[WIP] - HUM3D- SpaceRover Challenge - Surveyor

Korda

After a much too long period of not working on any personal projects I've decided to have a go at the HUM3D space rover challenge:
https://hum3d.com/space-rover-challenge/

The idea is locked in but the design is being a bit more troublesome. The idea behind the vehicle is that it is a science scout / surveyor craft. 
It uses a type of antigravity technology that allows it to float over terrain in a non-destructive way while it uses its fleet of drones and numerous cameras and scanners to build a digital recreation of the area that it passes through. It is equipped to support it's pilot for surveying missions for up to 2 weeks.
I want the environment itself to look like a very alien forest. I'm fairly confident in my ability to pull off an environment, the vehicle itself is going to be the bigger challenge for me. This is also planned to be an excuse to try out Blender some more, I've messed around with box cutter and hard-ops which I've really enjoyed and wanted to use for a proper project.

So yeah lots of words. I think this might also be my first post here (very long time lurker..) so apologies for any post mistakes 

Korda

Mood board for the vehicle:

Korda

 I've been trying to rough out some volumes in Blender and have a shape that I'm starting to like. It's looking a bit too much like a cross between a helicopter and an f1 car. I need to make some adjustments to make it look a bit more like a science vehicle.

Korda

I did a quick paintover to explore ideas a bit. I really need to spend some time practising 2D, it's a pretty big weakness of mine. I got a stronger idea of what I want to do though so that is the main thing:

 

Korda

I've been making some progress with the model, slowly iterating from the blockout and exploring shapes a bit as it goes. Some things that are pretty clear for me in my mind are the idea of a sensor disk at the top of the vehicle. This is for general capture of the areas the vehicle passes through, planning on having equipment for precise positional data on the top of it. It will have more focused and specialised equipment on the nose. I'm thinking of an articulated arm on the underside of the vehicle but haven't quite figured that out yet. The other idea is of the antigravity engines, which I mentioned before, they will give the vehicle the ability to traverse the environment while staying stable and without damaging the environment.

Korda

Been working on this on and off. I don't think I'll make the competition deadline at this point but I've been having fun working on something for myself again so planning on going on with it if I do miss it.