches: Daytime reblog and also I’m gonna tag @bikiniarmorbattledamage caitsketches: I...

ozziescribbler — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 12:00:30 +0200

Daytime reblog and also I’m gonna tag @bikiniarmorbattledamage

caitsketches:

I wanted to do one from the front so it’s easier to see what I did with her chest plate! I just made it a lil more protective while keeping with the design

What do you think?

I think she would not get an arrow through her cleavage if she wore this armor!*

Good job in fixing Pyrrha, @caitsketches! I appreciate how much difference such a simple change can make.

Personally, as a big opposer of Sameface Syndrome, I have a huge beef with RWBY’s character and costume designs in general. I welcome any fix to their absurd double standards and obsession with making everything look gratuitously “cool” and anime-like without questioning how much it fits the characters and worldbuilding. Especially the casual sexualization of teenage girls. Uuugh. 😖

~Ozzie

Comparing between this and the original honestly points out how embarrassingly close the creators were to a good design.

Literally connect the neck thing to the chest piece, and give her pants, and we wouldn’t need a redesign.

-Icy

*Sorry not sorry for spoiling ancient seasons.
Also, while plate armor isn’t considered a fool-proof protection against arrows, it’s obviously better than no protection at all.

redtallin: An Aasimar Cleric for a friend of mine! Painting the gauntlets and flames was so much...

ozziescribbler — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:00:37 +0200

redtallin:

An Aasimar Cleric for a friend of mine! Painting the gauntlets and flames was so much fun!

Oh, I really like how her outfit is overall uncomplicated, so the eye is drawn to the flaming gauntlet and her golden eyes. The choice to break up the shapes in this way, with the big central shape surrounded (and bisected) by smaller ones, also helps the eye take in the entire design. It’s also just a nice way to “casually” wear armor.

Even though this design is made up of “simple” clothes, it’s still interesting and pleasing to look at, and I really like the color scheme. And the rendering is just so crisp and nice!

-Icy

Weekly BABD Stream #101.5

icykitty — Sat, 19 Sep 2020 11:34:21 +0200

Weekly BABD Stream #101.5:

This week, we’re continuing creating cryptic content. Well, Legend of the Cryptids content, in any case.

Join us on our new day, Sunday at the same time as always, 10:30 AM PT / 7:30 PM CEST!

~Ozzie and Icy

Queen of the Spiders Re-Covered We decided to try our hand at a...

ozziescribbler — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 12:00:43 +0200

Queen of the Spiders Re-Covered

We decided to try our hand at a combined redesign, where each of us picked a character in the same picture and redesigned them. And we thought this image, the cover of an old Dungeons and Dragons adventure called “Queen of the Spiders” would be a good candidate (blame for throwing it at us goes to @theoldhack).

This is where the infamous drow race is introduced, where I guess they were just… evil women of color. 😬 Unfortunate. We decided to make them purple-skinned like they are in more modern lore.

At first, Icy thought the “queen” in the title referenced the lady in the middle there, but it’s actually one of the names for Lolth, the spider goddess whom the drow venerate, so…. We’re sure the drow on the cover are important mini-bosses somewhere in the adventure, probably, maybe.

Full write-up and close-up images under the cut.

What’s-her-Face on the Right

Just gotta say that it’s a huge pet peeve of mine when (usually male) writers write a matriarchal society as, air quotes, “sexually liberated,” otherwise known as “an excuse to draw them in lingerie because I can’t imagine women’s bodies not catering to me personally in any scenario, while still drawing men in full body armor.” Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Okay, so…. I’m not sure what she’s supposed to be… besides a swimsuit model, which maybe the drow do have. Is there a quest where the players go to the underground beach to play underground beach volleyball? Cause if not, why is she like that???

I decided to make her a mage (this was a 1st edition book, so that’s all we got). I ended up changing…. everything, really. I think the only thing I didn’t change was her nose shape. It’s not my fault though, the redline for her original pose was an unsalvageable eldrich nightmare.

