TASK 9: FINAL VEHICLE SILHOUETTES

       Spent the last hour conjuring up some mindless silhouettes and developing them into inspired vehicle designs. So far I'm absolutely chuffed with the results, I've even started brainstorming some functionality ideas and even accompanying characters. Yes, a couple of the silhouettes are laughably horrific (the flying bird killing machine), but have a look at them anyway.

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS APPRECIATED!

VEHICLE SILHOUETTES / DESIGNS
by Christian Whelan

     I tried my best to come up with a wide variety of ideas here, and as it turned out, most of them are inspired by some form of animal or insect. To me, this allows for some really wacky characters designs for the drivers that have to go along with the final vehicle. 
  
     My absolute favourite is hard to decide upon. My 'favourites' are the top right mole design, which is a cross between a bike, a tank and a construction vehicle; the top right fly inspired aircraft; the bottom right spider inspired chopper; the bottom left space ship inspired by a dolphin; the left hover drone and finally, the top left hovering 360 combat ball. So really, its a question of what I don't like (I tend to like my own stuff...).

I'll attend university tomorrow and get some further criticism or praise and make a judgment on that. It's really a question of which is the vehicle that is the most interesting, but the most plausible (at least that's what I believe). Of course, the character who drives it is also an important factor, but that can come afterwards.

NEXT POST: TASK 9: VEHICLE AND DRIVER DESIGNS

TASK 9: INITIAL VEHICLE IDEAS

     Never, have I drawn a vehicle in my life. Unless you count the firetrucks I designed when i was 3 years old, I can't say I'm that experienced. So, considering my next challenge is to design a selection of vehicles and choose one to polish, I can imagine this is going to be the hardest. So hard in fact, I had a 3 hour mind block and only came up with the basic (very basic) designs below.

VEHICLE DESIGNS - BASIC
by Christian Whelan

      Surprisingly, I only designs that use references, are the large construction vehicle and the red hover craft. The construction vehicle was inspired by a monster truck and a spider (Yes, I know it doesn't look like a spider, but it hasn't been finished) and the hovercraft was inspired by a the 40's vehicle (by the way, its backwards, because that how the shape came out).

These where drawn with my mind block not my mind, after 3 hours, I overcame it, and developed the rest of the design in the last 5 minutes. Funnily enough, these are my favourite. Generated through random shape blocking, I think they are varied, interesting and most importantly, really quick! I can't wait to get a few more ideas down!

NEXT POST: TASK 9: FINAL VEHICLE SILHOUETTES

TASK 8: WEAPON AND ARMOUR DESIGN (HAND-IN)

      It took me a good few hours, but I finally got the weapons and armour design done. The task was to design a set of weapons and armour to match as a theme. It was probably the hardest task yet, but through it, I think I came out with something really good. Have a look at them both below!

COMMENTS AND CRITICISM APPRECIATED!

FUTURISTIC ASSASSIN - ARMOUR DESIGN
by Christian Whelan

     So both poses are done and the armour for both is consistent besides one thing - the 8 pack. Once again, I forgot to polish it up. Regardless of that, I think this is my best piece. In terms of proportion, colouring and lighting, I've come a long way since my first drawings, and I believe this is largely due to relying less on line art. The weapons are a more accurate exhibition of my current ability.

FUTURISTIC ASSASSIN - WEAPON DESIGNS
by Christian Whelan

     When you look at my initial designs for the weapons, you'll see how they've changed. I've completely abandoned the wood theme - the only referenced and researched part of the weapons came from armour. Considering the weapons are supposed to blend seamlessly with the armour, this seemed appropriate, and I think it was effective. Of course one of the weapons clearly isn't hidden, even so, it's design suits the concept of the armour.

     Overall I love each of the weapons, they all have their unique visual features and firing styles whilst all working with the armour's design seamlessly. The Observant is the quick fire weapon, The Scatterer is the fully automatic precise weapon, The Repeller is the precise defense weapon, The Judge is the heavy room clearing weapon and The Revenant is the last resort destruction defense - all whilst working together and with the armour so they are one, rather than separate.

