Need serious help interpreting mech concept!

Lights

Hey guys. I could really use a bit of guidance here. So I'm working on modeling this concept for my student portfolio and I'm having a hard time understanding the functionality of the character.

Concept:


Btw the end result I'm looking for is a lowpoly character, possible found in the Overwatch universe. 

Here are the parts I'm struggling on:

In the concept the legs appear to be rotated outward from the body and seem to be angled down somewhat - but still somehow remain flush with its insertion point into the body. So I don't understand how this character moves or rotates its leg. I imagine it doesn't actually walk, rather it just rolls forward in a straight line like R2D2. But if that's the case, shouldn't its legs need to face forward to function that way? The issue with that is how can the legs rotate inward with this huge guard on it? It would clip into the body, no? 



So after looking up other mechs, this is pretty much where I'm at now. I spaced the legs out a bit so they would have some room to rotate. 


***The legs are only partially blocked out btw.***

I feel like I've gotten to far away from the concept at this point. Am I overthinking this? Are there some mechanical principles that I'm just not understanding? Is functionality something that always need to be prioritized? Should I try to match the concept as close as possible regardless of I how I think it works?

Tons of questions I know, but I've been really running in circles on this one. Any help would be very much appreciated. And if anyone needs me to explain anything more just let me know. I'm was trying my best not to ramble on too much. 

-Dimitri

DavidCruz

seems to be in a squatting position looking at the backside of both concept and model, the area that would be the thigh looks like it has an extension to it or to make it function normally without messing with the concept at all, this extension would lie inside the hip rotator BALL, the extra thigh bit would extend out of that and would adjust its position so that the squating made sense and the function as you think it would, would work as it should.

hope it makes sense, if not hopefully someone with more time or fancy skills can make something animated to better understand the point, i am no expert... afaik.

I made something similar to what i am talking about with a hand design i came up with, the thumb bone here slides inside of the ball.  Also i'd just do the below.

Edit:

or try to ask the original creator and that might help bring some light to the situation or have him / her / it realize the error one might run into attempting to understand the piece, i like the design, nice start.

Lights

@DavidCruz thank you so much for your feedback!

That part about the model squatting makes so much sense. I didn't think of that at all. So what your saying is that the legs are kind of retracted into the body but when the character needs to move around he can extend them? That really helps a lot. Also contacting the artist is great idea. I'm sure he's a busy guy but it's worth a shot.

DavidCruz

Lights said:

@DavidCruz thank you so much for your feedback!
That part about the model squatting makes so much sense.

Yea like a sumo wrestler, which would work as to how round the design is, i added the retracted legs part cause with robots you can pretty much do whatever you want - do not have to necessarily follow human movements.  So have fun with it and if he is too busy you have some direction to try and see if you like the idea, i just mentioned the retracted bit so that you do not steer to far from the concept, its what i would've done if i tackled this design.  Good luck though, i do want to see this when you get around to it again, maybe make a pimping thread? idk but hopefully get to see it pop up again sometime.

edit:

Hope you see this but as i was inspecting the design a little more started to wonder if this design is meant to move as a vehicle at all i figured i add that, i would also add a somewhat hidden wheel at the center of the front foot area, where the mole type of head design is @ the 'right' foot facing the viewer.

Can make it wide i suppose so that it could hold his/her weight and stabilize the whole body of this thing, like roller blades design or add two wheels really up to you.  What i think is going on in the squat is positioning its self in whatever race it is apart of.

Rethinking again if you made the front wheel some sort of orb design the need to steer the legs would go out the window and that front orbb wheel would pretty much do all the turning work and makes this make a lot more sense to me now.

Lights

@DavidCruz your absolutely right about it being a vehicle. I probably should of posted this earlier but it's supposed to be like a transformer of some kind.



Though it would be awesome if my model could actually transform, I think that's a bit above my pay grade. I really like that idea about the hidden wheel in the foot. It sounds like a great touch to really sell how the character gets around, so I will definitely add that.

Right now I'm reworking the legs to get them closer to the body. I'll post some updates here soon. I'm really hoping to get this thing done this week (at least the high poly).

Also it's funny you bring that up, I was really interested in making a progress blog post for this guy on my artstation, so I may just post that here as well.