@RazorsEdge701...You may be right about the Kintaro type skin so I was thinking it still needs something...maybe textures like scars,scales or patches of fur could work. I don't know about the Kabuki tusks though...you might just need to make his lower jaw extend out a bit more and maybe more chiseled so the teeth have more depth. I would think if you make them larger it would not mesh well with the horn on the hat unless you had more than one horn and made them smaller.
I was also wondering if maybe other appendages would be appliable too...like a demon tail or an animalistic snout.

The hat's going to have two horns, sort of like the crest on it in Deception, but much larger. And the face will be drawn different to accommodate the teeth.
Also, pretty good rule of thumb: tails never look good on men. Never. There's something inherently feminine about them.

@RazorsEdge701...LOL. I don't know where anyone would get or feel the idea of tails on men are feminine but in my opinion I think a tail might actually work fine. I don't look at Motaro as being feminine or Reptile in his reptilian form either...it depends on the shape,thickness,depth and length of the tail also.
The first character I thought about when you said that about tails was Hellboy...I don't see him as feminine either but it is your art and I am just throwing out suggestions and critique.

To be honest,if I were to re-imagine Raiden in any beast form I would not go the demon mythos route...I would try going in a more Earthly animalistic route. The demon-ish feel you could get by using armor and ornaments or actual magical power.
I would look at the personality of Raiden through all aspects to get the image of how I see him in another form...meaning the games,movies,cartoons and so on. I think of him as being multiple character types...he has an aspect of comedy to him,he has a teacher/leader wanna be complex,he is sneaky and mysterious,obviously he is a bit cocky and stands high...he's the God of Thunder lol. He also seems to be a strategist at times in a mountain man kinda way. This may sound silly but Raiden kinda reminds me of Splinters personality from the ninja turtles.
If I were to make him a crazy alt...I would seriously go and make him into a humanoid animal hybrid...
Kinda like this drawing I spotted doing random searches:

I obviously hadn't considered thick lizard tails like Reptile or mechanical ones like Motaro. When you say "tail", the first thing that comes to my mind is mammals like cats and dogs, or devil tails, the kind that have a spade shape on the end. Neither style fits what I have in mind for Raiden though. He'd have to be hunched over and feral looking to make a tail work (just like Reptile was in MKDA) and that's not godly.
See, as far as making him look more like an animal-man or whatever...I really don't think that fits the visual style of the Mortal Kombat universe. MK demons are always ugly ogre-like creatures or rotting corpses, and that's what all the statues and ancient drawings of the Shinto Raijin that I've seen look like anyway.

@RazorsEdge701...a lot of what you are looking at to me does not seem godly either really...I am assuming your talking about the Outworld and Edenia statues. Like the one reptile fused with in the first movie. To me the statues I have noticed were on the lines of gargoyle,ghoul,oni,reptilian/dragonic...ect. I kinda realize there are a whole lot of cryptids statues and references in MK.
I have noticed a few tapestries and statues that portrayed what you are going for and I think it will make him more samuri-sh looking. I assume you want a look similar to Yoshimitsu? Basically,what your looking for is an ancient architectural/tribal version of a Rakshasa rather than demon/beast. If that is the case it might be better to just keep him human and give him a mask or something.
I dunno...whatever man lol. Your artwork is good...we just have different views on the character. I suggest you do some image searches for rakshasa,you might like some of what you see.

@RazorsEdge701...In advance I will apologize for the double post...I did not edit this in my previous because it was totally a new idea. I was thinking about Raidens appearance in general and what could be done to make him truly god like and give him an all out new look...I hate to reference a DC character but Doctor Manhattans look is very close to what Raiden could look like as a powerful godly entity too. Some might view this next idea as hilarious or silly but what if Raiden was actually an alien in disguise? The traditional grey alien look (or an alien look from like the movie cacoon) with his traditional costume and hat might look actually kinda cool.

When I say "statues and ancient drawings of Shinto Raijin", this is what I mean:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/10/Fujinraijin-tawaraya.jpg/800px-Fujinraijin-tawaraya.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Carving-nikko-japan.jpg

And when I say "MK demons don't look like animals, they look like ogres and corpses", I'm referring to Moloch, Drahmin, and the minions wandering around in MK Mythologies and Deception Konquest's Netherealm stages.
And your alien idea...well that just plain goes against the canon. Raiden is an immortal deity created by the Elder Gods to protect the realm of Earth, who is composed of and has control over the element of electricity and Earth's weather, and he must transform into a mortal body in order to fight in the tournament or travel outside his territory to other realms. That's not up for debate.
Never in my designs will I change or contradict a character's storyline. I'm all about updates, not reboots. My logic for making his alt costume look like a demon is that he can choose what his mortal form looks like, so he's choosing one from his ancient history that looks scary and intimidating.

