I would like opinions on a subject that is rarely directly discussed.
Sci-fi helmets and robot heads.
They come in a billion trillion variations, and I personally am constantly flip-flopping on what sort I like.
Whats your opinion on the topic? Any sort you hate? I never got the pyramid head meme, I like a good faceless angular helmet but some of them just have silly angles, you could shank someone with some of them.
Also general Sci-fi arms and armour thread.
>>46922850
>>46922855
>>46922850
If video helmets ever become a thing, they would follow the sloping-angle wind-tunnel physics of aircraft and tanks to minimize explosive impact surfaces. So soldiers would be back to pointy-noise beaks for helmets.
Techno-Bascinets here we come!
>>46922886
Goldie on the right
>Heavily armored torso
>Trousers
What is femoral artery
>>46923070
I always imagined a return of the sallet helm style setup when shrapnel collars become required on every soldier.
>>46923075
>What is femoral artery
Most artists cannot answer that question.
>>46923070
I don't think I have ever seen a sci-fi hounskull bascinet which I am suddenly very angry about.
>>46923111
check my trips
>>46923111
>>What is femoral artery
>>Most artists cannot answer that question.
Dark Souls 2 in particular REALLY pissed me off with this.
Most of the armors had trousers with more protective value than chain+plate. Fucking trousers. With leather boots.
>>46923111
>I don't think I have ever seen a sci-fi hounskull bascinet which I am suddenly very angry about.
You've seen them...you just don't remember.Beakies hold the line for the Emperor!!!
>>46923158
Fucking hell I am stupid, honestly they just slipped my mind completely.
>>46923111
Planetside 2 could have been so good. I'ma still play though
>>46922874
>all those screws
>>46924726
hey, at least they're all inset so they don't snag on stuff.
fallout 4 power armor
exo suits from cod aw
I hate the vast majority of sci-fi armour, because it's invariably over-detailed, unfocused, uneconomic garbage.
Yeah, let's just keep piling on shitloads of greebles and doodads, break up every flat surface with as many distracting lumps and seams as possible, and basically ensure that the armour has no distinctive features, no central focus, and no memorable form whatsoever. That's surely how good design works.
Warhammer 40K Space Marines (the barebones Tactical Marines) and Tau Fire Warriors are my gold standards for distinctive and memorable sci-fi armour, with the Stormtroopers from the Star Wars films (all of them, original, prequels and sequels) earning an honourable mention. I also liked the Helghast in the first Killzone game, but later games just kept tacking the glowing orange eyes on increasingly more crowded and forgettable designs, and they really wore out their welcome.
>>46927614
>over-detailed, unfocused, uneconomic garbage
Sounds like the product of defense contractors.
>>46926754
>hello random wasteland journalist follower
>here is a suit of advanced power armor that supposedly took months of training not to murder yourself with
>why don't you just put it on and instantly be able to use it at full combat effectiveness
I really like the the Specters
>>46927614
Second game was best in my opinion.
I'll post some. Most will piss off /k/ommando's though.
>>46929473
>>46929495
>46929495
>>46929516
>>46929545
>>46929564
>>46929590
>>46929617
Where do you get your character art? (Other than these threads I mean.)
All the old websites I used to use back in the day have shut down and now I don't really know where to look.
>>46929875
DeviantArt and here. That's about it.
>>46929391
Those are nice enough designs, but why the fuck are the feet/boots so big?
>>46929937
Because Helgan is a fucking frozen hellscape and frostbite is bad.
>>46929960
Top right, center, bottom middle, and bottom mid right all have normal sized boots, and presumably they're not freezing their toes off.
Maybe it looks better in context, but here it just makes them look silly.
>>46930105
The shock trooper, the conscript, the shock trooper, and the sniper don't have gear designed for extended foot slogging?
Who knew?
>>46930178
>scout sniper
>low foot-slogginess rating
shiggy diggy, senpai
>>46930307
He probably spends most of his day camped out in a nest. Maybe he also doesn't want his tracks to be so different from a civilian's.
