Couple of sketches

[Nathan92]

Hey guys! Long time no see!

Did a couple rough sketches of the Security Officer and a Fighter's face in my free time. Officer's left foot looks a little broken/perspectively off, but I'll fix that in a more finished piece.

I have a couple of other projects goin' on at the moment, but my brother and I are planning on collaborating for a Marathon pitch-package/lookbook full of redesigns of the original character/enemy roster, along with other things including the ships and weapons and all that. Will keep you guys posted as that progresses!

The forum layout's cutting off part of the image, so if anyone wants to see it larger and uncropped, original is here:
http://deimos-remus.deviantart.com/art/ ... -634209524

[General-RADIX]

Always good to see Marathon stuff from you, man (I'm familiar with your art).

Also looking forward to those redesigns!

[philtron]

Loving that reinterpretation(?) of what a Pfhor could look like. Looks alien and strange, even more so than the original games. Definitely excited to see more of your stuff.

[Nathan92]

Thanks guys, glad you like 'em! Showed it to Alex Seropian via Twitter, and got his approval too, so that was pretty cool! Would love to contact Jones somehow.

@3371-Alpha

I'd like to help out if I could, but my current client workload is pretty darn heavy at the moment! But c'mon guys, no need for hostility.

[HelviusRufus]

Armed to the teeth and reading a bulletin board.
"Failure to check twice daily will result in...."
Some things about the military will never change.
Comforting.

[Nathan92]

Also did a rough and sloppy Juggernaut. The design as a whole likely to change and evolve, but I do like the mess of stuff growing out of its back.

[General-RADIX]

This Juggernaut's more organic-looking than most interpretations I've seen; are you just basing this off of M1, or do you figure that the M2/Infinity Juggs have organic components, too?

[Nathan92]

Yeah, we're thinking of having a heavy influence from mech designers like Makoto Kobayashi, which look like they shouldn't work in any practical sense, as they're so weird and organic, but still technical and believable. Image below is an example of his stuff.

As far as its proportions are concerned though, there's stuff I like about both M1 and M2's approaches, so I thought to combine the two! The M2 Juggs are definitely less organic looking, but I'd love for the Pfhor to have a totally alien and bizarre visual language with technology that looks incomprehensible and unfamiliar, something the series couldn't quite explore because of graphical limitations and all that.

[Nathan92]

Also had some spare time for a couple more...

One's a riff on a chapter screen we're all familiar with...

and another take on the Officer's helmet.

Attached them this time instead of using IMG code. The width limit on this forum is kinda wacky.

[General-RADIX]

Looking good! I especially like what can be seen of the Security Officer's expression in the first one.

[Nathan92]

Thanks!

Gonna do a ton of variations on his helmet in given time, modern flight helmets seem to bear the closest resemblance.

[hawkeyefile]

Ma man, Looking good!

[Nathan92]

Thanks dude!

Here's a quick sketch of a fighter while I'm here!

[Nathan92]

Did up another stab at the Security Officer!

[General-RADIX]

Sweet!

The first thing to come to mind was the first chapter screen in M2; was this design based off of that in any way? (Belated note: I also like how you handled the Pfhor fighter's armour)

[Nathan92]

Thanks!

Kinda! Always loved Mullins' Marathon illustrations, they're so good! Wanted to keep the influence of the Officer's sprite intact, but make it more on the bulky and practical side, with plenty of holsters and pouches for his weapons and ammunition, so a bit of a modern military influence too.

I think having two side-arm holsters on his front vest for the Magnum and Fusion Pistol works, with the TOZT clipping on to the backpack napalm unit. I figure the assault rifle would be carried with a strap that fits around the torso. As for the SPNKR though, I'm toying with the idea of making it smaller, slimmer and less cumbersome, so it can feasibly fit onto a back holster of some kind without looking too crowded and top-heavy. That would take care of all the weapons aside from the Shotgun and Flechette, which could possibly fit into thigh-holsters perhaps.

[Nathan92]

Heya guys, thought I'd upload a few more recent sketches; my marathon project is still being planned, so it hasn't been abandoned or anything. Work and other projects have been taking up most of my time, but I do want to make this a legit effort, in hopes of showing the whole thing to Bungie somehow. Click for much larger versions.

Here's the officer design with another stab at the Pfhor fighter. Trying to land on a visual language for their armor and technologies. Organic, but technical, without going too 'Giger-esque'.

And an additional take on the officer.

and lastly, a shot at the Leonardo. Based very much on an early concept piece by J. Reginald Dujour, but with some of my own modifications and perspective corrections.

[General Tacticus]

Wow, this stuff is looking really neat. I like the structure of the leg and boot coverings.

[philtron]

Very good, as always.

My personal thoughts on the Pfhor fighter: I liked the earlier body/armor you did of him. The previous armor looked almost like it was growing off of the fighter's body, and I liked the bulging back and chest. The new "thin", straight-spined version looks a little too plain and human. And five stars for avoiding "Giger-esque" visuals; I've seen so many video game alien designs inspired by "Alien" that I've got Giger-fatigue.

[General-RADIX]

Very nice!

Any reason the atmosphere tank(?) from the previous Fighter sketch was removed?

[Nathan92]

Very good, as always.

My personal thoughts on the Pfhor fighter: I liked the earlier body/armor you did of him. The previous armor looked almost like it was growing off of the fighter's body, and I liked the bulging back and chest. The new "thin", straight-spined version looks a little too plain and human. And five stars for avoiding "Giger-esque" visuals; I've seen so many video game alien designs inspired by "Alien" that I've got Giger-fatigue.

Thanks! Yeah, in future incarnations I'll be putting the heavy backpack tankard back on; it helps balance it out a bit. The purpose of this sketch was to get a little more specific with armor shapes (I do like the shoulders on this one). They'll likely be a little more hunched too, not as straight-standing.

Very nice!

Any reason the atmosphere tank(?) from the previous Fighter sketch was removed?

Thanks as always! No reason really, just exploring different armor styles. I'll probably mix and match elements I like at some point to form a more finalized version.

[Nathan92]

Did a quick piece to commemorate Marathon's 23rd year of existence.

[General-RADIX]

Already commented at dA, but: pretty cool! : D

[Nathan92]

Did one other attempt at the Marathon itself. I think the jets being so big (according to the scale of Deimos) makes more sense than G-4 Sunbathing station being so relatively large. It was in construction for decades, so I think it's not outside the realm of speculative possibility. (thinking about man-made stuff like the Large Hadron Collider being so unfathomably large).

[General-RADIX]

Yannow, why DIDN'T the original ship design include propulsion jets (or if it did, why they weren't larger)?

Also interested in the mention of Martian society completely collapsing; did things not improve after the UEG/UESC intervened?