Doctor Octave's Battle Organ

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm working on a 3D model, based on a random funny boss from a tabletop RPG I once ran, in which the players faced a bunch of evil musical robots. Their leader was an inventor/musician named Doctor Octave, who sat in a giant-walking-spider-chair from which he played soul-crushingly terrifying melodies.

Translating that idea into a 3D concept that looks functional and artistically appealing is a little difficult. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on ways to make this read a little better from a distance.



 
How are you modeling this? Either way it's brilliant. The only things I immediately thought was that the pipes were missing the openings. That, and I always think of pipes being bronzish, a la this:

 
That looks incredible! If you're soliciting advice on how to make it look more terrible, I would try flaring the organ pipes out a bit. Right now they're pretty straight up-and-down which--while good for an organ, doesn't look terribly lifelike. If they were spaced a bit more at the top, maybe that might help?

---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------

Oh, also, wood organ on steel legs sounds cool, but it would take actually seeing it together to make a fair judgment I would guess.
 
I'm going to echo the statements about having the organ be made of bronze and wood. When you add the openings to the pipes don't forget the ones at the top and the notchy bits toward the bottom (seen here).

I also wanted to say how hard it is to see the thread title and not make a penis joke. >_>
 
Okay, I've been experimenting with the shape a bit. Here's the current version:



Regarding materials/textures... I have a fair idea of what I want but I'm not worrying about it so much until I get the shape finalized. The old version I was intending to eventually make the piano made of wood and most of the rest of it made of various metals. The new design lends itself more to pure metal, with a few select wooden decorations. (I kept having trouble getting the piano to look cool from the front, so I eventually decided there was no reason for it to even be visible from the outside. I will eventually be making a piano-interior that will have more wooden pieces but the outside's pretty much bronze and iron).
 
Overall, it's really reminiscent of Porky Minch's Battle Bed from Mother 3. I like it!



Just an idea... why not turn those springy bits on the legs into something that looks like a concertina or an accordion? Or if you'd like it to be strictly an organ style thing, make them look like foot pumps?
 
I think part of the problem I'm seeing is the organ doesn't look like part of the whole thing. It feels a little tacked-on. Maybe having a few of the organ pipes follow the curve of the spider's back-end and flare a bit at the ends, or even having some pipes from the back connecting into the organ itself, making it look like a control mechanism for the spider. The spider itself looks awesome, the rounding you've done gives it a bit more of an organic and evil feel.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top