>>46922850
>Sc-fi arms
>>46931734
No but seriously here's some guns
>>46931822
>>46931835
>>46931857
>>46931877
>>46922850
I like typical fantasy plate armor mixed with modern or high tech elements.
>>46931924
>>46931936
>>46931958
>>46931996
Less fantasy more modern powered armor is good, too.
>>46932040
When it comes to more futuristic stuff, I have a soft spot for expressionless face plates.
>>46932094
>>46922855
>>46929495
>>46929654
What's with these weird-ass helmets, and this weird angular armor bullshit? Do the artists think that this makes the armor stealthy or something?
And am I the only one that's sick of seeing Elysium art? Okay, the movie was fun, but what the fuck is a chem rail?
>Plasticky-minimalist gun design makes those things look like toys, and not something that you'd have confidence in carrying around, like the guns in pic related
in b4 armor boobs
>>46931958
>average_imperial_world.jpeg
>>46931734
Every year as prosthetics get better and more articulate I have to fight the urge to feed my arm to a wood chipper. In the back of my mind I know. I will lose.
>>46932322
I'm going legs first. Of all the things I can think of losing, anything below the knee seems trivial
>>46932174
It'd be more worried about the lack of solid plate abdomen armor. Segmented plates over the body is fucking retarded and will increase the transfer of energy into the body.
>>46932411
my assumption is that the underpart is that weird liquid armor they've been working on for a while, or some sort of equivalent. the plates are there to stop penetration, the under stuff absorbs the shock.
I really liked the Halo fluff on how their armor works, and how they're way better when augmented by an AI; Master Chief managed to bitch slap a missile because of it (pretty sure he broke his hand though)
>>46927614
>Warhammer 40K Space Marines (the barebones Tactical Marines) and Tau Fire Warriors are my gold standards for distinctive and memorable sci-fi armour,
Huge-ass pauldrons aside, Space marine armor is actually rather well designed - large, curved, solid surfaces that maximize deflection.
>>46932500
>pioneer
also known as Eva unit 1.
>>46932564
nah, man it says right there "EVA" in the second row
>>46932591
womp womp.
>>46932322
As someone with really bad vision I'm still waiting for eye replacements to come around so I can carve out my broke ass ones and get slick new robot eyes.
>>46932121
I assume chem-rail means that it incorporates both chemical and magnetic acceleration. Chemical propellant for initial kick, and the rails to achieve higher speeds than would otherwise be possible.
>>46932500
If you're going to post Halo armor, at least post the superior Halo: Reach armors.
Bungie's armors have a nice balance to them - they're not so simplistic that they look like an Apple product, but they have enough going on in the right places that it feels right.
See this? This (and the armors from Halo 4 and up) don't have that feel. This one feels clunky while the armor made by 343i just doesn't feel like armor should.
>>46932626
>armor over my right lung? fuck it, gimme skittles!
>>46932663
The armor from Destiny is also really good.
Bungie has great art direction.
>>46932564
That doesn't look anything like Unit 01 besides a similar paint job. Infiltrator and Wetwork are as close. The helmet is more Unit 00 than anything.
>>46932684
It's a redesign of this character.
The skittles were a given.
>>46932475
But that's still awful. You need solid plates over everything, and unlike what some quibbling morons believe, it is completely possible to cover humans in a fully animated exoskeleton of plates.
Also, post Neo Crusaders.
>>46932687
I'm still salty that it's never coming to PC.
>>46930563
I'm always awfully bothered how the shoulder assembly seems to be begging to get caught in some shit and torn off. In the latest Call of Duty games I was extremely annoyed it wasn't covered by some form of protection.
>>46932727
How the fuck do you put Neo-Crusader armor on even?
>>46932687
I know, right?
I mean, even /k/ tends to like their gun designs.
Though some gun designs apparently don't make sense (I think the shotgun from the Halo games), and they always nitpick about the lack of iron sights on the Halo 1 guns.
