Futuristic athlete
polycounter lvl 9
First time I'm pimping some of my art. I'm gonna start posting my work more regularly from now on, instead of just lurking around the forum thinking my stuff aren't good enough to post.
Here is my latest character. She's some kind of futuristic athlete with a camera in her helmet allowing her to see the environment in augmented reality. I imagined a sport where a computer program alters the appearance of the other players and displays information, graphics etc. Like a real physical sport and a videogame at the same time.
Here is my latest character. She's some kind of futuristic athlete with a camera in her helmet allowing her to see the environment in augmented reality. I imagined a sport where a computer program alters the appearance of the other players and displays information, graphics etc. Like a real physical sport and a videogame at the same time.
Replies
All that padding implies that this sport involves full contact and possibly falling down onto surfaces. You definitely definitely need knee-pads, because knee injuries are bad.
You also probably want more clothing, because skin tears and scratches easily, and in a full contact sport it's usually nice to have that extra bit of protection. If it's an indoor sport, you can probably get away with less cloth (although, really, that underwear short thing is SHORT, and I'd imagine it'd be much more comfortable to have the straps on top of cloth instead of biting into flesh).
Basically, imagine yourself wearing the uniform. Think of all the aspects of the uniform that work, and all the bits that feel irritating, especially in regards to the imaginary sport being played. Some sports favor protective wear over flexibility, others go the opposite direction, etc.
Look at the minutia so that it really sells the whole concept, and take inspiration from real life- how are the shoes specially designed to grip the playing field? Does the helmet serve to protect as well as augment? (Those antenna on the back, are they in danger of snapping off during play?) etc.
Really, what you should do is flesh out the sport first, and derive the design from that. Another way you could really push the design is to show us some of those virtual overlays, so we see both what the players see and what the unaugmented reality is.
Just offering my 2 cents.
Very clean modeled.
I like your lightning setup.
I second this.
Also the helmet looks kind of unpractical, the things on the back looks like they can be in the way and could also be dangerous for other players(and I have no idea what they are).
With this character I didn't spend a lot of time and consideration for whats reasonable, I just wanted to make a cool design. Actually I have imagined myself wearing that outfit, yes, I would feel exposed and a bit uncomfortable with metal buckles rasping my skin and whatnot. But I would also feel really cool and sexy, especially in those outrageous shorts. I guess I sacrificed what would be more reasonable for what I thought would make the character appealing.
I agree that paying attention to the minutia is a good practice. Making sure that every detail makes sense and have a purpose can drive the design process further and increasing the quality of the final result.
However, I have also experienced the opposite. Being to tedious with context and logic can in my opinion be quite limiting and inhibit creativity. And not to mention more time consuming.
My conclusions of this is that if I'm gonna get away with details for purpose of adding visual interest at the expense of believability, I should probably push the design beyond the tipping point towards carricaturism or even abstractionism,where the observer would not even reflect on matters of practicality/comfort. For example a lot of the clothing in the final fantasy series are completely unpractical and cumbersome. But as a player I wouldn't mind that, I would just enjoy the design.
thoughts?