Who says that an alien body is not mortal or immortal? You did not have to explain Raidens story to me because all of what you said I am sure every MK fan knows.As to your canon comment...who knows what kind of twists and turns any of the story could have...a major change does not necessarily mean reboot or overhaul of the complete character or story.It can be made canon too don't forget. I dunno I am not saying anything more...your drawing it not me lol.
I just want to see the outcome already so I can judge it lol.

hm...



There it is, that's where we kinda differ. I think of the alt as a chance to experiment with styles more than anything. I generally think that the alt should reflect two powerful designs from mabybe two different designers. Could be really similar, having the same cues as the primary (maybe they voted and the primary was the winner, but the alt was still really good), or there happened to be a radically different design that was just as good, but it just happened to deviated alot from the norm. You just include both anyway.

I get what you're saying though. It's a good principle.



Let's see then.

Skin Color//Texture:

Tint it a few colors away from the typical skin color. I'm thinking use the Red, just use less of it. The way I try this out sometimes is to get the basic skin color going, and maybe overlay it, or difference it with some color that makes the red come through. Then I might duplicate, and dull the base skin colors saturation. Sometimes it works to make the look of an odd color seem natural.

- You could insinuate scales...or you could insinuate "pure" with some kind of sparkle. Doesn't need to be everywhere on him though. Cheek, Neck, Shoulders, some places around the chest or stomach would do fine I think. Maybe some places on the arms a little.

Hat/Head:

Hat on his head, white hair down, maybe a braid or two. Elongate Ears just a little, Sharpen teeth//nails, and maybe flatten and widen nose a bit.

Eyes are most important really, if the eyes look mean there's really no need to open his mouth to show the teeth or whatever.

I might experiment with some sort of tribal design on maybe the back of his neck, up on-to part of his face (ear/cheek). I'm thinking "mark of the gods" or something to that effect.

Upper Body:

No shirt....or shirt tied around his waist. Arm guards black or metal. Metal or gold rope ties. Nothing too imperial.

Waist:

MKvsDC styled belt, gargoyle buckle (employ the horns here)

Lower Body:

Take cues from MKD-A and MkvsDC...whichever way that ends up for the pants. Shoes from either MK1-T or MKvsDC

--
eh...

I can't feel it all the way. Seems like a different character altogether. Fun to try and wrap the gargoyle-esk look around MK Raiden though. Oh, anything that looks like an animal is just wrong. To play on a peaceful demon would work though.



I can dig it.

I figured it's been quite some time since I posted anything new, so here's a peek at the characters I've got done so far:

MK1 Alternate Costumes (WIP)

Now then...I'm drawing a complete blank on Sub-Zero. I considered doing a dead/Noob Saibot version, but I think that's best saved for MK2. So that leaves me with no ideas because this Subby, unlike his brother, has never worn anything besides the classic blue and black Lin Kuei uniform.
So I thought I'd ask you guys, since you had so many wide and varied Raiden ideas, what your thoughts are on the matter of ninja costumes.

I don't know why, but I love Kano's Tony Montana look. I feel I should hate it, I really should, but I can't - it's just way too awesome. Shaolin Kang and Scorpion are also pretty cool. Only Johnny Cage seems abit too bland, but maybe that's because I'm not a fan of the character. Keep up the good work.

Well I pulled Johnny's alt directly from the official MK1 comic, by John Tobias.
It's actually one of my favorites in the group. I love obscure references like that, and I guess I also just think it's funny that someone as image-obsessed as Johnny would wear such ugly colors. But then, pastels and neon, that was the trend in the late 80's, early 90's.
Also of note, when I first drew the Liu alt, I gave him a shaved head. I decided to put the hair back, though, because oddly, without hair, he doesn't look a thing like Liu Kang anymore. That one detail is all it takes to have a completely different character.

@RazorsEdge701...you wanted Subby ideas for an alt hmmm...i have thought a bit on it and there could be a few things that are simple but different. first thing i thought about was having him with his original costume but topless and still wearing the mask. i also thought about ice features...like for example maybe make his face mask look like ice or have him with shoulder guards made of ice. another thought is to make his skin texturized with sparkles...kinda like edwards skin on twilight but more frost looking...the thing is i dont know how you could do that with your art style. i dunno...Subby is a bit of a challenge to change up it seems.