>>46932779
All the Marines in Halo:CE had the green eye pieces though. They had some kind of heads up display going on.
Reach had really good standard Marine designs, even if they were a little bulky. I think 3 did them best.
>>46932687
Destiny armor makes me fucking angry at how good it is, like I emotionally cannot handle the fact that I'll never own a physical version of that armor.
>>46932835
It doesn't stop /k/ from being /k/.
Also, I think the Marines in Reach were technically Army, which is why they had different outfits.
>>46932743
Don't be. It took close on a year and a half to make the game even close to good. It always had a little kernel of excellence, and they're slowly polishing the crap off, but it's taken some fucking time.
At least all the design and most of the lore has always been on point.
>>46929391
You havegreatopinions.
>>46932902
So should I just get it for ps4 and finally get to play that robot wizard I wanted since the announcement?
>>46932946
Pretty much. I might even wait a little while longer till they release the next big content update.
I believe there are rumours of the next major DLC/Update some time in June or on Bungie Day. But I'm not sure. Though If you haven't played at all before, I'm sure there's enough to do to get you to then.
Now have a space wizard.
>>46932775
No different than medieval armor.
Quick question, anons.
For your Sci-Fi art, do you prefer sleek and clean, or used and practical aesthetics?
>>46933172
Both. I love the clean shiny military fighting the hobo looking rebels.
>>46933172
Practical.
>Pic related
>>46933172
The latter.
The guy on the right's gun is just a tad too big for my tastes though, especially if it's supposed to be a StG/ MkB allegory.
>>46932902
>>46932687
Bungie has some 10/10 art.
A lot of my kind of favorites have already been posted. Big fan of featureless, slightly angular plates with nodules or slits that are obviously for cameras.
If they're helmets I really enjoy it when they're obviously multi-layered, with outer armor and visor and etc all sliding into place.
>>46933518
Damn. Had a gif to post but it's too big.
Here's something else that's pretty cool.
>>46933585
10/10 would make an adorable plushie version if I had the skills
>>46933172
Personally, I love it when both are in the setting, giving you a real, I dunno, Mac versus PC vibe.
Partial to the Terran Republic Heavy Assault armour myself. Stick a gasmask-y helmet on it, and it gets downright glorious.
>>46932727
You can't bend over with a plate over your abdomen, this is why plate armour had a narrow pinch just under the rib cage.
Also that previous picture you posted, that bloke would probably have trouble leaning forward.
>>46932121
I think the idea of steeply angled helmets and armor is to function in the same way that sloped armor functions when applied to non-living objects. The slope will increase the effective thickness of the armor and increase the likelihood that the round wont hit a good flat surface and bounce.
From a laymans perspective it makes a bit of sense, as weapons grow more lethal armor begins to get too heavy to simply keep piling on layers of flat plates.
>>46930105
I always assumed they were wearing the NBC booties like modern NBC gear, but I never looked too close or played more than 5 minutes of the game, sadly.
>>46931924
How the fuck is the guy on the right going to use those nvgs, with that helmet? How the fuck is the guy on the left going to draw that pistol?
>>46932500
>Any post Reach Halo
absolutely disgusting.
>>46932542
Speaking of, has anyone done art of tactical marines sans mega-pauldrons?
>>46934446
See, I'd buy that if it wasn't this weird ass angle-triangle-shape-shit all over the guy's arm that this one artist seems particularly fond of.
Some guys do the angled helmet like this >>46932986
for the visor. I can buy that; it's clearly a visor and it's reminiscent of this one particular helmet style that has a French name that I can't remember.
Then there's this guy >>46932108 this guy to some extent >>46932094
and this guy >>46929495 who's faces look like modern art sculptures or are coming dangerously close to looking like a wedge of cheese with an increase in minimalism.
And then there's this chick.
>>46934923
>That bismuth pattern.
