Crash's Mecha Designs Works

The place to share your artwork.
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crashlegacy14
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I need to learn differnet ways of getting my line art onto a seprate layer from the background, my current method really kills the sketch's quality, expecialy recently. hands and legs are always the hardest for me to draw, hands you can ussaly get by with vuage simplifcation.
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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crashlegacy14
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more stuff finally. kinda working randomly here as well.

first up is the return of the TX-20 yeah I know you guys probably saw it once and got tired of it. well imagine me drawing 3 tiems as much as you see here of this blasted mecha.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -106206825

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/D ... -106193542
one of the above mugshots colored.

So whoopie I can draw the same damn mecha over and over agian...without compelteling the actual design...somehow. god I suck.

oh and late addition:
http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/TX-20C-106211432
I'm probably going to-alright I am going to give this one a full over color job. kinda makes you wonder what kind of person would use a twin shotgun setup though. I mean the burst would be devilish but having to reload every 16 shots (8 rnds per) would put you in a bad postion a bit often. at least the shotguns don't reload 1 rnd at a time like in real life...oh wait.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -106212514
I knew that was scaned somewhere.

so at any rate...I'm not gone! some body post...wait does this count as a double post? even thouh my previous post is like a month old?
Crash's Mecha Design Works
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Seraphic
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:56 am
Location: Inside the barrel of Wing Zero's left Buster Rifle.

It's been a while, Crash. =)

Your stuff is coming along well, as usual. Don't worry that you're always working on your TX-20s. My friend gave me some crap for working on a bunch of grunts, saying I'm not "wooing" anyone with them. He's full of shit though. I think it takes a lot of care and hard work to focus on the grunts. It's the small stuff that makes up the bigger picture, right? It's attention to detail and the work that goes into it that can make settings and stories interesting. I mean, if all you've got is a bunch of super-godly mechs all the time, things quickly become superficial and stale. There's no sense of depth or mortality. It's the impatient people who scurry for their sense of satisfaction that end up with nothing special in the end.

I think you should keep working hard. Don't waiver.

As for what's here, I like what I see. The TX-20C looks like an interesting mod, and I really like its combat style. It makes a lot of sense. Close combat, but you'll still have a range advantage over those jerks with swords. I'm sure he won't miss often with dual shotguns, either. Maybe you should give him dual slug guns on his back. That way he'll be like one of my ACs on for Answer, haha. It takes a mean fellow to pelt someone in the face with a dual slug gun blast. =p Maybe he can do all four guns at once! >,< Your weapons look like they're put together very very well. I have a hard time working on weapons and equipment, but I'm sure you already know that from before.

For those heads, I think the commander fin should jut forward instead of slip backwards. Try that out and see how it looks. =o

What interests me most here is the coloring you did on that one mugshot. How did you do it?? I notice that your original pencil lines are still present, which is the main thing I'm focusing on. I'm trying to start into coloring myself, but some aspects of it are bothing me. Mostly, I don't want to retrace my lines on a program or anything. It looks like you did a solid color job here while keeping your original pencil strokes, so would it be okay if you helped me learn how to do this as well? I would be infinitely grateful, Crash.

Anyhow, keep going at it. I hope we all get a lot accomplished over the winter. =)
"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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crashlegacy14
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I'll put together a quick tutorial with my next update about how I lift my lines, really the process decays the quality a good bit. unfortantly I don't have a tablet so my options are limited.

-------------/ Edit 1:49 am local 12/18 /-------------------

And I deliver.
http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/S ... -106655008
The above mentioned Tutorial. Yes I'm using some ancient verson of photoshop...I think like verson 6 or something.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/J ... -106654860
Jikken Rei, the image used in the tutorial.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -106605275
http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -106224200
continued work on the TX-20C Mainly focusing on the color scheme and how it's leg mounted minimissile launcher would look. incase you're wondering it is based on the macross FAST packs. I also added the Booster array into the image, what little you could see of them. I'm still debating if I want to put large fin/wings on them, expecialy since if I did I'd make them mulitpurposed and actually be holsters for aditional armaments. I changed the TX-20's feet out, less gundam looking more...er boot looking. the base leg looks really boring...

------------------/Edited agian...12/19 /-------------------------

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -106772957
added the legs to the currently main image and thrw on some colors.
now that I'm seeing it as such the MMLs looks really out of place-even if they are surpsoe to be produced by a different company. as mentioned before the lower leg looks rather boring on the base unit. and there's no "breaks" in that long front piece.
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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crashlegacy14
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http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -107056401
Work continues on the TX-20C besides some minor photo shop touch ups this is the lame lines I'll be using hwen I actually start coloring.

