Weapon Set Design

Task : Design a weapon set of 4 weapons, they must include a concealed weapon, a small weapon, a standard weapon, and a heavy weapon.

Sounds fun.

My initial thoughts were all ray-guns and death rays, however I wanted to veer away from the sci-fi area of things for a little bit. I landed on Western Sci-Fi instead with weapons from Firefly and the like, didn't veer too far as it turns out.

Firstly I did some research into the sort of weaponry they used within the series as well as the real life weapons that inspired them.

After looking at some research I then began work on each of the weapons by creating a 3D model of them to get the size and perspective right for each to create a more accurate looking weapon with straighter edges. After which I simply added more and more detail into it when I was painting over the template to create a detailed weapon.

The small weapon, a pistol, was the first to be created.

I loved the name of the pistol, the "Trusty Sidekick", hinting that it's a sidearm with a bit of a kick, which also suits it's appearance as it was based around a revolver or a magnum. I was a little dissappointed by the end result though as it lacks detail.

Next was the standard weapon, a rifle based off the Whinchester rifle

I knew from the start of this weapon that I wanted a lever-action rifle with bullets mounted on to the stock and a longer than necessary scope, not to emphasise that it is a powerful scope but rather it's not that high tech, hence why it has to be so long. Inspiration for the scopecame from the sniper scope in Saving Private Ryan. I was very happy with this rifle and I felt it had sufficient detail added to it such as the little decorations along the side of it, similar to the shape and markings of Mal's pistol in Firefly.

Next was the concealed weapon, which was a belt with explosives strapped to it.

I really liked the thought of this weapon as it really does have a Firefly-esque feel to it. The thought of purposely strapping explosives to a belt as part of some cunning plow or plan that would seem bizarre to anyone other than the Captain of the spacecraft, Serenity. I would like to point out that the purpose of this weapon is not to blow yourself up, but rather everyone around you, as the explosives are spring loaded and can be fired out in times of need all around the wearer, so that they're just out of the blast radiuses of the explosives. The inspiration came from a weapon I saw in a Deus Ex: HR trailer, as the main character fired shells out of his arms in all directions. I really liked the way this turned out as it looks like it would fit perfectly within the Firefly universe, especially as it has the writing and background that is seen throughout the Firefly series aboard the ship that says "Serenity", the ships name. I was also pleased with the level of detail I went into on this weapon, especially the reflections of light around the belt buckle.

That just left the heavy weapon then, and I had a fair idea of what kind of weapon I wanted to go for. Something that looked like part of an American civil war gattling gun. The gattling gun was somewhat rushed as I had left it to last and so wasn't able to do anywhere near as much detail on to it as I would have. When I first started off with this weapon I knew 2 things, it was going be called "Lola" and was going to be portable.

And with Lola out of the way all that was left was to bring them all together and maybe add a helpful diagram for the "Safety" Belt.

Vehicle Design + Pilot

Straight off the bat I knew that I wanted to have a big bad ass helicpter gunship of sorts with a slightly futuristic look to it, possibly dodging missiles and returning fire etc. Similarly I want the pilot to also look like as if he could take care of himself in a fight if he was ever shot down, although I don't want him to look too heavily armoured or anything.

Here is the gunship in an early stage of it's life. I've opted out of the action shot as it was my impression that the vehicles were going to be presented in a manual or something so I went for a very precise factory blueprint sort of look.

Initially I wanted the gunship to have propellors similar to that of the gunships in Avatar, but the wings were proving difficult as it is really really unclear how they're attached onto the gunships in the movie.The other problem I was ahving was that the gunship's cockpit made it look really unbalanced and front heavy so it needed improved.

Here it is finished.

The finished gunship sported a heavy machine gun turret with auto-tracking and 2x 44 "Reaper" missiles, which looking back at it now does seem a little overkill. Now for the pilot.


Initial sketches showed the basic figure with a helmet, with flip down range finder sights and some light armour along with some movement, which actually looked really well, which only saddens me since never got round to doing the legs.

After my sketching a did some silhouette work on the helmet since I really didn't know what I wanted it to look like other than a cross between a storm trooper's helmet and a space marine's helmet. What ensued was master chief's helmet somehow but never the less I liked it and also discovered how useful silhouetting could be.

After quickly sketching the helmet I then looked up some reference as to where the body armour should go across his chest. I also changed the background from pink to grey as it really didn't befit the pilot.

And sadly this is the finished pilot. I really liked the look of him and was especially pleased with the tonal work on the helmet, but it turned I wish I had more time to work more detail on to his chest plate and to do his legs. On another note, creating something original is very very hard. Just look at the spartan helmet clone.. subconscious, I'm blaming you.

Robo Remake

Redrew one of my first pieces just cause I really liked the look and feel of the character and I knew even back then that I was going to redo it.

Quite pleased with the way it turned out, although I still hate feet with a passion. Almost as much as I hate drawing legs that look like they're walking as instead we just end up with messed up looking legs to match the feet.

Drawing Different Ethnics

Firstly I drew a black guy based on a photo image of M. L. King. Spent a lot of time on the face compared to the suit and trousers which is a little sad as looking at the image from a whole, you can't really tell.

Secondly I then drew a Bollywood inspired Indian woman which was a tad difficult and I felt that it wasn't as good face wise, however I felt that the clothing was somewhat better.

Alternative Drawing Styles and Shading

Here I have experimented with differnt drawing and shading styles. The styles being realistic, semi-realistic, and cartoony. The arrow in each piece indicates where the light is coming from to show clearly where the appropriate shading should be.

 

Above is my realistic piece, which is easily the most successful I feel as I really did spend a lot of time on the face as my past work hasn't had terribly good faces on them.

Above is my semi-realistic piece and I knew straight away that I wanted ym character to have long elegant female legsa dn also to just appear more feminine in general as my character in the realistic piece didn't look terribly feminine. Unfortunately though this did not leave me with deisred results as the character looks alsmost comical with her long legs, long skinny arms, and overly large boobs. However arguably this is a good thing as it aids the character in looking semi-realistic.

Above is my cartoony character which I am surprisingly proud of, despite not having very high hopes with this piece as I knew that I would be limited as to how it was created. I had been playing minigore, an iPhone game, quite a bit and I really liked how the characters were small and boxy, similar to minecraft's characters and so I chose a similar style.

Alternative Media Piece

Here is my finished clay piece of a wondering Ranger, stopping from wood to wood to help out the occasional traveller and to make sure there are no threats to any settlements that are nearby.

The green paint came out a lot darker than I had anticipated so I figured I would change the setting to night time and add some yellow and white to add light.

Being a first for me, I figure this went surprisingly well as I will rarely take on something so ambitious as to add lighting or even work with clay for that matter as it really isn't my area of expertise.

Sorry for the delay of this post as iPhones are ridiculously resistant to giving up their photos 

Clay Work

Today we moved away from digital painting with photosho and began properly working with alternatice means of art. I chose to make a model set piece using clay since it's a material that's easy to mold and move. Unfortunately I'm not very good with clay but I was optimistic all the same. Will upload photos of the clay when I can but for now here's some of the prilimary sketchs that I used to help plan what I was going to create.

 

I have gone for the fantasy hunter scene since it's the most exciting scene whilst also making the most sense as a soldier isn't going to stop during a war and boil himself a brew. Whilst the exloration seen is more realistic than the war seen it does seem really dull as all it is really, is a man keeping his hands warm.