Extreme Makeovers! | mellowsmoothe | Scorpion From Contra

[mellowsmoothe]

Extreme Makeovers! | mellowsmoothe | Scorpion From Contra
http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/competitions/uploaded_thubnails/33-game-concept-art-1205-1182434516-thumb.gif

mellowsmoothe has entered the competition!

[mellowsmoothe]

Hey guys ... this looked like a fun chance to do a crazy concept for a game that really got me into gaming in the first place. I'm not sure if my website shows up in my profile but in included it below. Thanks, and may the best concept win!

http://www.mellowsmoothe.com

[War_Destroyer]

Oh......Crap on a stick....It's you...the guy what did dat cover of dat book I boughts last year.......Awesome and welcome to the family.

[Chubbydan]

POOP! there goes the competition! boy got skillz!

[FredH]

I think you are going to make this a really hard comp to win. I had better start practicing with painter so that my entry doesn't look silly:p

Nice to see you in the comp and I am looking forward to seeing how you make this already cool guy over.

[Frozan]

ohh man this could be a really cool entry. got any ideas how ur going to approach this yet?

[Klockwerk]

Glad you decided to join, You'll have some fun in this competition. Nice choice by the way.

[mellowsmoothe]

thanks guys. yeah i have vague idea of things i want to add to him but no real direction. there is a theme i am thinking of exploring but you guys wouldn't want to know what it is, would ya? eh, i'll surprise you. :)

[Centrifuge]

sexy port site. Ive seen your work before so when I clicked the link I was like "AW HELL YEAH, I know this guys stuff, sweet juice!". Im pumped that we are getting more and more conceptual guys in here...nice pick for this comp, now lets see some art, lol j/k I dont have nething posted yet either....I think Im gonna take off work for about 2 weeks to do this, otherwise Im busy like all day. ok Im gonna get out of your thread now, gl to you!

[mr.paick]

OH MAN!!!! it really is you!!!!!! omG OMG OMG OMG
can we be friends????

should be an interesting competition ;)
at least we have some of the best in our midst....
btw...why aren't you at your desk ER?

[keo]

you're definitely a welcome addition to the 2d community here, I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for updates!

[brian_h]

Not the Scorpion I would have expected...thought about contra...love that game.

[mr.paick]

i love orange chicken

[brian_h]

But never the yellow chicken...

[mr.paick]

enough with the talk...wheres the art already?

[brian_h]

Seriously, it's not like you have a day job...put the honey bear down and get off the couch. Oh...wait, that's what I'm doing.

[Frozan]

mellow can i see some of ur goods ;)

[mr.paick]

this thread sucks...
so much hype...i guess thats what ER is known for =P

[mr.paick]

i understand why he hasnt posted yet....bc there have been so many instances where he has designed character....that will be scrapped for a new design once they see what they DONT want =).....hmmm makes you think and question your ability...dont it?
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

[mellowsmoothe]

All right already! Geez. K here is what I have so far. Several underwhelming thumbnails and a set of preliminary head studies.

So here is my idea for Scorpion:

Since the main, unique part of Scorpion and Mad Dog's silhouettes are the flailing bandanas I decided to use that to my advantage. It was very remeniscent of Rambo so I decided to do a post-vietnam look for him with a 60's-70's feel to his cyborg elements.

Story: Mad Dog has been killed in a highly top secret mission to eradicate the remaining alien colonies on earth. Scorpion was severely injured during the mission and his most of his body was torn apart by a massive alien artillery unit. This unit remains unidentified. Scorpion was found by a US trooper and brought back to a local HQ. He suffered massive tissue damage and even more mental damage, with the loss of his superior and best friend, Mad Dog. In his mental instability, Scorpion refused orders to rest and recooperate and requested to forfeit the rest of his body as the property of US marines and to be "rebuilt" in a top secret project known as Operation MSX (Machine Soldier X ). Now, Scorpion is no longer a man ... he is a weapon.