     Visually, My favourite of the weapons are the Observant and The Judge. The Observant looks great. It really integrates with the armour and I think I did a good job reflecting it's textures and shape. However, the Judge is by far the best of the weapons (as many people who have seen it agreed), maybe its because it is inspired by and references a real weapon, which was one of my concerns when designing's the others, but to be honest, I think it's just because it looks bad ass! The detailing of the rivets and metal texture in contrast to the futuristic red really work, and the way it holsters on the shoulder blade with its collapsing scaffold, I believe, is a really cool idea.

       Now this is done, my goal is to continue on as I have been doing, relying more on lighting to define shape and to texture parts to increase quality. But there are still things I need work on. Firstly I need to improve on faces, hands and feet. Whilst doing so, I need to start utilizing complimentary colours. once I've practiced and perfected these, its just a matter of developing my drawing skills in general.

NEXT POST: TASK 9: VEHICLE IDEAS

TASK 8: WEAPONS AND ARMOUR (IN PROGRESS 3)

      I spent the last 6 hours blocking and lighting the hands of the first pose, but most importantly I started and 'almost' finished the second pose. I say almost because I still need to polish up the smaller details such as the bolts and rivets on the armour plates. Have a look anyway.

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS APPRECIATED!

FUTURISTIC ASSASSIN ARMOUR DESIGN - IN PROGRESS
by Christian Whelan

FUTURISTIC ASSASSIN ARMOUR DESIGN - GIF
by Christian Whelan

      Once this is done, it's just a matter of redesigning and polishing the weapons, then finally, implementing the weapons into these armour designs an detailing their functions and weapon type.

Overall, I'm really happy with the outcome, I tried my best to stay away from line art, but as you can see, there is still some there, but I don't mind, because it stops the colour of the armour blending into the background. I suppose that wouldn't be the case if I was a little better at rendering and lighting.

On a less positive note, there are some clear issues and inconsistencies in the armour. Firstly, the sitting pose has an 8 pack... Also the foot and hands are the problem. I definitely need more practice when it comes to proportion and perspective on more complex body parts like the hands and feet.

Other than that, It's 'probably' the best piece I've done so far. I'll have no problem designing the weapons now.

NEXT POST: WEAPONS AND ARMOUR (HAND-IN)

TASK 8: WEAPONS AND ARMOUR (IN PROGRESS 2)

    I spent the last hour making progress on the final hand-in of the armour and weapon designs. I've only just come close to finishing the first pose but have a look at it anyway. I think it's coming along really well!

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FUTURISTIC NINJA ARMOUR - IN PROGRESS
by Christian Whelan

      

     So far I think this is my best piece. I no longer rely on bold line art to portray a character's shape and perspective.  This is something that I've been aiming to do since I started this course. For me, at least, line art seems to enforce a restriction - everything I draw, no matter how much I render it, looks too two dimensional. Maybe it's just my ability to render that's the issue, but through abandoning my usual line art ways, I hope to improve my rendering and lighting skills in the process, giving my freedom to use line art when I want, effectively.

The idea finish the gloves, implement the weapons into the armour and start the second pose. The second pose will not be the one in the picture, I hope to have a crouched 'assassin like' pose that exposes the back - a three quarter view. This way I can highlight all the weapons in detail. 

Finally, I'll draw in the weapons around the two poses individually, highlighting their titles and functions.

NEXT POST: TASK 8: WEAPONS AND ARMOUR (IN PROGRESS 2)

REFERENCING PRACTICE

         Referencing images when developing artwork is frowned upon by many artists, regardless of this snobbery, our tutor decided to demonstrate fine line between 'copying', and 'referencing' when using an image as a baseline to help create your own - he then let us try. My terrible attempt is below.

REFERENCING PRACTICE ALIEN
By Christian WHelan

     It's one of my worst drawings to be honest, I rushed it and really wasn't invested in the pose (can't actually believe I'm blogging it to be honest). As a rule of thumb, the idea is take the reference image, lower the opacity level, copy the basic (very basic) muscle shape and structure, delete the image and start your drawing from there. As you can see, mine didn't turn out well. But it is effective to be honest, some of the other students did a fantastic job!

