M668-N Stalker - New Robot Project

sp0nge

It's been a while since I really donned my creative hat and made something of my own design and even longer since I applied myself to a full character. With that in mind and sod all else to do with my days at the moment, I decided to start a new project...

Played with some thumbnail sketches yesterday and began working in some more detail this morning. Still plenty of work to do on the concept - especially since I'm pretty slow at 2D stuff at the best of times - but yea, getting the general direction down I think.



My usual process is to hide away in a room until I'm nearly done then ask opinions so I thought I'd better start this one off the way I mean to go on and get stuff up for critique from the outset. Any feedback you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated

Cheers!

Bonkahe

One note is it doesnt look like he has much in the way of a neck or hands, might need to render those out before you model it.

sp0nge

Yea will probably need to detail up the joints a fair bit more, the hands haven't actually been taken psst scaled-up thumbnail yet - they still needs a lot of attention along with the lower half and forearms.

Wiktor

I'm really liking this! Really inspired me to make robot myself!

Render out the hands, joints and feet and you're set if you ask me.

sp0nge

Haven't had a lot of time for this today but carried on a bit with the arms and legs and started work on a rough outline for the rifle (which I intend to work into the concept). I'm going to try and maintain daily updates mainly for my own benefit - it's good to have that little milestone at the end of the day and should be interesting to keep a visual diary of my progress...

sp0nge

Every day is seeming a bit much so after today I'll just post up more significant progress... Anyway, here's where I'm at with the concept at the moment:



Going down a more muscular/organic look simply because everything I do has hinges and ball joints. Ultimately, this design is going to get roughed up as a re-purposed guerilla warfare robot which should hopefully contrast nicely with the oh-so-future design. I'm going about this in a kind of 'ecorche' style method, i.e. designing the robot first then building up the layers of post-apocolyptic degredation and accessories. Not the fastest way of doing it but I'm hoping it will help add a nice dynamic to it. We shall see...

sp0nge

Hey, so I've been having doubts about this design for a couple of days now, thinking it's just gone off on a bit of a tangent from the original idea... SO, I bit the bullet and went back to the drawing board.

Worked up a good few silhouettes and settled on this skinnier, more mechanical looking design. I'm going to draw this one out in a front, back and side layout since my ability to work with posed perspective is similar to that of an infant child and frankly it will be more useful to me when it comes to modelling.



Feedback welcome as always!

OtrickP

I dig the robotic body, but the old head was awesome try to keep it! The old body was nice, very metroid. You keeping it 2d?

Wiktor

Good progress!
However, I think the old head was much better and it had a lot more character.

Keep it up!

sp0nge

Cheers for the feedback guys, I'll see what I can do about reviving the old head. I'm going to be modelling this after I've got as much concept down as I think's necessary and then getting busy with lower poly (next gen budgets) and some textures. Trying to get my 3D modelling portfolio up to date with a new character since I've got nothing that great in there since uni

sp0nge

Hey, it's been a while since my last update, like I said, trying to update only with actual progress and I've been lagging a bit over the last few days

So I'm getting to the end of the line drawing stuff now. Roughed out some really quick wear & tear on the the front view just to give you guys a better indication of where it's headed. Made an initial sketch of the gun, it's basically an XM8 with a couple of little changes - I figure it's a suitable looking gun and I'm trying to get an overarching feeling of 'old equipment, but in the future' so I think it works. Changed the mortar section for a rocket pod and tried to bring the character of the old head into the new design without conflicting the style too much.



Up next is to do the arm on the right side profile, do a final line drawing of the gun, and then throw on some accessories, final wear & tear elements and then maybe, if I have time, do some quick rendering just to think up some paint work design and bring out the shapes.

Feedback always welcome and let me know how you think the new head's holding up.

Cheers!

turb0n3rz

very nice sketch work

i cant wait to see the 3d work:)

esquire

I really dig the side view of your new head design but the front view (perhaps just because of it being 2d or the foreshortening) isn't making me hard.

The original gun looks way more awesome/original. All you needed to do was remove the AK style selector switch, IMO a gun of that style/make isn't going to have a fire selector switch like that, and if it did I feel like it would be way more ergo-nomic looking/a souped up version of it.

But so far all the design stuff is looking great. Hope you model it out and everything.

sp0nge

Cheers for the feedback, I know what you mean about the head - I've been thinking it may be easier for me to deal with it in 3D but here's a couple of rejected heads, maybe one of these might be a better direction?



Regarding the gun, I wanted to get something with more curves in it's design to better match the curves of the robot. I agree that the originality is suffering so I'll have a crack at coming up with something between the two today.

MisterSande

great work! I actually like the very first concept the most. From the heads I really like the first and second last.

sp0nge

Hey guys and gals, one final upload to this project as I've decided just to take this to the completed 2D stage and leave it there. Haven't really been able to get inspired with this character, doesn't help the initial idea was kinda boring, but put a lot of work into it so I thought I'd at least get a half decent concept finished and then move on to something completely different.

Cheers for all the feedback and I've at least got some new 2D work for my portfolio

sp0nge

Blaisoid

hmm, i think the final concept is least interesting out of all versions to be honest.

Thegodzero

Yeah i like the previous full body one much more.

sp0nge

Well in that case I guess even the concept doesn't make it into the portfolio. Back to the drawing board...