Extreme Makeovers! | brian_h | Bionic Commando

[brian_h]

Extreme Makeovers! | brian_h | Bionic Commando
http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/competitions/uploaded_thubnails/33-game-concept-art-1102-1182140399-thumb.jpg

brian_h has entered the competition!

[Marcus Dublin]

Awesome choice, I loved the game as a kid and I look forward to seeing what you have in store for our beloved grappling hook hero!:)

Marcus

[brian_h]

Couldn't resist for the same reason...loved Commando and Bionic Commando. Also thought there would be less pressure compared to some of the high profile characters...more fun. We'll see.

[Klockwerk]

Oh man, I loved that game. Great Choice!

[brian_h]

Here are some initial sketches...been a busy week so I'll have more in the next day or so...it's a start.

[keo]

ah, looking good! I like the 2nd and 4th because they're playing with an un-idealized proportion due to the cybernetics

[brian_h]

I have a bunch more but I agree...thinking about combining 1,2 and 4 in different proportions...this is fun.

B

[mellowsmoothe]

4 is nice because it reminds me of the original character but it is starting to head in its own direction. the others, in my opinion are not as exaggerated and interesting. I think further enhancing 4 would be a good direction. nice looking roughs though, i dig it.

[smithyjake]

Man~! I like your work! Steady stroke and great pose. Yes, should blend in those good elements between those 4 designs and see what you'll come out with!

[Frozan]

wow nice concepts. really like the pose of the second and third one :)

[Centrifuge]

brian man, I love your linework. these are nice sketches for sure, but I think that the second one for me is the best of the bunch. It still has the flare of the original but its pushed into a much more up to date theme. the pants I can see as a throw back, still having the vibrant red with the yellow stripe, almost as the linking details. also it sticks with the "bionic" part of the character, its not too much like a robot, but its not too much human, good stuff. I like where this is going, gl, looking forward to more.

[brian_h]

some sketches I did at lunch...really like the proportions in #2...but now tweaking around with some other ideas...alot of fun. More sketches to come.

B

[keo]

predator-style shoulder cannon? could be fun :)

I think you might do better if he didn't have a even pair of guns, work some more asymmetry... maybe some kind of multi-tool instead of one hand? I do like the extra appendages coming off the spinal column in the last one.

[brian_h]

Here is an early variant...sea team kinda take...I envision the revamp more along the lines of Solid Snake crossed with the original GI Joe...different gear for different situations and environments. More sketches to come.

B

[brian_h]

Keo-Yeah, thought I'd try the 2 to see but I'm beginning to think your right...maybe one gun and a little more specialized. Thanks.

B

[FredH]

The new take on him looks really good, but with goggles and then army gear, he sort of reminds me a little too much of splinter cell. Since it is kind of hard to shake this feeling, this could put your entry at a disadvantage if people associate it with the wrong game. Besides this, I think you are really on to something with your sketches. I liked the bionic parts in your post #5 image. They really give emphasis to the word bionic. Additionally, the bald-head approach looks really wicked man! However, I am not sure if the black tight hood thing you have going in post #5 is adding anything to his appeal. The tight headgear seems to be lessening his personality because his face/head is somewhat covered.

I am just being picky:p Really nice work so far! With your sketches alone, I think you will make everyone here practice their line work more:thumb:

[brian_h]

Fred-In #5 and later it's not tight head gear...I'll just leave it at that for now...I think color will help clarify it. I'm going to start into that next. As for the goggles it was a possible direction, kinda specific gear set in a game...kinda Navy seal. It's not the baseline look primarily for the reason you mentioned...I also headed away from #4 in the sketches for this reason. Thanks for the feedback.

B

[Frozan]

wow that last image looks great! keep it up i think your getting to the final ideas of your character

[Ste]

This is looking great so far! Well done

[brian_h]

It's starting to come together. Alot of really good competition on here.

[gorillagrin]

Nice sketches, though the thing I'm most interested in seeing is how you interpret or evolve his grappling arm. That's the thing that really says "Bionic Commando" to me, hard to imagine him without it.

[brian_h]

Yep, I'm working on some detailed sketches now...just playing with some of ideas of who this guy is...say Blade Runner on the other night and love the weary feel that Ford has in that...hes out but they keep draggin him back into something he just wants to walk away from. Got me thinking about the character...he's a super soldier but after a while isn't that a pretty one track job.

Anyway, about the hand...yeah wouldn't be him without it, but I want to make it a bit more than just a grappling hook...more on this later.

B

[Evan Smith]

he looks awesome so far, can't wait to see more!

[Bbox85]

It's looking good man... I can hear the music... the grapple, the gun shots, the communication center! Lol, brings back memories... keep it coming!

[Kalango]

nice aspect man, loved the witchdoctor face paint hehe, keep it up.

