Scorn's Stuff - Update - Valiant CG 10-06-09

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Dynames
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Very nice if i may so, i like your use of the crossbones thrusters
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ScornMandark
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You may indeed say so ;) My buddy wanted the X-thrusters turned into a cross for the theme of the suits, and I thought, 'Now, what can we do with those pylons...Hardpoints!' and so that's how the stuff got attached.
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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ScornMandark
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Ok, Finalized versions of the Amneris Corp Metal.

The Lightbringer: Designed by the Metal engineers responsible for the upkeep of The Dragon, The Lightbringer is the Amneris Corp's mass produced answer to the chaos of the Alpha quadrant. By unifying all races under one governing body, conflict can be eliminated entirely. That's the theory, anyways.

Base Model
|-Armor Pack
|-Heavy Assault Pack
|-Speed Pack

Adjusted the logo a little, and fixed the armor on the port-side leg. I'm pretty happy with the way these came out, including the free-handed parts. Hopefully I'll continue to have the time to work on more like these.
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Seraphic
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Scorn, the Paintaker looks like a cool concept, but the saturated blue really blinds the crap out of me! o,<;

You fixed the leg armor! Getting pretty good, eh? Maybe you can do a hand-drawn entry for the next contest, too. :wink:

And a small nitpick about those arm gatlings. The ammo belts lead from the ammo drum into the arms instead of the chamber of the gun?? Or maybe it feeds electicity from the arm into the gatling, if that's really a beam gatling.... If it's a beam gatling, I'd say it'd be a lot safer to just feed electricity through the hardpoint the gun is mounted on, instead of through those exposed belts, however cool they happen to be. =p
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
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ScornMandark
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I unfortunately agree with the colors, but that's teh colors that were requested. Maybe I'll pull up another version that's less of an eyestrain.

Thanks! I've actually really enjoyed the drawing part of these latest pieces. Hopefully I can come up with something creative enough to not look like crap when I free-hand it :p


As for the ammo belts, I envisioned them running from internal reserve storage drums (in the arms) into the main ammo drums of the gatlings themselves. [/total retcon to explain mysterious ammo belts] :D
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Scorpio[pt]
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looks awsome you have sillz lol

wen your going to finish my request :S? i know you do this as a favour but
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ScornMandark
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@ Scorpio[pt] - Not to worry, you haven't been forgotten :D
With Shield and Rifle

I'm still working out precisely how to attach the dragoons. Might end up being 2 front/2 rear on each wing, not sure yet. More progress as it progresses. Plus, I need to clean up the rifle lines a bit still.

Also, in a less eye-damaging blue:

Paintaker
|-Armored
|-Speed
|-Weapons
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Scorpio[pt]
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thx man :D
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Yuusha Tokkyu Might Gaine
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ScornMandark wrote:
Base Model
|-Armor Pack
|-Heavy Assault Pack
|-Speed Pack

Adjusted the logo a little, and fixed the armor on the port-side leg. I'm pretty happy with the way these came out, including the free-handed parts. Hopefully I'll continue to have the time to work on more like these.
I think I'd shat myself if I ever see that heavy assult pack. I can easily see it weapon spamming ala Kira or Trowa.

Really, really digging the faceplate on the armored pack.
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Zangetsu
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There all pretty sweet. I do have to wonder though...Why doesn't the armored form have additional armor on is't arms?
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ScornMandark
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Hey all - sorry for the delay, a virus hijacked my laptop and I ended up reformatting my hard drive in response. I'm back up and running, but all of the files on my computer were wiped out. I've got some backed up on my desktop, but I'm gonna need a bit to catch up...

@YTMG - Thanks! I'm pretty proud of 'em both, they took a lot of work. The faceplate was kind of an afterthought, 'I need something more here....' kind of thing, so I'm glad it came out well!

