Warframe

Warframe

Fortune Goddess
kyotra 3 May, 2019 @ 9:31pm
A more detailed critique of the helmet.
Ivara's theme mechanically and visually is that of a fantasy Elven Ranger, agile and stealthy, with strong archery skills and an affinity for nature. Her visual design is also mixed with that of a frog, which ties back into a Ranger's attunement with nature, stealth skills (many frogs possess excellent natural camouflage), and agility. Ivara's basic shape design is: sleek, organic, flowing.

The problem with this helmet is that it follows none of those design aspects. Since the theme of this skin is a strong technology focus, it's obviously not going to evoke any of Ivara's nature-focused themes. The clash comes from how pronounced the helmet is, and how it clashes with her shape profile. It is not sleek and stealthy, but instead very tall and bold, instantly drawing attention to itself. It is not organic and flowing, but instead hard and angular, clashing harshly against Ivara's physical profile.

For a comparison, look at her other helmets: the Youkai skin, while very shiny, trades the frog theme for a rabbit theme, which still still evokes nature and agility while maintaining her organic flowing shape; the Loxley helmet, while very bold, ties strongly into her archery theme (via Robin Hood); the Arcuata helm, while not tying into any of her overarching themes, still has an organic and flowing shape that ties well to her body.

I hope this explains in some better detail why the helmet has such a strong clash with the rest of the skin. I think you have a very good idea here and the skills to pull it off, but the helm needs work (potentially back to the drawing board). The Corpus are more about geometric shapes than they are about hard straight edges, so maybe try and work some ovals and circles and spheres in there instead of so many rectangles and triangles and cubes. Hexagons and octagons might work too.

P.S. I think the name of this skin would work better if it referenced STEALING money like a stealthy thief, instead of some generic money god motif.