The HORUS MANTICORE - A LANCER mecha with a dieselpunk twist

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LET MY NAME ENVELOP YOU. SEEK NO SHELTER
FROM THE FLAME OR THE TEETH OF THE BEAST.
CLOAK YOURSELF IN THE FIRE OF MY WORD AND
CAST BACK TO YOUR ENEMIES THAT WHICH WOULD
BLACKEN YOUR FORM.

This is a process thread for my current project, the manticore mecha from the tabletop rpg LANCER.

Current status:

Based on the designs by Tom Parkinson-Morgan and Olympia MS I'm adding my own dieselpunk-y wolfenstein-y twist to the design as I go.

The current phase I'm working through is a second blockout pass, where I replace the simple proportioned primitive blockout with basic constructions of all of the individual parts that will make up the mecha, replete with material breakup and even near-final topology.

The hands are the most developed so far. Though there are still some refinements and additions I would like to make on them, I am happy with the way they have been working out, I figure it bodes well for the rest of the project and with how smoothly they went they should give me solid momentum to carry through with the rest of the project.

Here is the full scale blockout of the object, as I go through I will be replacing the first-pass blockout pieces with mechanical bits, bobs, tubes, wires, and armor plates.

I'm aiming to take the piece through the full traditional gamedev workflow, all the way to rudimentary rigging for posing in renders. Depending on how the project goes, I'm keeping it in mind as a sort of a stretch goal to eventually do some proper animations or maybe some vfx for it, but admittedly I have next to nil experience in either field.

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Near finalizing the hands, branching out to the forearms now

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Working in the forms for the arms, I'm liking how the forearms are turning out, I looking forward to seeing them with a fabric sim replacing the dark grey block-in.

I've been working out what to do about the elbow for a while now, I think it'll have to be either a high detail mechanical spot or something to do with an armor plate, but either way I think it should be a good opportunity to add some more detail layering.

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Ive gone through numerous iterations since my last post, here are the results!

I've refined most of the forms and proportions on the arms to a level I'm happy with, currently I am working on finishing details that still stick out and bother me as well as finding ways to make bits under the armor plates look more interesting and refined, as I plan to have most armor pieces removable as if in a game scenario they had been shot off. I've been highlighting the removable plates with orange strips as a sort of visual gameplay cue.

I am beginning to think about the spacing and mechanics of a pilot's seat, I want to add an operable interior to the mecha, I think it'd be too juicy of a detail to leave out if I can help it. The torso is the area I'm looking at refining next as I wrap up the arm.

I've been kitbashing pieces for this project, nuts, bolts, bits, bobs, and decals. I'm starting to think about how I'm going to be able to tastefully use nazi iconography even with the artistic license granted by the wolfenstein style, I think I'm going to aim for "popcorn nazism" ala DOOM 2016's design philosophy of "popcorn horror" - If a touchy subject is taken over the top and caricatured in the right way it loses its weight and just becomes a good laugh. I find it interesting that one of the smaller details of this mech project is one of the ones I'm the most nervous about.

All in all Ive been pretty happy with the way the arm has been turning out, most of it seems like it will bake down and animate acceptably, maybe with a little bit of fudging here and there . If I had to give myself one critique it would probably be that I feel like my visual interest is coming more from level of detail than the interest of the individual forms themselves, I am happy with a good number of the peices and im aiming to create more interesting pieces in the future.

CybranM

Looks really good so far! I don't think you need to worry too much about the iconography, the context of the piece and just the outlandish design makes it pretty harmless imho.
I'm looking forward to seeing this progress

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 Its reassuring to hear you say so, thank you @CybranM

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Since my last post I've done some minor design changes, but most of my time has been spent going back and re-highpoly-ing all of my blockout geometry.

In that vein I finally came back around to the placeholder parts where I had planned from the start that I would be shrinkwrapping over tubes. I've always thought cloth details paired excellently with hardsurface pieces, examples including Wolfenstein pieces or that of the late Paul Pepera. I had little experience prior working with cloth simulation in general let alone marvelous designer, but I found marvelous designer to be quite easy to use and quick to pick up on all of its tricks with. The hardest part I found was clothworking terminology I was unfamiliar with. all the same, I am quite happy with my results.

Quick ending note - all in all the responses I got across various platforms conveyed that people were by and large comfortable with nazi themes - and for what its worth I do trust people to be able to tell the difference between artistic parody and genuine danger, so I will be moving forward with the designs bearing that in mind.

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Been chipping away at this project since the last post, the progress since I considered the arm to be finished and moved on the rest of the body has been piecemeal, so it never felt like a good time to post. That said, a significant amount of work has been done since I last checked in, so I figure it's better late than never to show y'all what I've been working on.

I've been refining and blocking out a lot of the initial forms I'd blocked in , playing with shape language and back-porting some things to the arms. The legs and torso are the most up-in-the-air right now, you can probably expect the designs for those to shift around a fair bit.

I've been iterating the head a lot, the top was my first attempt, somewhere between a combine soldier and the electro-mandibles of the original concept

After some attempts this this is what I'm settling on for now, I'm trying not to be too derivative of the panzerhund's design, but it fits the mood I'm going for much better.

In addition I've been working on creating some bits and bobs to eventually place inside the cockpit of the mech. I'm going for a look based on submarine and otherwise nautical equipment.

Brian "Panda" Choi

How is your sceene NOT chugging while you're making this>?

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Brian "Panda" Choi said:

How is your sceene NOT chugging while you're making this>?

Somehow I get by

I had to cap subdivisions at 2 but otherwise the perf is alright on my machine. undo speed was an issue until 2.83 released but now its a fraction of the time it was.

For the record the whole model is currently 67 million tris and 1,142 seperate objects.

m00k

Looks awesome brother! You'll have your hands full for the time being if you're going low poly and unwrapped. If you're looking for crits the only thing I'd say is be careful not to over saturate with detail. 

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Quicker pace update, finally refining the unknown void of the upper torso/cockpit and neck areas

No pics of the cockpit for y'all yet but its shaping up to be one of the most logistically interesting areas with all of the different intersections of mechanisms connecting to it and also needing room for a pilot with all the controls required for piloting.

Danilo.E

The Details are very well distributed. High-level work! 

guategeek

Crazy detailed, lots of interesting components fitting together. I feel like you need more areas of rest though, its so busy that its really hard to read the shapes. This video explains what I mean better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMH_J_vcoqE&list=PLoIM_wqjSQmDvU4Q6BMYGnABp5o-jBTak&index=3&t=0s

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Today's work -  refining out the neck!

In addition I've still been working on the upper torso and the cockpit, as well as small improvements elsewhere - hopefully something to show soon.

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Since my last update, my efforts have been somewhat scattershot, the bulk of what I've done is flesh out the upper body to a point I'm happy with calling 97ish % done, as well as researching for and planning out the interior.

I don't have it blocked in yet, but i have a good idea of what I want to go for with the interior of the cockpit.

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Finally finished!

The long journey is over, and THE MANTIKOR is free to roam the earth.

More Pictures inside the Artstation post: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/R38kXe