I gave her a more confident pose, more comfortable magic-user-friendly clothes (with the spider motif, cause spider god), and even different hair. The original hairdo just wasn’t doing it for me. I wanted her to look cool enough to have her own illustration in the book. She even has a little magic flame (mostly cause I didn’t know what to do with her hand lol)!

Her hair didn’t quite turn out how I wanted it to, but overall, I think it’s a good redraw. She’s got lots of fun shapes, an actual color scheme, and an attitude. What else do we need?

-Icy

Queen/High Priestess Crotchleg

The composition was so awful that I had to actually largely re-do it by changing the third lady’s position from right to left and recreating large parts of the throne… some of which ended up covered by the main drow’s dress anyway (probably for the better).

Speaking of which, boy was she hard to fix without just throwing everything away and starting over! First of all, the way she sits on the throne seems like a product of an alien who never experienced what a chair is… which might also explain the throne’s uncomfortable-looking design. I actually ended up giving it a bigger seat and more lumbar support.

The pose, of course, got changed to something less concerned with showing off her immaculate Brazilian and more with looking comfortable and intimidating in the authority position. I also noticed her neck was disturbingly short, so I moved her face a tiny bit up. Now her spider crown is more of a tiara than a hat. And she got a golden choker to match.

A lot of questionable physics of how she actually sits got covered up by roomy, relatively simplistic clothes I gave her. Maybe I’d consider something more elaborate if the rest of the painting didn’t require so much fixing. What matters is that it’s not a painted-on swimming suit anymore. I’m overall satisfied with the design of her top and the spiderweb skirt. Hopefully the golden spider jewelry (the legs are thin chains!) gives it some regal feel.

The original shoes were quite stylish, but looked neither comfortable nor matched the fashion sense I went with for the character (also didn’t match the angles at which I redrew legs). So I ended up giving her sandals with golden ornamentation, matching her gauntlets. Sorry not sorry for half-assing the legs. One has to prioritize while on a deadline*.

I’m generally happy with the results, considering the sheer scale of changes we had to apply to have it meet BABD standards for positive example.

~Ozzie

*Icy sobbing in the background

Weekly BABD Stream #101

icykitty — Sun, 13 Sep 2020 19:00:45 +0200

Weekly BABD Stream #101:

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

Starting this week, we’re going to be streaming on Sundays, at the same time as usual.

So join us this week on Sunday at 10:30 AM PT / 7:30 PM CEST. See you there!

~Ozzie and Icy

Streaming in 30 minutes!

Weekly BABD Stream #101

icykitty — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 09:41:48 +0200

Weekly BABD Stream #101:

Starting this week, we’re going to be streaming on Sundays, at the same time as usual.

So join us this week on Sunday at 10:30 AM PT / 7:30 PM CEST. See you there!

~Ozzie and Icy

bikiniarmorbattledamage: pajamabending: >Okay though I...

ozziescribbler — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 12:01:01 +0200

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

pajamabending:

>Okay though I seriously never expected a Nintendo Mii game to have sexist armor. I know it’s just a fashion game, but that almost makes it worse.
(The faded ones on the left of the bold outfit pieces are the male armor pieces.)
bikiniarmorbattledamage

What I find truly amazing is the helmet/tiara. Everything else looks like they tried to make the variants as cheap as possible - but apparently when it came to the helmet they really decided to go all out and make sure there was no way you could possibly mistake the gender of the Mii.

Or maybe they thought if a guy has to go without pants then he needs a Helmet +5 to Masculinity, +5 to Hiding His Face.

- wincenworks

Today’s throwback: a tiny reminder that casual sexism in costume design sneaks even into something as innocuous as Nintendo Mii skins.

The lack of protection for female heads while guys go out in full helmets remains a staple of Female Armor Bingo. Even if certain crowd insist on arguing that it’s never a gendered thing (sometimes it isn’t, but then ladies with helmets somehow show tendency to take them off to flaunt their impossibly perfect hair, while guys seemingly wear them 24/7).

[image source]

At least this Mii case is pretty clear-cut. ♀️ Pretty tiara with wings = ♂️ Roman helmet 🙃

And while we would never disqualify a positive example of armored lady just for not displaying a helmet, showing that she has one is always appreciated!

