ShimmeringSword

Summoner Prototype

This one still needs a few edits done, but a prototype was made anyway so I thought I'd share it off. Skipping showing renders of the 3D model for now due to its unfinished state.

I don't think I have too much to say on this one, the Thor is a good looking mech.

Nova Prototype

And here is the Nova prototype print made by Dale Eadeh. It's super awesome having him print off these models as soon as they're ready. A quick ink wash and they show off details nicely.

Anyone noticing the increased detail levels over the new IS box sets? I'm really satisfied pushing the quality level up another notch, though there is that internal fear that I'll trap us under increasing demands haha. I also don't want to get stuck with a style standard that mandates a high detail leve...

Nova 3D Sculpt

Here's the finished 3D model for the Nova, sculpted by Alan Blackwell, his first official 3D model for Battletech.

It came out quite nicely.

Nova Design Sketch

Sorry for the lighter levels on content this month everyone. I had a heavy work schedule at my side job. The great news is that with your support, next month I'm having my schedule reduced at said job so that I can pump out even more art! All made possible by YOU!

So, how do you like your new overheating overlords?

The Nova design fell together rather effortlessly, with just a little tweaking on how to handle the lower leg details, arm/weapon sizing, and the nose side pods. This r...

Welcome New Patrons!

I've noticed a little burst of new patrons in the last few days. I'm curious where you are coming from / being refered by? Guess that can be a general question for all too. DA, My/BTI/BT/CGL FB pages, Twitter, Instagram, Elsewhere?

Also, have my initial sketch for the Stinger design.

City Trio

Dale wanted me to post a picture of the Shadow Cat with the paint work finished on it, as it was still a little work in progress when revealed.

Enjoy.

Timber Wolf Prototype

Concepts, modeling, and now the real deal!

Still deliberating a bit on the arm pod sizes, but overall I think this came out great.

This is also one of the few designs that has a lot of pre-existing good reference detail on the back between the tabletop minis and large scale toys, so it was more a task of mashing those details together rather than designing too much of my own.

Timber Wolf 3D Sculpt

Here's the 3D sculpt that Alex Immerzeel finished up a few days ago.

Fun piece of trivia that might blow your mind. I'm the first person to ever design/depict the Mad Cat in the default/prime loadout (that I'm aware of). The original TRO art comes close, but it awkwardly has two spaced out machinegun barrels in the CT that are hard to justify as a single weapon. The long standing obsession with giving the mech quad nose machineguns is cool looking, but entirely non canon.

What do ...

Timber Wolf Concepts

Ok here we go, the Mad Cat! Of course you should have seen this coming, and the Forever Faithful novel cover artwork has been public for a while. I made sure while working on that cover to give the design aspect of the Cat a serious go, knowing we might be tackling Clan mech redesigns in the future.

Management wanted less Mechwarrior style blockiness in the lower arms, and improved cockpit seams. Going into the cover way back I also decided it was time for the Timby to return to its noo...

Soon

I have a lot of "soon" coming soon haha. You might have noticed this Cat around though.

A Request

Loving the response so far everyone. Your patronage has grown so fast these last two weeks that I've already put in a request to reduce my working hours at my side job. That'll take a month to go through as March will be a hectic one at work, but we're getting there. That's another day I'll be able to better dedicate to creativity, without being worn out from 8 hours of walking and lifting.

Now for a request. We've got turnout from Deviantart, various Facebook pages, and Twitter. We're ...

Shadow Cat Sculpt

It took us about 4 years to make the journey from "lets redesign the classics" to boxes on shelves. A lot of factors played into that, many out of my control, but what was placed in my control was the production pipeline from design to final posed sculpt. I gave CGL a new process for designing mechs and ensuring their minis were spot on replicas. Now that we've got a good system down after our first run, my next goal is speeding that up. First step: train a lot of new people!

Dale Eade...

Shadow Cat

I have a Binary of these omni's lying around, how fast should I be giving them up? :D

Another common theme story here. The Shadow Cat has always been a generally good looking mech, and once again I had a pre-existing concept lying around courtesy of a NGNG commission. This might have been the smoothest of productions so far, with next to zero corrections and only minor detail enhancement to arrive at an approved design. It's really hard to do this cat wrong.

Summoner Concept Sketch

Ask and you shall receive, sometimes. Here's your new Summoner / Thor.

I've always thought the Thor looked fine, depending on what version you looked at (I like the Mech Commander era art), so I didn't want to change the main shape of this one, feeling like that would betray the rugged workhorse look it has. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" is definitely a big part of my design philosophy on redesigns.

For a base I had a semi recent commissioned piece, though it contained a lot of...

Dire Wolf Concept Sketch

Kerensky did create the Atlas, but he also created the Clans, Here's something big with autocannons, lasers, and long range missiles :)

The Dire Wolf is a mech that has generally looked good in most appearances through the years, so it wasn't too much of a challenge to polish off. Main points of contention were how to handle the cockpit/nose area (I was very intent on not having a chopped nose), the weapon protrusions from the arms, and general scaling.

With Clan mechs there's a m...

Misdirection

I feel like I've somewhat mislead you guys with the Orion tease, very soon I'll post another mech tied to Aleksandr Kerensky, something bigger, likewise with a mix of energy, ballistic, and missile weapons :)

Any guesses?

