[WIP] White Blade Reskin

[Omega1]

I'm sure most people were quite confused at seeing Blade's skin tone inexplicably changed to black in SiN Episodes (I'm not aware of him possessing any chameleon-like powers, at least none that have been revealed yet), so I'm working on a reskin to make him white again like he was in the original SiN. It's not perfect, mainly because I hate dealing with all the subtleties of the human look (Damn complex organisms!) but I think this is still somewhat decent so far. Actually, I think all that's really left to do is the view hands skin.

I based the skin on the original Blade texture. It was kind of hard to make an actual comparison since the SiN 1 texture wasn't all that high-res, but that was the reference I used anyway. I also compared my reskin to the skin tones of the new JC, Jessica, and Elexis SiN Episodes models to keep things consistent. Also, I made Blade's eyes blue because that was the color of Blade's eyes in the original game.

Here's a preview pic of the skin. I would have taken a preview picture of the skin on the actual Blade model in Source's model viewer, but the Blade model is still encrypted. Also, I was going to take in ingame picture, but I forgot why I didn't. Something must have prevented me from doing that. Anyways, since I forgot to label the picture, try and guess which one is the black Blade and which is the white one!:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/whiteblade.jpg

I'm also planning on a reskin to remove Jessica's nose ring, as per early concept art picture things.

[he_the_great]

the thing is he was black at heart. I was actually surprised that his skin was white when I first saw him.

Anyway, really impressive redone skin.

[ertertwert]

To me, it doesn't matter if he is black or white. He is still a badass.

[Wookiestick]

http://blackorwhitepsp.ytmnd.com/

sorry I couldn't resist.

[Xenogenetic]

Blade is black, he was never white.

[deceiver]

Originally posted by Xenogenetic:
Blade is black, he was never white.



QFT

What I find ironic is that the skin color of his arm in SiN Eps is white and not black like in SiN.

[Xenogenetic]

What is QFT?

[ertertwert]

Quoted For Truth.

[Solid Snake]

In the first game, Blade was evidently mulatto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto). In Episodes he looks a little more tanned, but still seems mulatto to me.

In short: half black, half white.

[Xenogenetic]

Sweet awesomeness, and it is true, I know my SiN.

[Omega1]

Originally posted by Xenogenetic:
Blade is black, he was never white.

http://www.ritualistic.com/screens.php/sin/Sin+Miscellaneous+Art/1/other/bladefight.jpg
http://www.ritualistic.com/screens.php/sin/Sin+Miscellaneous+Art/2/other/bladeboom2.jpg
http://www.ritualistic.com/screens.php/sin/Sin+Box+Art/1/box/sin_box_front.jpg

Always appeared to be white to me.

I can understand Blade being of mixed race, but I don't think a tan could change someone's skin color to this degree.

[Serevinus]

I'm just going to assume its a residual side effect of the mutagen he was injected with in SiN 1, probably not the case but not entirely impossible

[Xenogenetic]

He is black, its part of the story. Have you listened to the way he speaks? I know he is black for a fact because it says he is in the SiN Anime and a couple other places.

[The MiMiC]

And if I remember right, in the SiN anime even the DEVS say he's black in one of the interviews.

[CommanderZx2]

He pulled a michael jackson!

It really doesn't matter what he looks like, as long as he's a badass.

[Lord_Rick]

i dont care hugely what his skin colour ends up as in episodes, i would kinda prefer him to be white as he was in the original SiN... but who gives a damn in the end? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Xenogenetic]

That is the point though, he wasn't white in SiN, and if you really want him to be a white person then just think of him as Paul Wall or some other wegro.

[enfestid]

Does it really matter what color he is anyways?

[Moleculor]

Yes. We need more black main characters in games.

[enfestid]

Why? To show that the world isn't racist?

I don't think it matters if he's white or black. If someone wants to do a white reskin, who cares? It's not like they're forcing you to make him white too. He's black in the game, and that's how I'll play it as. I don't care what color he is.

[Grandpapa]

Originally posted by enfestid:
Why? To show that the world isn't racist?

I don't think it matters if he's white or black. If someone wants to do a white reskin, who cares? It's not like they're forcing you to make him white too. He's black in the game, and that's how I'll play it as. I don't care what color he is.



Right!

[Xenogenetic]

I don't care either, I just like to prove people wrong.

