More Futurisitic Fun Than You Really Wanted, part I of V

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Anytime, man. I'll just keep plugging away on content. No rush. We all got other shit to attend to. I'ma have a full read through and see if anything jumps out at me. Plus the armour is coming together but it aint gonny do that on it's own. As soon as you have a first frame in your head call it out and I can fire a concept your way within an hour or two. Anything that looks interesting I can develop and we can dump anything that doesny work.

Might be an idea to come up with a cast list. I can work my way through it.

I think I can have something in the next 2-3 days.  I'm going to go in order at least at first, which should give you an idea of the characters needed.

(Richter's paean will be done in the margins, because it's too good not to use, but would drag in a scene of its own.)

[P3nT4gR4m]

Sounds good. I'm planning on developing the characters as kinda stylised, cartooney but angled more toward realistic proportions  and I want to throw a bit of time into developing a workflow that's consistent, fast and looks the bollocks.

Was working on the Power armour some more this morning. Tightening up the "engineering" side so it's something that would realistically fit on a human. This is important to me for two reasons. Firstly, I'm a pedantic wanker and even if I could hide the fact that no one could ever wear this stuff, I'd fucking know and fuck that for a laugh. The second reason is logistics. I'm imagining a lot of shots of bodies lying in wreckage with some ripped off, characters getting suited up and whatnot. These shots will be a choice of a couple of hours pissing about or a couple of seconds if all I have to do is cut a crack in the visor and the face is already in place behind it.

So I shot some video which shows the process in case anyone is interested. I now have the suit blocked out and can chuck a ton of hours at detailing it up all cool as fuck.

This is my first serious attempt at modelling something like this so I've been flying far outside my comfort zone. Pretty stoked with progress so far.

[P3nT4gR4m]

[LMNO]

Holy shit, that's great.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Thanks!

So I figured I'd be ages coming up with this stylised look but I think I pretty much got what I was going for straight out the trap. I guess faces really are my strong suit. (read - the only thing I know how to do)

Note, the eyelids look weird because I've left them as separate objects because it's easier to pose them for expression. Once I have an expression, tho, blending it all back together should fix it.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Sounds good. I'm planning on developing the characters as kinda stylised, cartooney but angled more toward realistic proportions  and I want to throw a bit of time into developing a workflow that's consistent, fast and looks the bollocks.

Was working on the Power armour some more this morning. Tightening up the "engineering" side so it's something that would realistically fit on a human. This is important to me for two reasons. Firstly, I'm a pedantic wanker and even if I could hide the fact that no one could ever wear this stuff, I'd fucking know and fuck that for a laugh. The second reason is logistics. I'm imagining a lot of shots of bodies lying in wreckage with some ripped off, characters getting suited up and whatnot. These shots will be a choice of a couple of hours pissing about or a couple of seconds if all I have to do is cut a crack in the visor and the face is already in place behind it.

So I shot some video which shows the process in case anyone is interested. I now have the suit blocked out and can chuck a ton of hours at detailing it up all cool as fuck.

This is my first serious attempt at modelling something like this so I've been flying far outside my comfort zone. Pretty stoked with progress so far.

Looks great.  Bear in mind that in many frames, the person will have their helmet off.  I like the head you've drawn there, just make sure the armor appearance accounts for someone "speaking to the camera" without their brain bucket on.

[P3nT4gR4m]

 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

This is more or less exactly how I had pictured nessies, btw.   

[The Good Reverend Roger]

And my heroes have always worn clown shoes.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Yeah the clown shoes we'll lose at some point, I'm still at the - figuring out how he's going to look stage. Case in point - helmet. Too artsy fartsy. Brow especially. No way a bunch of numbskulls living in a sewer were going to get the brow all caricatured like that. They would try to finesse it out of a sense of loyalty to Payne but their attempts should be crude and utilitarian.

Templars, historically, were never considered a great art movement. They were more in the business of killing people and it showed in their approach to design so I sorta headed more in that direction. Blocky seams, straight lines and hard angles.

At some point in the proceedings, when I was starting to feel like I had a kinda no-nonsense but still reasonably badass thing going on. I was working on the idea of the countersunk rivet heads  it occurred to me that it's job was to protect a fellow from hordes of rampaging monsters. Given that I'd already figured out that subtlety wasn't a thing what was the best defense I could think of. Then the "best defense is a good offense" thing popped in my head.



I'ma redo the chestpiece too. I think it looks kinda interesting but lets face it there's no way you're going to leave the vitals as exposed as that. It's a f'kin invitation for the Nessies to finish the job.

[P3nT4gR4m]

...bit more like this

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Yeah the clown shoes we'll lose at some point, I'm still at the - figuring out how he's going to look stage. Case in point - helmet. Too artsy fartsy. Brow especially. No way a bunch of numbskulls living in a sewer were going to get the brow all caricatured like that. They would try to finesse it out of a sense of loyalty to Payne but their attempts should be crude and utilitarian.

Templars, historically, were never considered a great art movement. They were more in the business of killing people and it showed in their approach to design so I sorta headed more in that direction. Blocky seams, straight lines and hard angles.

At some point in the proceedings, when I was starting to feel like I had a kinda no-nonsense but still reasonably badass thing going on. I was working on the idea of the countersunk rivet heads  it occurred to me that it's job was to protect a fellow from hordes of rampaging monsters. Given that I'd already figured out that subtlety wasn't a thing what was the best defense I could think of. Then the "best defense is a good offense" thing popped in my head.



I'ma redo the chestpiece too. I think it looks kinda interesting but lets face it there's no way you're going to leave the vitals as exposed as that. It's a f'kin invitation for the Nessies to finish the job.

Points of order:

1.  The nessies almost always DID finish the job, and

2.  Payne is a slave to fashion.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Halfway done with the intro story board.

I think I'll have it in your hands by Wednesday night, your time (I am busier than expected, and the boss left me in charge again.  Ha.  haha.)

[P3nT4gR4m]

So I'm kinda locking down the head, collar and chestpiece here so if this really fucking sucks or should look completely different you better let me know now. The full standing pose isn't working so the waist is going to have come up a bit and the legs straighten out to make it look less like he's taking a shit.

The chains fastening the torso onto the chestpiece were an afterthought but I was thinking they could be "laced" on the chest a whole bunch of different ways maybe to denote rank. Can do stars and triangles and chevrons?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

So I'm kinda locking down the head, collar and chestpiece here so if this really fucking sucks or should look completely different you better let me know now. The full standing pose isn't working so the waist is going to have come up a bit and the legs straighten out to make it look less like he's taking a shit.

The chains fastening the torso onto the chestpiece were an afterthought but I was thinking they could be "laced" on the chest a whole bunch of different ways maybe to denote rank. Can do stars and triangles and chevrons?

More chains equal more rank.

Also, in the original story, the suits were hi-viz orange, like demented road workers.  That can be changed, of course.