Everyone loves a bit of steampunk. This is an concept for Steve's ongoing novel "The King's thief". I kinda like all the steampunk gnarlyness but it somehow looks too flat to me. Any ideas on how I could make this composition more dynamic without losing too much of the detail of the thing? It's wading through water, and is supposed to be about 100m long. It would be great to get some characters in there as well perhaps. Any thoughts?
3 comments:
I love the design! The 2D feel may come from the fact that it just literally lacks a third axis of movement. The legs look like they can move up and down, back to front, but not side to side.
I kind of imagine it walking in a slow-motion, more gangly version of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww
To show it off best, perhaps a slight up-shot with a partially-underwater pov? Something like this: http://www.spoonbard.com/spoonblog/image/pedipulator.jpg Images of the mech from Bokurano always have this sort of feeling of scale http://www.spoonbard.com/spoonblog/image/bokurano.jpg
Sweet! The quirkiness of the design makes me think of children's books! I didn't know Steve was writing a novel! I must give it a read!
I see what you're saying... the scale doesn't really translate at this level since there aren't really any reference points. People on the deck would immediately help that. This is just eyeballing, but the railing also looks a bit high for something that's 100 m long.
You could probably push the depth by establishing the ground plane a bit clearer and perhaps letting the back legs fade away. Atmospheric perspective and all that... :)
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y272/fuurin/Untitled-1-1.jpg
The perspective is a little bit off. I get the feeling that we're looking at a side view more than a diagonal view of this thing. The best way to tackle that is probably to set up a perspective grid beforehand. Even a rough one would do.
Really love the design though! Nice to see some cogs that actually seem to do something! It's often tempting to just add them in for effect. XD
Ahh! Thanks for all the help! :D That perspective shot looks brilliant Paul, I need to shake off my engineering-ness and work in a bit more atmosphere. I was thinking a little of big dog when i drew it, that robot freaks me out in a good way.
Thanks for the idea about blurring the legs Nana, it really helps the image along! I'll have another go at it and post again sometime soon.
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