Alright... since I'm kinda being slow with the TX-20C image I'll add in a batch of old sketchs this time.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/cr ... dyhead.jpg
The TX Defensive legs,

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/cr ... fdraft.jpg
First draft of TX defensive's torso and arm

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/cr ... ensive.jpg
Second draft
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Seraphic
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:56 am
Location: Inside the barrel of Wing Zero's left Buster Rifle.

Crash!!

LOOK WHAT I CAN DO! :shock: :x

This is just a dumb demonstration to show I was able to lift the lines into a layer, haha. Your tutorial helped very much!!

What I have to say is that inversing the selection and using the fill tool absolutely DESTROYED the quality of the image! Really, I have no idea why your lines look like that after using the fill tool....

What I did instead was, after modifying the original image some so the tools would work better, I copied the original image into a top layer. After going to channels and hitting the "circle button" I just hit delete instead of the other stuff you showed. What that did was just erase all of the white around my lineart, and I say it looks pretty decent!

Otherwise, I'm just using photoshop like a glorified version of MS paint. So shameful. >.<

I can't say in words how much I appreciate this, Crash. Thank you so much. You've done a lot of good!

But otherwise, your work on the TX-20c is looking mighty nice. You seem to have a knack for good color choices. I can't wait to see more. You should do some action scenes for us!

!!
"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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crashlegacy14
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so duplicate botom layer and cut circle...I'll try that. I'm realizing just about everyartist I like uses a tablet so that's deffinatly going to be my next big spurge.

hehe I have a hard time with color, most of my color choices are just repeating over and over. what I think I'll have to do is get my 3/4ths image completed for the base TX so I could set up my color scheme masks properly. what I'm talking about is stuff like those color guides from model kits showing you where you paint one color and such. that is another spot I tend to have trouble with. I know with coloring though it's just a matter of me praticing it.

alright time to try that out and color that damn image now. I don't have a real excusse either it's wow maitiance now haha

------/edit a few minutes later/---------
Uhg. duplicating the background and cuting circle makes a really fucked up looking effect. nothing close to useable lines :(
Crash's Mecha Design Works
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Seraphic
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Location: Inside the barrel of Wing Zero's left Buster Rifle.

Yeah, it's pretty damn strange, if you ask me.

This is what happened when I followed your guide exactly. The inverse selection picked up some weird stuff, and the fill tool just goes to hell. I can't really say why this method works when you use it! :shock:

As a note, for my method, what I also did to increase the effectiveness of the "cut circle" was I decreased the contrast of the original image (about 20% for this one) in order to get my dark lines closer to the light lines. Then I went to levels and darkened the image altogether. After using delete, the lifted lines look much lighter than before, so that's why I had to do those darkening steps.

Otherwise, the weirdness might be from us using different versions or something. You guessed about version 6? Mine is old, too. Version 7. For the life of me I still can't tell why your fill tool can lift your image like that....
"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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crashlegacy14
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I think part of the problem for me using your method is my pencil work isn't black, not even remotely black, and my paper as well all know is scaned as a light light gray (enough so I think it's white). so circle picks up alot more of the background for me when I don't inverse it. and yeah, I'm using verson 6.0 so there may be addifference in the circle tool's settings.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -107177391
My line work is some 7 layers thick now, copyed my own method work once and played around with your method till it produced something half decent.

----------//------------
http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/B ... -107177030
The first combat functional mecha. it served during the thrid world war and carried a rather unexpected use-moral boosting.
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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crashlegacy14
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Christmas Day Update GO!

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -107362078

Completed it last night before we celebrated christmas on christmass eve (like always) was worn out so much afterwards that I forgot to post it till today. the only things I might do further to the image itself is to give the mecha some weathering efffects-minor rust, paint chiping, exusht burns, ect, ect. and put it in a a background to make a wall paper out of it.
Crash's Mecha Design Works
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Ryujin
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Pardon the meddling, but here's an alternate way of transferring lineart onto a transparent layer:

http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/html/channels2.html

As mentioned in previous posts, you can duplicate the resulting layer or play with the levels or curves adjustments afterwards if you want lighter or darker lines.

Note that, if available in your version of PS, you should use the levels or curves (Ctrl+L or Ctrl+M) commands instead of the brightness & contrast commands to whiten the paper, darken the pencil lines & remove random dirt & speckles before you proceed with the lineart transfer. The levels & curves commands offer much finer control than plain ol' brightness & contrast adjustments.

