LSK's Warbot (the update is at the bottm)

[L. Scott Knight]

This is, I believe, the final rendering of the Warbot painting I've been working on here and there for quite a while. Please let me know if there is something lacking, some adjustment needed? C&C welcome and greatly desired. PLEASE?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/LSKart/Warbot-FinalByLSK05.jpg

For those who have been following my sketch thread this is an illustration for a story I am writing for ADB Inc. The publishers of the game Star Fleet Battles. The Star Fleet Universe is based on old Star Trek, more specifically the original Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph Designs.

This is a scouting party looking for resources on a planet during the great General War. They pick up some unusual energy readings and locate its possition under the sand. They start to dig and find something metalic. One of the science members begins to scan it with his tricorder and the energy emission from that awaken the Warbot. The arms and legs shoot up out of the sand and slam down to the ground, lifting the great machine from under the sand and throwing Research Team in all directions.

At first it just stands motionless. Then when one member talks its "head" turns to look at that individual. Then a Team Memeber scans it again and this draws the Warbots attention. It quickly grabs him and crushes the puny human in its hard metal grip. What it is interested in is the energy from the tricorder; which it imediately begins to drain. It drops the dead officer and the other team members fire on it. In this picture it is determining that the energy level of the phaser carbin behind it is greater and is about to snatch that Officer and take his weapon and drain it.

[dogfood]

I expected a lot more Red Shirts down.

The figures look really stiff. You can check some sports photos (from the stands) to get distant shots of figures in action. There also appears to be little impact from the main lighting source on the robot. I can see a little shine from the phaser fire, but the local star appears to be set on "stun". Can you tell that there is a lot more stuff happening on the left side of the piece?

Please, do NOT tell me that the phaser fire is casting a shadow.

Interesting piece. The robot design does look pretty old scholl Trek.

[Danilo]

I dig legs and arms of the robot. I couldnt find your scatches.
There is too much details. Try to search for unity- one big sound wich come out from picture. Like this it look like some childish game.

[L. Scott Knight]

DOGFOOD:

The engine in the "BUTT" (this thing flies and goes after the ship; tearing into the hull going after the energy) is supposed to be a very light glow and I had done some casting of that light. The phaser ambience overpowered that.

When I did that shaddow on the phaser beam I figured it would disrupt the light like water (which is clear) from a hose does. But you've tipped the scales and I'll get rid of that.

Eventually the both Red Shirts get into trouble but actually neither end up dying. In the SFU even the Captain can get it (although a Captain belongs on the ship not on a survey party). These are all 1st and 2nd Leutenants.

That's a great tip about checking sports mags for long distant shots! I check that out. Thanks!

Re: A lot more stuff happening on the left. Ya, the picture is somewhat leftish. I didn't want to purely center the image. Do you think that was a mistake?

One thing I'm stuck with is that the image must fit the story.

I did a high res print out and discovered several minor things I want to touch up.

[dogfood]

Usually centering an action shot equals boredom, so I certainly don't recommend that, but there is such a thing as balance. Loomis has pretty good examples in his illustration book.

[DSillustration]

given the perspective on the robot,
i suggest raising the horizon line quite a bit.

[L. Scott Knight]

Thanks, that was suggested in the sketch thread when I was developing it and I did raise the horizon quite a bit. The Warbot is leaning forward which may be messing with the appearance of the perspective.

Given that should I still raise the horizon? (seriously asking)

[L. Scott Knight]

I would like to thank those who took the time to comment.

THANKS!

Dogfood: I've been making a file full of sports shots. Great idea.

I'm going to be making another pass at a bunch of details on the picture. I printed a high res copy and wrote notes on it of things to fix. I promise that the phaser shadow will go! I don't know how I could be thinking that.

The glow on the bottom bell is supposed to be very soft but I now realize that having it white in the center denotes that it is bright. I'm going to darken it.

I've really got so much time in on this one I'm not wanting to make major changes to this particular piece. I'll do what I can to tweak the characters a bit but I'm just going to have to do better on the next piece. This is, after all, my first major piece on a computer and I'm still learning painter. I'm pushing 40 and haven't painted since collage... arrgg, 18+ years! Now I'm depressed...