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6544/scorpionthumbspn2.th.jpg (http://img407.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionthumbspn2.jpg)

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8914/scorpionheadswq1.th.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionheadswq1.jpg)

[mellowsmoothe]

Here is another head study but this one suggests a scorpion "tattoo" that runs the entire length of one side of his body. The tail in this image ends at is neck but I'm considering having it end at his main gun that is attached to his right arm (which is suppose to replace is destroyed forearm).

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6061/scorpionheadstattoote1.th.jpg (http://img407.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionheadstattoote1.jpg)

[keo]

wow, looking great! unfortunately I'll need to peer at all of them a bit more to pick out which ones I like best.

noob question: how did you get the standard pose to repeat in a perfect grid?

Ok, I like #4 for the pattern on his belly, reminds me of a cast iron stove and 6 for the over-the-top turrbo fans on his back. I also the last one because he has all kinds of gear.

[gorillagrin]

Very cool. I love that he's inherited Mad Dog's bandana. My favorites out of the head shots are all grouped in that 4-square at the bottom right. The eyepatch makes me think of metal gear solid a bit too much. He has a lot of personality going on in his face already... looks very 'tortured'. Personally I'd love to see him without sunglasses in the final so his expression isn't hidden, but the glasses do look good. Just depends on which direction you want to take him.

For the silhouettes, I'm most drawn to the bottom row. They give him a bulked-up, reconstructed look but still really suggest Contra to me.

[mr.paick]

ER...looking good man.. i'm not really gona say much but i really like how much your exploring shapes for the main read. Cant wait to see what else you have in store for SCORPION!!!

i take back my earlier comment of calling you all hype...now your just semi-hype

=P

[rv_el]

Excellent man.

1st image - having a hard time with how small the dudes are. Might be that i have a higher res on my monitor making it hard.

I'm all about the rambo cloth thingy. looks cool

The one in the upper right looks really interesting to me.. very different. I like that one a lot.


2nd image - The last one reigns supreme! you know it. I really dig it. It has character and has Vietnam written all over it. I'd love to see that head with the whole body. Hell yeah. I like his little necklace, though i might say that it reminds me of an AK-47 (more than an M16, seeing that they are similar at that resolution anywho, but you could probably push it more towards m16).
I can't even look at an M16 with out thinking Vietnam...

Tell me your busting out the Credence, hehe.

[mellowsmoothe]

thanks guys. you have lots of helpful comments and i'm glad you are liking the direction.

gorillagrin - yeah i am leaning toward the second to the last silhouette. i didn't know the eye patch was remeniscent of metal gear. which character are you talking about? sucks 'cause i kinda like it. it kinda shows that the machinery he got fitted with couldn't fix everything. i'm really glad you noticed that he has Mad Dog's bandana now. sweet, i was gonna tell you guys that too.

rv_el - yeah the last head study is my favorite too man. it's got a lot of potential. this character is hard because i'm really trying to figure out how to make him different from what we expect from a cyborg archetype. i want him to retain his acrobatic-ness that the contra characters are known for and i also want to show a new breed of bad-ass, with a vintage style. this is something i'm really gonna have to work out in my upcoming roughs. btw, the necklace is suppose to be an AK but i think it would make more sense as an M16, youre right.

surprised know one said anything about the grenade necklace on the first head study. well, i thought it was cool... guess not. :(

[gorillagrin]

That's a cool idea that they could fit him with all this robotic shit but still couldn't do anything for his eye. The eyepatch thing happened in MGS3 to the main character, there's a couple of pics here (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fi/thumb/3/33/Metal_gear_solid_3_snake_eater.jpg/300px-Metal_gear_solid_3_snake_eater.jpg) and here (http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/images/mgs-portable-ops-ss-7.jpg).

Since it's a hardened, old-school soldier design with a bandana and an eyepatch (actually now I'm looking at those pics and the eyepatch is even on the same side), thought you should at least be aware of the similarity.

Forgot to mention, I really like the scorpion tattoo running up his body idea. Looking forward to the next update.

