DFIII Contest: Blitzer Rikku

SURPRISE APPEAR!

So I've been on hiatus for a while, trying to put the pencil to paper. I have an enjoyable quarter this time around, so this may mean you'll see some more drawing out of me (and if it turns out the way I'd like it to, you may even see some 3D renders from school! Bitchin'!). Lately I've been struggling to grind lead until I heard that =montyoum was holding a design contest for his epic action-splosion, Dead Fantasy. I thought to myself "Oh cool, that sounds nice. Maybe I'll think of something", but then about a week ago I was mistold that the contest had already ended, and I had given up hope. That was, of course, until this very morning, when Monty's blog updated with the fortunate news that the deadline is this Sunday! Suddenly invigorated, I cranked this out.

I give you, the Blitzer Dressphere. Inspired by the downplay of blitzball in FFX-2 and fueled by the need to beat 50 Ninja Rikkus. If anyone can make Blitzball cool again, it'd be Monty.

I have to say, Monty sure is something. Watching Haloid, Icarus, and Dead Fantasy I and II always gives me a silly grin every time. Sorta reminds me why I'm an animation major to begin with. Thanks for the artistic boner, Monty.

--THE LOWDOWN--
Drawing Time : Super super fast! About an hour or two of brainstorming and sketching, about 40 minutes for orthos and another 30 minutes for flats! I must be mad!

--PIPES AND GRIPES--
For once I possess neither pipes nor gripes about this particular piece. It was a sudden brain vomit, and it came out just the way I envisioned it. If I had more time, I'd lightbox the awesome Sphere Shot doodle onto a sheet of watercolor paper and paint that bad boy.

I have a feeling those criss-cross sleeves are gonna give Monty some problems modeling, but a displacement map should take care of those easy, right? (is it Maya you're using? I'm not sure...)

--THINGS I'M RATHER PROUD OF--
I can't even begin to comprehend what got me drawing this so FAST. Maybe it's because I was modeling in Maya all night and I didn't get any sleep... =O

--A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS--
Funny how the idea for this particular costume came about, actually. One day while I was going home with the contest in mind, I conceived two possible dresspheres. The first one was called the Agent, and its combat abilities were based around gadgets, just like Edgar from Final Fantasy VI. I imagined it would be a sneaking suit of some sort and Rikku would be rocking a revamped Auto-crossbow straight outta FFVI, but I got the feeling that the crossbow would just be trouble, was generally an uninteresting weapon, and that at this point Monty would be sick of 'Zero Suits'. The second idea started out as 'Athlete', where I imagined the members of YuRiPa representing different sports. I envisioned Yuna as a tennis player, Paine as a baseball player, and Rikku as a...soccer player....? Wait, doesn't Spira already have a kind of soccer?

And that's about when the fell. I'm absolutely befuddled that no one thought of this before I did, given how large of a cultural icon blitzball was for the FFX world.

Also, one should also be keen to notice that parts of this outfit were taken from Tidus's original costume. That was originally my idea for Blitzer Yuna, but he was asking for Rikku, after all. Besides, Rikku looks better in Tidus's clothes than Tidus does =O

--CREDIT WHERE IT\S DUE--
Rikku © Tetsuya Nomura, Square-Enix
Dead Fantasy © =montyoum
Design © Me