I get the sense you dont believe i modeled the Ares. I know i dont have a beamer next to my name but i can assure you that the mini iwm is producing is my work. In anycase questions. :)
Okay, I will bite on this hook since it sounds like you may have had some hand in sculpting these pieces. Three questions.
How was the design/sculpting process for the tripods different as compared to a "regular" mech and what did you like/dislike about it?
The mini was modeled using 3D modeling software so the legs were essentialy a matter of make one and copy it 3 times since the leg is symetrical and there are 3 of them. With a bipedal mech i'd just mirror the legs. In terms of attaching them to the pelvis i had to use a cylinder joint and socket rather than the ball joint i would have prefered to use because of how the leg is designed in the art.
I don't really think a tripod is different from working on a regular mech in any other aspects than the scale. This one is big, and i could go nuts with detailing because of its size. Something i hope you guys will like :)
What direction and art were you given to guide you in the process?
I was art directed by Anthony Scroggins, you might know him better as Shimmering Sword we took Matt Plogg's design in the TRO 3145 as a primary base design. Then we took elements from other canon artwork and the mwda mini's to make what we think is the best looking amalgamation of all the existing Ares artwork. Ofcourse the guys in charge at iwm and catalyst had the final say. Then once we finished the visuals of the mini, we worked with the production guys at iwm to come up with the best way to part it up so it could be casted and also have a big range of posing options. Once that was done i handed in the files and a master was 3d printed. Then the guys at iwm did their magic.
In a real sense, some of the tripods were already sculpted with the clix pieces created not too long ago by WizKids. How, if any, did these factor into your design?
Thanks in advance.
Mike
We looked at the click mini mainly as a reference for some of the shapes that were unclear in some of the other art. And for the variant weapons. Though we took the basic design for the variant arms and weapons and in all cases we updated the design. And we changed the weird looking ultra ac arm on the hades configuration so it was more in line with the other arms.
I hope that awnsers your questions.