[Omega1]

Originally posted by Xenogenetic:
He is black, its part of the story. Have you listened to the way he speaks? I know he is black for a fact because it says he is in the SiN Anime and a couple other places.

But that doesn't change the fact that, up until now, Blade has always been portrayed as being rather caucasian. He might be 1/8th black or whatever, he certainly has the facial features, but that doesn't explain his mysterious skin color change. And there is a very significant change that cannot simply be explained by a heavy tan. I'll let you judge for yourself:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/bladecompare.jpg

Blade even appears quite caucasian in that wacky American-made-but-trying-to-emulate-Japanese-animation Sin: The Movie anime movie.
http://www.fluidanime.com/images/rev_img/sinthemovie/cover.jpg

Simply judging by the way he talks isn't a very reliable way to determine his ethnicity, especially since he's a fictional character. If we did that, we could easily assume that, say, Darth Vader is black, even though he's supposed to be an old bald white dude.

Also, I don't see how you can count the Sin anime as being cannon. Seeing as one of the main characters is instantly killed off within minutes of the movie, that might cause it to lose some of its credibility.

And again, Blade's ethnicity is most likely part black, but he certainly never looked it that much judging by the skin color he always had.

[OhMan]

He always looked mixed to me.

[Xenogenetic]

You are right Omega, what in the hell does Robert Atkins know about John Blade. Mr. Atkins can say he is black but that doesn't make Blade black.

EDIT:
How could you think Darth Vader was black?
AND another edit:
I took the smallest possible audio clip from the interview:
www.bspmaps.com/ANDREW/black guy.wav (http://www.bspmaps.com/ANDREW/black guy.wav)
Note: he says black.

[ertertwert]

Originally posted by Xenogenetic:
How could you think Darth Vader was black?



He was saying that if you were going to say that Blade is black because he "sounds" black, then so is Darth Vader since this guy voices him: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000469/

[CanuckErrant]

Maybe they just kept him indoors a lot more prior to SiN 1? You know, all the indoor training ranges.

[snake289]

he was like light skined black in the first sin but in episodes his skin is darker etc with hl 2 gordon freemen looked diffent plus his hev suit was diffent(doesnt have to do with skin colors but the creators somtimes change how the chareter looks in games)

[deceiver]

In SiN1, in-game, Blade IS black. Those SiN 1 pre-renders don't reflect his true color in-game. Take a look at my screenshots...

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/3175/sin0005la.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sin0005la.jpg)

Black arm skin color

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8238/sin0045wh.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sin0045wh.jpg)

If that isn't black, call me color blind.

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8940/sin0069ku.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sin0069ku.jpg)

And now, a caucasian woman - Elexis. Note the BIG difference in skin color between her and Blade.

Even in the anime movie you showed, dunno about you, but he strikes me as black, not caucasian. You can see the big difference in skin color between him and Elexis in that very poster.

[JezzyBall]

I've been waiting 7 years, I don't care if he's purple.

5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 unlock....

WOOO-HOOOOOOOOO!

[he_the_great]

Let's stop complaining about his skin color, and start complaining that his face is completely different. (He did not have that much detail before)

[Gatefreak2]

your joking right!

[he_the_great]

Originally posted by Gatefreak2:
your joking right!


I'll leave that up to you to decide.

[Omega1]

Great, I make a reskin for Blade and find out that he nevers appears in third person, quite unlike the original SiN. He doesn't even talk aside from the few words he says when he answers his comm link or whatver.

What is this? Did Gordon transport into the SiN universe and make the game more like HL2? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Commander_Canuck]

I just want to post to say... you ppl are making me lose IQ points just by reading your posts... thanks alot

[KryptCleaner]

Originally posted by Commander_Canuck:
I just want to post to say... you ppl are making me lose IQ points just by reading your posts... thanks alot



I am going to agree here, I just wasted 2 min that never should have been wasted.

[Omega1]

Originally posted by KryptCleaner:
I just wasted 2 min that never should have been wasted.

I agree, this was a totally pointless and unnecessary argument. Especially since Blade is clearly and very unarguably white-skinned to begin with.

[WhoZeDuke]

lol

[Omega1]

To add to this discussion, I'd like to point out that a binder in Supremecy Tower (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=se1highrise0200188mr.jpg) (Not my pic, forgot to take one myself) shows Blade's mother as being undeniably caucasian. That just leaves his dad's actual ethnicity unknown.