It's not even rainbow colored, I'm disappointed. To be fair it looks more like some kind of light environment suit as apposed to armor.
>>46932121
>What's with these weird-ass helmets
How so, if you mean how do they see I assume its micro-cameras.
> and this weird angular armor bullshit?
Could be better at defending against whatever is usually shooting at them.
>And am I the only one that's sick of seeing Elysium art? Okay, the movie was fun, but what the fuck is a chem rail?
I think I counted only 1 bit of concept art from it in posts above yours, a chemrail is a two stage chemical-railgun.
Think taking a normal modern gun and sticking rail boosters in the barrel as well as all the necessary other additions to make it work while still keeping the initial combustion charge in the bullet.
>Plasticky-minimalist gun design makes those things look like toys, and not something that you'd have confidence in carrying around, like the guns in pic related
I disagree, minimalist gun designs can look great in certain settings. Most of the guns you posted also look like generic over-designed shit.
Although I get what you mean, many settings have big dumb blocky guns for no reason.
>>46934446
I understand why someone may aply those aesthetics but it creates a problem in that any round that would punch through that heavier armor on a 90° impact is going to be extremely jarring on a deflection, possibly lethal so. Rounded surfaces help on a human for since a human isn't rigid like a tank would be. Ablative removable components are also a plus.
You also run into the problem with some of this gear that it creates a much larger and unnatural "size" to the personal space inhibiting motor skills and sense of space unless the soldier trains constantly in that armor throughout their day-to-day routine.
It just comes off as impractical and illogical for individual armor progression.
But I'm not an engineer.
My favorite helmet will always be motorbike style.
Totally not because I have a massive boner for Biomega or anything.
>>46934923
>and this guy >>46929495 who's faces look like modern art sculptures or are coming dangerously close to looking like a wedge of cheese with an increase in minimalism.
Thats just a techno-armet.
>>46935062
I'm talking about the shape of the helmets. Mainly the ones that are all weirdly geometric.
>Could be better at defending against whatever is usually shooting at them.
See, some of them have it where it makes sense. This one artist in particular puts them on the guys arms and shoulders in what looks like an emulation of the F-117 stealth angle thing. Also >>46935112
articulates it better than I do.
>I think I counted only 1 bit of concept art from it in posts above yours
In these threads the Elysium stuff shows up often, along with poorly-designed guns inspired by it.
Also, chemrails, while a neat idea, would have to be bigger (the rail bit) for you to see any noticeable performance change compared to similarly-sized weapons.
This >>46931877 probably, this >>46929979
which looks on par with the M4/M16 platform and this >>46929744
are just too small without some handwavium. Those things also look like they'd melt after firing a few times.
>>46935279
None of those weapons are chemrails, I don't know why he named the filenames that.
2 of them are unspecified in what they are in their descriptions if I recall correctly and 1 is very specifically just a railgun.
>>46935364
The one held by the robot looks similar to the chemrail used in the Elysium movie (and actually looks like it'd be useful, which I didn't include in my post on accident).
Also
>Arm cannons
>Cords connecting from the gun to the back
Yes, bring back my childhood. I hope arm cannons make a comeback.
>>46935470
arm cannons are great, most of my arm cannon stuff is just panels from Blame! though, I really with it was more popular as a design.
Also your image is a NC trooper.
>>46935565
>>46933172
yes
>>46935605
Honestly this, I love both when done well and I can't really choose.
I feel like a lot of recent scifi has merged 21st century defense contractor aesthetics with 80s neotokyo aesthetics to arrive at something a little bit predictable and unmemorable. Blacklight: Retribution is like the ultimate example of this stuff.
Among others, gothic sci-fi provides stuff thats more memorable. pic related
>>46923075
Except that is exactly what modern militaries do and humans have always done. Better to protect your organ sacks than your legs, and it is better to leave your legs unprotected than weigh yourself down with so much armour that you are easier to shoot.
Besides armour is mostly psychological anyway, it doesn't even matter if it offers protection, as long as the soldier feels safe they will be more likely to do what you want.