~Ozzie

satan-general-irl submitted:LET MOM CHARACTERS BE ATTRACTIVE...

icykitty — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 12:00:32 +0200

satan-general-irl submitted:

LET MOM CHARACTERS BE ATTRACTIVE & BADASS WITHOUT BEING OVERLY SEXUALIZED-
Sindel has such an interesting concept?? But then they tried to make her like… god, I can’t. I did this in like 20 minutes on my phone. No cruelty intended, but if you can’t design a scary older woman to where she’s hot without wearing a leather monokini, you’re not doing it right.
I emphasized the royalty motif with the jewelry & corset (so her impossibly tiny waist makes some semblance of sense). Hope you guys like it.

Emphasis mine, cause I agree 100%. For 20 minutes on your PHONE, trying to work around that disaster, this is such a huge improvement, it’s kind of embarrassing for the original. I wonder what other designs were on the drawing board before they picked this one. At least she seems to have abs in the original…. but damn, was this the worst way to show them? The answer is yes. Check out our bingo of the original “outfit” here.

The way I see it, this is one of those designs where you have to just scrap everything, except for that shrug thing maybe, to redo. I don’t think the corset is a great look (or great for fighting), but honestly, I wouldn’t be able to come up with any ideas in 20 minutes, as anyone who has watched our livestreams will confirm. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think this is a good example of just how easy it is to not give your character an ugly double-sided-tape-requiring swimsuit made out of that puffy coat material. But this was Mortal Kombat 9, where clothes went to die.

-Icy

Taking a Break, by Ittimai SirikuptamasI always enjoy seeing...

icykitty — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 12:00:37 +0200

Taking a Break, by Ittimai Sirikuptamas

I always enjoy seeing people’s Destiny characters fanart, because they always look so casually badass even outside of combat. The games’ armor designs are consistently non-sexualized and thoughtful.

I also like how the color scheme for the vehicle is the same as the character herself!

-Icy

Weekly BABD Stream #100.5

icykitty — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 19:22:34 +0200

Weekly BABD Stream #100.5:

We’re continuing our Hot 100′s stream this week! Hopefully our hardware will cooperate this time.

Join us at our regular BABD time on Saturday at 10:30 AM PT / 7:30 PM CEST!

~Ozzie and Icy

Weekly BABD Stream # 1 0 0

icykitty — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 10:46:18 +0200

Weekly BABD Stream # 1 0 0:

Wow, is it really our 100th stream?? So many memories…

So join us for a pair of Especially Empowered Men at our regular time on Saturday at 10:30 AM PT / 7:30 PM CEST while maybe reminiscing about old redesigns!

~Ozzie and Icy

Vampire Hunter (Judge), by Dmitry BezrodniyWanted to showcase a...

icykitty — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 12:00:30 +0200

Vampire Hunter (Judge), by Dmitry Bezrodniy

Wanted to showcase a cool character who’s designed for a more modern setting. There’s a lot of cool details here, from her knee pads to the holy water she has ready. She’s dressed for cool nights, exactly the kind of time a vampire hunter would be on the prowl. I also love the lamps she has on the big cross, and even on her backpack strap, I think that’s clever. There’s even a stake attached to her big cross! I highly recommend checking out the original, where you can see way more screenshots, as well interact with the 3D model itself.

-Icy

No Stream This Week

icykitty — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 09:46:39 +0200

We’re taking a health day. But fear not, for we have a Fun Stream planned for the big 1-0-0! So we’ll see ya’ll soon for that~ 👀

Stay safe!

~Ozzie and Icy

Abfinder, Part 2: MeligasterI obviously had to go for a...

icykitty — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 12:00:51 +0200

Abfinder, Part 2: Meligaster

I obviously had to go for a charisma-based iconic character (so I could give them a Very Big Charisma) and my favorite class happens to be the mesmerist, so here we go: the iconic mesmerist, Meligaster. Mesmerists use manipulation to get their way, so it’s strange that the original design for Mel here is so prudish. So I decided to fix that.

