Mech Arm WIP

About the concept... to be honest, I restarted around 3 or 4 times, I just wasn't getting the sculpt right, the process was messy and bruteforced, so I reset the sculpt until I got it to a stage that it sucked less.

All the time while working I was cursing myself for not doing this in Maya, which is the software I'm more comfortable on, but I did it, powered through and used only Zbrush for this... the reason being that process is more important than outcome, (for a creative anyway, not a client), if you rely on outcome, you already know where you'll get at, but if you focus on process, you may not know where it'll take you, but you know you want to be there!

Here's an arm.

It's also another part of the mech that I'm not shy to show, but it's still gonna get improved later on. There are somethings in it still bugging me.

Sculpting prototypes!

Here are some WIPs!
I'm sadly not able to commit to these as much as I'd like, (time-wise) because I've gotten a job as concept artist in May, my time is limited when it comes to personal work. :(

Nonetheless, I am pushing it as far as I can and not having that as an excuse not to keep shooting at it.I'm learning a ton off the record, I had to learn how to model hair with fibermesh, cards, Xgen, so much stuff, that I doubt that I will use in a regular base, but knowledge is power, right?

For now, here is a rough sculpt, I was going to show the rest of the body, but it's not as showable as the bust, there is a lot of details that I need to pinch together from the neck down, a lot of frankensteining to do before I show it all... I just wish a day had more than 24 hours... And I think I must have started over like 3 or 4 times on this sculpt all the while cursing Zbrush and everything that is digital...Anyway, after this chick is done, I'm hoping to do a couple of faster ones, with what I learned so far and turn them into a case study, as with this one I'm focusing more of design language, while the next I intend to explore other things, like storytelling, and really go home with the storytelling, as I feel that a image that tells a great story will always overshadow one that is synthetical well made, with all design theories there.
We'll see.

I feel there is a long way to go until this is done, but sharing WIPs is crucial for me, it helps me get a sense of what I'm doing, who I am exposing myself to.

Scifi Class designs Part2

Here are a few more sketches that I did on my free time. I've recently started a new job as concept artist but I draw totally different stuff, I like it nonetheless!

These are for a assassin/scout class. Once again, inspired by subculture tribes.
I intend to take these up to a better render, sculpt in Zbrush, do some paintovers, experiment with workflows I had from 3D design to prototype textures quickly.
Inspired by Open bionics, Darpa and other robotics I've been following for a while.

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Thanks for looking, have an awesome week, everyone.

Fragments of the research are included, I definitely need to make a graphic design template, I don't like this layout.
Overall, I'm happy with these art workouts, I broke my fear from drawing on the pen tablet, as before all this I was working traditional, but I'm able to work much faster now! So that's one little victory! Many more to go.

Cyberpunk Shooter Class designs

I've recently started to try to breath a bit more of me into my character design and other designs.
When I was younger, I had dreadlocks at some point, skateboarded with punks, then runned with ravers, and many others. I always liked the subcultures and small urban societies, hippies, punks, grunge, metalheads... I think there is a lot of graphic power in these and a lot of variety to draw from. I'm mixing what I lived with what I like, so I thought about making a cyber+punk set of character designs that could go in a Scifi shooter.

It's ultimately a change of pace, as ever since I got into concept art I've been drawing what other people think it's good, our job is to please and to be marketable, however, I rather appeal to a smaller and stylized audience and show I'm having fun doing these than being a corporate wolf, if that was my thing, I'd would rather take a job as banker instead. I guess I just don't want to be like everyone else, and I don't have to.

So, yes, there is a lot of me in these

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Ultimately I'll have to revisit the graphic design of some of these, presentation could be better, I guess, but hey, I'm putting the 'sketch' in book.

Neuromancer: Thumbnails

Here are a few thumbnails. Looking back to the first vehicle thumbnails I did a year ago, I see how laughable they were back then, they had a lot of function errors and process mistakes too... but I was learning perspective at that time, so I was trying to solve multiple problems at once. (that's so me.)I did these while experimenting new processes. If it was for a client, I wouldn't start flat out 2D, but maybe trace and draw/photo manipulate on top of a base car.. however, since these are personal and experimental workflows, I it doesn't hurt to take the longer route, as long as I'm growing my skill-set.

This time I took some time looking at real cars, car advancements, DARPA and Lexus Int for reference both on aestethics side and the function side. I was inspired by Lexus hover skateboard for the tech at first, but I really liked the wheel car the best. I hope I have time to continue this project.

Main inspirations:
https://www.lexus-int.com/slide
http://www.darpa.mil
http://asimo.honda.com
And a lot of BMW vs McLaren collaborative designs.

Infected units - thumbs

Yet again, I return, to bring something that I've done before.
I thought it'd be interesting though to revisit a topic I've explored before but do it better than what I did last time.
So zombie thumbnails were the subject of exploration, I took the same method of approach, I've started with the same principles but at the end, I tried to make shape language, story details more interesting than what I did around September.
I think I was successful in doing something better, as even though these don't have many values in them, I liked the design a lot better.

Moodboard:

Since this is personal stuff, I did draw everything by hand, instead of using 3D or tracing apps.
Nothing really amazing, but I liked the exercise nonetheless. It's nothing more than that though. In the future, I will try to deviate less from my reference, there's plenty of stuff I could of drawn from more.

Re-warming the cryotank

I have been neglecting this blog as of late. Looking back I see how I've slacked to keep this up to date, I just had more important things on my mind, it felt like I was explaining and writing more than working on the actual product.

I mean to re-polish this pillar of my online work, but for now, here's my web-site: www.miguel-nogueira.com