>>46935649
I think the complaints with a bunch of designs that leave that area exposed is that the boots are heavily armoured, so it just seems strange to armour the less important area.
Much more likely to get shot there then the shins.
>>46935649
Once you get there, you want to not die to shrapnel. Even if it means a super thin alu plate over the front just to barely deflect it.
>>46935702
The issue with protecting the femoral artery is that it is on the inner thigh. Practically speaking protecting the inner thigh is difficult because any armour there would interfere with movement, especially running (which is pretty important). This is especially obvious with more modern armour as the ceramics used while light for the protection compared to metals are very thick when put together. Besides there is a difference between wearing Kevlar pants and putting a ceramic plate on your inner thigh so whenever you run it looks like you need to shit. At the end of the day ergonomics>>>>>>protection, it is why soldiers mostly stopped wearing armour towards the end of the late middle ages. Hell bullet proof armour was actually used in WW1, is was just that it was so bulky and heavy that almost everyone assigned it didn't use it because not getting shot at all is a lot better than being shot and not dying.
tl;dr there is a reason that high armour wasn't used for most of history and when it was it was generally just some chain mail or something instead of solid plates.
>>46933652
NC ALL THE WAY BABY
>>46936261
>>46933652
The Vanu will never bow to inferior ASS.
>>46936261
>FREEDOM
>>46929813
Source? Google failed me
>>46936409
>ASS
>>46922850
Hacking tools count as arms, right? Let's talk about those.
What kinds are there? Headsets, arm-computers, usbs, omnitools, old-school laptops, am I missing any?
>>46938665
I've always had a soft spot for those hip mounted split keyboards, so the hacker has to do a gunslinger style sweep back of his coat before furiously typing in an awkward hunched over position.
>>46932878
Yes, they were Reach's armed forces. In some of their tacticool overview shots before the Tip of the Spear mission, you can see deployments of ODSTs, Marines, and Army all shown separately on a map.
>>46938846
THICK.
>>46935621
I like one, then the other. Starts of all shiny and sleek, but gradually gets more patched and utilitarian as the SPACE WAR grinds on and on and on.
>>46936261
LIVE FREE IN THE NC!
>>46935842
A lot of the people bitching about it are also greatly overestimating the odds of getting hit in your inner thigh...
>>46938846
>hip mounted keyboards
ah, forgot about those.
I like them better when they come with their own seat, or if you go into a half-kneel to type.
>>46939277
Freedom is for pussies. And dead people.
>>46939277
>>46939632
I always hated that game for giving my favourite weapons to one faction, my favourite Ideology to another, and my favourite modus operandi to a third faction.
>>46939692
You would like a freedom-loving faction with weapons with a high rate of fire and hover tanks?
>>46933172
It's one of the few cases when you can unironically say "both". Galaxy/Universe is rather big, so there's lots of space for diffrent cultures and designs to develop. Some might think that anything should be as pleasing to look at as it's usefull, and others might only care about how usefull something is, not how pretty it is.
I am fine with many things as long as its free of the overly tacticool detailed for the sake of it crap you see lots of these days.
>>46936409
>Joining an alien cult
>>46936261
>Joining a corporate cult
It's good to know that the Terran Republic would win hands down if they ever got in contact with Earth again.
>>46943051
>NC
>Corporate cult
>implying space nazis are better than space USA
>>46932687
the thing with bungie is that their design language is very clear. The armors (and everything really) is built of relatively smooth, clean lines with little clutter
>>46943206
>Implying the pawns of a bunch of businessmen are better than the planetary government that brought an age of peace and prosperity to Earth
>>46943407
> Durex
>>46935549
>>46935565
>>46935587
Best manga of all time.
