TASK 9: VEHICLE AND DRIVER DESIGNS

         Long overdue blog post. But after developing the original silhouette designs for the vehicles, I asked friends and family which of the designs they preferred. Surprisingly, they chose the one I preferred, but the one I didn't think anyone would of liked. So fortunately for me I began to design that silhouette.

     Now, this vehicle was inspired by an early 40's car with the idea that when developed, it would be extremely patriotic in design (flags, american colours etc) and the driver would be am androgynous female american hero figure. However, as I started to develop the idea, I realised, that although it looked functional, it just wasn't an interesting. The top down view, of which I began with, inspired a new idea - a intimidating dragonfly design.

     However, this would render my patriotic concept useless. So, as I developed the vehicle I started to see a dragonfly and an eagle within the same silhouette. From that point, I had in mind a vertical police force vehicle (it's intimidating and patriotic) - one which can switch between a close quarters upright hover craft and a normal fighter jet. 

Note: the design below is it's upright position.

     With this police force idea in mind, the colours blue, white and red came to me (naturally), but considering its futuristic look, I decided to go with the robotic look which in turn, inspired the driver - a mass produced law enforcer that shared the same visual and physical characteristics as it's vehicle.

     In all, I'm really happy with the vehicle and character  I think the concept itself could be a little clearer on its orientation, but other than that, I like the concept behind it and the designs execution. I still have a lot of room to improve though. I'm trying.

COMMENTS AND CRITICISMS APPRECIATED!

THE ODREAGLE - VEHICLE DESIGN
by Christian Whelan

THE COMMANDMENT OFFICER - CHARACTER DESIGN
By Christian Whelan

       My next goals are to really plan out characters before I design them. I seem to just go with the flow when it comes to characters, resulting in a mixed bag that's just above average for the level I should be at. When vehicle designs are considered, I need to learn perspective because to be perfectly honest, the only reason there isn't a perspective view of the vehicle, is because I was too intimidated by the idea. Maybe next time.

    

 Most importantly, I need to practice at grey scaling, I've seen other student's vehicle designs and you can really see the jump in quality when it's used effectively to develop shape. Again, next time.

NEXT POST: TASK 10 - LANDSCAPE CONCEPT - PROGRESS 01/03/2013

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