by Tramp » Thu Dec 07, 2006 6:42 pm
As I mentioned with your BB and Ironhide, this could be much better. It looks too “sculpted” and cartoony, with not enough of the “mechanical” details. Look at the differences between Grimlock and Prime. Notice how every part of prime has panel lines, armor “plates”, vents, and other details which make him look mechanical, make hiom look “real” while still being cartoon accurate. Grimlock’s head looks like it was sculpted from a simgle block of wood or clay, not “built”—not fabricated—from multiple sheets of armor plating. when you look at Prime’s head though, you can see the multiple plates and pieces that formed his helmet and face. Look at the paint jobs between Prime and Grimlock. Notice how Prime uses silver and chrome instead of greys to make him look more real while still maintaining the cartoon accuracy, whereas grimlock looks like a cartoon character, not an armored behemouth. I’ve noticed this with all of your robots. While the techniques you are using work perfectly for more organic figures like Link and your other Zelda models, they aren’t as effective for mechanical designs.
You are a great sculptor, but you need to work on making things look mechanical. Work more on your fabrication. Don’t make things so rounded , add in more panel lines, use groove styrene in some areas to create vents and such, add actuators and other mechanical details. Use some metalic paints like gold and silver, use various foils and metal leaf to give some of your parts a truely metallic look. All of these will make your bots ten times better without losing their cartoon accuracy.