The VG Resource

I'm starting a new comic and this one contains robots, so I had to draw a concept first before anything. What is my aim? To make it look cool! But I don't know how to make cool looking robots.

I have in my mind a robot that will be used for the main character and in my head, he's supposed to look pretty normal but still make an impact to the spectators. So I thought hard to try to put the robot in my head onto the computer and this is what came out:

http://rc.fanart-central.net/pic-797440.html

Well this doesn't wow me one bit but it's almost as close as what I have in my head. How do I improve this? How do I make it look cool? I don't know a thing about robots or mechs.

it's boring and rigid.
go for a more dynamic pose and perspective.
look at robots you find cool. what makes them cool in your opinion? and more generally, what do you find cool?
once you find out what it is, interpret it your way, mix it up. be daring.

so first: -post some robots you find cool
-post/ write about things you find cool

then we can help you from there.

good luck!

rather than a robot, looks more like a bunch of shapes thrown together. robots do have an structure and said structures, even when they're cartoon characters, need to serve a purpose and to an extent they do need to make sense. just like toon skeletons, even when they're caricatures, follow a basic structure.

I actually did thought about what this particular robot. It's a robot that will play sports but it's made out of scrap parts from other robots, so it's suppose to look like junk but still functional. Is that what you meant?

good! i have a better idea of what you're doing now!
what type of sports?

Chris2Balls [:B] Wrote:so first: -post some robots you find cool
-post/ write about things you find cool

It's suppose to be an all around athlete for many sports. If you want me to go into a bit of detail, I'll explain what I have in mind:

The robot is around as tall as a 2 story building and the person would go inside to control it via some sort of motion sensitive device (I haven't gotten to that part yet). The robot was design to be highly maneuverable and light enough to jump on buildings without destroying them. The head is mainly just for show, with no real purpose. The only function it has is that it can move with a joystick within the cockpit because there's a camera inside of it so the pilot can see his surroundings through a TV screen. The chest is where the pilot is where he can strap himself to a motion sensor device so that whatever movement he makes, the robot mimicks. The abdomen is made up of metal scales to allow the robot to pivot his belly. The arms and legs are just designed to move along with the pilot. The hands are equipped with rubber for gripping the ball being played and the feet have rubber souls for friction. On the back, there's a energy cartridge that powers the robot.

I was going to put a description about the robot and it's components but figured people wouldn't really care, but if it's important to know, I'll let you in on what I have in mind.

Keep describing this robot and its components, it will help you have a better idea on what you're drawing and help us too.

Now... find some robots/mecha you find cool, post some pictures here, and try and find what makes the thing that makes a specific robot cool to you.

For inspiring robots, I mainly use this robot right here:





This is the Dangan-Go, a mecha from the anime Basquash. The anime is what inspired me to do this comic. If you never heard of Basquash, it's pretty much mechas playing basketball and I really liked it (the first 10 episodes anyways) and wanted to create my own version of it. I really liked the mechas in this anime and wanted to make something like it. As you can see, it's not a advance looking mecha but one that looks like it was built from scratch, and I want to make a robot just like that.

Other inspirations include Ideon:



and this robot from Virtual On:



I'll admit, I don't know about this robot and just wanted a reference for a face because I remember a particular face from Virtual On, but I think it's pretty cool.

If you want me to keep explaining more about the robot's design, I'll continue but first, I kinda remolded it:



Most of the changes are on the arms. I changed the shoulders to a ball-and-socket joint with shoulder pads. The elbow has two disk that can turn around to rotate the lower part of the arm with a hinge so the lower part can swing back and forward. Though the hands were supposed to function like normal in the old pic, I made the joints obvious here.

Other functions include air ducts on the top and side. The bottom grill is to dispense excess gas from the energy cartridge. The windows have windshield wipers for rain. The thighs are design so that they can move in any direction. The "boots" are a metal cover to protect the legs. The feet are just triangles to allow jumping but to tell the truth, I have yet to figure out how exactly this will work.

That's pretty much all I have thought of for the design on this robot. I figured I'd know what to do after thinking about it but it's still basically a bare bones robot.

i hope these inspire you/make you want to look for more!

Not really but the last one gave me an idea. Since I want to make the robot mechanical looking, perhaps I should look at some real-life machines that I can inspire from and draw from that.

BTW, what is that last robot doing?

Shot putting, apparently.

(10-26-2010, 01:00 AM)TKGB Wrote: [ -> ]I'm starting a new comic and this one contains robots, so I had to draw a concept first before anything. What is my aim? To make it look cool! But I don't know how to make cool looking robots.

I have in my mind a robot that will be used for the main character and in my head, he's supposed to look pretty normal but still make an impact to the spectators. So I thought hard to try to put the robot in my head onto the computer and this is what came out:

http://rc.fanart-central.net/pic-797440.html

Well this doesn't wow me one bit but it's almost as close as what I have in my head. How do I improve this? How do I make it look cool? I don't know a thing about robots or mechs.

Really boring and generic looking.

(10-27-2010, 08:28 PM)Woppet Wrote: [ -> ]

(10-26-2010, 01:00 AM)TKGB Wrote: [ -> ]I'm starting a new comic and this one contains robots, so I had to draw a concept first before anything. What is my aim? To make it look cool! But I don't know how to make cool looking robots.

I have in my mind a robot that will be used for the main character and in my head, he's supposed to look pretty normal but still make an impact to the spectators. So I thought hard to try to put the robot in my head onto the computer and this is what came out:

http://rc.fanart-central.net/pic-797440.html

Well this doesn't wow me one bit but it's almost as close as what I have in my head. How do I improve this? How do I make it look cool? I don't know a thing about robots or mechs.

Really boring and generic looking.

Perhaps you'd like to give your opinion or advice or anything I'm asking in the thread?

That was an opinion, an advice if you can grasp what he's saying.