I ended up getting rid of almost all of his clothes. I left the fancy chain so that he can hide his nipples and flash them strategically when interacting with people. I also made sure to give him a good amount of body hair, since he’s a halfling.

There are a lot of more subtle changes I did to empower him further, like giving him invisible high heels (the epitome of empowerment), adding to his facial hair, and making his eyes pop a bit.

I definitely had a lot of fun working on this, as a Pathfinder player who knows the lore. I’ll definitely be informing my fellow tabletop friends of this New and Improved Mel.

-Icy

maispace: Inspired by going on one of my classic Overwatch...

ozziescribbler — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 12:00:33 +0200

maispace:

Inspired by going on one of my classic Overwatch character design rants the other day and binging @bikiniarmorbattledamage yesterday, I took it upon myself to try to make Widowmaker’s design… less worse. Here’s what I changed:

I gave her pants. Widowmaker is a victim of the weirdly common Overwatch character design trope of “armor from the knees down, skin-tight from the knees up”. (Well, the armor is also somehow skin-tight, but.) Since Widowmaker is a sniper and Talon is supposed to be paramilitary, I decided to put her in some actual tactical pants. …Of course, I still forgot to draw pockets. Pretend they’re there.

I decided not to shorten her legs or widen her waist, despite how ridiculous both of those features are, because Widowmaker actually has a reason to look like that - her spider motif. On any other character, I wouldn’t stand for it.

I closed up her ridiculous cleavage window. Again, she’s a sniper. Lay down on a roof in that and you’ll get your chest absolutely cut up. While I was in the area, I gave her bodysuit some subtle segmentation for a “carapace” look.

I think the way I changed her shoes she’d still have her feet in the high-heel position, but I at least wanted to made them flat on the bottom so Widow doesn’t catch her foot on a gutter and faceplant into an alley while doing her whole parkour thing.

Purple isn’t a very “spidery” color, so I changed her to a dull greenish-brown with yellow accents to evoke an orb weaver’s color scheme.

I shortened her hair so it doesn’t get in the way while she’s fighting, and so it’s the almost exact shape of a spider abdomen, thus making her whole head a big spider design.

I made her skin a normal human color, with some subtle purplish tones on her nose, lips, ears, and cheeks. I also removed her earring.

I made her visor boxier both to look like a jumping spider and for a more realistic “tactical” look, which also gave me room to pop some more eyes on there. Plus I think it just looks better; the original looks like they were going for Giger and gave up.

Black widows are overplayed. I changed the hourglass light on her gun to the Talon logo, so she’s actually representing her organization somewhere on her design.

Thank you for @-ing us, @maispace!

It’s a second fan redesign of Widowmaker we share that adds roomy pants to her costume, so it probably tell us something about what’s the next most glaringly inadequate part of her design, right after the navel-deep cleavage.

Not sure if I’m personally into the proposed color scheme, at least without invoking orb weaver’s interesting patterns in some ways. That would also add some much needed segmentation and contrast in her outfit.
I agree, though, that the original colors were completely out of nowhere and should be revised.

The ponytail combined with helmet creating a spider-like shape is definitely much better evoked than in Blizzard’s design and shoes being somewhat wearable are appreciated.

All in all, good reminder that Overwatch, while it comes with many interesting ideas and motifs for character designs, seems to abandon committing to them halfway through, to sell something more generic and palatable to their presumed audience, as per Creepy Marketing Guy’s request. Same reason it often fits the “concept art POC turns into a pale white Barbie in the final product” problem that @otherwindow noted.

~Ozzie

182, by Paul ShutAll I can think looking at this is, can you...

icykitty — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 12:00:44 +0200

182, by Paul Shut

All I can think looking at this is, can you imagine if this was how Saskia looked in Witcher 2?

But setting aside my personal grudges for a moment, I appreciate that it’s obvious this knight has clearly seen action; she looks experienced and capable. I love the use of cloth and the heraldry. And the overall mood of the piece has this anticipation and thoughtfulness. This knight would be perfectly at home in a medieval fantasy game, and that would be amazing to see.