However, in light of this new evidence, this makes Blades incredibly darker skin tone as seen in SiN Episodes quite inexplicable. Unless his father was a black hole, I doubt Blade's skin could be quite that dark.

[calzador]

mother… father… evidence?

Don’t you know he was burnt in a severe accident (http://h-e-n-r-i-k.online.de/calzador/media/blade.wmv) ?

[BoogieKnight]

I find it funny that someone is trying to use the original SiN artwork to prove that black was anything but black. I guess you've never seen high-yellow [censored]? My step dad is high yellow, and a couple uncles of mine are as well -- one could even pass off as white. Blade is black, all it takes is looking at the hair to realize this.

A white boy trying to rock some hair like Blade's would be all frizzy and just all around messy looking. (you know you've seen that white kid on campus or in Berkley wearing dreadlocks or cornrow...so funny looking. A guy in berkley messed up one of my uncle's buddies from haiti, he was like what is that? we just laughed at his reaction, not the white boy ^_^, he had never seen dreads on a white person before).

Seriously though, I can't imagine anybody thinking Blade was anything but Black if they played the first or now this game. I'd be willing to think he's mulatto -- because I could see Vin Diesel playing his role /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif (who's a mulatto if anyone was curious).

[BoogieKnight]

Originally posted by Omega1:
To add to this discussion, I'd like to point out that a binder in Supremecy Tower (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=se1highrise0200188mr.jpg) (Not my pic, forgot to take one myself) shows Blade's mother as being undeniably caucasian. That just leaves his dad's actual ethnicity unknown.

However, in light of this new evidence, this makes Blades incredibly darker skin tone as seen in SiN Episodes quite inexplicable. Unless his father was a black hole, I doubt Blade's skin could be quite that dark.



Your ignorance is appauling. Really it is. You msut not know any black people at all, and if you do you better be of an age where none have babies of thier own because otherwise you wouldn't have posted what you had.

To me she looks like she could be white or black -- black people (as I mentioned before) come in all shades and colors. Some can pass off as white.

Black people make all colors of the rainbow -- maybe Blade got a tan -- you should see me after a week in the mountains (I turn about 20 shades darker)...this summer I'll be about 3 or 4 shades darker. My high-yellow uncle with his white wife made kids that appear to be 100% black (hair's nappy like us, skins darker than mine - and I'm a mulatto to etc...).

Here's a high yellow fella for ya to see.
http://bbsnews.net/bbsn_photos/topics/Timely_Figures/carla_Del_ponte_Colin_powel.jpg

[Damien_Azreal]

Could it be possible that Blade's parents were both black and white? That would explain his skin tone.

But I've always thought he was blake, even with those prerendered shots from SiN.

[Omega1]

Originally posted by Damien_Azreal:
Could it be possible that Blade's parents were both black and white? That would explain his skin tone.

Blade's father has never been seen in anything, except for SiN: The Movie, in which case here he is:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/sinmovie01.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/sinmovie02.jpg

And for what it's worth, this guy is the voice actor of Blade in SiN: The Movie:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/sinmovie03.jpg

Anyway, for anyone who was wondering about the skin (Since this was a thread about a work in progress custom skin for SiN:E (Although I do always enjoy a good discussion /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)), I have not released it yet because even with the patch released yesterday, the game still won't accept custom vtf textures for some reason, so it won't appear ingame. Although I could create a workaround by making the skin as part of a completely seperate mod of SiN:E, that would make you lose your saves, stats, config, etc, and I don't think anyone should have to go through that much trouble just to use one custom skin. In the mean time, here's the fancy preview pic I made for my reskin:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/bladepreview01.jpg

Also, Blade only appears at the main menu anyway. I have made a a matching skin for his view hands model, or the hands that hold the guns from the Blade's perspective, though.

[Jedah]

<font color="blue">A</font>h yes, because anime always portray's the correct tones for races. ¬.¬
Let it go man...

[Omega1]

Someone in this thread cited SiN: The Movie aka SiN Anime as an example of how Blade is black. Frankly, I don't consider the SiN anime canon within the story line. However, the movie reveals that JC's last name is Armack (And his first name is John. Get it? John C. Armack? John Carmack? ho ho ho.) and the same name is used in a piece of SiN:E concept art (http://sin.supremecommand.org/screenshots/displayimage.php?album=3&amp;pos=11) for JC. Since the name was used in SiN: The Movie and still being used again in SiN:E, it can be assumed that the SiN movie is not entirely non-canon. The movie doesn't state that Blade is black anywhere, but it does show Blade's father as being rather caucasian. Likewise, SiN: Emergence shows Blade's mother as also being rather quite caucasian. They could both be partly of black ethnicity, but that still makes Blade's very dark skin as it appeared in SiN:E difficult to explain.

