Stop worrying about it so much, Bloo. The drawing style doesn't matter and it doesn't matter if some people don't like it. They can cry about it and hen they're done, you'll still be a more accomplished artist than they. The movies and games that turn out shit are the ones made with the help of the fans. The word "fan" is short for "fanatic". It does not imply intelligence.

I know you're right, but it just lingers. I'll probably get over it the more I show you guys what all your characters look like.

@CH: That's a good question. There's actually a lot of ways you can make static objects "emit" emotion through artistic bullshit like lighting, atmosphere and whatnot. One way to overcome the language barrier is to have them speak with electronic voices when talking to humans. The voices are eerily nonhuman, and many of their messages are spliced from different sound clips, making it kinda creepy.

The thing about the Predators (Elders, mostly) is that their story is a really sad one, so most of the emotions that will be present are ones of doubt, anger, and sadness. Their planet was taken over by a species they've never seen before, which was released by a species they hated the most, and the surviving Predators all turned their backs on them in lack of faith. There are only 8 Elders and 10 of their followers left - the rest of the 100 Predators have been led to think they need to punish humanity because they're the offspring of the species that unleashed the Aliens. The 18 "good" Predators are your guys' characters.

They way I'm going to convey their feelings is by using their environment and body language. One (almost cliche) example is to have raindrops streaming down their masks to imitate the act of crying.

They'll almost always have masks on, so their mask designs will also reflect their feelings and personality. For example, Doc and Pv2 have Jungle Hunter masks, showing that they're the most wise and oldest of the 8 Elders. However, there ARE still differences between them.

1) Doc is straight up original formula, so he has the most honor and respect for other species. The words that make up his title might not make sense right now, but "God of Mechanica" is very fitting for him.

2) Pv2's mask is the same color as City Hunter's, reflecting the fact that he dabbles in researching "revival of what is lost" (THUS fitting his title of "God of Life").

3) Your mask is similar to Doc's, but you've got tusks strapped to it, showing that you're loyal to Doc because it's the right thing to do, but you also aren't so sure about the older traditions and you sure as hell aren't sure about saving humans. Because of your loyalty to Doc, you are the "Gates of Mechanica" (which, again, will make more sense in the actual story).

4) Stalker's mask is wildly different. For one, he's always cloaked with nothing but the occassional "eye shine" you see Predators doing sometimes. He's angry but emotionless, just like his mask. But ALSO like his mask, he's not simple or plain. He gives and takes orders with nothing but hints of shadiness and contempt. He's the most distant of the 8 Elders and refuses to believe the other Predators are now "evil." By the end, he's destined to overcome his distance by killing his former protege, a traitor called Malirith. Stalker's title is "God of Deception."

5) Deathdrop's mask is modeled after a "demon" his father had fought; he even wears his father's old mask. His father, Deathgaze, was so obsessed with finishing the demon off that it eventually led to his family becoming the laughing stock of the Ancient Council. This demon was, in fact, Fire Hunter. FH represents the deadly sin Wrath, and DD's mask represents both he and his father's anger at the Xeno that has caused their family so much humiliation. It also shows how twisted and fucked up he's become - he takes after his father in a lot of ways, even relying on drugs and refusing to use shiny new armor. In the end, Deathdrop is destined to overcome his past and fight FH not out of selfishness and pride like his father did, but to protect one of the other Predators, something his father would never do. DD's title is "Agent of Death."

6) The Wolf's (Cory's) mask is the same as, well, Wolf's from AVPR, but it has he same "headdress" as a Queen's and is colored like City Hunter's. He's an absolute professional, like Stalker but total opposite in personality. He's a hot-headed show-off that often butts heads with Stalker and Deathdrop. He's never cloaked unless needed, and he enjoys killing the Badbloods. Like his mask, he, well, "masks" his real emotion by showing a wild and falsely confident side, but underneath his bio-mask, his face is cosidered ugly even by other Predators, and underneath his metaphorical mask lies a Predator that doesn't know what's right - he just follows Doc because he thinks OTHERS think it's right. The Wolf is the "Emissary of Life."

7) Black Warrior's mask is the same as City Hunter's, except it has Jungle Hunter's color. His name is a slang term for "God of Death" and he acts the most like a typical Predator. His mask is traditional, and he likes to keep things under wraps. His title is "God of Famine."

8) Finally, there's an old friend called Phone. His real name is Cetanu, and he's really a female. She hides from the other Elders AND the Badbloods because she wants no part of her destiny. She's the main Predator protagonist, and is the one seen the most because she lives among humans acting as a Synthetic. Her appearance is REALLY unorthodox: she wears human equipment, amputated her dreadlocks to show that she cut her ties from her past, and wears a bio-mask modeled after a Predator skull. She always speaks using a Synthetic female's voice, and has the most natural-sounding electronic voice of the Elders, even being mistaken for human a few times. She overcomes her fear of responsibility by killing the leader of the Badbloods, a former Elder called Lich. Lich was once the leader of the Elders and was also Cetanu's life-partner. Lich is the "God of Death." Cetanu's title is "Goddess of Death."

