retired Warsuit concept

[JonBath]

This is the ak47 of warsuits in the future. The suit was designed to handle all weather conditions, however, ice would build up between the crevices and when it thawed the titanium underneath would rust.

Soo…it’s been sold to neighboring countries now as a cheaper alternative. Includes nanotechnology, carbon ceramic…visor not included so you can see his face.

I got pretty tired of seeing characters with body builder physiques moving with immense speed and stamina, I’m an athlete myself and I know you can’t be slapping that much mass on your frame and still perform the way characters do in games. I Used sprinters as an example.

I’m currently a marketing student doing this as a hobby, but I would like to take game development in the future.

org line drawing

painted in ps

[Lunatique]

It’s great that you’re focusing on the actual design, which is the most important job a concept artist is supposed to do. Too many misguided aspiring concept artists think it’s about making pretty pictures, so they do these nice looking eye-candy with horribly illogical designs.

With that said, you need to also strengthen your critical foundations in visual art, otherwise, no matter how good your designs are, you won’t be able to compete. Long gone are the days when concept artists can make great designs while having weak drawing/painting ability. Today’s concept artists have to be both excellent designers as well as accomplished artists in general, or else they don’t stand a chance against the ridiculously fierce competition.

You need to really work on your anatomy and figure, because your weakness in that area is the first thing people will notice. The proportions of your figure is totally off (head is tiny, body is huge, arms are short. You should at least sketch out the figure first and then fit the armor suit over the figure, to be sure your figure looks right). There are standard proportion ratios you need to know, and the further you deviate from that basic standard, the more awkward your figure will appear. Make anatomy/figure studies a routine in your artistic development, along with other essential studies like composition, perspective, values, lighting, color theory, etc.

As for the design itself, what’s the point of having tubes on the outside? It’ll be too easy to accidentally sever them when they snag on stuff.

There needs to be more cushioning at the bottom of the shoes, since that’s a lot of extra weight to be carried by flimsy looking shoes.

The shoulder area looks very limiting in terms of range of motion. Many people overlook the fact that the collarbone and shoulder blades move independently from the upper torso, and when designing armor suits, it’s important to allow that independent movement, otherwise you end up with the typical limited action figure toy range of motion (just one socket rotation where the arm attaches to the torso).

[JonBath]

It’s great that you’re focusing on the actual design, which is the most important job a concept artist is supposed to do. Too many misguided aspiring concept artists think it’s about making pretty pictures, so they do these nice looking eye-candy with horribly illogical designs.

With that said, you need to also strengthen your critical foundations in visual art, otherwise, no matter how good your designs are, you won’t be able to compete. Long gone are the days when concept artists can make great designs while having weak drawing/painting ability. Today’s concept artists have to be both excellent designers as well as accomplished artists in general, or else they don’t stand a chance against the ridiculously fierce competition.

You need to really work on your anatomy and figure, because your weakness in that area is the first thing people will notice. The proportions of your figure is totally off (head is tiny, body is huge, arms are short. You should at least sketch out the figure first and then fit the armor suit over the figure, to be sure your figure looks right). There are standard proportion ratios you need to know, and the further you deviate from that basic standard, the more awkward your figure will appear. Make anatomy/figure studies a routine in your artistic development, along with other essential studies like composition, perspective, values, lighting, color theory, etc.

As for the design itself, what’s the point of having tubes on the outside? It’ll be too easy to accidentally sever them when they snag on stuff.

There needs to be more cushioning at the bottom of the shoes, since that’s a lot of extra weight to be carried by flimsy looking shoes.

The shoulder area looks very limiting in terms of range of motion. Many people overlook the fact that the collarbone and shoulder blades move independently from the upper torso, and when designing armor suits, it’s important to allow that independent movement, otherwise you end up with the typical limited action figure toy range of motion (just one socket rotation where the arm attaches to the torso).

Thanks for the reply.

I posted this on conceptart.org and have since been updating it (the range of motion part etc) I added another link and some hinges, also a lobsterback variant.

I used athletes as an example.

sprinters for the idea of huge quads.

I sort of “purposely” made his proportions like that, I suppose it just doesn’t look right and was a bad idea. a smaller head and hands gives off a “bigger man” sorta thing. like Wladmir klitschko.

6’7 80 reach.

Bigger boots is a great idea, I could picture it right now and it would give him a much more solid foundation look to him.

The cables indeed, seems like a useless Idea I agree.

[Lunatique]

It doesn’t matter if the person is very tall–the size ratio of his head with the rest of his body just doesn’t work (as you realized by now). You have to always draw the person without the armor first and make sure the proportions look correct (regardless of what height the person is), and then put the armor suit over the person. If you tried to draw the person inside your armor suit right now, he’s going to look totally out of proportion. Try it–you’ll see.

It takes time to become knowledgeable and develop advanced insights. As you gain more experience as an artist, these things will become obvious to you.

[BillyWJ]

One thing to consider - why would you send someone into battle, when they can’t turn their head, and their field of view is limited to a cone in front of them?

[JonBath]

ok I’ve updated the proportions, let me know what you all think. I appreciate all of the excellent advice. I always felt my designs were lackluster.

[Lunatique]

The proportions are still very wrong. Take a look at the quickie correction I did below.

I mentioned that it’s extremely important that you “draw-through” and do the actual figure under the armor suit first, and then fit the suit on top. This is CRUCIAL to get right. Look at the draw-through I tried to do based on your proportions–I couldn’t even connect the body parts properly because the proportions are so off. The placement of the various body parts results in a strange and incorrect looking figure.

On the right, I tried to correct the proportions so it looks more like a plausible person. (I just used the Liquify tool, and I didn’t bother trying to keep all the micro-details intact–I just corrected the overall proportions.)

And if you need to the person to be very tall, you have to scale up the whole person, not just elongate everything (which results in an almost alien-like look). Yes, very tall people do have very long limbs, but they still have to look human. Tall people’s heads will appear larger than the normal person’s head, because their proportions are in general scale up overall, not just with their torso and limbs stretched out like they are made of rubber.

You need to learn anatomy and figure if you want to be a concept artist that deals with characters. You also have work harder on thinking critically about form vs. function in your designs. Design stuff with the mentality that people really have to use the object in the situations the objects are designed for, with proper articulation, protection, accessibility, etc.

[JonBath]

The proportions are still very wrong. Take a look at the quickie correction I did below.

I mentioned that it’s extremely important that you “draw-through” and do the actual figure under the armor suit first, and then fit the suit on top. This is CRUCIAL to get right. Look at the draw-through I tried to do based on your proportions–I couldn’t even connect the body parts properly because the proportions are so off. The placement of the various body parts results in a strange and incorrect looking figure.

On the right, I tried to correct the proportions so it looks more like a plausible person. (I just used the Liquify tool, and I didn’t bother trying to keep all the micro-details intact–I just corrected the overall proportions.)

And if you need to the person to be very tall, you have to scale up the whole person, not just elongate everything (which results in an almost alien-like look). Yes, very tall people do have very long limbs, but they still have to look human. Tall people’s heads will appear larger than the normal person’s head, because their proportions are in general scale up overall, not just with their torso and limbs stretched out like they are made of rubber.

You need to learn anatomy and figure if you want to be a concept artist that deals with characters. You also have work harder on thinking critically about form vs. function in your designs. Design stuff with the mentality that people really have to use the object in the situations the objects are designed for, with proper articulation, protection, accessibility, etc.

I’m starting some new character concepts and I will draw out the proportions first and work from there. thanks for the advice. i appreciate!

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