[rv_el]

Fark! i always do this. I didn't realize that there was a second page of posts going on. I was going to edit right after i posted and say that i didn't realize that there was a second page.

Ok, so just to clear up if there was any confusion. The one i really dig is the bottom right one on the original post. .with the glasses and mustache.

I'm not really a fan of the eye patch either. it might be able to work though. Could try stuff like having it be part of his cyborg shit (going to take work to not make it cheesy, but could be cool). I dunno. I'm just all about the guy with the stash and shades.

The grenade necklace is cool - now that i look at it.. cause at first i thought that thing in his neck was connecting to it. i was kinda confused on that part. But the grenade necklace could be really cool on whatever you end up going with, for sure.

I agree with you on the athletic thing. I think for sure he has to look like he would bust out with a forward flip.

[mellowsmoothe]

ok people,
here are some roughs that i wanted to toss out there so you can see some general thoughts on what i want scorpion to be. there are lots of variations that i want to do (and they will be super rough paintovers on one of these images). i gave him some commando facial paint (at the risk of looking too metal gear solid) but i like it, so let me know your thoughts. i will be exploring various shapes for his arm gun, his auxiliary gun, body tattoos and arm gun paint primarily. let me know if you guys like the vest i put on a couple of iterations of him - i think it makes him feel more 60's but it does cover up some potentially cool detail and anatomy. details, lighting, color, and posing will all be done in a final image. comments and crits welcome.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/5006/scorpionrough01ye7.th.jpg (http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionrough01ye7.jpg)
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/610/scorpionrough02rl8.th.jpg (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionrough02rl8.jpg)
http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/3447/scorpionrough03ti4.th.jpg (http://img162.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionrough03ti4.jpg)
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/9581/scorpionrough04nq2.th.jpg (http://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionrough04nq2.jpg)

[Klockwerk]

I like the bottom thumbnail. For some reason I dont like the tubes on his ribs. The vest helps block him out. I guess more angular linework design rather than arcing smooth shapes helps sell the vintage feel.

[gorillagrin]

Nice! Definitely prefer the white paint job on the arm cannon. The vest does add to the vintage feel, but I think I like the graphic breakup of shapes without it. Also without it, it gives you more of a chance to show how he's been rebuilt & hacked together. Unless you do an action pose and have the vest flailing in the wind and you can see the chest underneath. Also it makes me wonder how he would get the vest on over that bigass gun arm, but maybe I shouldn't be thinking about it that hard.

Are you still going to give him a pendant? I thought that was a nice touch.

Also this is nitpicky and I know you're just roughing things out, but his feet look a little small for such a manly man.

[Dario]

one of my favourite entries i must say!
you almost got the contraspirit in your concepts. and thats where im getting directly to the point of critique. i bet you like this more than simply "oooh"s and "aaah"s. ;)

instead of that tribal paint job on the arm cannon, that part imho destroys the original feeling of the game. it should be more rusty, dirty, badass like. instead of tribals put on some letters like "eat this!", or paint a pinup girl. make some crosses for the enemies he shot so far. something more...authentic? i think a true contra soldier doesnt really care about some fancy tribals...he would prefer something that fits his rough character.

just a note...hope you dont mind.
very curious to see your next steps!

[Ste]

Love all those little thumbs! Some lovely silhouettes...!!!

[Bbox85]

instead of that tribal paint job on the arm cannon, that part imho destroys the original feeling of the game.

I think he was intending that to be a Scorpion Tail.

I'm diggin' the progress so far. You're doing a great job of capturing that vintage look. The one thing that throws me off right now is his gun... not his arm gun but the other gun. Doesn't look too 60's style... I know it's really rough, but it's just a though. The white scorpion tail looks a whole lot better than the black, but I'm not sure how the contrast will be once you add color. I'm also liking him w/o the vest. The tubes are a nice addition and you can just show off more of his cyborg-ness that way.

Oh, one more thing. His knife is on the right side of his body, the same side as his gun arm. I don't think that'll work to well, lol. Keep it up man, looking forward to your progress.

