Mikero's Artflows

[NovaMan XP]

Honestly, I fell in love with it, despite it being a slightly edited and recolored ProtoMan. I think I liked how simple it was, compared to any previous attempt at a NovaMan I made before then.

Even if it was a quick edit, it did give me a base to work with, so thank you for that, Rez.

[Majikn]

I think the Novaman design is simple in a good way.

I think my problem with designing my character was trying TOO hard. Actually I think that's been my problem with almost any creative endeavour.

I still think I like Mikero's old design but that isn't to say I like it more. I think this new design is interesting and seems a bit more thought out. Are the colours going to be roughly the same? Is the white part on the helmet still gonna glow?

[Mikero]

I think the cheek portions would look better swung up all the way so they resembled something more like Metal Man's ear pieces, then swung down in the opposite direction of the forehead piece.  The mandible placement/design looks kind of weird and unweildly to me.

Hmm, I'll tinker with it. I mainly want the mandible portion to close/open independantly of the cranium part, so I don't know if I want everything to be up top moving down. Admittedly, the hinge-style thing could be awkward. I haven't ruled out the possibility of armor pieces just sort of appearing/growing on him like a Sailor Moon or a sentai sort of thing:

It's a bit hard to explain in text, but something almost like a combination of  the way they animate Transformers transforming or the cross fusions in Megaman NT Warrior. Where I don't like that in Sailor Moon (and also the NT Warrior) clothes just come out of some ethereal vortex or whatever, in Sailor Moon you see her bow animate out of the crystal. In things with machines transforming, you have pieces coming directly out of other pieces even though they probably shouldn't all fit in there or move that way.

In this case, each mandible would slide out of the earpiece and then snap together over the mouth. So, not just appearing out of nowhere, but also being less dependent on physics to get in place. I can probably explain this better as I develop the stuff more, but... for now I'm keeping physics loose since this is supposed to take place in a technologically advanced world.

OR... I might get rid of the whole idea that the armor puts itself on in the first place. The scarf would also likely be holographic, something I originally played with when designing a Command Mission version of the character (since X had a weird scarf). In fact, the possibility exists that the entire armour is photonic as well, which actually gives a lot of freedom to play around with other things.

I like it, though I agree with what Rez said as well. 

I've been wanting to redesign my character for ages now but I end up scrapping most of the ideas... seeing your art makes me want to try it again though.

I always liked that design. I think partly because my very first Mikero sprites were blue with a spikey gold headpiece, in Battle Network style. It's also probably the only the OC we've had on MMM that would actually fit perfectly into the games, aside from Orange Devil. It has Classic style down while being simple and unique enough. Not a lot of faffin' about.

I still think I like Mikero's old design but that isn't to say I like it more. I think this new design is interesting and seems a bit more thought out. Are the colours going to be roughly the same? Is the white part on the helmet still gonna glow?

I want to stress that this isn't really a re-design. It's just a concept for if I ever went ahead with the non-Megaman universe story I had for the character, in which case I have to strip all the MM-ness off the design just to force that world make sense (as it has nothing to do with anything MM). His original design will remain, as like the "main" look. This is more about making a story make sense.

Working on a quick colour mock-up of that motorcycle pic for reference. I think the helmet will still glow, but as always he can turn it down or off (or change it's colour) for stealth. A lot of the colour scheme is similar, but because there's more pieces to it there's a bunch of little differences. That should be coming soon, but I'm only playing around with it during down time at work.

It would be fun to work on a Majikn character.

[TheRedPriest]

Oh, oh, I got it!  Your motorcycle can become your mask!

[White Shadow]

Thanks!

I like the more rounded face shape in the upper left for non-armored, then it being so much more angular afterwards.

I should explain this, and some other things. I was drawing those to figure out how the armor/mask would put itself on. That upper-left drawing is with the upper cranium armor pulled back and the mandible armor wide open, showing the basic ninja mask (which would be part of the more flexible full-body suit that's under everything, like compression clothes).

The bust drawing that's more to the right and lower has the mandibles open but the cranium portion is closed over. And then the lower one is obviously the full head armor, without the classic scarf.

The idea is that when the armor comes on it would move and lock into place in that order. Once fully closed he'd have a HUD kind of like other tech-characters (Iron Man, etc.), and full protection for the skull and eyes--the closed armor making the eyes look robotic and orange (instead of the character actually having orange irises like my older designs).

That came out of the old idea that his bike actually becomes his armor (like how Rush became Super Armor) from my old stuff. I drew him on a bike here just for fun, technically speaking he shouldn't be able to ride and be armored at the same time with my current ideas. Also, that's not even the type of bike I'd have him riding anymore, if at all, but more on that later.

