posted
I'm working on a 3D model, based on a random funny boss from a tabletop RPG I once ran, in which the players faced a bunch of evil musical robots. Their leader was an inventor/musician named Doctor Octave, who sat in a giant-walking-spider-chair from which he played soul-crushingly terrifying melodies.
Translating that idea into a 3D concept that looks functional and artistically appealing is a little difficult. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on ways to make this read a little better from a distance.
posted
Yeah, I was going to say that it looked pretty good to me, and the only thing I'd change to perhaps increase the clarity of its organ-like nature at a distance might be to widen the mouths of the pipes a tad. Also, the side view isn't quite as exciting; would something like a bellows liven it up a bit?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
There will eventually be a lot more gears/pipes/hoses (bellows might fit the bill) that will make the whole thing look more interesting as well as functional. I'm in the middle of redoing the pipes to include the little... fipples (I'm told this is the word) at the bottom as well as widening the tops to look more dyamic.
For the overall "look," someone on another forum did a quick photoshop mock-up that I'm kinda liking. I'll be trying to incorporate some of the ideas here later today:
posted
Really Cool. My only criticism is that it looks more sinister than funny. I'm not sure which is the goal. You said this was a funny character who played terrifying melodies, so I got the impression maybe the character was trying to look terrifying but came off more as ridiculous?
The front of the design kind of looks like a face. Maybe you could tweek it a bit to make the face look sillier. Or make the mechanisms a bit more Rube/Goldberg.
I'd also suggest making the organ pipes taller. They are kind of dwarfed by legs.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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posted
It's supposed to absurdly sinister, if that makes sense. I'm going for genuinely creepy, but in a way that's pretty silly when you stop and think about it.
In the original RPG session, the players' first introduction to the Doc Oct and his minions was when they fought a pair of robots named Meter and Rhyme, who only spoke in verse. I was playing creepy Transiberian Orchestra music as the background "battle" music. At first the players were a little creeped out, then they thought it was silly, then they thought it was terrifying when Meter beat the snot out of the them (one of them actually died). The theme music for the eventual battle with Doctor Octave was a techno version of Phantom of the Opera.
Basically, how funny it is depends on how funny you think a bunch of a creepy robots who beat you with the unholy power of music is.
Doctor Octave works for an organization called Harmony. Their headquarters are in Base Clef.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
thanks! I haven't gotten to work on it much since the last update. Hoping I get some time soon.
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