[KraZeD_KaoZ]

I looked in the original game and he is black. I don't see much of a change. Same color on my pc, well maybe he is just a little darker in SiN Episodes. It could be the lighting making him look lighter.

[PizzasRgooD]

I immediately saw him as black and even in all the pictures you posted he still looks that way, probably because of the lips and hair. Your reskin looks weird because of that.

[Omega1]

Alright, after months of tireless research, I've come to the final and super ultimate conlusion regarding Blade's true skin color.

After this whole discussion, I decided to examine Blade's skin color in SiN 1 more closely than before as the entire discrepency here is in relation to his skin color being changed in the sequel SiN Episodes. I figured if I can determine his absolute skin color in SiN 1, then it would be easy to prove that it was changed later.

Since people won't accept box art, concept art, promotional artwork, and any anime related to SiN as proof of whether his skin color is white or black, I decided to go straight to the game files instead, as that can't be denied as a source. However, comparing Blade's model skin to other characters can be misleading, since JC is extremely pale obviously because he's a computer hacker person who sits inside all day, and it's unlikely Elexis is going to have dark-ish skin since she's more likely to have fair skin, fitting her rather feminine (but dominating) character. So while these two characters might be white, they're actually 'whiter' than normal due to other circumstances. Also, Blade might simply be darker because he has a tan, but would otherwise have a normal white skin tone.

Because the actual player skins can't be trusted too well in light of this, I decided to scrutinize his hand skins that appear on the first person view weapon models (i.e. the hand you see when he punches, the hand that cocks the shotgun, etc). The results, at first, looked like it could support the theory of Blade having black skin. Here is a big collage of all the weapon skins I first saw, 100% accurately and authentically exhibited in high-quality png format. Obviously, his arms are black, so they have been labled "black skin" as such:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/bladehands_black.png

This seemed like solid evidence at first, and like I was finally getting some genuine results. However, further inspection of the rest of the weapon skins held a deep and shocking truth. Here's the collage of the other weapon skins I saw:
http://home.comcast.net/~pudmonkey1/bladehands_white.png

I was greatly jarred at seeing this. Ritual made the game, so obviously, they should know what Blade is, right? I mean, these skins have been sitting here for about 7 years or so. The answer should lie here. How could these textures negate each other over Blade's skin color? How could this possibly be?

I studied the issue for days and nights end on end. It seemed like the ultimate paradox. So much clear evidence pointed in so many different directions. But, just today, the solution came to me in a dream. It was all, in fact, so simple. All these facts, despite almost contradicting each other entirely, made complete sense using this answer! It tied up every loose end and takes care of every hole. So, after having rattled my brain with this question for months, I finally came to the inevitable, undeniable, unquestionable, and completely unrefutable conclusion...

</font><span class="spoiler" onmouseover="this.className='spoilerhighlight'" onmouseout="this.className='spoiler'"> BLADE IS A ROBOT CHAMELEON. </span><font class="post">

I thank you all for your participation in this complex matter, and I am proud to have come up with the precise answer to everything. Oh you wacky devils, you Ritual, you! Trying to throw us all off by claiming Blade had parents and whatnot. In retrospect of everything, it's clear Blade was never human to begin with. I'm glad the matter is finally settled and I look forward to seeing this plot twist in further episodes of SiN Episodes.

</font><span class="spoiler" onmouseover="this.className='spoilerhighlight'" onmouseout="this.className='spoiler'"> However, I would like to point out that Blade looks very much like a white-skinned robot chameleon. I'm sure you all agree. </span><font class="post">

[gothcelt]

Eesh! Anybody who thinks Blade is white must have burnt their corneas out with their brightness settings.... Am I the only person that can see the homage to Laurence Fishburne in the original Blade? Do you think that the GAME DEVELOPERS contracted alzheimers and FORGOT what colour they intended Blade to be? Grow up, dudes! I think the last most ridiculous thread I read was when people tried to read a gay relationship into the Frodo/Sam Gamgee relationship...
I think quite a few game coders are having a real guffaw at this 'debate'...