I haven't really sat down and done any real character design rotation on this concept yet, but I just did this quick mockup of the helmet in profile:

Helm reminds me of Xenon Bio Diver.



Nearly impossible to find decent pictures online. Will have to dig up my old collection to illustrate.

[TheRedPriest]

OMG THAT GUY KILLED MIKERO!!!!

[Mikero]

I don't know what that is but it looks #####ing rad as all hell!

Edit: Read a bit about it, and I'm definitely gonna check it out. Love that art.

[White Shadow]

It's a fairly generic shounen manga from the 80s with above average art and I picked them up when my bro was about to toss them.

Will post some pages later.

Also: it's his own helmet he's holding there. Unless he killed Mikero first and is now wearing his skin.

[TheRedPriest]

You'd be surprised what a common trope that is in manga.

[Mikero]

His full armor would fit well in Guyver.

[TheRedPriest]

BIO BOOSTER ARMOR GUYVER, you mean?

[White Shadow]

[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler]img]https://i.imgur.com/effLkZq.jpg[/img][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Teen gets illegally experimented on and ends up with a sweet bionic bod. Rather than getting jiggy with it and enjoying the awesomeness that's being a cyborg, he gets all mopey about it and swears revenge. To pull through with that, Dr. Light builds him a helm to go with the rest of his outfit. So yeah, utterly preposterous and ridiculously intense.

[TheRedPriest]

That's in French, how are we suppose to read it?

[Winged Warrior]

like the french do, I suspect. 

Plus, Mikero is Canadian, right?  That means he's learned french through osmosis or something.

[Majikn]

Actually we're just too polite not to learn French. Our lovely neighbours from The Sovereign Nation of Quebec still frown slightly when we're bad at pronouncing things though.

Posted on:  1 March 2018, 00:25:07

It would be fun to work on a Majikn character.

You're welcome to try it, and I look forward to seeing yours in colour.

The main thing I'd keep about Majikn's appearance is a distinguishing buster that works as a long range silenced-sniper with two front-facing eyes, unlike the one I originally drew. It's not a morphing buster so moving parts would be involved to give the hand underneath more freedom when it's inactive.
Other than that, the character's a reploid, typically green, a bit shorter than X, quiet. Probably with the same type of resting face that Mega Man has in Smash. Large observing eyes and a small mouth. Any doodads that I'd add, if any, I'd probably try to make them appear to serve any function that would somehow improve stealth in a world where many enemies would have things like innate IR, heat, and night vision.

And see, this is what I mean. I didn't even intend to give a lot of detail there and I still came out with two paragraphs.

[White Shadow]

That's in French, how are we suppose to read it?

Actually it's covfefe, like they speak in Nambia. Also, these pages are from different books and out of order.

[Mikero]

Actually we're just too polite not to learn French. Our lovely neighbours from The Sovereign Nation of Quebec still frown slightly when we're bad at pronouncing things though.

Real talk, franco-Ontariens are looked down on pretty badly by the Quebecois just because they're from Ontario but still French. Like they're not "real" french people. Seriously, people from France give less of a ##### about this stuff than people from Quebec.

You're welcome to try it, and I look forward to seeing yours in colour.

The main thing I'd keep about Majikn's appearance is a distinguishing buster that works as a long range silenced-sniper with two front-facing eyes, unlike the one I originally drew. It's not a morphing buster so moving parts would be involved to give the hand underneath more freedom when it's inactive.
Other than that, the character's a reploid, typically green, a bit shorter than X, quiet. Probably with the same type of resting face that Mega Man has in Smash. Large observing eyes and a small mouth. Any doodads that I'd add, if any, I'd probably try to make them appear to serve any function that would somehow improve stealth in a world where many enemies would have things like innate IR, heat, and night vision.

And see, this is what I mean. I didn't even intend to give a lot of detail there and I still came out with two paragraphs.

As a long-form writer, two paragraphs isn't a problem. Toss me a PM with any other details and the old pic!

Posted on:  1 March 2018, 12:09:44

Here's the colour mock-up.
I spent time playing with lighting for no reason so this is a bit purply-er than it should be.

Largely an experiment.

[NovaMan XP]

Nice! I like the purpley stuff.

[LCrazy11]

I imagined the mask blue and the scarf/cloak brown with the armour being white and I feel like this works better but I'm not sure. what do you think Mikero?

[TheRedPriest]

For a stealthy ninja, the helmet seems too bright to me.  But it looks cool apart from that.

[Mikero]

Hmm, probably due to the head lights being lit up, which wouldn't always be the case. They're used contextually. There's also some camouflage tech he has (that I want to expand on later) that negate that as an issue. But really, someone who's good at stealth could wear a traffic cone and still go unseen anyway.