@Zangetsu - I wasn't really sure what to do with the arms, to be honest. The ideas I was coming up with weren't meshing well with the rest, and ended up being waaaay to bulky and clipping some of the other armor parts or looking paper thin and useless. So, I left 'em off. Call it to speed up firing adjustments while leaaving the rest of the mech to take the shots. Or, he's gonna carry such big weapons that the armor would have gotten in the way. Take your pick =)
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Scorpio[pt]
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that sucks man had the same problem once
i will wait no worries :)
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ScornMandark
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No new frankens yet, but a different update!

Encouraged by Seraphic, I've decided to try my hand at the sketching!

Parts of the Dragoon Metal - I've got a concept, trouble is getting it all out at once! so, instead I'm doing it piecemeal and assembling it after. The other problem is I sometimes have trouble seeing what I want to do with it in my head.

So, being an engineer and all, I drafted it.

Front Orthogonal - Symmetrical, no need for too much work ;)

Side Orthogonal - a lot of the un-inked bits are dimensionings, greebles, and other such stuff.

Noting that my perspective drawing isn't that great, I'll probably 3DS Max it when I've got it all plotted out so I can have a better realization of it. For now, I'll treat the perspective parts as a reference for the orthogonal views which in turn will be reference parts for the 3DS model.

This is my first drawring on the interwebs, so please, be gentle :P
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Seraphic
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ScornMandark wrote:Encouraged by Seraphic, I've decided to try my hand at the sketching!
Oh, that's quite a problem! Hasn't anyone realized that I'm a bad influence?? :P

I also find it very interesting that our new sketch artist is still in the mindset of a frankener: having pieces first and putting them together. It's sorta cool watching the transition. =)

But anyway, this is looking pretty good. I'm actually very surprised that you have measurements marked out for all the dimensions. It's very professional, and I'm sure it'll make everything look good and proper once it all comes together. I'm really looking forward to the finished product! Good luck, sir, and let us know if there are any specific tips you would like to hear. =o

I'll just let you know ahead of time that you'll likely have to re-proportion most of everything after it's put together. Things often look very different as a whole. It kinda depends on what sort of look you want though. =p
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
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GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel
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ScornMandark
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Maybe it's because I'm an engineer, but I tend to think of things in terms of their parts. A Robot is made of a torso, arms and legs; the leg is made of thigh, knee, lower leg and foot; etc. So, since my overall image of the thing is a little hazy still, I figured I'd work on a part here and there until I get what I'm looking for. I ended up drawing the torso first, followed by the waist and thigh, then the head and knee (after scrapping multiple lower legs). After I did that, I orthogonalized them to no particular scale. Quickly realizing this could be a problem, I drew up a scale reference of my ultimate vision.

Very accurate.

I was pretty surprised at how close the parts were to their proportions relative to each other. And, handily enough, the lines on a 3"x5" index card scaled to .3 meters, which made for dimensioning the rest of the drawings pretty straightforward. Lucky? Maybe, but I'll take it.

Drafting has made me stupid picky about dimensioning stuff right, so I figured that I'd start with what I've got, then when I go to my second page of paper (this is all on one page so far), I'll have a good reference scale and such to start with.

What do you think so far? General critique, overall design, particular line out of place... I'm glad that you like the dimensioning, it makes me feel less obsessive :P Not that there's a "right" way to go about this, but is this a particularly back-ass-wards way of doing this?
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Seraphic
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Well, just because I like your dimensioning, it doesn't mean you're not being obsessive. =p But I find that oftentimes that sort of dedication/devotion can really bring out a special charm in a drawing. =)

The design so far is simple and straight-forward, but this is a very good thing because it allows you to understand the basics and wrap your head around everything that is going on in this design. The head feels distinctly American for some reason, and I think it's because it doesn't resemble a samurai helm. =p

As for the rest of this post, keep in mind that it relates heavily to my own personal upbringing as a mechanical designer. I'm just giving some references so you know what sort of styles I happen to study. But please, if you feel going your own style is best, then I have to agree that would be the better way to go.

Looking at the proportions of your mech, it looks like it bears a large resemblance to actual human proportions. That's a good way to study. But you'll soon figure out that most mecha have a unique proportion that is a lot different from human. I used to use human proportion for my mecha, but they ended up looking a bit young/immature and squashed. This is because the mech is very broad, and its parts take up a lot of space. So, it needs more height/length to spread this out more. Some parts are thinner, and some parts are shorter than you would think.

