Quite interesting. Have we seen a bare-chested Baraka before? I've really got nothing negative to say about this, it's a really cool piece. In fact, I would really, really like to see this as his new outfit in MK(2011). It's fresh, and it really fits his character.

The only thing that I could poke at is his mouth, I think his gums may be showing too much. Maybe I'm just used to seeing him with an open mouth.

MK 4 Gold. Albeit, with giant staples holding him together after what's assumed to be a Kung Lao fatality wound he somehow survived.

And regarding the gums...how can they ever NOT be showing too much? He's never had lips. Jax just colored them pink, which I like 'cause it kinda makes his mouth look like an open wound, like the reason there's no lips is they were ripped off or something.

Anyway, I really like this one, which is odd for me 'cause I'm no Baraka fan. It somehow manages to be both the same sort of stuff Baraka always wears, and yet, shakes things up at the same time. I think it's the white pants that do it for me. That and the slightest hint of "gimp suit" that the collar and belts give off.
I was also amused by the Rebirth trailer face piercings.

Wounds, dried up blood, food...My baraka has poor mouth hygiene.

Submit this to Ed Boon. Make it happen! The more I look at this, the more I dig it.

This is my favorite design of yours, by far.

Nice artwork as always.

I really like the white pants, but the thing that is bothering me is his collar. Dont know why just my opinion. I hope they use something like this for Baraka in the new MK game.

I like this design, looks like a great amalgamation between MKG/MKRebirth Baraka and a little bit of the regular tarkatans in MKSM. However, the left leg around the calf is somewhat mishaped, his right ear is slightly higher than his left and his feet look a bit small.

4/5

once again a fantastic job, I just cant decide wether I like the white trousers maybe its because he's on a white background so they just pop as much if it was a darker background

First I'd like to say that I love how he looks somewhat like his MK Gold appearance. That appearance was unique and cool. And the nosering is a nice touch, perhaps inspired by the MK: Rebirth movie pitch, huh? ;P

This might be my favourite, even if I don't necessarily love it.
The pitch of this '2010' series is a premise of redesigning characters, and while that should entail a degree of faithful consistency, most of your designs haven't really involved a lot of invention. They weren't really redesigns.

"Grace" isn't the word, but I was always fascinated by the movements of the original MKII Baraka. The closed-leg flykick and the white boots gave his movements an interesting quality that wasn't quite as barbaric as he's come to be portrayed in increasingly bulky forms. This design tightens his outline again and feels like it alludes back to that MKII sensibility, whilst benefitting from the embellishments of the Tarkatan design and character.

I don't think I necessarily like this as a Baraka-centric concept, but with the plated loin flap and bondage straps, it's probably the first time I've gotten an overt sense of a Baraka who works for Shao Kahn. It's got the swirling notions of a barbarian dictator's sense of necessity/generosity (ie; not a lot to protect him); a character who perhaps doesn't like to feel too enclosed (again; not too much armor); and straps that feel like a character who is literally and culturally in bondage.

It gets a bit too Rebirth for me around the head. A little bit too much like it's trying to be gnarly, but that's a personal preference, I think. Baraka's probably a character who can get away with being nasty.

I don't know that this much thought is going into the designs, but if it's there to be discussed, that's still a positive.

Im not trying to reinvent these characters. I guess we might have different interpretations of the word but a redesign for me could be a new costume, or simply a revision.

Either way, The idea with this series was to give the characters new costumes but taking into account their past appearances. Making them a bit more realistic; Darker colours and actual fabric replacing the spandex, plastic, armour plates or jewellery that I find ruin some of the most recent designs since Deception.

I Appreciate the comments guys! A few more comming...

I think it's an admirable enough endeavour to give the characters fabric textures and spandex-free grounding, but the execution is overly simplistic, and doesn't seem at all character driven. The pared down high concept of all the designs is evident, but character to character, they just don't seem motivated to communicate anything.

As much as the later designs might've added the odd unnecessary trinket, or gaudy pattern print, they also emphasised a logical character-driven individuality in each design, and did well to get away from the redundancy of 16-bit technological and budgetary constraints. That, to me, was a great and successful example of a redesign.

I wouldn't expect you to reinvent the wheel, but I feel like there should be more intent and thought in the designs. They feel less like minimalism, and more like under designed references. They're incredibly well drawn, but repelling from the more developed looks of the MKDA-MKA era feels like anti-designing, in this context.

Different strokes for different folks, and all that.
Hopefully you don't mind the varied responses, and any discussion that spins out of these threads. Critical or not, I'm definitely posting because I'm interested! I just wish there was a bit more meat to bite into!

I think Ive been able to keep the individuality of each character as they were developed post MK4; I dont find there's a single one that looks regressed from their last design.

I mean, I've infused them with enough new not to look too similar and added enough interesting textures and details not to be considered simple toned down versions of past designs.

