IDW # 208 : 19th C. Diving Suit - VOTING!

[Pixie Trick]

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IDW # 208 Topic: 19th C. Diving Suit
Deadline for voting: Sunday, July 8

No voting for your own entries! I repeat, no voting for your own entries

Give critiques and comments, we're all here to learn from each other!

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Original thread: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=244001

[zelda_geek]

Final.

[Hitsu//San]

Here's the final.

[Caio Chagas]

Final.

[Bjulvar]

Here's my final.

[Magellan]

[Obstfelder]

Here is my final.


Nautilus Standard MKIII:
The suit is a sturdy design, made for frequent underwater manual labor. It has a dual hose system for circulating atmosphere through it while keeping the inside at the correct pressure. It is possible for the opperator to regulate the pressure with the safty valve (although it's not recommended after frequent "incidents"). The suit has a built in work-light to enable operation at murky depths.

The suit is designed for use at large depths and is therefore completely pressurized. This made it difficult to incorprate standard gloves, hence the impractical but necessary gripper glove design. They are opperated through a wire system on the inside, wich attach to the wearers fingers, and are notoriously tricky to master. However they get the job done. Mostly...

The suits accident rate is at an acceptable 50 % of produced units pr. year. Wich is a great improvement over the previous. MK II. The numbers for wich have been classified.

[Pixie Trick]

A few crits.

A general note on tiny imbedded lights- not to say that they shouldn't be there (depending on what alternate type of history you're going for they could be exactly how you show them) but in a purely historical note- incandescent lights didn't really get used particularly until the 1900s. That being said, they did exist, but would only work for 40h or so depending on what type it was so a) how to replace them after every dive would have to be thought of, and b) wiring wasn't exactly an art at that point either, so lights would be taking up a lot more room. Anywhoo... anal history lesson over....

zelda_geek- Lovely drawings in that diagram! I'm not sure how familiar you are with exploded axos but this is basicly what you're trying to accomplish right? If that is the case, exploded axos tend to pull items are pulled out in line with original locations- its makes things a lot easier to read and the overall function becomes much clearer (just forget about the page size for now- you can scale things to fit and it will still tend to look better). I did a really, really rough cut and paste of how I might have done it if I were you but it should give you the idea:



So, even though I've shrunk things down a lot, you have a better idea of what goes where. Little things like grouping diagrams with the same purpose inside the overall image also helps clear things up. Another nice thing to do is to give at least one small image of the whole thing put together kind of as a map to the viewer.

Hitsu//San: Your systems are looking pretty advanced for a time period that's still going off of steam for the most part (...sorry, I had to say it ) That being said, I like that you've thought about what he's going to be doing down there and how he'll get there.

Caio Chagas: Nice design! A few things about the presentation- I don't think you need two sets of the line diagrams. You've switched out the canisters for hose, but I think you could have just had one detail cutout to show that like you did for lights on/off. I also like that you've colour coded your diagrams, but because you've done that you can do away with the numbers and just go for colour swatches- that makes the legend universal for all the diagrams, especially if you were to design something else in the same world/set.

Bjulvar: I'm quite fond of underwater cigars myself. I'd draw a person in there and see how the proportions are working out- his legs in particular seem a bit off.

Magellan: I like how the helmet looks aquatic but still very much historical. I think you should maybe try a few metal studies to sort out how to paint shiny (or less shiny) surfaces. It looks like you're going in the right direction in terms of highlights, but the suit, even if its a bronze-ish metal, would still be picking up a lot more of the blues of the surroundings.

Obstfelder: To be blunt, your suit isn't the most beautiful or interesting, but to me it catches the most of that overall awkward, bobble head, and body turned into simple shapes characteristics of the time period- likely because they were too worried about making something that wouldn't leak to make it interesting or fit well, but hey. That being said, there's still a lot of things you could do to make it more interesting and still stay true. If you look at the wall of homemade helmets in the wips thread, you'll see details like corrugations and flared edges that make things that much more specialized and they inserted multiple medium sized simple shapes into the larger ones to break up the super simple to make it that much more sophisticated.

[Obstfelder]

Obstfelder: To be blunt, your suit isn't the most beautiful or interesting, but to me it catches the most of that overall awkward, bobble head, and body turned into simple shapes characteristics of the time period- likely because they were too worried about making something that wouldn't leak to make it interesting or fit well, but hey. That being said, there's still a lot of things you could do to make it more interesting and still stay true. If you look at the wall of homemade helmets in the wips thread, you'll see details like corrugations and flared edges that make things that much more specialized and they inserted multiple medium sized simple shapes into the larger ones to break up the super simple to make it that much more sophisticated.

You make a good point. I sort of have an image of those old diving suits as walking prison cells or a coffin for a watery grave, and my design was colored by that.

Concerning the lights: Gas lanterns can be quite small, can't they? Or do they need oxygen to work like oil lamps?

[Pixie Trick]

If its combustion (gas, candle etc.) it needs oxygen. Incandescents work in vacuum.

[Magellan]

Thank you for taking the time to critique everyone pixie! And you're totally right! I'll think about that the next time.. I need a lot more practice!

Really cool stuff everyone! My vote went to hitsu//san. Although it's a little more sci-fi rather than retro, it's still the coolest looking suit.

[Obstfelder]

I'm going to throw my two cents in:

Zelda: The linedrawing is really sharp, but the 100% white page doesn't do it justice. Just a little more presentation and you'd get my vote. I really like how you've added the tool hooks and the mirror HUD. Clever Ideas.

Hitsu: The best rendering, but it's a Starcraft armor design. It's cool but you've missed the brief.

Caio Chagas: I feel you've mixed too many different time periods in the gear. It doesn't feel cohesive. I like the tool belt though.

Bjulvar: It looks interesting, but I feel some of the same things apply to your design as to Caio's. Also the rendering doesn't read so well and it makes it hard to understand what's going on in the chest area and the arm claw thing.

Magellan: I really like this one. Especially the helmet. I feel it's the design that is the most 19th centuryish. anyways you have my vote.

Obstfelder: Note to self: Spend more time designing and less time rendering.

Fun challenge. Great work everyone!

[Hitsu//San]

Thanks for your thought guys, i feel sorry about changing the topic a little. I made this design thinking about some alternative energy like power crystals or stuff like that (that's why i was talking about retrofuturistic and that's why i've imagined that the user was going down the water with some carrying device). It's pretty futuristic design even if the materials are those anyway.

By the way when the voting is over i can show you the 10000px version with super freaking hi-res details if you are interested

Great works to anyone guys!

[Caio Chagas]

Thanks for the feedback guys, i will keep that in mind for the next presentations/works. And Hitsu//San, it will be awesome to have your full resolution file, thanks for that.

Great Work Everyone.

[Bjulvar]

Obstfelder You're right, I didn't do enough research before starting. I can see what you mean, in a way I didn't really connect the diffrent parts in that area and made it too dark. Thanks for the critique.

Pixie Trick Haha me too, totally making a poster about it. Yeah in retrospect I should've worked more on a blueprint and show more function. Thanks!

This was a fun challenge, good work guys!