Edit: This is also how it works for the Xenos, except no tragic backstory.

Actually, Empresses DO have backstories, but i feel like this is enough info for now.

Im so fucking excited.

Isn't Cetanu the name of death?

I've kinda changed a few things about Pred lore. For one, their version of a council isn't at all what a council is to you or me; humans never find out what it's like, and I want to leave it that way to make them more alien. Second, gods and goddesses are simply the highest ranks of the Ancient Council rather than figures of mythology, so people like Cetanu, while still legendary among Predators, is a real person.

Also, they've never been to Earth before, and they've never seen Xenomorphs before. I want to get rid of the notion that their culture cannot exist without Xenos - I mean, Xenos are perfectly capable of existing without Predators, so why not the opposite?

The reason they're so familiar with Earth AND Xenos, though, is because both species came to Earth 1000 years before the story takes place. There was this whole thing people call "The Invasion," there's more info about that in the Art Crap post. By the beginning of the story, both Predators and Aliens have become a long-forgotten myth.

"both Predators and Aliens have become a long-forgotten myth."

It gives me chills to read this because it's so similar to my idea. How could both of us have had such similar ideas, separately, having not even talked to each other or to any mutual friends about anything of the sort.

That... IS weird. Except, I'm pretty sure you told me about that before?

Anyway, here's the Xeno side of things:

There are 8 Empresses, 50 Queens and billions of Xenomorphs. All of them form a planet-sized hive called "The Hive." Slang for 'Xenomorph' is 'Shadow Serpent.'

800 years before the beginning of the story, they were somehow temporarily silenced by the 18 "good" Predators (a group I call The Seven Headed Dragon). They've been in hibernation since then.

1 one of the Empresses has gone rogue and lives peacefully among humans. More on that later.

The remaining 7 were called The Seven Sisters (named after a real star constellation) during The Invasion. Each Empress represents one of the 7 Cardinal Sins. They're the center of the Hive Mind, and all of them are asleep.

There is one Empress on each Continent. Protecting each Empress as she sleeps is a Continental Alpha Male. There are 7 of them and they're the only ones awake. Those 7 are Dave, Fire Hunter, Kill Switch, Iseijin, Donut, Vampyrik, and Death Wraith. When Death Wraith dies, Bug-Hunt takes his place. Other than the Empresses and Queens, they're the strongest Xenomorphs to walk the planet, in that order.

Each Empress is special. They aren't natural Xenomorph strains. They're actually composed of two things: a shell body and a human spirit. The shell body is made from black liquid and other Xenomorphs. The shell bodies resemble large Queens, but they're each uniquely designed. The "pilots" are human spirits that have been violently extracted from their bodies via the black liquid. The person who extracted their spirits was the antagonist, a terrorist called The Space Jockey. I don't have much concrete info on him, but I know there's more in the Art Crap thread.

That said, the rogue Empress mentioned earlier managed to escape her confinement, which is how she's living peacefully among humans. That's because a human spirit in physical form is that of a liquid, and through a process called Instrumentality (also the title of this project), her will was strong enough to escape the shell body. How she gained another body is something I haven't determined yet. However, now her shell body roams the planet like a sombie, looking for its only compatible consciousness.

This rogue Empress is one of the main characters, but I haven't shown her yet. Her Empress name is Anima, and she represents Envy. As a human, she goes by Anna Beale.

That's about as far fetched as I'll go with the Xenomorphs. The rest of our Xeno members here are lesser Alpha Males assigned to one of the 50 Queens.

Members like K20A2, Voltage, Otang and Topdogg are one of the 18 good Predators.

Edit: I accidentally retold you guys stuff that's already in the other thread instead of telling you how the Empresses will show emotion, but... whatever. Same as Predators: through body language and environment.

I told you that before, but not before you came up with it.

EDIT: What's the origin of the "shadow serpents" slang name in your story? I mean they obviously don't look very serpent-like unless you go out of your way to link them to Apophis or Quetzalcoatl.

Oh shit, Apophis.

The fucking asteroid. The asteroid is called Apophis. There is a book called The Shadow of the Serpent that's mostly about the god Apophis. Aliens are from space. Apophis is in space. Aliens don't have spaceships. Apophis isn't a spaceship. Are you getting what I'm trying to say here? I'm coming up with fanfics about your fanfic.

This is going to be so cool, hell, it already is.

DeathDrop would like to know if there will be any upskirts/Sex scenes.

