The Three themes I have Chosen to explore and develop from the initial brief are Sci-Fi Western Medieval Fantasy and Steam punk particularly with a focus of armour . I chose these because they are the themes that I was most interested in from the brief. my initial preference is the theme of Western Medieval Fantasy as have consumed a lot of media base around Western Medieval Fantasy with games like warcraft and chivalry and shows like games of thrones I particularly like the Sword and sorcery aspects and the low tech combat aspect of the theme. now that my base model is complete and I have more focused idea on where I want to go with the aesthetic of the model. I also feel now that I have a better perspective and my base model to work from as reference and feel like the Sci-Fi and Steam punk themes might not be as suitable as I initially thought.
Sci-Fi
as my project is already based around Sci-Fi as my model is of a robot I wanted to look at the Sci-Fi sub genre Cyber Punk for inspiration and influence.
Mood Board
Theme Analysis
the cyber punk style is focused on a dystopian futuristic, dark and dingey highlighted by bright neon lights. the Style has a heavy focus on human modification and cybernetics specifically on aspects that enhance the human senses like sight a lot of the modifications show augmented helmets and visors. this theme is not really suited to my project because it is so centered around Technology and how it interacts with humans. there typically are not many Humanoid robots with in this genre that fit my criteria as they are generally service or androids meant to interact with humans so they are designed to look and act like real humans, this isnt the type of aesthetic im going for with my model. also I want there to be a noticeable difference in aesthetic between my base model and I feel like this theme of cyberpunk will not have signficant contrast in aesthetic that im looking for. I wont do individual visual analysis and develop this theme further as I feel this as though this theme is just not suitable and doesnt fit the criteria im looking for.
Steam Punk
Mood Board
Theme analysis
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. the style is similar to the Cyber Punk where the Steampunk features heavily on humans and their personal interaction with the technology with a focus on body modifications in the form of prosthetics or movement/strength enhancement. the robots with in this genre tend to be more clunky and juggernaut like or they are already like what my base model is sort of thin basic looking. I wont do individual visual analysis and develop this theme further as I feel this as though this theme is just not suitable and doesnt fit the criteria im looking for. although I really Do like the steam punk aesthetic and it is more plausible than the cyberpunk as a theme another of my concerns with it is the time it would take to model in this style as I am already behind on schedule and this aesthetic would be quite intensive to model as it involves a lot of small unique objects like cogs and bolts and chains and wire and tubes which I had a lot of trouble animating in unit 5 I just think that it will take too much time to creat a model in thins aesthetic to the level I would like.
Western Medieval Fantasy
I have decided to choose Western Medieval Fantasy as my desired theme for a multitude of reasons, the other two initial themes I had chosen as I developed my base model become irrelevant to what I was trying to achieve and an issue of time concerns I feel like the Western Medieval Fantasy style will be much easier to create as the armour doesnt tend to be too intricate depending on how much it takes from fantasy. also I decided to use Western Medieval Fantasy because it gives me chance to collect some primary research as it is the only one of the themes that lends its self to being able to source primary research as in my experience it can be quite hard to find opportunity to get relevent primary research. I traveled 3 hours to the royal armoury in Leeds to look at the Western Medieval armour and weapons they have there on display.
The quality of the pictures are not the best as it was very sunny the day I went to Leeds and every thing is encased in glass so there was quite a lot of unwanted glare
some of the armour piece I particularly like and want to use as inspiration in my armour
I intend to create a helmet in this style for my armour because I haven seen a helmet design like this before and it reminds me of a human skull the way its top-heavy and has a lower jaw type piece and it relates to the aesthetic I was trying to achieve with my base model I also particularly like they circular guard that connects the head to the body as a good point of interest.
I like The shape of these chest pieces i like how it extends outwards in the center coming to a quite sharp point my guess is that this type of design was used to deflect and parry blows. i am going to incorporate this design feature in to my designs
Rory Gardner 