Hello everyone and welcome to the first tutorial post of the new year!
To start fresh, we have a new tutorial author, Dave Pasciuto and he will be taking us through his process of sketching robots through a process he likes to call noodling. Enjoy!
Author: Dave Pasciuto
Robots are freaking cool and drawing them is super fun, but sometimes it’s difficult to start with a blank page. In this tutorial, we approach design through a simple process using silhouette and value. By starting with a shape and then “noodling,” we create a robot design. This is a great technique for designing multiple variations of robots or characters quickly.
What is covered in this tutorial:
- Design and creation of quick concept Robots through silhouette
- Use of Lasso tool, Flat Brush, Thin Round Brush and Eraser
- Process of using Shape, Form and silhouette, then internal design
- Rendering using Value and simple color
Dave Pasciuto Websites:
https://vimeo.com/groups/157307
Thank you, Dave. I am working on the robots game right now and this is really helpful. I have watched all the tutorials on this theme I could find and there is one thing I am always missing. Nobody focuses on joints. From my point of view the most tricky part of robot design is how to make it flexible as much as possible. If you have an experience in this area, maybe you could make a quick tutorial whith some tips and tricks?
Thank you Kirill! Yes, I do see your point. I think a lot of the idea behind joints is driven by the type of robot you are designing. If you are working on something humanoid, it is simply based off of human joints. The neck, shoulders, bicep, forearm, hand etc…If the robot is a a quadruped, then those joints are based off of animals–like a dog, tiger etc. A tripod, same theory. Arms and Legs are based off of human or animal because we are familiar with their anatomy AND we have proof that they WORK. It’s kind of like, why reinvent the wheel? Obviously you can cheat the location of these joints or add more. You just have to justify why you are adding them and what purpose they serve. Another example, if you make am arm with 5 joints– ok cool, but why? Form follows function. So unless the joints drive some sort of weapon, then that makes sense.
The challenge is to design interesting shapes and silhouette within those joint limitations. Those shapes can restrict the range of motion for that joint. For example, If a shoulder had a bunch of crazy protruding spikes, like in the concept here, obviously that joint could not rotate within the full range of a human shoulder. The spikes would go through its head. In 3D, that would cause interpenetrating geometry on a model, not cool. But in animation would be cool to see a robot mistakenly tear his head off because of that. Haha! I hope this makes sense.
Yeah, the second part is exactly the challenge I am facing last month) I am making just humanoid robots, nothing exotic. But because metal is not flexible I need to keep a good distance between the items. Especially when it comes to hips and sholders rotation around Z axis I have to fight for every degree. And still this heap of metal couldn’t do even fist part of “yoga for dummies”!
This is Great! im dying to try designing robots concepts for a while now but dont know where to start!
Thanks, and welcome to the site.
Have you tried Alchemy? I think you would like it
http://al.chemy.org/download/
Great tutorial Dave, thanks for sharing – clever stuff
I am new here, but I would like to know what kind of software you use for this.
Thank you John! Dominick, this tutorial uses Photoshop CS6. Although the technique can be used in pretty much any drawing program.
Thank you