Archer Lineart Gif

I think this was one of the final pieces of lineart I did before switching over to the method of starting lineart with a finalized 3D model, so you can still see the basic proportion model in play here.

Starting from a finished 3D model does lose a little of the hand inked feeling, but the time saved is huge. For those curious about the black dots scattered around, I use those as quick color picking spots for switching between black and white when I'm inking zoomed in. Picking from a th...

Archer Concept Refinement

Like a handful of redesigns going into this project years ago, the Archer already had a fairly solid design that I had whipped up for the NGNG crew way back, so I could take that art and enhance/adjust from there.

Initial CGL feedback was that the torso looked almost there, while the legs needed increased detailing. A second round called for further improvement of the lower legs and knee protection. Otherwise, this was a pretty straightforward conversion.

Catapult K2

This is what happens when one of your sculptors has too much time on their hands and access to a 3D printer. Nothing official here of course, but he slapped together a Catapult K2 with arms from the Awesome.

On a big upside, we can prototype print new models almost as soon as they're ready.

$200 Goal Hit!

Thank you everyone, you guys are awesome!

First thanks to the patrons who have stuck around so long and remained for the new focus in my art lately.

Now welcome aboard to the 25 (and still rising) new patrons that have signed on in the last week. You're in for a fun ride.

I was weary of setting the $200 goal that I did today to reveal some new designs, as I wanted them out by the end of the month regardless, but you all blew that away without a problem.

Starting near t...

Orion Concept Sketch

First look time! CGL has always been very adamant about keeping this kinda stuff secret, so enjoy the early peek.

This is one I kinda started of my own initiative, but was obviously going to be needed eventually, so there was no risk in diving into it. On the left was an initial piece that I threw at management, on the right is a near final version with most requested changes applied.

The primitive Orion provided several direct carry over shapes such as the feet, pelvis, and cockp...

Orion References

I don't think it's too obscure of an idea to think that I'm working on more mech redesigns for Battletech, so here's some process work on the Orion to show you all :)

For references I typically try to grab up everything possible, though some images I'll exclude from my pile if they're all around terrible, or made redundant by another similar piece. It is fairly common however, for a lot of early designs to have two or more pieces of lineart that vary wildly, so I can pick and choose fro...

Ostscout Lineart Gif

Have another Gif. Tilt and more tilt.

For those wondering about my smoke and explosion effects. Instead of hand inking those lines, I use a black edge layer effect in photoshop letting me just paint the white shape overall while the outlines are automatically generated. Much easier to paint big shapes than micromanage outlines.

Ostscout Angles

Another big upside to using 3D for non 3D art is along with perspective and lighting assistance, you can explore poses and camera angles with very little effort, all without having to worry that you'll change approved proportions during each exploration.

I already had a desired pose for this one so you don't see that change, but angles were up for debate. I preferred the first for oomf, or the final for more lateral movement, but the 3rd was settled on to get some angle in without fores...

The Oddball

The Ostscout is a mech that was almost impossible to screw up on an improvement level, but I actually enjoyed working on it. Often it's the goofy ugly mechs that are more fun to come up with redesigns for. And I know you weirdo's love your Oosts.

Initially I kept the old no hands look, but the stats have always indicated it had hands, so later on I was directed to add claws.

Fat Marauder

Anything else Marauder related that people want to see? I'm not sure how excessive I should go haha. Also, favorite other mech I should cover?

This is an old Marauder design I whipped up for a fan competition over on the MWO forums. Funny enough I didn't even place, the guy was too fat they say :)

In light of all the official redesigns I've been doing, I think I may have use for an oversized Marauder though. Maybe add some winglets? So enjoy this "almost there" 3D version that a f...

3D Sculpting Overpaints

The art dumping continues.

Here's what my general feedback and enhancements look like during the 3D sculpting stage for mechs. One good piece of art, nor even a set of orthos, can really accurately provide all the angles and details needed to cover a sculpt. My method is to take 3D renders mid sculpt and draw/paint over them to provide all needed reference and edits to get a nice result.

Alex Immerzeel and now my ever growing team of sculptors are putting out great results with th...

Marauder Lineart Gif

First time making an animated gif, decided this would be a nice way to show off the lineart progress/iterations that I used to go through on our old production pipeline of "lineart before 3D". Though you'll note that I always start with at least a basic 3D model in order to have consistent proportions and perspective.

Currently my preferred system is to design a mech in sketch form, which then goes through full 3D miniature modeling. From there a 3D line render can be produced in much h...

Hard Edge Shimrauder

Here's an initial concept for a Marauder miniature. I took this one pretty far before it was decided some fundamental changes were needed that I didn't thing would force well into this existing look, so I started fresh.

I still miss that side mount gun :(

Marauder Concept Sketch

Another opinion time. I've got a mountain of previously behind doors production pipeline content I can show off here.

Would you guys prefer I slowly go through mech by mech and break down how it all came together in stages? Or do I show off multiple designs back to back and possibly skip some bits to focus on the most interesting/juicy instances of what all goes down?

The former provides the deepest look into things, but it might get tedious, and keep you guys from seeing fresher ...