Thank you all. Suggestions that I don't apply to this piece will be saved for the next! I've learned a lot from this one.

When I'm done, I'll post the final piece.

[look]

I like the background, its nicely detailed. Everyone else had mentioned the perspective and figure issues, so I'll leave that alone. I think you need to clear up the sky. The clouds are too evenly distributed, take away a few, and paint a few big chunks and some small, so they dont look so static.

[L. Scott Knight]

Look,

Thanks, I totally agree and that's a fairly easy fix. It's particularly bad on the left I think. On the mark-up print I made I have some crossed out and a note to carry some off the edge of the picture (on the left the all stop in a line along the edge... oops!).

I really appriceate the comment on the background though. It's the first time I've ever put so much effort into one. I've never done sand before so this is me learning to do sand. Which, BTW, I learned from studying works on Concept Arts. I'm pretty happy with the sand but I'm going to add a bit more foreground detail.

Thanks again.

[JokingClown]

This is a nice action shot. But since its an action shot you want to try to get an angle the conveys the action the best, with the emotion in it as well. A example of what i mean is achitecture. Look at some technical drawings of archetecture..
the layout is boring and uninteresting.. because it is designed for construction etc. It shows everything you would need to know about the building, but has no emotion. Then there are the artists who draw buildings, attemtping to show emotion, or perhaps the size of the building.

While this shot shows the action, and all of it, I dont think it is the best angle.

Examples:

You could have the "camera" behind the robot, looking down on the people, this would be conveying the size and strength of mr roboto in comparison to the mere humans :)

Another angle would be to show the action from ground level, looking up and the robot. you get to see the humans fighting for their life against the huge robot in the background. perhaps the focus of the picture could be a human flying through the air with an explosion.

So, Im not a big fan of the chosen angle, but I do believe that the artwork is very nice. If anything is unclear Im willing to make a few sketches. :)

[jfwalls]

JokingClown is right. When you lay out the composition for a piece, especially one with action like this, think about what camera angles would be used if it was a movie. The view you have now is like an establishing shot, which is often used to show the location somebody is in before the cut scene that jumps to the action. While establishing shots can often give you a nice "epic" feeling, they're not always exciting. Does that make sense? If not, sorry. :teeth:

[Kirk Lunsford]

I like the idea of the image and the robot design. I think the robot design could be better if the forms matched. You have a double curve surface ,being saucer type forms, combined with a planer form being an octoganal form. If you gave it a rounder body it would be a cleaner design. As far as lighting goes, you can actually do less work in some areas and more in others. As things recede they get lighter, and things in the foreground get darker. Think in 3's in terms of value dark, middle, light. There should be a strong lights source casting a dark shadow underneath the robot and the top of the robot should be much lighter. I do like the attention you paid to the heat waves coming off of the robots underside...keep posting.

Kirk

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=475747#post475747

[L. Scott Knight]

Thanks guys for the comments. I don't know what will happen to this piece but I'm probably going to do some small illustrations and I will improve the composition in those.

I was thinking that perhaps I should move the scene back a few moments to when the dead science officer is still in the clutches of the bot. It might break up even possition of the characters better and put a bit more action on the right hand side.

Does anyone think this will help? It will take a bit of doing but at least I don't have to scrap the entire piece to do it.

[L. Scott Knight]

Well, this is it I guess. I upped the contrast, added better highlights, and tweaked the characters some. The story that this piece goes with has been submitted and is called The Golems of Ares.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v244/LSKart/AresGolemFinalCMedium.jpg

I can't really go much further at this point in my life. It will get put on the back cover and be about 3" x 5" if I'm lucky (might be smaller). I'll get about $35 bucks for it so this was more about illustrating my own story and a huge learning process. TIme to move on. I'm pretty happy with it.

Thanks all for the great advice! You guys did help a lot.

Peace!

[L. Scott Knight]

BTW: Can I post this in the FF thread?