[brian_h]

I'm working on some sketches tonight on the function parts...the grappling hook and the shoulder cannon. Just finished a large freelance gig and should have time now to unload a huge blast of imagery...ah, now i've gone and done it...better deliver now. lol

B

[Ste]

Love it!!!

[Marcus Dublin]

I can’t wait for the updates, the face paint reminds me of Rob Liefeld’s / Todd Mcfarlane's Chapel character.

Marcus

[brian_h]

Man, you sure know how to kick a guy hard, huh? Just the mention alone of that name should get you kicked in the gnads. I'm working on stuff...almost there...

[brian_h]

Sketching...sketching...

[Marcus Dublin]

"brian_h Man, you sure know how to kick a guy hard, huh? Just the mention alone of that name should get you kicked in the gnads. I'm working on stuff...almost there..."

Rob Liefeld: I'm a God, kneel before me........

[onelung]

nice paints, i too like the predator cannon. Are you gonna push it more real or stylized like the initial thumbnails?

[brian_h]

Not sure why one would have a picture of Rob Leifield...oh well. I'm still playing with the level of stylization...I lean toward realistic in most things but there is something to be said for stylized...especially since there seems to be an increasing amount of cybernetics/mech in this contest...still not sure but I'm thinking it easier to come up with a very technical design and then stylize it than to go the other way, at least for me.

B

[brian_h]

Here are some sketches...lots of them to come...this is alot fun.

[mellowsmoothe]

nice renders. kinda reminds me of a cross between the punisher and cable. the middle one has the most interest. i think the tattoos on the 3rd one look a little out of place and the 1st one lacks some of the cooler elements of the 2nd. great work, i look forward to more iterations and what it would look like with color.

[Antimagic]

very nice! He is really shaping up excellently! The incorporation of his bionic arm really worked out well. If I had one fussy comment, it would be his p-shooter for a handgun. There is a loss of respect for your character because he is holding such a small gun. Couldn't you arm him with something more serious and mean looking? Something bigger perhaps? That aside, in the middle one, I like the different tones in the suit. They balance well with his armaments.

This is going to be another fantastic entry! Can't wait to see more :dude:



.

[brian_h]

On the third it was more blackout paint...military camo painted on the skin and less tattoos...tatoos are cool but definitely wanted to make something of a military function and not simply tattooed all over. I'll be posting more tonight. Thank for the feedback.

[brian_h]

antimagic-

Thanks. Yeah, the gun is bothering me as well. It needs a little more weight to it, I agree. Working on that. I want to stay away from a rifle or assault weapon...maybe...I'll have to play around with it...like I said I'll be posting more tonight. So I might throw that into the mix. Thanks.

B

[brian_h]

More to come...If I'm going to finish this I'm going to have to do it this weekend...to busy in Late July so I'm going to be putting my finals up this weekend and monday...I hope.

Here is the WIP on the final image. Any thoughts?

B

[Amethyst]

Your drawing capabilities are fabulous. Very good concepts. Just a question: are you going to add some streaks of colours?

[brian_h]

Color...absolutely, that and a modelsheet this weekend...should be a fun but full weekend. Thanks for the kind comments as well. Hope the final comes out alright.

B

[Kalango]

very nice image man, loved the feet pose...this can seriously rock with nice colors and glow :)

[FredH]

The pose and the layout both look great. Nothing more to say except, I really can't wait to see this one finished!

[gorillagrin]

Dammit I was questioning whether or not I should do a full-on illustration or just the rendered pose, but now I think I have to.

Looks great and looking forward to the final colored version

[brian_h]

Thanks guys, I can't wait to see it as well lol. Fred, I remembered from the last comp that this was alot easier...final image...then modelsheet...I know you mentioned that last time as well. I finally decided after going all over the place to come up with one image that I thought felt like the character and work backwards...should help with accuracy on the modelsheet too.

BTW maybe I missed this somewhere but who is judging these anyway? Doesn't really matter but just curious. Thanks.

B

[FredH]

Yeah, last comp was a disaster for me. I should have started with sketches, and then imidiately jump into the final illustration. When I color things, I always add more details than my simple rough pencil work contains. I guess it's because the colors force me to change things around when the colors don't match up well with their surrounding details, or when colors don't do enough by themselves, so I need to add additional details. Anyways, yeah, disaster:p Like you suggested, it's a lot easier working backwards.

Judges? I will find 3-5 pros in the field to judge this event. They will be revealed when the results are in:)

[gorillagrin]

I was just looking at the piece again and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.. you can tell me to go away if you want but it's looking really badass and there's just a couple minor things that I think would help compositionally, revolving around that swivel gun.

