AuthorTopic: [WIP] Cyberpunk Menu: Muscular System (Read 13922 times)

Corinthian Baby · **on:** October 05, 2009, 07:02:55 pm

This is a menu I'm working on for a cyberpunk game. The idea is this, you can install various gear into your brain (wetware.) This menu shows you which ones you have equipped, and where: head, arm, etc.

I wanted to try to use a cool palette, as well as practice anatomy and volume. I would like feedback on these things as well as menu design which is still very wip.

Ref:
http://surgicaltechstudents.com/web_images/muscles_human_body_front.jpg

Most recent:

EyeCraft · **Reply #1 on:** October 06, 2009, 03:51:22 am

Hey, cool idea.

You're focusing too much on the individual forms of muscles, and not on the total form of the body that they create together:

If its cyberpunk, I say make it a little darker, grungier. Kind of noir, in a sense.

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #2 on:** October 07, 2009, 12:18:26 am

That's a good edit, and I see the point you are making about the muscles coming together. However, imagine removing the epidermic layer. This is specifically the muscular system so you would see the muscles somewhat separated. I tried to make it a more muscley style.

I'll get to the BG once I finish the main figure.

Small update:

Pixelized · **Reply #3 on:** October 07, 2009, 12:41:45 am

I like it quite a bit but there are some issues that I can see. Now I am no expert but the anatomy seems... off. The head bothers me a little, i think most of it is the ear. The ear seems a little to low and looks as though it is coming out of the neck... not sure if that is the problem or not. The face also bothers me a little. I think its the far side of the face on the other side of the nose... it seems squished forward a little more than it should be. Also the legs seem to bend to the right (his left) which seems very uncomfortable and unnatural. I think they could be straight without changing the feeling of the art.

Nice job on the muscle structure though. Wouldn't want to meet him in a dark ally

Oh and you may want to take everything I say with a grain of salt because as i said I am no expert... I'm barely a novice lol

EyeCraft · **Reply #4 on:** October 07, 2009, 06:21:53 am

Quote from: Corinthian Baby on October 07, 2009, 12:18:26 am

That's a good edit, and I see the point you are making about the muscles coming together. However, imagine removing the epidermic layer. This is specifically the muscular system so you would see the muscles somewhat separated. I tried to make it a more muscley style.

Yeah, I figured that was what you were going for when I reread the thread. Still, even if you remove the skin, you'll still have compound volumes, just with slightly more definition. I was hoping my edit could give you some direction on the nature of those volumes.

Your updates are cleaner, and communicate the concept of muscles better, but still reads as fairly flat overall, to me.

Gil · **Reply #5 on:** October 08, 2009, 03:57:19 pm

It's almost as if he's rolled over by a steam roller. All the individual muscles are shaded, but the whole contains no volume. Does that make sense?

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #6 on:** October 08, 2009, 05:41:13 pm

Yeah that makes sense. I'm trying to correct the volumes, based it a bit more closely on eyecraft's edit. Mainly changed his head, neck, and a bit of his right chest/arm.

I'll post an update as I start to redux the chest muscles more.

Mathias · **Reply #7 on:** October 09, 2009, 03:16:34 am

His head is mis-shapen. Or it's too big for his body. Not sure what it is . . . but it's something. The UI is horrible at the moment, I'll like to see how it shapes up. Search for a better more creative way to present it. How about grimy techy machines surrounding him, acting as "mounts" for each of the different nodes/leaders labeling his parts. Step it up.

*EDIT something along these lines

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #8 on:** October 09, 2009, 04:22:40 am

Worked on his chest and upper body a bit more. I think it really is becoming more 3-dimensional, even if some of the colors are a little redundant. I think his head may be too big, don't feel like scaling it atm. I'll start thinking of alternate UI. I do want to keep it relatively simple though, readability is key for this sort of thing so the player doesn't get disoriented.

Also, any ideas for backgrounds? I'm thinking of doing some grungy/scanlined stuff.

EyeCraft · **Reply #9 on:** October 09, 2009, 11:26:52 am

Some grimy, rusty pipes, lots of darkness, a few dull lights that are unusual colours, some robotic arms/graspers, some screens. Any kind of tech you put in should be advanced but worn down and badly maintained, imo. That's the angle I usually think when I think cyberpunk. Also, for the background use warm hues to pop the figure (and to help push a dirty atmosphere).

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #10 on:** October 11, 2009, 08:38:24 am

Finished the figure, working on background. Decided to go for an abstract beat up/grainy circuit board. It's a bit cliche but it's cool and I think it fits. My main concern is that the colors are too similiar to the figure, or that the bg will be too detailed and detract attention.

refs:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/cyberpunk%20background/arcanepalette/boardbg1.jpg

http://static-p4.fotolia.com/jpg/00/06/19/49/400_F_6194905_5Tj2L1nz9P4TJDNy7499EhkJGLQN45nz.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Surface_Mount_Components.jpg

Helm · **Reply #11 on:** October 12, 2009, 05:16:08 pm

Did you notice the figure is about 5 heads tall? You could either shrink the head about 20%, or elongate the torso, give him a pelvis and such.

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #12 on:** October 13, 2009, 04:31:03 am

Made his head smaller by 2 pixels on the X and Y axis. I think it is more correct, however, it makes his arms look disproportionate a bit. I'm also having trouble because I'm not sure if there will be too much detail directly behind the figure, or if the purple is a good contrast.

