Sentry Fun

Having a bash kit for the Sentry Gun project was awesome.

It was a fast and efficient way to identify and distinguished and unique shapes from pre-existing objects, and them mixing them all up to get a whole page or unique shapes.  Even if an object I used was overall simple and uninspiring, when made into a silhouette it could be anything. I found the most interesting shapes to be insects and birds- this made it easier to ‘personify’ the sentry turret with sharp edges to make it more predatory and menacing.

One aspect I honed in on very quickly was that I wanted my turret to fly, float or hover in some way. I felt this made it stand out more since I noticed that the vast majority of people had stuck to the basic format that we were given: base, pivot, gun- in that order. I wanted to change things around a bit. All I had to keep in mind is that it still has to function in the way the brief describes, and I was confident I could still make that happen.

A downside of the splicing was I got pretty carried away- I got too elaborate with the designs that were very complicated by nature, and was torn between a design I loved, or trying to find something more suitable for the triangle and texture budget allocated. I danced around with whiteboxing and decided that some of my designs were unreasonable. Despite this when I asked my peers their opinions, the general consensus was overwhelmingly positive for the complex design. So I decided to try and merge some together to retain the essence of that design, but make it more appropriate for the task.

One of the other big decision I had to make this week was if I was going full out sci-fi hover turret, or a more standardized 'heliturret.' The major distinguishing feature being a choice between propellers and energy balls things. I've never gone into too much depth with blueprints yet, but there's definitely a want there. Not going to spend another project drooling over emmisives. I've begun to notice that's what's setting the year apart as well, engine value. It's new and shiny and cool as beans and I want in. 

I went with the propellers because I decided I wanted to keep this design relatively grounded because I found myself leaning more towards the mechanical part of 'bio-mechanical' and want to embrace that theme. 

Finding a nice colour scheme was a lot more uninspired than the design itself, they all felt lack luster. I referred back to mood board colour palettes but found it equally fruitless. It was probably the weakest part of my design conceptually and was a real damper on my overall excitement for the project. I’m sure more could have been done with the colours, but time was of the essence and a decision had to be made me. I went with a simple, muted selection because I felt the subtle and reserved colours fit the atmosphere of the design adequately, something reminiscent of military helicopters and jets, with the white/grey plating that looked like a modern suit of armor. I also added in some contrasting yellow for flavor, impact and indistinguishably.  Either way I'm not married to the colour scheme and if I think of something else while I'm modelling, I may just embrace it.