Merlin Concept

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 The last character that I created it's concept for was Merlin. Merlin was substantially harder to design than the other two as for them, I had ideas on how they would look. Merlin was the complete opposite. 

Because he was a mix of android and transformer-styled robot, I found it difficult to find the balance between the two. I had to create a few different designs but never landed on one that I liked. Eventually I decided to go back to the start and look back on reference images and any other images that I could to get inspiration. 

I wanted Merlin to have an old appearance so looked at "old robots" on Google and saw a few that I thought would be good as inspirations. I also liked the idea of having him either hunched or bent over. One of my mood board images had a robot with a similar posture which I wanted to base Merlin off of however when I drew from it, it didn't look how I was imagining him to be. Whilst I was looking for more inspiration, I came across another robot with similar posture and decided to use that as the base and this time it worked. I did however get the idea of Merlin wielding a staff/walking stick from the mood board image as I felt that it would make him seem more magical. 

With his main body and staff concepts done, I needed to work on his head and face. Before I decided on his appearance, I noticed that his main body was much more robotic looking and I knew I needed to add a more organic appearance and thought his face would be a good opportunity for it. 

I remembered a robotic character from an anime called Edens Zero named Ziggy that I thought could be a really good inspiration for his face. It gave the character an organic feel but kept the aspect of a robotic face. I also took the concept of a beard made of wires from the mood board image. With looking at other images of old robots, I saw one that had "glasses" that were built into the face so used that idea for Merlin. Like the other two characters, I made his "ears" as disks to fill up the space and to add continuity between all three characters. 

Before I began his final concept, I thought about how old machinery looked like and looked at old steam engines which have a lot of chimneys and gears and I really wanted to include that into his design to make him look older. I put chimneys on both his back and his staff. I also added a gear that goes into the side of his torso. I will also be texturing him with rusted metal textures to also help to emphasis his age. 

With him also being a wizard, I wanted to add the iconic wizard hat and gave him highlights of purple to also emphasis this as well. My plan for his hat is to also give it a chimney appearance.

The staff design that I used is actually from an old street lamp which looked magical, unique and old. 


Inspirations

(left to right) Eyes. Staff. Hat. Staff, beard and posture. Face. Main body and posture.


References

Streetlight lamps vector silhouettes isolated on stock vector (royalty free) 1641682150 (no date) Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/streetlight-lamps-vector-silhouettes-isolated-on-1641682150 (Accessed: January 3, 2023).

Antiqued green wizard hat (no date) Clare Chapman Leatherwork. Available at: https://www.ccleatherwork.co.uk/ourshop/prod_7676441-Antiqued-Green-Wizard-Hat.html (Accessed: January 3, 2023).

Orive, D. (2014) Old Robot, Artstation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/280gx.

Old robot (2012) WallpaperUP. Available at: https://www.wallpaperup.com/3551/Old_Robot.html 

(Accessed: January 3, 2023).

Ziggy (no date) Edens Zero Wiki. Available at: https://edenszero.fandom.com/wiki/Ziggy (Accessed: January 3, 2023).

Andreev, M. (no date) Old Robot, Artstation. Available at: https://maxzonify.artstation.com/projects/gJgmZe.

Comments

  1. steve3dJanuary 12, 2023 at 2:30 AM

    Again nice concept like I mentioned before think about how the limbs might be powered ie hydraulic rams etc.

    ReplyDelete

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