Study A

This image compares Okawara's original Zero (on the right) with a Zero done in Katoki's style on the left. It could be hard to tell the difference at first, but let me give you a quick run through. Okawara's style is probably the one that bears more resemblance to human proportions. But notice how broad the torso is. Compare the length of the thigh versus the lower leg. In humans, the shin is supposed to be shorter, but mechs have this the other way around! The knees and feet are HUGE.

Comparing to Katoki's style, it becomes much more stylized. The torso is very compact and streamlined. The proportion seen in the legs is even further exaggerated with shorter thighs and very long lower legs. The torso and leg proportions seen here are a few of Katoki's trademarks. Katoki also likes huge wings, I guess.

Notice that in human proportions, the height is divided half and half between the upper body and lower body. For Katoki, the lower body is two thirds (2/3) of the height! o,o

I would personally like to study under Takayuki Yanase. I guess most people would describe his style as similar to Katoki's but I can't quite call that fair. I can't really figure a different way to describe it though. He's got a very stylized technique, but I'd say his key trait is his eye for geometry and mechanical detail. I mean, look at all those shapes and panel lines, notches and proportion. Everything fits together so beautifully!

Here, it has a compact torso with what I guess are arms that are compact and scaled well with everything else. The lower legs are enormous and almost make up half of the height! This style is hard to pull off!

Blah, I think I trailed off a bit much. That's just giving you an extremely small glimpse into mechanical design, and I've only given you an extremely limited sample. But these are the main ideas I study regarding proportions.

As for your work, I think the best thing you can do is keep on going until you can call this project complete. Only at that point can we provide a realistic evaluation of your sketching technique and its results. I have no qualms about your process at all. I mean, who the hell am I to talk? A mech is a mech, no matter how you get to it. You're apparently being very careful about what you're doing, so I doubt that you'll allow any glaring mistakes to slip past. I don't see any so far. I just hope you don't pull out your hair when it comes time to connect all those parts with joints. I constantly have to fight to get those even somewhat right.

That's all I can really tell you. So please finish. Be confident. Be loving to your own work. Be humble. Be eager to learn. Enjoy what you're dong. That's what makes this art worthwhile, Scorn.

Edit: And I'm a physicist. I'm all concepts and details. But it makes me forget about the extremely obvious things. :roll:
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares

GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel
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ScornMandark
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Not yet an update on the sketchy stuff, but a progress of the custom Noir requested by Scorpio[pt]:

Now with Dragoons!

Since the shield and rifle ended up obscuring most of it, here it is sans other weaponry:
DRAGOON GLORY!

I thought it'd be neat as an added pack, so they're held on by basically a big bracket. They can disengage by pulling out (one each way) or the bracket could blow off freeing both. A pair on each side of the wings, 2 wings, 8 total. You just can't see the back of the wings.
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Seraphic
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Oh man, dragoons on Noir. That's going to be interesting. :P

I have no idea why, but the colors on that shield really clash with the dark look of the rest of the frame. Try coloring the red parts black, and making the white parts red. Or something similar. Just avoid too much white on it, I guess.

=)
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares

GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel
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ScornMandark
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Hrm.... A point well made. Especially with the Dragoons lightening up the back area...So, how's about this? I think I like the 3rd one best...

Dark Shield
Dark Shield II
Dark Shield III
The Mekton Zeta Mailing List wrote:27. I will not put emergency destruct devices in my mecha. I will put them in my pilots. Nothing motivates like thermite.
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Seraphic
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Damn, my specific suggestion looks downright fugly. I like the first one best, but the third is also good. :P
"Red particles are bad, they mutate you into... dead? But green/blue particles are good, apparently, for reasons and for purposes yet to be determined. Isn't science sometimes nicely color-coded?"
-Antares

GW: The Sword . Sera's Art . Gameplay . The Lost Citadel
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