How do people come up with stuff like this

[evil^milk]

http://conceptart.org/?artist=SamBrown36

So basically I'm in the process of trying to figure out how people come up with mechanical human-things.

I made a drawing to attempt to figure out how it is that they do that - and basically the situation I want to solve is how I'm going to get a robotic thing to walk. So I need legs, right? I draw human legs to help me out with anatomy. To make it look somewhat robotic, I restrict the movements of the mechanical joints (figure 4) and from there on I really don't know wtf, because the legs end up looking like a domestic quadruped's legs more than robot legs.

How do people come up with this stuff? Do they inspire themselves off cars/motorcycles/stuff like that? :E

 

[Vegeta897]

I've tried coming up with mech designs before too, it seems simple until you actually try it and you realize anything you make just looks stupid.

In short, I have no help to offer you!

 

[evil^milk]

pfffffffffffffffff go away then.

Spoiler

:E

 

[Vegeta897]

Fine.

Spoiler

 

[Krynn72]

The stuff in your link isn't humanoid at all really.

Start off doing thumbnails to get a good looking profile, then get down to components after, figuring out how they'd work as you go along. It would probably help if you used Sketchup or some 3D app to get a better feel for the basic elements.

Also, GET THIS DVD.

 

[evil^milk]

What are thumbnails? Are they like, the basic figure?

 

[Raziaar]

What are thumbnails? Are they like, the basic figure?

From my non experience as an artist, thumbnails are an incredibly tiny image that you draw to get a very rough idea about shape, form... and flesh out ideas. And from all your thumbnails you extrapolate from them and make a larger image with all the detail and other stuff.

 

[Krynn72]

What are thumbnails? Are they like, the basic figure?

Sorta. Most artists just draw several silhouettes to start them off on the concept stage. This lets them try out several different ideas very quickly, and then continue the process with their favorite one. The silhouette is the most important part of a character design because its the most distinguishable visual element, and thus you should always focus on getting that right first. From there you can work out the details, but the silhouette keeps your mind on the end-game, giving you something to work towards rather than just winging it, as they say, and ending up with a cluster**** of ideas that don't particularly mesh well.

Heres some examples of a thumbnail sheet. Keep in mind that not everyone does thumbnails like these, where they're filled in almost entirely with solid black. You can do more sketchy ones with some detail inside the outline too, but the objective at this stage is always about the shapes of the silhouette. Frankly, I find the black-filled kind much more helpful since there's nothing else to distract me from that objective.

 

[Raziaar]

Wow. I wish I could do stuff like that. There's so much freaking character and detail in those thumbnails, and they're just silhouettes. Crazy. My mind fills in many of the blanks.

 

[evil^milk]

Damn Raz/Krynn, that makes a lotta sense. Have you tried this approach and completed some concept?