And of course, it's always helpful to have a clean scan in the first place.
http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/scanning/scan.htm
Seraphic wrote:This is what happened when I followed your guide exactly. The inverse selection picked up some weird stuff, and the fill tool just goes to hell. I can't really say why this method works when you use it!
The key here is to use the Blue channel alone for inverse selection; it picks up much less of the light-coloured abberations on a scanned piece of paper than the Red & Green channels.
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crashlegacy14
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http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/L ... -107475540
to the right is the technique from polycarbon, down to the pixel end results are the same. now the question comes with how much my line art would benfit from heavier use of levels, as of now I normaly just duplicate the lineart layer once or twice to get my darker lines then merge them all together, the levels/curves would essentially cut this step out form my process.

one observation to note is we're working in pencile while most tutorials are based around inked work, tthere's a world of difference in how the thresholds for recognizing pencil are from the inked versons.

esentally these two tutorials would save me like 1~2 steps whick I burn though in seconds anyway.
Crash's Mecha Design Works
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Ryujin
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crashlegacy14 wrote:to the right is the technique from polycarbon, down to the pixel end results are the same....one observation to note is we're working in pencile while most tutorials are based around inked work, tthere's a world of difference in how the thresholds for recognizing pencil are from the inked versons.

esentally these two tutorials would save me like 1~2 steps whick I burn though in seconds anyway.
And you can automate the whole process in the Actions window so that everything gets done with a single mouse click.

There can be some concerns with how the software recognizes pencils & inks, but it isn't as extreme as you make it sound (and there are options that address this, in PS7 & later versions anyway)--as long as you don't mix both pencils & inks in the same scanned work. Anyways, it seems that, in your example, the pencil work was clean to start with & scanned in grayscale to boot, so the comparison isn't really representative.

But the point here is not the lineart-lifting technique itself, but the selection of a single channel instead of all the RGB channels. This may be of little consequence if you scan in grayscale instead of colour to begin with, but if you ever have to lift a pencil sketch from an aged or discoloured sheet of paper, you'll know what I mean. Having a better understanding of the channels' role will also be helpful further down the line, for example when a relative asks you to make alterations to a photograph (the blue channel is useful for changing a color's value while leaving everything else untouched, for example).

But if you're satisfied with the results of the method that you're using, then that's your choice. I'm just trying to share some friendly advice, grounded in experience, for your benefit.
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crashlegacy14
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actually, while yes my line work there was rather "clean" it was scaned in color, I just used half decent paper. I'll play with this method next time I scan a actual sketch
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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crashlegacy14
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Alright so, It's been a while since I've thrown an update here, that's because I've been hammering out work on the game engine, but as more of it comes together and some random related and rather plain drawings are done I'm getting close to the point I can close out the horrs of my TX development art line. So the upcoming drawings will be focused towards use as VAs for the explainations of the various rule systems, and devices.

In the mean time here's a quick sketch of one of the player mechas in the ongoing Andrus advneture:
http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/R ... -110426813
Crash's Mecha Design Works
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Seraphic
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:56 am
Location: Inside the barrel of Wing Zero's left Buster Rifle.

Wow! The Razor is definitely one of my favorites so far. That's a really nice looking rifle. The grip and the stock look beautiful, actually. My compliments on your good work on weapon designs. =)

Of course the frame itself is very attractive, too. The head has a nice style to it, and I definitely like the shoulder armor. The combat knives are a nice touch. I really like the posture on this one. Please finish this one!

On the other hand, she's very cool! (I was digging through your stuff, haha.) She looks very pretty, but has an impressive strength and intensity to her. That's kind of a rare combination, huh? Very good work with the cloth and leather. The coloring on this is very attractive, I think. You should do more character work to post up here. =)
"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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crashlegacy14
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Glad you like the Razor 03.
The COR-10 "Dragoon" Combat Rifle is actually drawn specficly for that mecha, as in I hadn't preworked out it's design. it is based on the design of the TX Assualt rifle in the barrel and lower reciever atleast, the upper portion of the reciever and the stock was based loosely on existing rifle designs.

Note on the base unit:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/cr ... rsos01.jpg (MW Performance is the right one)
the majoirty of the head design comes from the MW Performance, and there's alot of cominality with the torso as well. the majoirt of the upper legs, forearms, and feet are also baded on this design.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/cr ... /RX-10.jpg
The RX-10 (a piece for crap) has inclunces on the design in some rather minor ways. the knee pad and the genral shape of the armor over the shoulder launcher is based on the RX-10's few plates. the upper arm includes features common between the entire group and the lower leg...well I haven't finished that XD.

