Pre-Production work 4

Carrying on from last weeks blog,I have decided upon the 6 types that I would like to aim to create throughout the his project, as I stated I would in the last entry. It will be three types each for each theme, and are as follows:

Military:
.Main Battle Tank
. Missile Launcher
. Communications Satellite

Construction:
. Excavator
. Digger
. Wrecking Ball

With this decided it make it easier for me to select what parts I will have to model for my robot mechs, as well as to tailor the designs to each areas specific needs.

Carrying on from this decision, I continued pre-production work by testing out different colour schemes, one set for a military based robot mech, and the other for one based around a construction theme.

The process to do this was pretty simple. I tank one of the designs from both themes into their own pages, grabbed one of the references images and color picked from those. I used layers to make it easier to get all the colours in without fussing around too much.  Below is an example of the work in progress.

Example of WIP: Pick the colour scheme from the reference, use the main colour as the base layer, put the picked colours to grab for adjustments, build it up into the necessary pattern.  

And here we have the finished colour schemes for each.

Tank Colour Schemes

Construction Colour Schemes

I really like the more detailed patterns for the tank's colour schemes, such as the digital and mud pattern camos. Their was a great variety to choose from, and I felt I chose the best ones that appealed to my idea out of my reference images.

For construction the colours were a little more basic, with construction vehicles generally having block colours to be easily seen and distinguished. I personally like the red colour scheme the best, so its the one i'll most likely be going with this one.

Alongside this I also started work on a company logo for my robot mechs to be a part of. Since I want to make this project as realistic as I can, a company that actually makes these machines fits the bill the best.

For the name I wanted to go for animal with connotations of a tough, reliable and anatomically strong to connote the robots own strengths. For this purpose I decided to go with a rhino, and started to create a few logo designs. I also found am referencing actually companies using a rhino as their logo, as well as an image of a rhino itself.

Current work is focusing on the silhouette of the rhino logo. 

This is still a work in progress and will be updated upon as the project goes on.

So having looked into the colour schemes and the prospect of a logo for my work, I've decide to move towards the more technical aspect of my concept art: working out the inner workings for my robot mechs designs.

So far I've done work into the robot arms that will come as a standard part for both the military and construction themes.

The red areas show the moveable parts of the arm. The green highligh areas that i've done for two of the arms shows the armour that would cover them. I also worked on various finger shapes, as hands in general aren't my strongest point. I feel a little more confident having practiced these different designs. Also as you can see the highlighted arms show you the design that i'm most happiest with and will go on to develop for the final designs.

In addition this I have also been practiced modelling general robotic and mechanical parts which I fell will come in handy when it comes to modelling the robot mechs in the later stages. Below are a few screenshots of parts I've been working on to help with my ideas.

I've looked at things such as tank wheels, construction digger lights, and creating a simple metal panel.

I also modeled different shaped screws, bolts and nuts, and found a useful tutorial in order to get the correct shape. 

I've looked at robots from one of my artists Keith Thompson, and have practiced modelling its structure for Armour creation practice. 

And i've looked at real life reference for modelling as well. I started modeled an abrams tank using a  schematic I found online. This has been useful for working out shapes from real life reference. 

And finally, i've also done research into useful artist references that I aim using to help my art work. My main reference is Keith Thompson, a fantastic robot artists amongst other things, who has his own book on how to concept a robot, taking into consideration things such as backstory, materials and mechanical components.

I've also found a few other handy artists that can help me with my work, or whose general style could help influence my own work. Below are some image examples and website links to show you what im using, and to give you the opportunity to look at them yourself.

http://www.keiththompsonart.com/robots.html

http://www.emersontung.com/

http://www.artofben.com/Robotics-Weapons

With these artists I feel that'll really help with my concept creation of my own robot mechs, as well as give me an understanding as to how much detail I want to put into them.

For the next entry I will continue to focus on working out the inner workings for the robot mechs, as well as head towards the final designs that I will use for my project.