[mellowsmoothe]

hey guys, thanks again for the crits. he he... there are differently some contrasting opinions that i will have to think about. yeah the tribal tattoo is very noisey now and not distinct but it is suppose to be a tattoo of a scorpion. its a hard read because it is on top of a bunch of existing detail so i will have to reconsider its execution. its funny because everyone like the white tattoo and i tend to dig the darker one. i guess my thinking was that it was more subtle and if i make it black on an army green arm gun it might be remeniscent of the army lettering on say an apache or huey. let me know your guys thoughts. i'm cooking up more rough variations.

bbox85 - the gun he is holding in his human arm is suppose to be an auto-shotgun taken from modern reference, but i get your point. i'll reconsider a different, more 60's gun.

dario - yeah i really wanted to have a cool tattoo of a scorpion for obvious reasons but i get what you are saying. i think i can have a place for those ideas you have as well though. i'm considering putting the scorpion on his human arm and possibly just army decals on the arm cannon. his human arm is covered in tatts too so maybe i will swap them out, and just keep the arm cannon free of detail other than its tech. we'll see.

gorillagrin & klockwerk - so yeah i am at a crossroads with the vest. i think it really gives him a 60's feel but i think that it would be more fun to show off his body and how it was constructed. i was going to do the flailing vest thing in the final but maybe it would be better without it. if my design has enough 60's feel in it maybe i will toss it. it felt a little more original with it as well, since you always see buff dudes with out their shirts on in character designs. more thoughts are welcome.

thanks everyone. :brick:

[Dario]

I think he was intending that to be a Scorpion Tail.

woops, i missed that one. :paper:

anyway, good luck and happy about you being helped by my words!

[Antimagic]

I think you are going to hate me for saying this, but can't you put all your images together in one very long landscape image so that we don't have to press them one by one:p Yes, I know, I am really lazy hehe It hard to compare them to each other if they are not side by side.. . unless, this is what you were hoping for:eek:

I really like them all, but I agree with Klock, the tubes on the rips are not so appealing. Additionally, I am not a big fan of his arm cannon that comes to a small point for an end. It looks kind of like something you would see on a tank. Big body, small barrel. For arm guns and hand helds, these days I believe wide endings are more in style. Something that has most of its weight on the barrel. This is just personal taste though:inocent:

I really like how he is looking more and more like contra. In the end, I am positive you will nail it with a great entry!

[mellowsmoothe]

k guys,
here are more variations that i wanted to get out there (6 that i added to the last 4). i have another that i am working on and i will try to post it tonight. anyway let me know your thoughts. they are mostly gun shapes and designs.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/3867/scorpionroughcomparisonii3.th.jpg (http://img512.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionroughcomparisonii3.jpg)

[mellowsmoothe]

k i was having some fun and i took this one a little further. still some kinks i want to iron out but i'm finally finding something. let me know your thoughts. by the way, i moved the scorpion tattoo to his human arm side, so i hope that reads.

http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/3226/scorpionrough11mh0.th.jpg (http://img75.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionrough11mh0.jpg)

[mellowsmoothe]

ok ok i will stop posting. here is a comparison of two rendered images, one being the image above and another with a slightly bulkier gun with more details. let me know your thoughts.


http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5913/scorpionrenderedcomparigd1.th.jpg (http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionrenderedcomparigd1.jpg)

[mellowsmoothe]

ok, so here it is, a revised scorpion. i needed to rethink his boring design and come up with a cyborg with a bit more flare. what i wanted to do was use the turnarounds as a way to fully explore him. the two things i kept in mind were that he (and our poor late Mad Dog) is known in the game for his acrobatic agility and his artillery. i decided that i more or less have the gun covered but there is no real indication of his agility being emphasized. so i explored. what i did in the "close-to-final" design was to mix a popular vietnam jet, the phantom, with his cybornetic parts to get something more original. i figures the boosters would add to his agility, acting as jets that propel him through the air, dramatically increasing his jumping range and with added fins that would fan out and create enough drag (with his heavy machinery) to have a safe decent. anyway thats what i have been up to - thinking. :paper:

let me know your thoughts.


