SOTW Steampunk lava walker concept
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Steam powered lava walker! This is a sketch I did a long time ago (see my first post) but never really got around to adding color to the concept. The inspiration for it was just by coming up with three random themes. Lava, steam punk, and 4 legged. I love picking the three random things because it gives you starting point instead of just pulling something from the air.
I tried something a little different with my approach by laying out flat colors and then using the burn and dodge tool in photoshop then going over a second time with some color to add the glowy parts.
I also overlaid a few textures that I got from HERE. Awesome site, with lots of free textures to choose from. It’s easily the best texture site I have found yet.
That’s it for now. With any luck I’ll be posting next week too. Hey nobody is perfect….
Tron Recognizer Concept SOTW Dec 20/09
It’s about time! Finally, the final sketch for my Tron Legacy concepts. This week’s concept is the Tron Recognizer. I always hated these things on the movie and it was not because I didn’t like how they looked or they scared me a child. No, it was because the Intellivision’s “Deadly Disk of Tron” video game. http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=20552 The game cheats and the booklet tells you that you can destroy the Recognizer by hitting it in the “eye”. Much like cake, the eye was a lie. Young, fat Andy wasted many days trying to beat that game and never did manage to destroy the in-game Recognizer. Not to mention, I’m pretty sure it just repeated on forever.
Anyway, I stayed close to the original version’s body shape. The original felt kind of skinny, so on this one I tried to beef it up by adding heavy shoulders and a thicker mid-section. That helped give the look more of an intimidation factor. I also tried to add some function to the look by adding some mechanical looking sections. For example, the silver-ish pieces on either side of the shoulders are rotating cannons. You can see more of that on the rough sketches.
My favorite addition is the power source in the mid-section. Imagine, if you will, a screen that starts out pitch black and the blue glow emerges out of the darkness followed by the red lines. Could totally be one of those O $#^@* moments in a movie. I also liked the addition of the blue lights coming out of the bottom. It looks like a jet stream in the sketch but really I see it as more of a spotlight or a tractor beam.
If anything color and texture has been one of my weak points, so I tried to push it a little this week. I didn’t go crazy, baby steps. I added a galvanized metal texture over the body and set the layer style to a soft light. The beams of light are a combo of gradient and some new texture brushes I found. And the chest glow is just a layer style (glow) with the noise turned up.
Well, that’s the last of the Tron series. Not sure what’s next but I’ll figure something out.
A
The Tron Light Cycle Concept Nov 21/09
As promised this week, I worked on some concept art for the Tron light-cycle. The original light-cycle has to be one of the coolest looking vehicles in movie history. In the top three at least, next to the X-wing and the dog van from Dumb and Dumber.
Anyways, I really wanted to draw the crotch rocket version of the light-cycle but the demon voices in my head kept telling me “Stop sucking and do something unique”. So then it hit me, wouldn’t it be sweet if there were a chopper version of the light cycle?
It was a little tough to keep the tech look with the chopper feel but it worked out pretty well. The hardest part was finding a place to attach the handlebars and make them look in place. Wrapping them around the wheel and connecting them in the wheel well became the best solution. I’m also a fan of the barbwire detailing on the gas tank too. That accent really seemed to combine Tron and the chopper feel.
Originally, I started with blue highlights but decided to go red to keep with the bad boy feel. Finally the fire red/orange jet stream is a nod to the Ghost Rider.
Come back next week to see my version of the Recognizers. I’ve been having a good time with the last two Tron sketches so why not go with it? See ya in a week.
A
Sketch of the Week November 13/09
So, for those of you who haven’t heard, Disney finally announced that they are coming out with Tron 2! That’s right Tron, the precursor to The Matrix. I can’t believe it took those jokers sooo flipping long. The story will probably be horrible but at least it will look pretty (see Star Wars 1-3). The teaser trailer is amazing! Is Flynn good? Is he bad? I DON’T KNOW!
The new light cycle looks sweet… from a distance. I just don’t like how the rider sits on the bike. So next week I’ll take a stab at the bikes but this week, I tweaked the tanks from Tron. Much like the storm troopers from Star Wars, the tanks looked sweet but were completely irrelevant.
I’m a bit of a purist, so I tried to keep the overall tank form the same and just updated the style. You can see a little of my thought process in the rough sketches. I tried everything form centering the gun turret, different types of tread, even a windshield. The wheels like rings on the side were added to imply wheels or tread. They don’t touch the ground at all but they help the tank look mobile unlike the original version.
The colors did need to be updated but obviously I didn’t do to much with that. The old orange was a little dull so I pushed the chrome up a little. Less is more. Finally adding all of the glowing lines. So many designs have been ruined by people overdoing the glowy lines and while glowy lines may look sweet, don’t use it as a crutch people! Just use it on the areas where you want to highlight something. Anywhere else use it sparingly.
All right, that’s all I got. Let me know what sucks in the comments. I’m looking forward to the light cycle next week.
A
Sketch Of The Week October 7/09
So I’m getting back on track, kind of.. Instead of a two-month gap between post I’m down to a two week gap. Now that’s progress!
This week’s sketch falls in the same universe as last weeks. Remember Castle Von Beacon? Well this would be one of the Marshals heavy tanks. I was going for something not too futuristic with a heavy iron style. Kind of like a big daddy from Bioshock but way “more machine now than man”. Err if you can call a big daddy a man.
First nothing says bad ass like a huge mec with lobster claws for hands! Then if that wasn’t enough he has guns coming out of his arm pits… I liked the guns so much I even threw in a second sketch of it. Throw in some metal bolts to give it that heavy metal feel and boo-yea instant walking tank. I toyed with putting a third leg on the mec but too many dirty jokes came to mind.
All right I’m done for now. As always I open to suggestions for next weeks sketch.
See ya
A
Sketch Of The Week May 15/09
I’m little behind this week but better late than never. Anyways, as promised this weeks sketch is a five wheeled motorcycle, pharaoh, with a bomb.
Before anyone says hey that motorcycle has four wheels and I paid for five! Well you have to look at the side sketch. Right above the back two wheels there is a third wheel incorporated into the suspension. I did some napkin sketches of the bike with two back wheels that were side by side but it came out looking like a trike which just doesn’t have that sleek look I was going for.
The bomb and the pharaoh themes are both incorporated into the rider. The most notable thing about the look of a pharaoh is the headdress, so I worked in some of those features into the helmet and the shoulder padding. If you look closely there is a speaker/air filter that takes the look of the goatee. As for the bomb, the only way to be more extreme than riding 200mph on a five-wheeled motorcycle is to do that with a bomb strapped onto your back.
That’s it for this week.
A