I think the tangency between his head and the gun is the main distraction for me.. the way they're touching like that makes for a confusing read (can't tell if it's behind his head or in front or what). Also is he supposed to be firing through the cloud of smoke? The the light from the gunfire and how it lines up with that curve of the smoke kind of suggests it, but it also seems like the smoke could be farther in the distance. And also the location of the tracer makes it look a little like he's shooting his own bionic arm :)

And speaking of that bionic arm, any chance you're going to show it in action? Seems like a leap through the air like that would be perfect opportunity for him to fire it out and latch on to something.. maybe show it just beginning to extend? Anyway like I said before, it looks great but I think those small changes could make it even better.

[scorn-maniac]

Dang, that sure looks sweet man. Very action packed. Was doodling some poses and I realise how static mine was compared to yours. Back to sketchin..

I love to see how this turn out. ^__^

[brian_h]

Gorillagrin-all very good points...thanks for the crits...this is why I wanted to post the WIP...very helpful to get some fresh eyes. Thanks.

Scorn-maniac-thanks...anxious to get this thing into color asap myself.

B

[mellowsmoothe]

yeah i definitely agree with gorillagrin. great points. you have the composition but there are some elements of bionic commando that we would expect to see... the extended arm!

anyway this is a personal opinion but i really like the direction you were taking in the past images where he seemed to be more lithe and thin. i thought that was an interesting look especially since his arm seemed to be going down that direction too. he gained some noticable mass in this iteration. anyway i just wanted to share that. great job and good luck!

[brian_h]

Yeah, well, as far as the extended arm...I'll get to that with other sketches...the arm does more than that now. I wanted to advance the arm as a key component and give it more functionality. In the case of the illo I thought about it but decided it was enough to give some sense of the character and not illustrate all of the aspects of him. Again, I'll cover it with other sketches focused on the arm. I wanted to return to the proportions a bit in the original sketch but maintain the James Bond direction I had at one point as well where the arm can be covered up and passed off...so I came up with a solution that was somewhere in the middle.

The sketches will hopefully explain it more directly when I post the finals. AS for the bulk...yeah I added more ammo pouches to the front and general gear. Again, I envision him as loading up in different ways depending on the mission.

We'll see...I like these proportions a bit better...thanks for the feedback.


B

[Marcus Dublin]

I’m feeling really feeling this, it has a great sense of power and mayhem to it. The one thing I would have loved to have seen though is the character pulled in a bit closer to the camera but that’s nitpicking on a fabulous piece! Well done dude, mad skillz!:thumb:

Marcus

[Ste]

Love all your work so far...! Wish there was something I could see that sticks out to me about your concepts and drawings. But there isn't!!! This is simply why your skills are beyond me... ¦¬D lol its the truth.
Well done keep drawing... Its a pleasure to watch a very good artist work and read their thought processes.

just wanna go wash my brown nose now lol

[PBWerewolf]

Awsome!!! Great artwork like yours makes me feel like I'm out of my league here, but it just makes me want to draw more!! Keep it up, hopefully you'll slap some colors on.

[brian_h]

More sketches...getting details about the arm and gun to go with the turnaround...now I want to make this game...lol

[mellowsmoothe]

cool ideas on how it can be versatile. i would like, however, to see how this extends from his forearm, in the classic bionic commando way. maybe it extends 25 feet or something and has multiple reinforced cables. i dig your exploration but i guess i would like to see some more classic bionic commando functionality as well.

[brian_h]

Yeah, I'll have that in there as well...I wanted to open the arm up a bit though and not make it one function but a multiple function tool...and one that could collapse down and function as an arm...it is so much of the character I thought it should have more character...I agree it has to have the basic funcionality to tie back to the original design though.

B

[brian_h]

Here is some of the final art...

[FredH]

This came out looking exceptionally well man. Congrats on finishing and finishing in style:)

[mellowsmoothe]

congrats on your piece too man. great presentation!

[rv_el]

Awesome man! The final image looks like it could be a trading card. Pro stuff there mate. I like the lighting coming off of the muzzle flash.

[gorillagrin]

Turned out great! Excellent presentation too, like everyone said. On the off chance you do any more work on it, it would be great to see a little more color variation going on. I saw you had some really nice colors going on in the last comp's entry especially. That would just be icing on an already nice cake though.

[ThatDon]

god yes, this is win!

[Dario]

one of my favourites i have to say. :) still, i wish you would have put in more color in your final...in the end there are just two lightning colors. but hey,...i dont want to be nitpicking and i wish you good luck with your brilliant work! you didnt failed to show a constant level of high quality work.

[brian_h]

Thanks guys...barely get this things in...literally the last minute. Dario-yeah, I noodled with the color to the point where I thought I had to leave good enough alone...honestly, it's a good thing because I wouldn't have finished otherwise.

I appreciate the help along the way, this was a lot of fun...when is the next one? I'm curious to see what the mini challenges are like as well...might be easier to fit in...this is a busy summer this year

B

[keo]

yeah, I was happy to see you squeaked this one in when I checked this morning! great work, man!

[scorn-maniac]

Super Sweet! No crits . Sure looks like a slow motion sequence of an action movie.

Good luck!