@ThePredator151...you said in your previous post "anything that looks like an animal is just wrong"...
if i were an all powerful being and could take the mortal body of any being why in the H E double hockey sticks would i choose to be a shinto troll lol.(no offense Razor)
I could strongly see Raiden as an animalistic but yet godly being to portray earthrealm in a complete random and natural way. I think him as a humanoid tiger or lion would fit him.
i would much rather see Raiden as a earth-like creature rather than something dark and grotesque...although a gargoyle type deal could kinda work but its still not screaming earthrealm protector to me unless the gargoyle attributes are animalistic or maybe even prehistoric.

Yeah...Sub-Zero is hard to imagine wearing something different.
I don't think little details like sparkles on the ice are enough of a change for an alternate costume. The point of an Alt is to give the player a second option, so they can decide which they like to use better when they're playing as the character. If the two costumes look too similar to one another, you've completely missed the point of giving the player an alternative. I also don't think going shirtless would fit his personality or background.
What I was thinking of was perhaps different kinds of ninja clothing. See, the basic Lin Kuei uniform that he wears in his Primary is designed to be decorative and show off the symbols and markings, to say to people "This is the clan I belong to, if you want the best assassins, hire us." It's all about advertising and being proud of the Lin Kuei and the Sub-Zero family legacy.
Scorpion is the opposite, he wears nothing decorative. He's a "real" ninja, and Ninjutsu means "The Art of Stealth", they'd want nobody to know who committed the crimes. They're also more poor and have less resources. The Liu Kuei are famous even in other realms, know magic/mutant superpowers, and have enough money to invent cyborgs. The Shirai Ryu are a bunch of unpowered human peasants who throw knives. So while the Lin Kuei have hard plastic or metal masks with air holes and vents, fancy gauntlets, and decorative clothes, Scorpion just wears ropes and cloth wraps. (Until after he dies, when he can create/customize his appearance with his spectre powers and starts adding all the skull decorations and armor and such)
So for Subbie's alt, instead of decoration, the best choice would probably be something purely functional. Either a very plain and loose-fitting sneak suit like the Hand in Marvel Comics, or something with lots of armor like the ninjas in Batman Begins. I just can't decide which is better for Subbie, or what either one would look like on him. And there's also the concern of not looking like Scorpion. They need to be individuals. So whatever Subbie wears, whether it's plain cloth or armor, still needs to look more expensive and tailored than Scorp's ropes and rags.
As far as Raiden goes...you have to consider that you're not him and he wouldn't do what you would do in a situation. Obviously, you're interested in wildlife creatures and nature spirits. Raiden's interests are being worshipped, meeting the expectations of his followers, and intimidating threats to his realm. His followers thought he looked like a scary demon in the olden days. That's not your choice or mine, that's real world history and culture.

This is probably a bad idea, but I wouldn't mind a modern version of Sub-Zero. High-tech stuff - night-vision goggles, kevlar vest, gadgets... Basicly Sub-Zero mixed with elements from Deadpool, Sam Fisher, Solid Snake and Snake Eyes.
No idea if it would work though.

Y'know...it does make some sense. The Lin Kuei are supposed to be in a period of embracing technology, leading up to the cyberninjas.

On one hand, younger Subbie said in the MK2 comic that his brother was old-fashioned and never liked tech.

On the other, though, that character trait fits Younger Subbie better because he's the rebellious, "I don't want to be a robot" one, while I think the older brother would do anything and accept any advantage to get the job done.

I think Tobias's reasoning there was that being older fits better with the "already set in my ways and can't change now". The Lin Kuei is moving into high-tech stuff and the younger Sub-Zero being the new generation can roll with it better (even though wisely drawing the line at becoming a cyborg).

Yeah but if you look at the Lin Kuei the younger Subbie runs today, they are the most old-fashioned, medieval themed, and cut-off from the rest of the world of all the clans. He's clearly evolved or been retconned into a guy who likes the old ways best. Except for, y'know, changing the clan from assassins into protectors.
Plus, the brothers don't seem that far apart in age and the older one was only 32 when he died. A pair of night vision goggles or a walkie-talkie isn't exactly going to mystify him. And then there's the fact that years later, as Noob, he'll apparently develop some understanding of or appreciation for the nanotech Smoke is made of.

@RazorsEdge701...You said
"As far as Raiden goes...you have to consider that you're not him and he wouldn't do what you would do in a situation. Obviously, you're interested in wildlife creatures and nature spirits. Raiden's interests are being worshipped, meeting the expectations of his followers, and intimidating threats to his realm. His followers thought he looked like a scary demon in the olden days. That's not your choice or mine, that's real world history and culture."

