Inspiration?

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What do you guys use to get inspiration for a new concept? I've read through the big comic companies web sites, looked at some of my favorite artists Deviant Art pages, etc. I was wondering if you guys had an secret resources you use to get the creative juices flowing.

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Myself...strangely...I go by color.

First I pick a color. Then I think of all of the words that come to mind when I think of that color.

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Honestly, this game has been an opportunity to flesh out all the terrible character ideas I made as a child. So I just peruse an old sketchpad or something.

Occasionally I just play with the builder, find a body part that sparks something, and build from there.

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It's just dependent on the situation in my case.

I saw the steampunk backpack and Steam was born.
Steam : Mage obsessed with steampunk builds a steam suit and binds a fire and water elemental into the pack as a power source. Origin

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I thought the insect head appeared slightly like a manta ray so Lamprey was born.
Lamprey : Evolved electric eel that posses electrical, telekinetic, and telepathic abilities. Uses a cybersuit to walk on land and breath outside of the water. (Mostly because we don't have a no arms option.) Origin

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A holiday tale I twisted ended up being an origin story for Hearth.
Hearth : Made a deal with a demon for immortality and was bound within a fireplace for eternity. Eventually able to animate the fireplace he's a walking talk being of mortar and brick. Origin

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My most recent creation which I have been enjoying leveling I've wanted to do for a while but couldn't until the C-Store geo armor and swamp king sets. Was envisioned while I was watching Psyche. He made fun of The Mentalist and The Elementalist was born in my mind. Origin

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I'm gonna have to steal some of your elemental design there. XD It looks super awesome.

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Varies for me as well, but usually I come up with a name I like first, then build powers and appearance off of that... I find having a name helps solidify my concept, which influences powers and looks...

Occationally I pick a power set and try to build up from there, but that's much harder for me and I abandon most of those characters for failure to come up with a good name or appearance I'm happy with...

On very rare occations, I play with the character creater until I get something that looks good, then go from there...

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Varies for me as well, but usually I come up with a name I like first, then build powers and appearance off of that... I find having a name helps solidify my concept, which influences powers and looks...

Occasionally I pick a power set and try to build up from there, but that's much harder for me and I abandon most of those characters for failure to come up with a good name or appearance I'm happy with...

On very rare occasions, I play with the character creator until I get something that looks good, then go from there...

That's funny, I work completely the other way around.

Generally, I come up with the power build first, that way, I've got something to start designing the character around; alternatively, I pick one or two costume pieces that I want inside my costume and build up from there. Name, bio and such, are often an afterthought; even thought they're just as vital as the rest.

Generally, all starts with something like those: A Croc in a Tux, a teenager from Outer Space, a Cavegirl, a girl using Fire with a small melee weapon or a character using coils and the round mecha shoulders.

I have yet to find a concept I couldn't nail down, though most of the time, the build just doesn't live up to the character; so I end up scrapping him.

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It's all in music for me. Go into the costume creator, put on a random song, I'll end up making... Something.

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The way it works for me is:

I wanna make aaaaaaa....

Then I find powers, costume, and name within that theme.

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It varies. Sometimes, like with The Incredible Turtle, I'll find a costume piece I like, start creating a character for it and the character will evolve from there. Other times, like Funsocks said, it's "I wanna make a" and then you're off.

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Inspiration for me comes from all over the place some time ill here a word or combination of words that will strike me as a great name for a Alt other times ill see a piece of artwork or watch a film/tv show and see a character that for some reason calls to me and ill decide I'm gonna do a homage to them but often by the time thieve been thru the character creator there no longer what they started out as.

For example Ecstasy my celestial based character came about late one night during some random net browsing and is based upon the Spirit of Ecstasy (the hood ornament on Rolls-Royce cars)

while others like Lady Domino came about after random play with the character creator.

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I take inspiration from all different sources but mostly other games, films and comics.
Just playing around in the editor without a plan what to make usually leads to nothing for me.

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Mostly I just start with a theme in mind and then thanks to my ADD that goes south and i end up making a completely different character that has nothing to do with what i started with

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I start with choosing a powerset. Then I think of what type of color that is best fitted for the powerset, or any costume piece I have seen that would go great with it. Usually I start with either the head (hair, helmets, masks etc.) or torso (armor, skin, tights). From there I just go through what seems to fit and go together. With this tactic my characters evolve as I choose the costume piece by piece.

Another tactic I use is I start with an idea of the characters personality and looks. From here I choose the most fitting powerset and costume that represent the characters personallity.

I also all the time get inspired by other character personalities from comics, films etc. and I make my own unique character. Sometimes I also get inspired while playing the characters to tweak and change their costumes as I get better ideas for the character in gameplay.

Get inspired. Make your own unique hero. Don't copy.

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It's interesting to see how many people start with a color scheme, since that is literally the last thing I do - and even then I just randomize the colors until I find a basic theme I like and then tweak from there.

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Varies wildly -

Sometimes it's a mood I'm in (when I'm depressed I tend to make darker characters; when I'm really happy I tend to go for sillier or at least lighter and softer concepts)...

Other times its a song - so many songs, even ones that aren't intended to tell a story - have a story in them that you can twist and change to make a character out of <,<

Other times it's Homage - one of my characters, The Black Falcon! Is an Homage to Batman, particularly the campier parts of the Batman mythos.

So it just depends really - keep the mind open and inspiration can come from almost anywhere, you just have to let it <^_^>b

*edit*

Oh, another big one:

Rule of Cool - Sometimes I just want something that strikes me as "Frikkin' awesome" even if I can't come up with a logical justification for whatever that thing happens to be. So I come up with some sort of handwave or other and make it anyway.

Sometimes it's also a theme - like for example "I want a chain wielding ninja" - and I just go from there. Usually I start with "What does an X typically look like" (where X is whatever it is I'm after) and then transforming that basic look into something that suits an individual character. So to use the chain-wielding ninja example: You start with a typical looking ninja (black mask, suit, etc...) then slowly cut away features and adding them until the character is identifiably still a ninja... but also an individual person with a definite "look" of their own.

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It varies wildly for me too... One is inspired by Bleach (no prizes for guessing which) where I'd build up the whole idea of lloks, powers etc before CO was even announced, then made as close to it as possible in the creator. (Bob Dashinomoto)

For another, I knew I wanted to use a certain power and had a general theme, but what I ended up with didn't really look like what I'd originally been aiming for. I set up the body shap first, then worked from there (really gaunt, almost skeletal look) (Bob of Pestelence)

Another, I saw a Power Armour character running about and thought "I like that!" and built a character inspired by it. In that case it was mostly the shoulder pads and the bulk I started with and built the rest around it. He then sat on a shelf for about a month until I could think of a PA build that I'd enjoy playing, and ended up deciding it would be mostly electric for "broken" power armour. (Bobatron)

One guy I had a outfit piece I wanted to use, so the whole thing came from that, the rest of the costume, the back story and the powers all designed to fit that one part that I'd not used before. (Vessel of Bob)

Often though I'll have an idea of the powers and flavour of a character and make the costume to fit it. (Bobadin, Bob of the Storm, Bobra)

For me, colours often only come in towards the end of the design...

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I generally just start messing around with costume pieces until something starts to click. Sometimes I start with some general idea of a direction, sometimes I don't.