A robot character for an unannounced project I’m working on.
She still needs scanning equipment built into her left hand, and I’m still adjusting the hair. (Supposed to look like a 20’s bob.) Looking for some feedback on her before I start the low polygon.
There is some ambiguity about mechanical look and organic parts. May be that is why you are not quite sure about modeling her hair. Which way do you want to go? Try coloring it and see what comes out. Anyway, it looks good.
I like the overall design. The hair I think could be longer or stick out more to be more noticible. Its like a helmut as it is.
I agree with ridix, she is more robot skeleton than robot which make her appearance a bit creepy. If that is the look you are going for you need to ask yourself why would she have hair. What might make more sense is several electronic interface cables that happen to give the look of dreadlocks.
Looks pretty good,if you need inspiration on a humanoid robot then you should read the manga called Battle Angel Alita.
Manga: http://www.mangareader.net/1047/battle-angel-alita-last-order.html
I’ve read pretty much that entire series. And most of the his next one. I have a lot of koshiro’s work. I love the concept of cyborgs… Scrap iron city would make the worlds most awesome mmo.
And thank you all for the comments. Most of the alteration are going to made in the low poly. I’m thickening up the stomach area, and giving the ‘hair’ plates a bit more volume.
I guess I have to ask: why the obvious “female” sexual characteristics – hips, breasts, facial proportions, “hair” style? Is she some kind of sex toy? Pandering to popular cliches? I have no probs with a design that has features that suggest femininity while making sense for a robot (non-mammalian and does not reproduce sexually), but to use overt features such as these seems out of place, unless there’s a context that makes sense for them.
Probably the quintessential female robot (or gynoid, as is now a popular term) is Maria from Metropolis:
She’s overtly female for a reason – she was a replacement for the mad scientist Rotwang’s lost love. That’s context. Plus the actress had to fit inside her! 
Other excellent designs that suggest femininity without being overtly female in terms of specific features:
http://stgjr.com/sdnw4/armature.jpg
http://www.gameinformer.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Components-ImageFileViewer/CommunityServer-Blogs-Components-WeblogFiles-00-00-00-00-06/3225.Bots_5F00_01.jpg_2D00_610x0.jpg
Thanks for the reference, I’ll be adding that to the hoard. 
The false maria was one of the inspirations for the concept. And no, she’s a diagnostic AI. The feel of the character pre concept was female, so we went with a feminine look to the chassis rather than male, which has somehow become the ‘default’. It basically suites the look and feel of the game for some of the AI’s to be human-ish, while some others won’t be.
Hm. The Gith armatures never really gave me the impression of ‘female’.
It’s farthest from the core idea of those I posted, but the smooth curves & rounded forms are generally evocative of feminine (as opposed to “female”) rather than masculine characteristics – think bulky, blocky, more hard-edged for that. The Geth soldiers were far more neutral-gender to my eyes, and another good robot/android/mech life design that made sense in terms of overall structural features. Some of the specialized forms (forget the actual terms for them) were very masculine – broad shoulders, tapered waistlines, spiky stuff sticking out all over 
– and the wall-crawlers very feline. But these impressions were evoked by the design rather than being overt in certain features.
For the ‘android’ types, we wanted overt, to a degree. Avoiding, on purpose, the extreme examples of huge metal boobs and feet with built in stilettos.
Yeah, it makes more sense for “android” than “robot,” if you make the somewhat stereotypical association of diagnostic android = nurse = female. But it’s rather 20th-century thinking, if you get my drift.
The blend of highly mechanical with highly naturalistic humanoid forms is a bit jarring (hence some of the “skeleton” & “creepy” comments), maybe think the design through based on function? If strictly a diagnostic robot (say, in a combat scenario), then all-out mechanical seems more appropriate, with nothing wasted on useless decorative aspects, while in a context where the thing is supposed to interact in a more cordial manner with patients (like a civilian hospital), a more attractive form is understandable, but should be more complete, with say a shell-body that hides all the clanky bits and looks more like Nurse Betty.
In this case, none of the above. More in an engineering/trouble shooting/investigative capacity than a medical one.
Have you tried it without hair? Just a sleek head, with a port/socket in the back of it’s head maybe.
I think if it were to be a full on diagnostics robot, then it would probably look best being overly technical. Though right now you seem to be in the middle. The other end being typical features like, big hips, curvy waist, curvy chest, thin arms and round shoulders.
I think chipmasque has nailed what I was trying to say.
Quick question, why do you want it to be female? It might not even need a gender.
Middle is about where I was aiming, actually.
Why? It’s… a bit of an odd question. It suited the character, and suites the background of the game.
Ah, Josephine the Plumber! Just a little humor. OK, maybe not much humor at all, but I still think getting a better balance between overtly human and mech components would be a stronger and more interesting design, regardless of gender references.
Forum’s got hiccups – double post, please forgive.
If it’s something that’s specific to the character then fair enough.
I was wondering because if is just some sort of maintenance robot, with no sort of importance, then gender wouldn’t really matter. But as you’re going for a mixed attempt on it, I think what you’ve got is great.
You thought about adding a mesh over the top of what you have? And making it clear, but fully clear. Like a gel.
Probably best if I show you…
That way you can have the best of both worlds. A feminine figure and all the technical jazz.
That’s a great idea, Zero. I was thinking of filling in the ab area with an freznel falloff shader/gell/energy stuff. Ripped from Aya on the Green lantern cartoon shamelessly. I have an interesting irridescent falloff shader rigged up in strumpy that would look pretty cool.
If I set it as a vertex type falloff, it should keep the z fighting down.
Any time dude. I’ll be honest, I haven’t a clue what you just said…
‘I have an interesting irridescent falloff shader rigged up in strumpy that would look pretty cool.
If I set it as a vertex type falloff, it should keep the z fighting down.’
I’m quite the newby.
But hey! Update us all when you add something new. Would love to see the results. =]
Freznel is a type of opacity, more opaque near the edges, doing it with vertex color can prevent a game engine from having trouble figuring out where the polygons should be drawn. When they flicker in and out, showing things that should be behind them, that’s z-fighting. 
No worries.
