Some WIP concept art

I am finally getting somewhere with the designs of our main character. I've had my fair share of trouble, but here's some history on the progress:

This would be the very first sketch-ish thing we could come up with six hundred centuries ago before the project was officially started. At the time we didn't really have a solid image for what Polyboy looked like and we just went with a bad Megaman ripoff with a crappy turtleneck and snowboard goggles. I dunno, it was cold and I had just ordered my new cargos at Junkyard which is chock-full of snowboarding and skating equipment. Polyboy is also supposed to carry a huge shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, but I'll deal with that later.

Then we have the next piece, where I wanted to get a slightly better idea of exactly what body type/shape I should go with, but I ended up doodling muscles (ignore the right arm, the brachioradialis is supposed to go under the arm and wrap around the wrist, not connect to the hand) instead. Oops. But at least I had a somewhat solid (but incorrect) base to continue working on.

One tracing session later, we have a much more simplified (but still incorrect) frame. Believe it or not but this is the part that took me forever because I'm not that familiar with how leg muscles interact and wrap around each other, or how I should draw the knee between the quads and calves. Anatomy is tricky, guys. I'm still pretty happy with how the quads turned out, however. It's rare for me to make legs, especially thighs and knees look okay.

The legs are still way too short, but I've mirrored the picture for the sake of symmetry so I can get a better idea of how the body would look from the front. The hands are also somewhat dodgy looking but trust me I didn't draw them that way for the sake of aesthetics. It's a lot easier to model them if you can, you know, actually SEE the fingers in Maya. Though it really bothers me how the fingers stick out, it looks so flamboyant. All it needs now is a cloud of sparkles and the image is complete.

Aaaand, we have the almost finished base-sketch! The turtleneck returns while the hair and goggles are replaced by a helmet with a visor, as the hair was making the character trail into bishie-territory. A lot of crucial details still need to get in place, like the gloves and boots so the hands won't look so humongous in comparison. I don't know what happened to the pectorals though, they look a little... saggy. This must be remedied. Anyway, the legs are longer and Polyboy looks a little less like an ape and has gone from being a bad Megaman ripoff to a bad Captain Falcon/Robocop hybrid. Hooray!

The problem I'm facing now is that the visor and the muscles take away the boyish look that Polyboy had, and Polyman doesn't have the same ring to it. Either we'll change the name of the blog and everything related to the project (which is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN), or I'll have to somehow give Polyboy a more youthful appearance so he doesn't look like a fully grown man running around playing superhero in his pajamas or something. Because that would be pretty pathetic. I just don't want to end up creating something that looks like a rejected Final Fantasy character from space. Because that would be even worse.


Okay, that's enough from me for now. There's another upcoming wall of text for your viewing pleasure covering some of the level design plans and themes.

/Wasp




P.S. CARCITY SHUT THE HELL UP I DRAW WHATEVER I WANT!