Greetings all! Feel free to redirect me if there's a more recent/more appropriate thread than this. This is a wonderful thread though, just as a side note. I've been obsessing over the details of the Seventh Sister's outfit and it's nice to find that equally detail-oriented folks are out there. Beware, lengthy post ahead...
I, too, am mildly disappointed with the inconsistencies present in the CRL, but wasn't aware that it was just a jumping-off point until reading this thread. Good to know that original sources (should) trump it.
That said, here's my quandary. I see two paths. Taking one, I make the Sister as close to exactly as she appears in *animated* form as possible. Skin tight everything, sacrificing realistic-ness. I imagine I'd end up making the jacket out of something like neoprene, which has a way of hugging every curve and looking almost airbrushed in its smoothness. Maybe the bracers and chest piece would be some kind of rubber. I'm fairly confident I could get to looking much like an animation. However, I think path two is more reasonable/acceptable, which is making the Sister how she would appear if she was a *real person* who we happen to have only met in animated form. Jacket would be wool - she's a fundamentally practical chick, after all - and helmet would have more of a powder coated metal (military helmet) feel, for example. On path two, Disney's Sister is actually quite well done. Sure the jacket is a bit loose, but a real Sister would definitely need to be able to move in her jacket, too.
I get that we translate the animations into their reasonable physical counterparts; however, I still think there are two distinct paths that can be taken while doing so. And frankly I'm kind of in love with my neoprene jacket idea and even though I might die of heat stroke, my arm muscles will look darn good as I die! Haha.
In all seriousness, though. Where do y'all think the line is between translating into reality and copying an animation? Thank you for your time!