Sunday, March 3, 2013

Journal Ambience #8 - All Mecha!

Journal Ambience makes it’s triumphant return, after a long hiatus. 



Apologies to all my friends and followers who had to wait so long. I’ve been diligently preparing two personal projects to demonstrate, but I didn’t feel quite ready to show one of them, at the earlier designated time. Therefore I hope you all appreciate and like what you see for this update.



Unsurprisingly this update is again focused on mecha, however this time it includes two different takes on the genre.



The first are concepts based on an original narrative, introduced in Journal Ambience #4 titled “The Laws and Challenges of Attraction”, in other words centred on the theme of finding love.



The basic premise of the story is that a Child's (protagonist) confidence explodes when he discovers a girl, whom he has long loved is attracted to him as well, which compels him to transform into an impressive mech. This sparks the jealousy of a peer (antagonist), an overly confident individual, who also has a crush on the girl also, which escalates into an all out duel to win her affection.














This was conducted as a study into character design and composition. Composition, in this case meaning experimenting through design, different illustrated scenarios that reflect the story. Not to mention, I decided to attempt this as a means of designing stylised mechs and characters, compared to realistic designs and illustrations I usually do. I have also begun to approach character design by including a sheet with the entire cast of characters. This helps to test and see if they look as though they might exist in the same world and how they would react with each other. This is a method adopted from Victoria Ying’s process that she shared, during the (CDW) concept design workshop, a couple of months ago.



Having said all this, I decided to momentarily cease with the project for two reasons: 1) As I’m unsure at this stage whether or not the narrative has enough depth and originality, even though it is tailored more towards a younger audience and 2) So I could divert my energy towards completing my redesign of a mech I commenced designing during the concept design workshop.



This leads into my second piece of work I’ve been doing the last 2 weeks, a realistic mech design that I’ve titled the “Keiron Class. Excavator”. The foundation for it, is that it is an excavator mech, designed by a fictitious alien race named the Keiron (Kay-ron) to be used in mining resources.


 





The mech is largely based on two strange, “unidentified” and supposed animals, which I discovered whilst searching online, in addition to technological elements such as existing vehicle motors, cams, the current excavator design and inspirations were drawn from the form of the crayfish and crab.



These inspirations are each reflected in respective elements in the design of the mech. The perceived antennas of the presumed insect-like animal, were the inspiration for the curved shielding, held up by the two distinct beams, attached to the mech’s body. Its body’s shape was influenced from the bulbous animal and the paneling that form it, also were derived from the shell of the crayfish. The shell of the crayfish was used, as its aesthetic has a perception of being constructed from a blend of organic and industrial components. Additionally the crab played a role in influencing the pincer arms of the mech. Lastly, references to vehicle motors, cams and the current excavator design, naturally assisted with the creation of the mech’s excavator arm. In combination with the structural anatomy of the crayfish.





(Edit 6/3/13 - Apologies I forgot to include the reference images) Reference images of animals that inspired the design of the mech:

Unidentified Animals:

















Bulbous Animal


















Insect with uniquely shaped antennas

















Crab or some other crustacean















Crayfish and other crustacean underneath lobster influenced design.


In addition to the reasons I have already explained, concerning the delay of this post, another case why it took me so long was that I was hoping to show in this post, the Keiron mech rendered. Consequently I’ll have this prepared in the next post, along with the new content.



Overall I hope you have all enjoyed this body of work and please look forward to hopefully next week, in the next given post, to further character design concepts, for possibly new and or existing narratives I’ve created. As well as any other likely work I might create?



As usual remember to stay tuned every Friday, or at the least please be prepared for any delays, but that will come with notifications, to explain the post’s absence.
 

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www.marcforzadesign.blogspot.com
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Thank you.


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About Me

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Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
From a young age, Marc Forza has always had a creative flair. He specialises in concept art/ design, graphic design, illustration and industrial design, with interests in fine art, consumer electronics, biomimicry, automotive design, branding and science fiction. Marc also enjoys creating portraits for clients. Marc shares his portfolio, process and development on this blog, as well as on facebook, at Marc Forza Design. I hope you enjoy what you see and return often. Thank you.