[TheRedPriest]

There's only one Solid Snake my friend.

[LCrazy11]

so I'm not good at art and I did this in Ms paint but he shoots lasers and flies

[TheRedPriest]

YOU GOT THE TOUCH!  YOU GOT THE POWEEEEERRRRRRR!!!! YEEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!

[Winged Warrior]

It's so nice to have the old WW back.

[TheRedPriest]

Don't presume to speak for the rest of us, son.

[Mikero]

so I'm not good at art and I did this in Ms paint but he shoots lasers and flies

I think you're pretty good

[LCrazy11]

thank you
but I don't see myself improving that much as I don't carry a passion for making art
but you make your guy so please answer these questions

1. what is ninja bike guys name?
2. what is the robots name(I haven't thought of one so you can if you want)
3. who are ninja bike guys enemys

[TheRedPriest]

I'll field this one, Mike.

1) Oliver Cromwell

2) The Discocuter

3) Pot holes and the Proletariat.

[LCrazy11]

thank you red priest
 

[Mikero]

Well Rez is only partly right, hahah.

1) Painfully digging through my very very old art to get you up to the same speed as everyone else here:

What I'm doing here is reimagining a character I created on this site over 10 years (wow) ago through making my own sprite art and sprite animations. Back in the day, that is what we did here; People made their own characters/avatars. This why you see Nova Man and Red Priest with their own custom art.

The character is named Mikero and this is his definitive "Mega Man" (in Powered Up! style) universe design, however there's been many aternate versions of the character including versions for other games and more contemporary and realistic ones. We also had a lot of our own side stories and one-off tales around here. Hell, here's an early design for the bike. At some point during those years I thought up an original story involving the character and his origins and started a comic of it, which I only showed a tiny bit of here.

Snare's recent CYOA thread, as well as another friend of mine, inspired me to tinker around with the character again, and here we are in 2018. Honestly though, he WILL be needing a new name if I ever want to develop this into something.

2) Le Discocutre

3) "Pot holes and the Proletariat" is close enough for now, until I can articulate the story better!

[TheRedPriest]

Ask Doctor Wily is the pinnacle of Mikero's ninja adventures.

[LCrazy11]

okay thanks for all the info and I'm glad to see someone doing the "i have multiple versions of this character with different stories thing because multiverse" I really enjoy that concept

[Mikero]

I keep playing.

[Johncarllos]

Very schmexy.

Digging the attention to the texture on the arm.

[Mikero]

I just realized the chrome writing's bezel disappeared upon resize, but I'm actually quite OK with it.

I tinkered with this for a big each day at work, while animation scenes froze. I mainly just wanted to mess around with the reflections on the armour (specifically way the city reflects with many different light sources) and also toy with some textures (undersuit, scarf) just to give you guys a better idea than the last image... then I just kinda kept going and going (as is tradition). The titles very much came out of the ether while I was thinking about other stuff.

Make sure to click the image so the resolution is good.

I haven't posted this stuff anywhere else yet, this is really the first one I like, but when I do I'll be putting in some extra sketches too. Next, I would like to work on designing more of the body, and also the bike and character without armour.

[White Shadow]

Say, Mike, would you be up for a commission, work permitting?

[Mikero]

My schedule is pretty awful but let me know what you're thinking!

Posted on: 16 March 2018, 12:25:05

Did this one while I was colouring the other image. Playing around with ideas for the body armor. I really liked the way they did Batman's armor in Arkham Knight, where the chest was in multiple parts, connected by strong fiber, which allows actual complicated movement unlike most armor chest pieces. It's really evident around the Bat symbol itself.

Anyway, for the types of acrobatics this character would get into, that kind of function is essential if he's going to have armor on. That's also partly the reason that his armor here is more based in small panels and bulletproof mesh weaves. That... and the idea that pieces can then be replaced more easily.

[Johncarllos]

Being able to detach pieces fits with the modular helmet tech too. I'm imagining some sort of keyed magnet system that disallows anyone else from attaching the armor to themselves , but having it attach to a steel/carbon fiber mesh regular ninja suit.

Using something like a more advanced version of this technology.

https://youtu.be/IANBoybVApQ?t=2m39s

Watch through to 3:37 to see the thing I'm thinking of.


I'm guessing you already have something in mind, but I think this is a cool option to ground the character in modern tech that could easily advance exponentially.

Posted on: April 05, 2018, 04:52:20 PM

Especially the spring latch at 6:00, for equipping and unequipping magnetic armor plates.

[Mikero]

Being able to detach pieces fits with the modular helmet tech too. I'm imagining some sort of keyed magnet system that disallows anyone else from attaching the armor to themselves , but having it attach to a steel/carbon fiber mesh regular ninja suit.