I am thinking of making an aura around him to separate it with the bg.

Helm · **Reply #13 on:** October 13, 2009, 03:51:02 pm

forearms are too beefy and long, lower arms are too short. If you're working from reference, you need to train your eyeballing skills.

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #14 on:** October 13, 2009, 11:19:13 pm

Hmm, ok played around with the arms a bit, looks more correct, but maybe something is still off. I think I made his right tricept/shoulder a little too small when trying to unwiden his neck muscles a bit.

Other than that, I would just have to finish his hand and this would be done. The ref is in the first post.

Mathias · **Reply #15 on:** October 14, 2009, 08:44:54 pm

For your UI/diagram concept I'd hoped you'd take a higher conceptual angle, rather than a generic depthless circuit board background, though it is well done, nice and dingy and everything. If you take a look at some of HR Giger's machinery, you start to see how it's possible to twist and contort metallic forms into very interesting shapes, though more typical factory machinery may be better reference, depending on what approach you want to take.

Rather than sticking your human figure in the foreground, separated from his abstract space-filling background, something more custom - like your same figure, but stuck into a machine conforming to the shape of a human (there was a sarcophagus in Blade 1 or 2 that was like this I think . . . to an extent) with various random machinery comprising it. Some light ambient animations could really make sell it.

Anatomy man is look pretty cool now, good job.

EyeCraft · **Reply #16 on:** October 15, 2009, 01:50:40 am

Giger reference! Good idea. I have that second image as a poster next to my computer

I agree completely with Mathias, you need to integrate your character with the environment. Now that I think about it, it doesn't really make sense to me having the character standing in front of a circuit board. I mean, even just in terms of scale is doesn't make sense. A focus on machinery and screens/electronics would allow people's brains to connect the character and the background because the scale is the same.

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #17 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:21:37 pm

I wish you had posted some of these refs earlier. And the problem is not so much scale, as the BG was intended to be abstract, not literal. The reason for the aura is to separate the figure from the environment, so there could be a nice contrast, and the details of the bg/figure would not be lost when they came together. But yeah I really like that first ref, I'm wondering if it's worth redoing in a similiar style. I think those colors would work as well. If I went with a light chrome blue/white like that, it may be enough to keep the contrast intact.

I'll consider it.

CrazyMLC · **Reply #18 on:** October 15, 2009, 11:25:48 pm

It looks very good, but the hands are unusually small.

Mathias · **Reply #19 on:** October 16, 2009, 03:24:51 am

Quote from: EyeCraft on October 15, 2009, 01:50:40 am

Giger reference! Good idea. I have that second image as a poster next to my computer. . .

Sweet, I have those big format necronomicon books, I & II, featuring most of Giger's famous ones. Hours of entertainment. Here's a nifty site concerning the Brain Salad Surgery cover.

Quote from: Corinthian Baby on October 15, 2009, 11:21:37 pm

I wish you had posted some of these refs earlier. And the problem is not so much scale, as the BG was intended to be abstract, not literal. The reason for the aura is to separate the figure from the environment, so there could be a nice contrast, and the details of the bg/figure would not be lost when they came together. But yeah I really like that first ref, I'm wondering if it's worth redoing in a similiar style. I think those colors would work as well. If I went with a light chrome blue/white like that, it may be enough to keep the contrast intact.

I'll consider it.

(yep, your bg is obviously meant to be an abstraction, just meant to convey digital/electronic/technology)

Dang, I wish I would've been more mindful of this then. From experience, I know it gets harder and harder to spend time on something once you've already spent so much, considering a re-do can be painful! Just think ROI - will the Return On Investment be worth the amount of time you've spent so far PLUS the amount of time it'll take you to pull off the machinery concept or will the time be better spent elsehow?
Don't underestimate Giger's genius, his stuff is nearly impossible to replicate, all I meant was for you to be inspired towards doing some custom tangible physical machinery. I don't think it should be nearly as macabre as Giger's stuff.

ramos · **Reply #20 on:** September 29, 2010, 04:43:53 am

Do you have a link to your game ? it looks realy interesting , iv just made an acc here just for you

Corinthian Baby · **Reply #21 on:** September 29, 2010, 04:18:05 pm

Wish I had a link to give you. We're still working on it, got through the first 1/3 or 1/4. I'm glad that you're interested though, thanks for signing up/posting.

Btw, I have picked this up since this. Here's the most recent version of this menu:

Icons on the right are blank, but it would be filled with the different levels of alteration that you can install in your person.

ramos · **Reply #22 on:** September 29, 2010, 08:43:42 pm

Ty for answer, im working on a cyberpunk game to and i use a hybryd pixel art, maybe we could join rofces and finish one cyberpunk rpg with inspirations from shadowrun,blade runner etc
IN what program you make your game ? I use flash

Altough your art if by far more detaild and good then what i do

NaCl · **Reply #23 on:** October 01, 2010, 08:35:34 am

The hands look too small to me. other then that it's pretty cool, nice work

Platypotter · **Reply #24 on:** October 07, 2010, 11:53:18 pm

Maybe the hands ARE a bit small... but see if maybe just making the fingers longer will help out.

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AuthorTopic: [WIP] Cyberpunk Menu: Muscular System (Read 13922 times)