I do these for fun, but I still put some thought into designing each of them.

When drawing Mileena for exemple, I had my Kitana design in mind. It was important for me that they look like clones. They sill have their own little details; Mileena has dents on her corset and sharp angles all over her design, while Kitana has a very subtle floral laced pattern and square shapes. I feel like the design of their suits complement each other. While the Arabic like design for Mileena in MKD was cool and all, it had no ties in look and in feel to Kitana or any of the Edenian characters found in the same game.

Technically, Kitana's "slave to Onaga" outfit seen in some of the endings was just Mileena's outfit in blue with no veil.
Plus one has to imagine that after MK2, when they were no longer working together as a team of twin sister assassins, reasons, opportunity, and resources to dress alike had to stop presenting themselves. I mean, Mileena's outfit in Deception is sorta something that only fits Mileena and makes use of the elements of her character that are unique to her, like showing off too much skin, little fang shaped designs, the baggy sleeves could even be thought of as functional for easily concealing her sais, just a flick of the wrist and they slide right down into her hands. It didn't look right on Kitana in those endings at all because it wasn't made for her, it was just a palette swap.
But on the other hand, one can see how a character who is driven to obsession with replacing her "sister" would want to look more like her. But that speaks more to Mileena's need to grow as a character and get a new motivation in the future than anything, I think.

I still feel it was overdesined compared to the simpler designs of Jade & Tanya for exemple. The designs just werent balanced enough between the cast. Mileena looked more important, know what I mean?

Like I said, the Idea was cool but could have been better if stripped from some of its unnecessary bling and patterns. THATs what Im trying to do with some of these. Not necessarily with Mileena since my version looks nothing like her MKD self but Ermac for exemple...

See...personally, I think the ability to add more identifying marks and insignias, and make the clothes look less like "I bought this at the store" and more like "this was sewn for me specifically to wear and it has my name on it" is exactly what makes the 3D designs better than the old, limited, bluescreen era.

It's like Superman's S. Some characters in MK now have an S of their own, and I personally really like that because it adds a uniqueness to them and also can speak to the culture the character comes from. For instance, I have no idea what that two pronged shape on Mileena's knees and back in MK9 is, but it gets the imagination going...it could be the letter M in the Outworld alphabet?

And this isn't actually new in MK anyway. Kung Lao and Raiden have had logos since MK2, Nightwolf had a very stylish wolf design on the back of his biker vest in MK3, and I'm rather annoyed it's not there in MK9. Scorpion hasn't gone without a skull somewhere on his outfit since MK4. (I can't help but note yours doesn't have one. All ninja and no spectre makes Hanzo a dull boy...)

And since we're bringing up Ermac, I can think of an example where the "bling" isn't unnecessary.

The shinguards were pretty gaudy, sure, but the gem on his forehead in Deception? It's shaped like an eyeball and even has an iris detailed inside it. It's literally his "third eye" and presumably he wears it because it helps augment his psychic powers. It's like how people who believe in New Age mumbo jumbo in the real world really think crystals have spiritual power.

Your Ermac design just has a little gold logo there. It's not bad...but it doesn't have the benefit of having a story behind it.
Have they never overdone it? Of course they have. There are some characters in DA-A whose outfits are so busy as to be a blatant eyesore. Jarek, Kai, and Dairou are all wearing armor that doesn't even look logically plausible because of all the little meaningless shapes and nooks and crannies. Bo' Rai Cho may be wearing a layer or two too many as well. And while everyone loves Kenshi, including me, I could never figure out what the point of his Metal Gear Solid jumpsuits was supposed to be. No one else in the Special Forces was dressing like that and it didn't really fit his wandering swordsman motif either.
But I don't think Deception Mileena fell into that trap at all. In fact, her outfit is really very simplistic, except for the pink design on the sleeves and that weird coattail. That design seems to give the piece its whole character too, I think, 'cause without it, you'd probably notice right away how bland the rest of the design is.

But the gold logo still represents the third eye. Its just more subtle; its embroidered or drawn on his hood instead of being a big eye glowing gem glued on it. I think my designs still have their "S" . Its just not on their foreheads, belt buckels, knee pads and capes.

Well with the third eye, I just meant that the actual gem works better than just a logo IMO because serves a functional purpose. In that case, it's more like Subby's Dragon Medallion.

Your designs are very impressive!! I look forward to seeing what you do with Sheeva (a cool design for her would deff make ppl see how many things could be done with her), Cyber Ninjas (i have yet to see a reeeally original design for them), or even MK4/MKDA/MKD characters like Nitara, Li Mei, Kai, Fujin, Shinnok, Frost....tbh i hope you redesign all of them! :P

Gimp goodness.

Dude that is pretty damn kool if ya ask me. Great job

mk is cool