-Icy

Weekly BABD Stream #99 Part 3

icykitty — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 09:40:47 +0200

Weekly BABD Stream #99 Part 3:

And we’re back! For hopefully the last time of dealing with Dragon’s Crown. These ladies are so poorly designed, that trying to redesign them in good faith is just taking longer than usual…

So join us at our usual time on Saturday at 10:30 AM PT / 7:30 PM CEST~

~Ozzie and Icy

Abfinder, Part 1: Ezren We’re interrupting this week’s muscular...

ozziescribbler — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 12:00:44 +0200

Abfinder, Part 1: Ezren

We’re interrupting this week’s muscular women discourse for some sexy dudes we redesigned during couple streams. It’s the men of Pathfinder. This week Ezren, the iconic Wizard. Because Ozzie and silver foxes is a pattern, apparently 😉

I usually keep the silhouette roughly the same for male characters, just uncovering as much of skin as possible, but this was a special case, cause male wizards tend to dress in tons of unsexy layers. I had no choice but to recreate his legs, arms and abs from scratch, without much indication of how ripped he should be.

No sleeves, no coat flaps, a crop top that reaches juuust above his male presenting nipples. Now that’s empowerment.

Hope you also liked the new stylish shoes I designed him from scratch.

Everyone knows that when fighters and barbarians go topless, it’s to display their physical strength, right? Clearly, when squishy magic user does the same, it’s a sign of magic power making up for their vulnerable bodies! At least that’s what we usually hear when a witch or a sorceress of some kind runs around in a bikini.

~Ozzie

bikiniarmorbattledamage: Brigitte and Overwatch’s continous...

wincenworks — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 12:00:45 +0200

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

Brigitte and Overwatch’s continous female design problem

We talked already about Brigitte’s costume, but there’s a whole lot of other issues about her character design that shouldn’t be overlooked. Again, it’s a nice idea to have a new lady in actual armor in the game, though we wouldn’t be BABD if we didn’t point out some obvious and less obvious problems that can be spotted with her.

She’s, after Moira, another white European lady in a row, while still the closest to black female representation among playable heroes is Orisa, a robot (and before anyone says it - nope, none of the dark-skinned female characters are black).
For a game that prides itself in having diverse international cast, Overwatch can not imagine people of color color coming from places that wouldn’t be POC-dominant already (also lots of their heroes of color somehow happen to be morally dubious compared to white ones). And just because Brigitte is a pre-established character doesn’t yet excuse prioritizing adding her to the game over someone with different background.

It’s kind of funny how after being unnamed for no reason in her last major media appearance, the Reinhardt animated short, now Brigitte got elevated from a supporting lore character to one of main heroes. This, paired with ridiculous lack of consistency in her cross-media appearances gives us a strong feeling that no-one at Blizzard is overseeing writing and art direction of Overwatch as a franchise. Fans who spot constant retcons in the story would agree.

Speaking of no visual consistency, seems like from comics to the animated short to the actual game Brigitte finished her long journey from a unique-looking person to another standard issue pretty face.

And no, different artists working on each of those appearances isn’t an excuse for how only her hair and skintone remain relatively consistent. Her crucial features like jawline, freckles, nose shape and size, how big her eyes are and how strong her chin is shouldn’t alter so widely just because of art style change. Blizzard is perfectly capable of making and using style guides - and when they don’t, it’s either by choice or negligence.

And if you wondered what we meant by “standard issue pretty face”, this pic, for obvious reasons, has gained some major mileage around the Internet:

Congrats, Blizzard! You officially care about diverse female appearances as little Disney does! (image sources: [x] & [x])

Or maybe the jokes are true and the (weak) excuse for looking like clones is the same as for the Frozen ladies? Mercy is Brigitte’s real mom!

Not to mention that Blizzard can’t make up their mind on what Brigitte’s body type is supposed to be. Is she thin and curvy as virtually every other Overwatch lady? Is she almost as buff as Zarya? Something inbetween? Who knows.