You've completely got the kind of thing I'm going for. The magnet system (and video) is really fantastic! The tight polymagnet seems perfect for the actual attachment of the armor to him, which means I could lose things like straps and buckles from the design altogether.

It's almost like the old costume design exists under the armor. I've definitely be leaning towards the mesh but I've also been considering liquid body armor for a few reasons. In fact, one type of liquid body armor currently being researched uses magnetorheological fluid, a substance that can change to change to nearly-solid when exposed to magnetism, so I could see a hybrid of those two working... Almost like weaving liquid armor into itself or soaking a steel/carbon mesh in MR fluid (instead of soaking ballistic plates). That actually might make the undersuit technically stronger than the armor pieces, haha!

Gonna keep thinking about that. Both that magnet system you linked and fluid armor fit well with the whole motorcycle turning into armor thing.

I tackled this one with a more animation-based (but not animation-friendly) style to make it simpler to understand how certain things relate. It's difficult to balance where pieces/panels of armor should be for protection while maintaining his overall mobility.

Part of that is why I looked to the designs from the Arkham games. The character moves more like a Nightwing type of character than Batman, but everyone's design in those games is well-designed for this. For the most part anyway (the Arkham Knight himself has an incredible helmet design but his body comes off a little clunky).

Nightwing's armor itself is a little more subdued than this character needs (story purposes), so I took more inspiration from Deathstroke and Batman, but tighter/smaller. It just can't be as bulky as those guys, but needs to be modular (since, at least for now, it's still basically a Transformer).

I also have been referencing Metal Gear, but that's obvious.

[Johncarllos]

That magnetorheological fluid could be stored in ballistic sacs for when the outer armor isn't equipped (or is only partially equipped during high agility/flexibility scenarios) that are actually keyed in shape to the armor pieces. Almost like veins under the outer mesh.

Something like that would allow this semi-fluid ballistic gel to dampen impacts (maybe not take high speed/armor piercing bullets) and still allow for extreme mobility, then a partial application of the armor over vitals wouldn't add a lot of weight and maintain flexibility. Lastly a fully stripped armorbike would apply all the parts and have more of a batsuit coating for extreme ballistic protection and more tank-y approaches.

I also have to admit I haven't played Arkham Knight, but I just watched a video of the super Batsuit v 8.03 introduction while writing this post and I see a lot of similarities. The biggest advantage your character would have is being able to unequip any piece at any time with a very specific motion to 'unlock' it if he does use a magnetic outer layer.

It could also mean that all of the melee and throwing weapons are integrated into the armor itself.

I'm imagining him injured/immobilized with only one arm free and getting shot in the chest, acting as though the bullet penetrated the armor, grabbing the chest plate, unlatching it with a specific motion and throwing it like a shuriken. (Perhaps with a light boomerang effect either through magnets or fancier tech)

Lots of sweet options for suit up montages as well.

Could you layer the bike for different levels of tank/stealth?

I could also see this type of thing making a really kickass videogame dynamic, almost deus ex style with a choice of how to build the bike for mobility and exploration but certain bike/armor choices locking out other options per build out.

[TheRedPriest]

NERDS!!!!

[Mikero]

Been over a year since I posted any art, which is silly. The main reason is I’ve not been able to continue developing the character in my previous few posts as much as I’d like, but I’ll get back to that soon.

Anyway, here’s my newest thing. It’s a travesty that blue pig demon king Ganon has completely fallen to the wayside.

[TheRedPriest]

Pig Ganon is best Ganon.

[Mikero]

One thousand million percent agree

[Mikero]

Haven't used this thread in over a year, I post art mainly on my art instagram, but I figured I really should share my actual 9-to-5 work more often so here's the latest release for our studio:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBZ9UkhblkM

Kid Cosmic is a new show from Craig McCracken, creator of a show I previously worked on years ago called Wander Over Yonder as well this little show called The Powerpuff Girls.

I did a couple different jobs on this new show, and I'm really excited for this one to come out. You don't always actually like watching the show you're working on in this industry. It's finally coming out February 2nd, but I've literally been working on it for years at this point.

[TheRedPriest]

It's too bad the budget was so low for this.  It would have looked amazing with full tone and not half tone dots!

[Mikero]

The half-tone dots are only used for the credits (in a pretty clever way) and some promotional art like the image here. Dot tones look like garbage when fully animated, everything has full colour range and continuous tone. It's definitely not a low budget show at all, that's actually a surprising take.

[TheRedPriest]

It was a deeply sarcastic statement.  It looks fine.

[Johncarllos]

I agree that it looks great. Your sarcasm wasn't lost on me, Rez.