@DW: Of all the things in this project that have a reference to SOME kind of mythology (and there are A LOT of mythological references), Shadow Serpent was not one of them. It didn't have any meaning beyond the fact that it's the name of our clan, but now that you've pointed that out to me, I'm gonna roll with it.

@CH: There will be plenty crotch shots of his character, don't you worry.

Jokes aside, sex (or, more specifically, love) is a major theme at one point because it's a way for me to heighten the fear of the Xenos. I want to bring back the fact that they're a physical manifestation of the fear of rape, and NOT just gross monsters.

To reinforce that, most of the Xenos will look like the Giger Drone, and I'm going to try to incorporate Giger-esque atmospheres/environments as much as I can.




Also, the main character is gay, so I'm gonna try to be delicate in not oversexualizing her relationship, or just oversexualizing her in general. She IS pretty feminine, though, so balance is gonna be tough.

To reinforce that, most of the Xenos will look like the Giger Drone, and I'm going to try to incorporate Giger-esque atmospheres/environments as much as I can.

My reaction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPmb0F00YPE

THAT'S WHAT I WANNA HEAR.

I feel like I can do good by the Aliens and Predators. It's the humans I'm worried about the most because they're the ones the story focuses on most of the time.

But that's alright, 'cause I feel like they're coming along nicely.

@CH: I TOLD YOU THAT IN CONFIDENCE.

DW, did your character have red or green eyes?

(Also, off-topic: When I start up Steam, it doesn't even bring up the log-in box, it just skips straight to the "Cannot connect to Steam" message. I feel like a grandma trying to use Word.)

Edit: I found my old sketch (the one you approved of, except for the eyebrows), and it has green eyes, so it looks like I guessed right. Let me know if you want it different, though.

I think gray eyes, but I don't really remember. I might just be saying gray because it's a cliche, but you know. If you want to make them green, then make them green, it doesn't really matter. Make them whatever colour you like.

Made them green, it stood out more than gray but wasn't as distracting as red (and there are too many characters with red eyes anyway).

Anyway, I'm working on Xeno head-shots now. There are 7 types (Numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5 will use the same base).

1) Giger Drone
2) Aliens Warrior
3) Alien 3 Runner (smooth, ridged, Isejin)
4) ACM Warrior (taller dome spikes)
5) AVP3 Praetorians
6) Aliens Queen
7) Empresses

Once Christmas break starts, I'm planning on going crazy on these like I have been this Thanksgiving break.

Further along the line (most likely next year), I hope to show you guys the 7 Empresses, each with a completely unique design. You've already seen one around 10 pages back, which is that blue/white Queen-looking thing.

Some of you wanted me to post the Drone now, but I want to show all of them off at once. I hope you don't mind.

I just found out about something called RWBY, which is anime-influenced, has 4 girls as its main characters (two of which are a redhead and blonde), and revolves around things called "Shadow Creatures." They are one group of a monster-hunting organization. The redhead is the main character, and she's named after a red gem (ruby). A black-haired girl wields a katana and is only half human. The blonde wields guns.

My project is anime-influenced, has 4 girls as its main characters (two of which are a redhead and blonde), and revolves around Xenomorphs, otherwise known as "Shadow Serpents." They are one group of a military branch that hunts mutated animals. The redhead is the main character, and her screen name is named after a red gem (Philosopher's Stone). A black-haired girl wields a katana and isn't human. The blonde is a pilot, which means she uses big guns.

The latter is going to be run by one guy with Photoshop and a drawing tablet. The former is run by fucking Rooster Teeth.

...Fuck. Me. Hard.

This is probably the point where anyone else would just quit life, but I'm gonna go ahead and just not give a fuck about originality anymore. I keep running into things that are exactly like what I came up with, so I... I just don't care anymore.


Sorry, that was just a dumb rant and not an update at all. I'll get back to drawing/writing now.

RWBY is pretty shit in my opinion, though. I mean, the lines and voice acting are horrible.

I fucking loved the Blood Gulch Chronicles of RvB and really like RoosterTeeth's podcast, But I'n all honesty RWBY is terrible. It's poorly written, Poorly stylized and poorly acted. The voice acting is terrible.

Roosterteeth used to actually be cool, Now they're just a bunch of 20 somethings fucking around in offices while the original guys make a shit ton of money.

Tl;Dr The concepts differ enough for it to not even matter. I mean seriously, How many Anime's have 4 main girls with colour differences and different attributes?

I still haven't seen it, so I'll reserve judgement for whenever I do, but yeah now that you mention it, I just thought of 3 other anime off the top of my head that use the same basic set-up (all girl cast, differing colors, special tools, main character is pink/red/brown haired with a blonde in the mix, etc).

Honestly, sleeping on it made me feel a lot better, but thanks.