1. Introduction to the COH Guide

2. What qualifies me to give City of heroes /COHcostume advice
3. Coming up with a concept for your hero
4. Lesson on good coloring
5. Specific Do's and Don'ts
6. General Tips for City of heroes /COH costumecreation



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1. Introduction to the  COH Guide

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NOTE
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In this guide the term "costume" will refer to a person's overall look. A costume in this sense is all-inclusive; hair, hair color, skin tone, height, weight, girth, muscle tone, clothing, color scheme, aura, everything.

In the COH Guidethe term "outfit" will refer to a character's clothing, color scheme, patterns, etc.
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A good COH costumeis essential to a hero's identity. I would assert that a hero's costume makes them more identifiable than their COH powers. Quick quiz, identify the following hero based on their abilities; Able to bend steel, lift cars, punch through walls, fly at supersonic speeds, is invulnerable to just about every type of attacks. I am talking, of course, about Captain Marvel! The point is a lot of hero abilities are recycled, but their costumes make them unique.

I see a lot of horrible costumes running around Paragon City. A lot of times it appears as if people just hit the random button and enter the game. I have also grouped with some people who were awesome players, had great characters but their costumes kept them from being "awe inspiring". Remember a costume is your personal touch that makes the COH charactercome alive. The Sistine chapel is a beautiful piece of architecture but without Michaelangelo's brushstrokes on its ceilings it would just be another building. In my opinion a good character becomes a great character whenever they are both powerful and have a great COH costume.
As a final COH test try to think of a comic book superhero (or villain) with awesome powers that has a really stupid looking costume. It's hard to come up with any because comic book artists know what it takes to make a costume look good. Or it could be that the bad costumes make a COH characterforgettable. For the record Impossible Man and Molecule Man are both tremendously powerful but look silly, and they are also obscure. Do you agree with me ?

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2. What qualifies me to give COH costume advice?
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Well technically nothing. I don't have a degree from COH costumedesign academy or anything but here are some things that might help in my assessment of CoH costume building.

-I am a graphic artist in real life
-Every character I've ever actively played has won at least one COH costume contest (some multiple)
-Almost every time I play I get complemented on my COH costume
-My friends on CoH ask me regularly to critique or help improve on their costume design.
-I pride myself on qualityCOH costumedesign.

You can feel free to critique these but here are someCOH costumesthat have won contests that I have created.