Life Drawing

Life drawing, something I've been engaging with over the last few months to sharpen my drawing skills while working on my project A definite improvement life drawing has made is that it has encouraged me to draw poses more freely and with more confidence. Before, i found my self frequently using lines and references to fill the void, but now i find myself becoming less finicky and overly critical with drawings. Additionally it encouraged me to explore more body builds when concepting characters, and to understand just how much they can assist in characterisation and personality.

Unreal Engine 4

The first step in creating my Unreal Engine 4 scene as a proof of concept or execution attempt. This was testing one of a few ideal layouts, a large circular room for the final models and pictures. The walls were textured using the preset hex and glowing hex tiles fitting in with the alien theme of the game. 

The current prospective idea for the exhibiting the finished PSD's in the scene was to have an orb suspended in the middle of the room acting as a projection unit that would have the images orbiting slowly around them. My intended outcome to some how simulate the idea of the images being holograms of sorts. 

Metal

The next intended creature concept would be a sub species that instead of mutating like the insects, influenced their own change by cybernetic ally modifying themselves to survive the plants climate.

One design i was particularly enthused by was the idea of having the  abdomen area be nothing but a single extruded mechanical spinal column holding the torso aloft. This was to give them an unnaturally skeletal appearance, and also to make it unclear about how much of their bodies still remained original. The the cold violet grey colour of their metal gave them a slightly grim and lifeless atmosphere. 

Insectoids

Major plot point of the game is that the seemingly barren planet that acts as the premise was inf act previously inhabited. Through an unknown act of self assured the destruction, almost all of the population was wiped out save for a small pockets that survived. Even then the pockets that survived never stayed the same, instead mutating or undergoing drastic changes as a result of the planets now decaying condition.

One such pocket of survivors ended up becoming drastically mutated beyond recognition, slowly gaining insect like properties and attributes.

I bounced between multiple different levels of "insectification" deciding how much much the denizens would have transformed, how grotesque would their new forms be. 

Much of their body is coated with an insect like carapace, rigid in some areas but mostly sleek and flowing. Their muscles are exposed and visible but protected underneath the the large plated shells adorned around their bodies. The smaller group act as drones and scavenger while larger specimens would have sometimes multiple recently grown appendages, the number of which vary upon size and the level of mutation. 

Character Engineer

The initial protagonist for the the game is both a planet-side explorer and engineer, venturing to uncharted and dangerous world.

For this i quickly ended up settling on the idea of a tough, adventurous, tounge in cheek mechanic. 

Her costume simply consisted of padded boots, a vest, fingerless gloves and weebing around her torso holding a pair of  LED lamps. 

The character needed some form of a suit that would be worn while outside, initially this was going to be a form fitting harsdsuit, with a slightly clunky aspect to it. 

This was instead scrapped in favour of a more traditional space suit or Hazardous enviro suit aeasthetic, one that would seemingly make more sense when occupying or venturing into an alien environment. More so, it embodied her larger sturdier body build by having a suit that was larger and radiated strength and durability to survive the harsh environment.  

The suit itself stands roughly 7 - 8 feet tall. The large tanks on the back of the armour act as life support systems and generators supplying the necessary power and care to user. The choice of colour scheme was intended to give it a "custom racer" feel, having been spray painted modified for a more personalised look.