I'll be mostly uploading roughs and development work for the next bit as we're getting deep into the production efforts of ARMSmasters. (Yay!)

Several of the shots in our film call for reveals of additional bad guys beyond Caen. As we developed and worked on our growing cast of characters, the organic nature of the story caused our exploration of these guys to shift allegiances around. Characters we thought would be dedicated 'black hats' turned out to not be that way and some 'white hats' turned out to be not so 'white hat' like. Kongou in particular became more of a grey area character who would 'join the party' so to speak later in the first major story arc of ARMSmasters. We really needed some dedicated bad guys to add to the mix and this began to lead to the development of Caen's personal entourage and honor guard. A group of generals currently titled The Heavenly Kings.

First of these guys being worked out is Gaius, pictured here. Gaius is 'The Brute' to Kongou's 'The Big Guy'. The problem of Kongou is that Kongou -himself- is meant to straddle the line similar to Joe Fixit or recent portrayals of The Juggernaut. The bad guys still needed a 'bruiser' of their own who needed to not feel redundant. Several characters began to serve as the inspirational melting pot for what we were after. Raoh from Fist of the North Star, Tessai from Ninja Scroll, and the look of a few recent characters for Bleach by Tite Kubo.

Conceptually Gaius became like 'The Abomination' to Kongou's 'Hulk'. If Kongou is the 'apex' of physical strength among the characters then Gaius is a close second. So much so that it began to inform his character personality. He's the 'gansta rapper' trying to overcompensate. He's the guy who insists on wanting to be 'the biggest' but is always just a few inches shorter and a few pounds lighter then the biggest. He's competitive and on top of the world but has this rival he's always just shy of or being compared to. The frustration, arrogance, over compensation and willingness to do anything would be key here. He's a thug make-believing at being something more refined.

Kongou and Gaius are of the same species. A race of nearly extinct long lived 'Titan's' that are the strongest of the main races in the world. As their names imply they are from different geographical and cultural origins with Kongou being more samoan and pacific islander and Gaius more European.

In the middle sketches you can see early compare and contrasts to make Gaius -huge- as his Titan origins suggest but 'different' from Kongou. Working out the particulars of his costume is under way now. Kongou is obviously the larger one with Gaius still huge but more slender. Sagat from Street Fighter is another reference.

More to come soon!