I had posted up a handful of character drawings a page or two back, but it didn't seem to peak any intrest so I didn't touch on it more, then agian, neither does most of my design work. lol. Geenraly it's along the same vien as my mecha work, if I like it enough it will get colored. I was very happy btw how the coloring job came out on that since it was a method I was, and still am learning.

I also did a coloring of my WoW character. My main concearn there was basing the color selection off the ingame model and in general having alot of commonality.
http://fc98.deviantart.com/fs31/f/2008/ ... Legacy.jpg
and oyu can see the source image here:
http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/G ... P-90521777
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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crashlegacy14
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Rawr TX guns!

Alrighty, random update of sorts, I finally relocated the Razor 03 image, but I haven't completed it. however I do not come empty handed.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -112349960
First the ASR-10 and SAR-10 two of the TX line of firearms. before the question is asked, yes the ASR-10 is based on the M4/M16 and by extension so is the SAR-10. the ASR is roughly the same scale as the gun it's based off of, it however looks noteably longer because the majoirty of the barrel is concealed in a shroud to protect it from damage durring general combat.

http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/T ... -112351427
The heavy machine gun made by TX, it's on scale with a modern .50 cal.

the odd bit at the forend of these guns is the targeting sensor which provides the mecha with a precise indication of where the gun is currently pointed and is displayed as part of the panoramic view the pilot recieves in the cockpit.

I guess I should explain the general sight of a mecha. a standard mecha is equiped with a array of cameras and sensors on the head and upper torso, beside the eyes of a mecha most of these sensors are hidden from general view by thick plating that is similar to one-sided windows. the inclusion of these plates muddle the view provided by these secondary cameras so only the area that the mecha is directly looking at is in focus on screen. as mentioned earlier the cockpit is set up to provice a panoramic view of the area, with a computer generated line overlay. the pilot controls head movments by moving his own head , which is tracked by the service helm, a ear clip or other similar device. (the helmet provides a second layer for the HUD in addition to the obvious benifits)

the cameras/sensors mounted on firearms provide a similaraly or higher quality input as the mecha's eyes; providing an extremely accurate view of what the weapon is pointed at and allowing the computer to precisely match it to the data it's gathered from othr sensors. this allows for precise targeting. things like being able to look away from the target and still accuratly fire at it or even using the guncam to look around corners are possible thanks to this configuration.

the sensor is placed at the forend of the weapon so that there's less chance of the sensor coming unalaigned from the barrel durring combat and it sits just slightly ahead of the end of the barrel to avoid muzzle flash
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
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ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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Seraphic
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:56 am
Location: Inside the barrel of Wing Zero's left Buster Rifle.

Hey, Crash. These weapons look to be fairly well done. The plate over the barrels with the square panel lines seems a bit unusual though. But I guess those same sort of panel lines appear on your TXs. The little sensor at the front of the gun seems slightly tacked on. Placement at the absolute tip might give the weapon a slight balance issue. Perhaps you could move it to the gun's center of balance?

.50cal MGs. <3

Oh, and your WoW character looks to be all skin and bones. Almost literally. =p

Ryujin, I didn't get to read through those tutorials until now, but they looked to be very helpful. I'll try all of that out when I have some time. Thanks. =)

*random noise* =o
"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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crashlegacy14
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Location: In the Zaku's cockpit. Yes, the one that just exploded.
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http://crashlegacy.deviantart.com/art/R ... -112436133
Update on Razor 03. got the lower legs done, I based them heavily on the forearms though I feel I mized in some more of the TX design into it some how. now the main things left is clean up and coloring, If I had a tablet I could do all that on the computer.. /sigh I need to get one of those pretty bad lol.

My exact point with the guns is that they look like it fits with the mecha's design, and yes the sensor is surpose to look tacked on, that's because it can be swaped out. certian guns down the road will look better in this regard as they will have intergrated sensors. As for balancing out the gun, I can always do more to the stock, after all the stocks shown there are more or less stand ins. I do want the stocks to end up looking more sturdy, since it wouldn't be out of character of the gun to be used as an improvised melee weapon.
Crash's Mecha Design Works
Crash's Mecha Based RPG
-----------------//-----------
ShadowCell wrote: Perspective. It's great.
CrashLegacy14 wrote: my immortal enemy: Perspective.
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