Yellow pneumatic walking tank

[Prometheus|ANJ]

IDEA
A while ago I brought my digicam to the local industrial area and photographed some cool yellow machinery and stuff. I've always like yellow pneumatic macinery and orange-yellow and black are my favourite colors too. I'm sure we can all agree on the leetness of the cargobay 'lifter suit' in Aliens, but how cool wouldn't it be with a walking tank looking like that?

There's a problem though, in order for such a construction to work there must be a lot of pneumatics placed correctly and that would probably clutter the design (functionality versus looks). This is the reason why I've only used pneumatic arms where they look good.

Anyhow, here are some in progress images. I'll probably won't go any further than this. Finished images seems like 'overkill' to me and a sketch almost contain as much information (at a glance). If I had to model every knob and texture this it would probably take a month.

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SKETCH
Initial thumbnail sketches. Yes I know they are crappy, but I put priority in just getting it down on paper. The pilot hatch in in the torso.
Bottom: A gorilla version with a cannon, and a humanoid with long arms (note that the pneumatic 'head' can slide in the arm and thus improve strength.)

http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/riots.jpg

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REFERENCE MODEL
Worldcraft boxmodel... I can't model, cuz the tools are all 'mystery meat' in gmax.

http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/riotm.jpg

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PHOTOSHOP COLOR SKETCH
PS paintover, colors from one of my photos.

http://home.swipnet.se/zebes/riot3c.jpg

[chao]

wow... that's pretty good concpet, promotheus... like always!! cool!! hmm.. are you coloring using photoshop directly or you got your lineart first?? it's really nice!!

[Lono]

bravo on the design man..
i love the look of those pneumatic machine arms that put the cars together on the japanese assembly lines. ive goofed around with that style of tech before. its fun stuff.

"in most instances",,, when drawing anatomy, there are fundamental limitations that should not be crossed, so sacrificing function for flare can in effect cripple the character or its credability,,,,, BUT,, when designing machines and robots on paper, it is almost always better,"or will probably go unnoticed",, to sacrifice function for flare.
because as we all know,, machines are powered by magic, and magic can do anything.. :)

as far as the general public is concerned,, technology is magic. something mystical and complicated that we all rely on and can only be understood by magicians.

great work! as always.

-Lono

[jezelf]

really cool design you have there, Prometheus.

you have a similar working method to me. I use the same process mostly - sketches (as rough or as finished as you care - they are after all for your reference) sometimes a 3d model and then onto the finished design.

time is an issue with the modelling - sometimes you might as well simply do more sketches, but to get that perfect geometry (very important to me) a 3d model is a great idea...also means you can move the model around for a different composition, so cutting down on time in the long run espically if you have to do a series of images - then do a paint over.

how you achieve you goal is totally up to you - there's no rules.

anyway - I particularly find this an interesting subject matter, coz I've had to design something similar for a xbox & PS2 game ( Battle Engine Aquila (http://us.infogrames.com/games/battle_engine_aquila_xbox_action/) )

But my 'Mech' had to fly too. It had to change from a flying machine to a walking machine - that would be friendly to game mechanics - but also look sexy in either state, without you guessing that it would change, nor how it would.

I went for a smooth, sleeky design - it was probably to most challenging thing I've ever had to concept because of function competing against looks.

can't post a pic yet, though as I got to wait for the all clear from the publisher :mad: - however it is in contrast to yours.

anyways - thanks again.
best wishes
jez

[Blankfrank]

you really captured "real world" lighting on the surfaces for this one. From a distance it appears photographic, that's a compliment to your simple description of shapes/form/color (all that stuff). Nice.

[chukw]

Absolutely cool! If you haven't seen this link, you'll want to!

http://www.plustech.fi/Plmain01.html

Real Walkers- what a world!

[jezelf]

yeah - I saw that somewhere before. it's pretty slow, as you might expect. It's got more stability with the 6 legs and can go up slopes. give it another 50-100 years and it'll be manga everywhere! he he. have you seen that cool walker/mech/ lifter thing at the intro to Half-Life? I can see that sort of thing coming in sooner - perhaps 10-15 years?

do you think concept art can influence real world design the way science fiction has influenced science fact?

I would think it's possible. the concept, though created for a mainly aesthetic approach does have thought to function and might create new directions of thinking that an industrial designer might have missed or not deemed worthy to pursue.

I think it's because we can throw away and play around with more ideas. the entertainment biz isn't so restricted to the physical possibilities of the real world.

just a thought. I guess it's a question that should be in the 'lounge' section.

cheers
jez.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

chao> I rarely work like this, except for when I do boxy robots or buildings. In this case I painted ove a screen shot of the 3d program window in Photoshop 5.5.

Lono> I was thinking about really making it work, but it was a too mighty task I noticed. No one will notice anyway :D

Jezelf> Transforming stuff is especially hard to get right. Masamune Shirow has painted some mobile suits where the pilot hatches seem to fit into the hull. Those pics always impressed me.

Sometimes getting the image done is all that counts. Ripping ppl off absolutely is cheating though.

I'd sacrifice functionality for cool looks any day! Imagine an army of clumpsy yellow walkers tumbling on the battlefield, fighting with chainsaws, firing large caliber weapons that go boom really loud...

Blackfrank> I used photoref for the color so I deserve little credit for that. The lightsourcing is a bit odd at some places. I thought about raytracing the shadows but I didnt get to that.

chukw> seen it!