This Thread Contains:

Introduction to piloted mechs:
- Origins of giant robots in anime culture
- Evolution of piloted mechs until current day
- What makes piloted mecha fantasy so cool

Quality Art: Making Your Own Mech
- Learning from what has come before
- The very very important inspiration factor
- Visualization: decision making: character, shape, transforming or not, possible design problems, checking for originality
- Drawing: Focus on parts, Doing things over, then doing them over, collecting your finished drawings

Modeling Your 3D Piloted Mech (In progress)
- Design process continued: making a basic shape model: adjusting size, adding shapes for coolness
- Modeling the head
- Modeling the legs
- Modeling the hips
- Modeling the chest
- Modeling the arms
- Modeling wings or other vehicle related parts
- Modeling weapons

Applying Materials

Posing For Shots

PILOTED MECH CHALLENGE:
CREATING A 3D MECHA

About Mechs (Giant Piloted Humanoid Machines)

The idea of the giant robot does not necessarily originate from Japan, but what did originate from Japan was the culture of entertainment, primarily animation, having to do with giant robots as the main subject. Japanese culture, which is ancient, has a history of amazing craftsmanship and usage of dolls in entertainment. You are probably familiar with movies featuring giant monsters, like Godzilla, indicating a cultural fascination with giants, which probably merged with the fascination of robots to evolve into giant robot culture. What is unique apart from say the American entertainment genre, is that a specialized entertainment genre developed around the idea of the giant robot, with continual attention and refinement by many following Japanese artists over the years.

GUNDAM

I am not sure about the exact timing, but my understanding from some hard core anime fans is that the first major series featuring piloted giant robots was the Gundam series, arriving roughly in the late seventies. There were surely other individual Japanese movies and smaller series around that time and before featuring piloted robots, but Gundam made its mark by being an extended series, and thus propelling the popularity and culture to new heights. Gundam animation and model hobby have such coolness that it is still very popular in Japan and around the world, with continuing monolithic sales and revenues of related merchandise.

VOLTRON

Now for whatever reason the Gundam series did not air widely here in the United States until much later as video sales. So the first major series having to do with giant robots I saw was “Voltron” (Golion was the original Japanese name), and it came on in English on afternoon television (Los Angeles) in the early eighties. This animated series remains one of the greatest contributions to anime, and is for me still one of the coolest science fiction series in existence. I can remember as a kid anticipating watching the half hour episodes on television, and being fascinated by the fantasy technology and characters.

Voltron is a fantasy story with demons and princesses, and the mecha is rather fantastical: five giant mechanical lions that connect into a giant humanoid fighting machine. Looking at those pictures, I have to say that in terms of coolness: don’t judge by older animation or effects. Judge by writing, and how much you think about the characters. I've said it before and I'll say it again: there is a magic to be achieved with line art that pure 3D cannot accomplish. BUT, you don't have to sacrifice one or the other. The excellent Appleseed Movie, and Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex prove they can be integrated for ultimate radicality.

Voltron proved you don’t have to be ultra realistic to have a cool mecha based anime. Combined with a rich cast of characters and great story line, Voltron as it stands today rocks supreme over most mech anime in existence. So figure the ultimate cool series combines strong writing, AND totally awesome machine technology. This brings us to our next mech anime subject.

ROBOTECH

Now there is a reason why some people call Robotech (Macross, Southern Cross, Mospeada, the original Japanese titles for the three sagas), the greatest science fiction of all time, even though animation, especially foreign, usually ranks lower than live action movies or series. To start, consider the ingredients: high tech machines we had not seen before, a cast of interesting characters, bold themes of romance, including interracial, characters with flaws and real human problems, comedy, tragedy, epic battles of grand scale, realistic weaponry, scary and innovative bad guys, moving plots which showcase human highs and lows, a continuing, one day after the other episodes which make one giant movie essentially, and very importantly, well placed and excellent music. How these Japanese guys pulled this one off is an amazing enigma, but also thankfully they made sure the English version was worthy of their masterpiece work.

By today’s standards of advanced 2D animation and CG, the cell art of Robotech is a little rough, but at the time it first aired in 1985 it was state of the art, and totally blew everybody away. Especially as a young kid, the detailed pictures of advanced alien technology seemed so cool and realistic. No American animation was anything like it, and the focus on technology design set it apart from even innovative sci-fi titles like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Battlestar Galactica. In reality, each of the three Robotech sagas had just one main, excellent mech design. These would be: the Valkyrie, (an F-16 fighter that transformed into a humanoid battle machine); the Hover Tank, and the Alpha Fighter, (a more beefy looking transforming F-16), which also had a rear booster component called the Beta Fighter, which turned into a big beefy mech. This is contrasted by the Gundam series which had a lot more mech designs per saga, but they did not transform into as recognizable real-life machines.

In this artist's opinion, Robotech provides the best example of piloted mech anime, and would be the model for any animated series I would hope to produce. I would list everything that made this anime great, and make sure my anime had those or similar ingredients. While it sounds corny, I have to say the key ingredient, even that which resulted in the cool mech designs, is love. Where would we be without love? To me, anime that lack this ingredient miss the nail. You cannot just have war and cool mecha design. You need a reason for it all to flesh out the motivation directly resulting in excellent art components. Robotech does this superbly, and I highly recommend viewing all 85 episodes to learn from the best.

APPLESEED

While giant robot piloted mechs are the most popular and well known, important to the spectrum of mech genre are landmates and hardsuits. First, the landmate was introduced with Appleseed, a comic by Masamune Shirow, (later turned into a 2D, then 3D movie). A landmate is essentially a powered suit of armor, standing about twice the height of its pilot. This type of piloted mech makes a lot more sense for urban combat, since it can be used in the city without stepping on everything. Masamune Shirow has created a number of innovative and spectacular works, and stands as one of the greatest contributors to the fantasy technology genre. I recommend everything created by Shirow, from his totally unmatched comics (manga), to the top-notch animation that has resulted from his comic work.

BUBBLEGUM CRISIS

Bubblegum Crisis is a short animated series, but represents the best in excellent high tech anime. The story features four women living in a dangerous future city of evil men and machines. They form an underground resistance, with mechanized armor to combat the various forms of evil that plague the city. You might be familiar with the American comic hero, Iron Man, which is similar in concept except the hardsuits cannot fly, but they jump very well. The design for the hardsuits however is distinctly Japanese, and outstanding is the feminine look to the mecha, such as the high heels. Probably not as practical in real life, but the whole concept for the show would not be as cool if they did not have those high heels. Make note of the fact, that while we sci-fi fans like realism, implementation of exaggeration and dramatic impossible design elements is often critical to the success of the art project.

SUMMERY

Above represents some piloted mech genre entertainment titles and their mech types. These are:

- Gundam: Mobile Suit – (7-10X human height: Mostly non-tranforming humanoid fighting machines.)
- Voltron: Voltron-(12X aprox. Large scale humanoid mech made up of five mecha lions.)
- Robotech: Valkyrie-(7-8X Transforming mech resembling current technology when not in mech mode.)
- Appleseed: Landmate-(2X Man height powered armor.)
- Bubblegum Crisis: Hardsuit-(Human size techno suit of armor with weapons and gadgets.)

Note there are other significant piloted mech types not listed here, but these represent most of the basic size and types found in current piloted mech genre. (2007)