I saw some fans trying to excuse her twig arms from Christmas comic as being possibly earliest in the timeline, but no official channel would confirm or deny any speculation. Overwatch is pretty satisfied with fans using their headcanons to justify whatever information the story canon won’t commit to. Why make an effort when fans can do your job for you?

~Ozzie

“Brigitte Lindholm, squire to Reinhardt Wilhelm, is a former mechanical engineer who has decided to take up arms and fight on the front lines to protect those in need.”

If I didn’t know anything about this character and was just reading her background blurb, I would be imagining a character design more akin to this:

Why build a regular armor and shield when I can pilot a 12-foot-tall exoskeleton? Her father builds turrets during combat, it would have been cool if she had skills related to building and adjusting her own armor in-combat.

Her design doesn’t inform me of her character at all, which is a problem with several of the Overwatch cast (mostly ladies, I wonder why that is). She wears armor, but so does Pharah; is she also a soldier? She has no welding mask or a tool belt that would indicate that she’s a mechanic type. I get that she doesn’t want to just fix things on the sidelines, but she does throw out armor for her allies. It isn’t a stretch to flavor it as her fixing her team’s equipment in the heat of battle, and she does get a welding mask in a different skin but not the primary one?

Her color scheme is almost the same as Mercy’s, with silver (instead of white), yellow and black being the core, which really isn’t helping that same-face problem, Blizzard. Not to mention the shapes are very similar to Pharah’s. There’s just nothing new here design-wise, and I am disappointed.

-Icy

So since the screaming baby rage machine is still going full throttle, it’s probably worth bringing this back to highlight how this issue goes and the general expectations regarding fictional buff ladies.

After decades of pandering, capital-G gamers will accept buff ladies if:

They’re clearly in the service of a manly (cishet) man
They have some cute costuming to make them non-threatening
They are easily Disneyfied

They will lose their shit if the lady:

Has no binding loyalties to any (cishet) man
Has the same level of utilitarian style fashion as a standard male protagonist
Is clearly not designed primarily to appeal to men

It’s never really about what they say it is - it’s always about “does this clearly prioritize me above everyone else, to the extent of excluding others”.

- wincenworks

jimquisition: The Last of Us Part 2 is a neverending nightmare...

ozziescribbler — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 12:00:47 +0200

jimquisition:

The Last of Us Part 2 is a neverending nightmare of discourse, and the outrage hasn’t stopped. By far the most absurdly controversial aspect remains Abby, a character whose existence has been offered up for debate by weirdos.

Abby’s swole build has been called into question by a bunch of boys desperate to erase anybody who doesn’t fit into their tiny idea of what “real” women should look like. To do this, they’ve gone to amazing lengths to argue why Abby shouldn’t be muscular.

It’s an absolute roller coaster of nonsense, let me tell you.

Choice quotes from the vid:

You see, the same group of status quo warriors who have spent YEARS in this so-called culture war defending unrealistic body types is suddenly an arbiter of what is and isn’t believable character design.

~~~

Any reasonable person would be able to say “shut up, it’s a videogame, the reasonably-muscular arms are among the more believable suspensions of disbelief in a mushroom zombie videogame”, and that’s even if you think it’s unrealistic in the first place. But that doesn’t do enough to counteract the sheer hypocritical stupidity of a group of literal wankers who only ever shout realism when it’s convenient, when they’re trying to get an unconventional videogame protagonist erased, or falsely claiming that black people weren’t around in the olden days, which is why games set in medieval Europe should only have white characters.

Manchildren targeting Abby’s muscular body as “unrealistic for a woman” is something we wrote about a month ago. Now Jim is also touching specifically upon the pretend outrage over female biceps being unfuckable to fragile cishet white boy Gamers™… and how somehow, according to them, everyone should care?
Their “arguments”, as always, are even more nakedly ridiculous when read out loud by Duke du H’arcore.

~Ozzie

See also: Renegade Cut’s The Outrage is About Control, Not Breasts - comprehensive analysis of why Status Quo Warriors manufacture controversies around fictional women’s bodies that don’t 100% cater to their liking.