Dystopia/ Utopia project
definition: A dystopia is relating to or denoting an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice. A utopia is modelled on or aiming for a state in which everything is perfect; idealistic.
I would like to create a utopian aerial vehicle which can be used for a multitude of things: police duty, military and aerial warfare, and for millionaires to flex their wealth on the poor by flying around in one of these things.
I think it would be interesting to make a police version!
inspiration:
Halo Banshee:
I like the overall shape and form of the Covenant Banshee from Halo, and I feel like this could look very nice in some sort of human form with some blocky elements.
Therefore I think the Banished version of the banshee should prove more of an inspiration for what I have in mind. The Banished Banshee only shows up in Halo Wars 2, and possibly Halo Infinite (?) As you can see the vehicle is more heavily armoured and is more bulky and rugged than the previous model used by Covenant troops.
For the police paintjob, I think the NMPD (New Mombasa Police Department) Pelican dropship from Halo 3: ODST will prove as good inspiration for the paint. I believe swapping the black for a deep navy blue would look nice, with the white taking a larger marjority of the vehicle, with added police lights.
Early models:
Here is an early version of the model, I plan to add some smaller, more minor details like a vent at the front as well as twin-engines on the sides accompanied by siren lights on the top etc. I also want to make the model more stream-lined for speed reasons, as I imagine a speedy vehicle would be needed to get to crime scenes faster for example.
The wings were redesigned and reshaped, and now are more bent to the back of the ship for stream-line purposes and so the engines have an easier time pushing the body of the ship, as they are based on the wings.
After remodelling some new wings and making them more detailed with added armour and engines, I combined the base model and the wing then split the base in half, then mirroring it to become a full model again. Although this leaves seams all the way down the middle of the model which can be, at times, harder to work with, this was necessary for getting the wings balanced and everything at the same angle and position. The likelihood is, if a ship was made wonky or unbalanced, it would drift towards the heavier side of the ship constantly, making piloting, landing, and overall manoeuvrability difficult. If a ship is TOO unbalanced, this could lead to crashes and toppling to the side when landing, so it is important to make sure these things are the correct proportions.
I am now in the process of mapping out my textures and where certain colours are going to go, my tutor recommended I use a technique by painting the model in Photoshop instead of Substance Painter as it doesn’t seem to work at home.
I have maintained the blocky and bulky look I wanted to go for and have thought about some more aspects of the design: it is a 1-2 person vehicle, utilised for reconnaissance and searching, as well as aerial transport to get to crime scenes and locations at a faster speed.
here is my block-coloured vehicle, I will now be going to finish the final piece and apologise about delays as I’ve had a few issues with my device and internet connection. My final piece will be taking place on a landing platform in a dystopian future at a rooftop police station overlooking the city. I’ll be using two programs to complete this task:
- Photoshop
- Krita
Reason I am using two programs is because I find Krita easier to navigate and paint with, whereas photoshop is more difficult to navigate different brushes.
I want to also give the vehicle a small bit of personality instead of having it just a bland, old police aerial vehicle. Drawing some inspiration from the Republic gunships from ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ and their decals, I decided to add a small decoration and some damage to the vehicle. The decoration is something that is personal to me.
update: 23/05/2020
My tutor advised I make parts of my ship bulkier so it falls more in line with the theory of the dominant, sub-dominant and subordinate parts of a vehicle in art.
with that said, i’m almost done now. I need to finish a backdrop and setting, shouldn’t take too long.
Joel's blog 