NEXT POST: TASK 8: WEAPONS AND ARMOUR (IN PROGRESS)

TASK 8: WEAPON AND ARMOUR DESIGN (ARMOUR IDEAS)

         With a little needed criticism, it turns out my initial designs for the armour where lacking a little  So, as a result, I decided to add some ideas to the armour (unfinished ideas at that) and then implement the weapons into that armour to get an idea of the structure and colour scheme of the armour. Below is a posh gif and some full sized images to have a gander at.

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WEAPON AND ARMOUR DESIGNS GIF
By Christian Whelan

ARMOUR ADDITIONS
By Christian Whelan

WEAPON IMPLEMENTATION
By Christian Whelan

     The new additions and style of the armour where inspired by Misamune Shirow art in Ghost of the Shell. His modular mech armour designs are that little addition that fill out the lacking areas on the original armour. Granted, its a little rough but you can get the idea.

As for the weapons, they were already designed in a way to work with the armour. But with the black colour scheme, they really work. So far, I'm really in love with this design. All I need to do now is finish off the legs armour and develop the final hand-in piece.

NEXT POST: REFERENCING PRACTICE

TASK 8: WEAPON AND ARMOUR DESIGN (WEAPONS IN PROGRESS)

          Now that the initial design ideas for the armour had been completed, I had to start designing some thematic weapons to go along with it. Now, as mentioned before, the idea is that the character who wears the armour has as little contact with his foes as possible. With this in mind, the weapons below where designed.

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS APPRECIATED!

WEAPON DESIGNS - FUTURISTIC ASSASSIN
by Christian Whelan

The ideas aren't really finished, largely due to a mind block brought on from constant comparisons to other games and films. These comparison, made by others, are completely unintentional, I just designed what I thought fitted the armours theme, which also happened to receive a few (a lot) of comparisons. Again, unintentional on my part.

So, I needed to design a Light Weapon, a Standard Weapon, a Heavy Weapon and a Concealed Weapon. All of these needed to connected to one of the many power sources on the armour.

The Light weapon is the helmet that as a result trying to implement a musketeer theme into the futuristic armour, ended up with muskets on his head. I liked the design, but it didn't seem practical, as one of my friends said "The recoil on his head must be a problem...". That, along with the my tutor sharing the same feelings have prompted me to rethink this design (maybe even abandon the wooden look altogether).

The Standard weapon is the arm cannon - a rapid firing brace. Compared to Dead Space for its spine like appearance its a design I intend to keep on the most part, but maybe refine it, as it was my first idea once I finished the armour designs.

The heavy weapons - there are two (both could be considered concealed). First, the arm mini-gun. Again, it has a comparison - Predator. Not what I had in mind (again), but I like that idea, the Predator was an assassin of some sorts, so it works, especially when the armour is futuristic. However, my tutor told me to embrace the idea of a shoulder mini gun, one that flipped up when in use would be more fitting ("cooler"), and more practical. It was a concern I shared, so from this point, that the design I'll go for.

     Secondly there is the area blast (the waist power point). The idea is to have the power sources (the ones not in use) emit a large area blast. I love this idea, its simple and unique (I hope) - I'm sure someone will have a comparison somewhere. A note to make, is that it's damaging effect is only as great as the number of power outputs not in use. So if you want to fit yourself with an arsenal of bodily weapons, then you'll just have to make do with a lame area blast.

For the concealed weapon, I have the glove. This will emit an energy that repels all foes away from him / her. Again, this is only as powerful as the energy it has, so if all the power outputs are taken, it's not the greatest or weapons. Initially, I went for the hidden dagger, but that didn't make sense considering the lack of physical contact (and the comparisons to Assassins Creed). So I went for the glove (which ended being compared to Iron Man... brilliant.)

Now, I just need to refine the weapon designs, the armour designs and fit the weapons onto the armour. They may all have a comparisons, but to be honest, all the comparisons are pretty amazing, so I'm happy.

NEXT POST: TASK 8: WEAPON AND ARMOUR DESIGN (ARMOUR IDEAS)