>>46935702
>I think the complaints with a bunch of designs that leave that area exposed is that the boots are heavily armoured
This always schisms my 'tisms. Like, fuck, I don't give a tenth as much of a fuck what happens to my lower legs as to my upper legs. As long as it's below the knee, if I lose a leg, I can get a badass pirate peg leg and still be reasonably mobile, let alone a nicer prosthesis. But above the knee it has to be quite a bit more sophisticated to retain the same level of mobility.
Plus yanno, you're much more likely to actually die from an upper leg injury.
Also really heavy boots and gauntlets will tire you out, even more than the same weight closer to the torso. You'll be swinging that shit around just to move, and that'll get old quick.
>>46939350
Bruh, the thing about bullets is that they injure people by putting holes in them.
You can be injured in the inner thigh from a shot to the outer thigh. It goes through the meat.
Same reason deltoid protectors are in fashion recently. It's not to protect the shoulder per se, it's to protect the organs from shrapnel and whatnot that passes through the arm or armpit from the side. Can't armor the space where the arm meets the torso, because all the bones and muscle and blood has to get through, so the armor has to go on the outside of everything.
>>46933172
I can appreciate sleek and clean, all the way up to impractical and bulky akin to the Space Marines armor, but I'll always enjoy used and practical aesthetics.
As a soldier, I am pretty biased to when sci-fi armor art utilizes contemporary military equipment like fabric-based LBVs or armor arranged to resemble an actual evolution of modern day plates. This is most notable with art from certain Halos, Titanfall, and the large influx of photobashed works like from Aaron Beck.
tldr; love tacticool sci-fi art
MOVE OVER FUCKING SHITS ITS FUTURE MAN HERE
>>46935587
Is that a turian?
>>46932121
aesthetics
Anyone have those modern Crusader concepts?
>>46948416
Yes
>>46946487
>Aaron Beck
This guy is the king of shitty, greebly tacticool designs.
>>46936261
>only one NC guy sees the grenade
>>46948540
Thanks, lad.
Not as good as I remembered though.
Love the look of this.
>>46922850
I'm not actually certain that robots need heads - it seems like that's just asking for trouble, putting all your sensors in one exposed place sticking out on a stalk. Biological creatures do it to minimize latency to the brain, but wires have drastically lower latency than nerves, and computers are so much less compact than brain that you're not going to have your processing hardware in the head anyway.
It seems more likely that robots would have heads only to have faces, to facilitate human interaction. So consider whatever design makes them appropriate-looking and expressive.
(The top of the body is, however, a good place to put sensors needing a wide unoccluded field of view, so it is also a good place to put cameras or those spinning LIDAR thingies. But those cameras needn't face only forwards, and the main cameras might be on the hands or something.
>>46938846
any sauce or is it just random art?
![latest[3].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/l9LKyCT.jpg "latest[3].jpg")
>>46954141
IG-88's head a 306 panoramic field of view
>>46956731
Even up and down? Or is that where the remaining 54 degrees went?
>>46956859
it still has head tilt, and I meant to type 360
>>46927614
>over-detailed, unfocused, uneconomic garbage.
>Warhammer 40K Space Marines...are my gold standards
>>46933209
this is the greatest thing I have ever seen in my entire life.
Fallout 2 Advanced Power Armour, partially because it looks so alien, and partially would actually be quite useful in most environments with little or no modification (hermetically sealed, recycles air and water, heavy protection against radiation because of all that bulk, high strength because of the motors in the suit)
>>46941934
neat, got a source for that?
>>46929875
Deviantart, this guy I discovered a couple days ago is a new favorite of mine;
http://ksenolog.deviantart.com/
>>46958147
But they're underdesigned. I mean, really, for the usual marines, they're just helm, big bulky chest, power pack, PAULDRONS, big hands, kneepads, and big feet, all designed circular with little in the way of angles.
No weird bumps, no jagged lumps, no weird hexagonal shapes or pyramid helmets.
>>46958267
>>46933209
Holy shit this was my favourite Lego set as a kidand now.
>>46943051
I hear ya battle buddy
>>46929599
How do you adjust collective with the blades fixed to the safety ring like that?