Why would I consider being him? I know I am not. therefore neither are you so you can not say truly what his interests are. As far as wildlife and nature spirits being my interest...that is just an assumption. I do have a slight interest but I am actually more into gothic,vampirism and witchcraft stuff. As for your factual information...it may be true that in "real" world history he was viewed that way but this is not real...its a story made for a video game with a slight basis on history and movies. I am not trying to stir you up or anything so don't take me as attacking you lol.
To be technical,the alt Raiden that you have in mind is not an actual alt costume...its an alt state of being. Therefore that means if this were to be placed in a game or story that it would bring a significant change to how even the earthrealm characters react and take Raiden...that goes for my animal idea as well. I don't know about you but whether he was an ogre-like being or animal type hybrid...to a common person on earth either form would be a bit intimidating. That is probably the main reason why he is as a human being now.
I know the concept is all in fun but if we were talking about putting it in game...it would probably not be considered unless it were a separate being of Raiden and would take up its own character slot or perhaps a fatality morph or something.

As for Subby...you do have a point that he is a high class ninja and shirtless would be a barbaric idea for him but isn't that the point of it being an alt costume? to have another view of the character? I would agree to making his attire more modern like but it might make him look too much like the modernized stryker...i would rather go an armor route...like the shredder mask and stuff or something like that. i dunno...you could go with alot of things but it might seem out of place no matter what. maybe you could take some style ideas from MK:Armageddons version of Rain....and DAMN! that new Ninja Assassin movie looks like it is going to be awesome. LOL sorry i just saw the commercial.

An alternate costume doesn't have to be something the character is actually wearing during the tournament. It can just be something they MIGHT wear or wore long ago in the past.

Shang Tsung's alt costume in MKDA was the way he used to dress hundreds of years ago when he was a competitor in the MK tournament. It was a reference to this comic page. During the events of MKDA, he probably never actually changed his clothes and wore that outfit. It's there as a callback, honoring something from MK history.

Kano's MKDA alt was his MK1 costume. He probably never actually wore that during MKDA either. Again, it's a reference to the past.

Liu Kang's Deception alt is him alive, but he never actually becomes alive during Deception or Armageddon, he stays a zombie the whole time. So his alt costume isn't canon, it's just allowing players to play as what Liu USED to look like. Yet another reference.

And Reptile's two costumes in Armageddon are two completely different bodies. One is his humanoid ninja form, the other is his devolved giant iguana form. He can't really have been both during the game's story, it's one or the other.

So you see, it's all about making references to the past. Especially in MK1, the "Origin Stories" game.

Every alt I've designed tells the character's backstory. Kano is a mob boss, so I dressed him like a mob boss. Liu Kang's a Shaolin Monk, so he's wearing the classic orange shaolin robes. Scorpion was murdered and came back from the dead, so his alt is Hanzo Hasashi's beheaded corpse.

Raiden's backstory IS the fact that he's a character from real world mythology. So his alt should be a reference to that mythology. And the fact that looking like a demon would be scary or intimidating? That's good, because Raiden HAS done his job by being scary and intimidating in the past. He's not always playing the wise old mentor to guys like Liu Kang. He's had to wage wars and be ruthless before. He almost drove Reptile's race extinct once. Scary suits early, origin story Raiden.

But making him look like a Furry wouldn't be a reference to anything. It wouldn't be true to history, to canon, or to the character's personality. It's just something you think would look cool. And just looking cool is missing the point. I'm not going to argue this any further. The Raiden case is closed. It was closed weeks ago, in fact.

Regarding Subby, yeah, him ending up looking too much like MKA Stryker is a concern. But if I do go the Splinter Cell/Snake Eyes route with him, I'm confident I can keep him looking unique and Sub-Zeroesque enough so that's not a problem. I am leaning towards the idea, because I think that an urban ninja-commando look is true to the spirit of the Lin Kuei of the MK1-3 era. Like I said, it references the fact that they're embracing modern technology and the coming of the cyberninjas.

what about Shaolin Monks?

random idea: one arm frozen to the shoulder

MKSM didn't have alternate costumes, it only had palette swaps that made Subby into Noob and changed the color of Reptile's scales from green to fleshy.
Or are you asking a different question and I didn't get it?

what about Sub-zero's costume in Shaolin monks? that was Sub-zero older right?

No, that's the younger one in Shaolin Monks.