[Omega1]

Originally posted by gothcelt:
Am I the only person that can see the homage to Laurence Fishburne in the original Blade?



Well, since SiN came out before The Matrix, any homage to Fishburne would have to be to a pre-Matrix role. However, now that you mention it, I do see quite a bit of Cowboy Curtis in Blade.


Do you think that the GAME DEVELOPERS contracted alzheimers and FORGOT what colour they intended Blade to be?



Um... yes?

At least judging from my previous post, I would have to assume that not even Ritual knew/knows what Blade's true skin color really is/was. </font><span class="spoiler" onmouseover="this.className='spoilerhighlight'" onmouseout="this.className='spoiler'"> Aside from bring a ROBOT CHAMELEON and all.</span><font class="post">

[MetalFX]

Personally I can't see what the big deal is here, I mean even a blind man (no offence ment) could clearly see that in SiN 1 Blade is as white as the non-red parts of the England flag. But I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion.

But however a few questions do still remain unanswered such as 'How did Blade become so dark in Episode 1 (even if he got a bit of a tan his skin colour couldnt of changed that much could it?) And also what other unexplained changes to Blade can we expect to see in future episodes?

I wouldnt be suprised if Blade went under a gender change in the next episode, judging by how much his skin colour has changed I think its safe to say that we might as well as expect it to happen at some point. (Still would make a suprising storyline for Blade turning out no be a female, no?)

But for right now I like Omega1's </font><span class="spoiler" onmouseover="this.className='spoilerhighlight'" onmouseout="this.className='spoiler'"> ROBOT CHAMELEON </span><font class="post"> theory so i'm going to go with that.

[Raveness]

There isn't a big deal because Blade, regardless of whatever skin color/ethnicity he is, acts like the prototypical American action badass.

He's not running around spouting religious hymns, or chattering about his ancestry, nor does he have tribal artifacts in his office or talk like Chris Rock about white and black people, so all this discussion is moot anyways

[Xenogenetic]

Why are you still debating this? Robert Atkins, El Presidente of Ritual Entertainment says he is black.www.bspmaps.com/ANDREW/black guy.wav (http://www.bspmaps.com/ANDREW/black guy.wav)

[Omega1]

Originally posted by Xenogenetic:
Why are you still debating this? Robert Atkins, El Presidente of Ritual Entertainment says he is black.www.bspmaps.com/ANDREW/black guy.wav (http://www.bspmaps.com/ANDREW/black guy.wav)



He says it was like making a character a black guy. He also says he's like a cop and kind of a renegade cop. If this is Ritual trying to confirm that Blade is black, even they don't sound all that sure about it.

Besides, being of black ethnicity and looking black are two different and distinct things. Blade has clearly been portrayed as looking both white and black-skinned (See my previous post before last for proof of that), so I figure that we may never find the one true answer we're looking for (</font><span class="spoiler" onmouseover="this.className='spoilerhighlight'" onmouseout="this.className='spoiler'">Once again, though, aside from Blade being a ROBOT CHAMELEON. That takes solves everything. </span><font class="post">).

[gothcelt]

He doesn't say LIKE a black guy - he just says "who IS a black guy... LIKE a cop", etc. The use of the word 'like' is old school - "like, wow, man!", or, "like, I'm wasted..." - just bad grammar, man...

But anyway, as said earlier, it doesn't really matter - he's a badass either way. Oh, and just a note on an earlier post: Laurence Fishburne was famous loooong before the Matrix movies.... sorta when Keanu was still a nobody...
http://home.yebo.co.za/~10132389/compare.jpg

[Gothmog]

Hell yeah! Wasn't Laurence Fishburne in Appocalypse now, some 25 years ago? Actually the year I was born, I think

I don't see what the big deal is concerning Blade's ethnicity, it really doesn't matter. Skin tone is not something that I spend my time thinking about. If there is any point to it, I thought that he was maybe a combination of the caucasian and black. Either way, he's one hell of a character.

[PizzasRgooD]

Nobody cares about ethnicity. The problem is some think they changed it.

I think he was always black, but ritual saw the confusion, and tried to fix it by making him undeniably black in episodes.

[JoelF]

Yeah... I really don't care if he's purple, as was mentioned above.

And really... unless you care about continuity issues, why does it matter?

Besides, some of the one-liners in the original were hilarious. He reminds me of Superfly... so if he's black, what do I care? It fits...