http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/1023/scorpionroughturnaroundgv6.th.jpg (http://img504.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionroughturnaroundgv6.jpg)

[Bbox85]

Wow... You see, if my thought process led me to the same conclusion as yours it would've been much more like 'Hmmm, what's cool... at Jet pack! Yeah, let's put a jet pack on him... what else... oh, some fins! Yeah, this guy's lookin' sick. Alright, what else... more cyborgish doohickys... maybe a bandanna... oh and let's put this knife on the other leg... Lol, I"m just playing around with that knife thing... I know I know.. it's for balance purposes.

But yeah, that's how my thought process would've been like. Which is why I admire the technical thought process you have going here. Unfortunatley, I have no crits. So this post serves absolutly no purpose other than to show you how my thought process is inferior to yours... and to give you a hard time about the knife...

[rv_el]

Its looking great. I really like the jet pack and the fins. I also really dig the tatoo. It might be cool to have some sort of "head" at the end of it near the hand. May be a light (graphic) on dark (the glove) of the scorpion stinger.. Some sort of stinger of any kind at the end. just a suggestion.

i'm really digging the asymmetry. I like his shoulder piece a lot and cannon. for turn arounds, some of it is hard to fully see whats there as of yet, but its by all means nothing bad. I think its primarily like the black spot on the cyborg arm in the front shot. Its nothing any semi-competent production artist couldn't figure out :).

I really don't have much for crits honestly. Its looking cool and i can't wait to see the final shot with all the goodness.

All of the glowing stuff better be blue! hehehe.

[gorillagrin]

I agree with everyone about the additions, I really like the boosters and fins. The one thing I feel like he's lost is some of the bulk in his torso. Was that intentional to add to the streamlined, agile look? I thought the bulk worked on him personally.

Other than that, looking great!

[mellowsmoothe]

ok guys here we are at the end of the competition. It was lots of fun and thanks alot for your input. I really appreciate your help and I am glad I was able to get a few portfolio pieces out of this.

Now down to the nitty gritty. This piece is of Scorpion in the final level, deep in the womb of an alien gestation being, searching for vengence...

BAM!

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/6215/scorpionfinal3submitaf7.th.jpg (http://img65.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionfinal3submitaf7.jpg)

[rv_el]

Looks excellent. I really dig the enviro and enemies in the BG. The whole enviro feels very contra. nice. would make for a good initial vision of a new contra game.

Glad you finished

[FredH]

It came out looking great man. The lighting, and environment both look really good, but, there is just one minor thing with his canon arm. By putting it absolutly straight, it's hard to tell if he can bend his arm with an elbow or not.

I am not sure if you have time, but if you have 2 minutes, maybe you could break his arm into two sections with the lasso tool and move the front down, and rotate his upper arm just a bit. (see attached) With 1 minute of additional paintbrush clean up, you would be done.

Arm canon aside, everything else looks great. Congrats on finishing:thumb:

[mellowsmoothe]

cool thanks for the suggestion. i fixed the hinge so it is now a more apparent double hinge. as far as the arm goes, i agree, because it is straight it is harder to see how it bends but i wanted his arm straight to show his strength and the deliberate-ness of his actions. anyway let me know what you think of this revision. thanks again fred!

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4936/scorpionfinal3submitta7.th.jpg (http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scorpionfinal3submitta7.jpg)

[scorn-maniac]

If they ever do a next gen Contra, this will do real well man! Is he doing some spread shot? I dont have anytin to add except the final render looks real sweet.

Good luck man!

[Dario]

badasskillercontraownerpic!!!!
i really liked your work here from the very beginning and you didnt failed in getting better and better. congrats! stunning final piece.

[brian_h]

Fantastic piece...good to the last...congrats

[mellowsmoothe]

i wanted to adjust some issues with my image, like lighting, details, etc. i might even make another pass at some point. anyway here it is.


http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5149/image18vb4.th.jpg (http://img525.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image18vb4.jpg)