Organic-looking mecha

[Boxer]

Just a forum question for the mech fans out there.

Anyone have any idea who drew up the Inbit mecha designs? I haven't been able to find a decent credits page for the mecha designer. Also, does this organic-like style of machinery appear in any other series?

[Guppy]

Aura Battler Dunbine is sort of organic-y and so is Guyver. Not my cup of tea. Although I Still bought the guyver 1 figure.

[Druna Skass]

Well not quite like the Inbit, but the Marduk mecha have an organic look to them too.

http://www.anycities.com/user/macross2/mardukmechs.html

Edited September 7, 2005 by Druna Skass

[danth]

Shinji Aramaki and Hideki Kakinuma. Kakinuma did most of the Inbit stuff. At least, that's according to some guy on a forum somewhere (http://toyboxst.inwards.com/phorum/read.php?5,105746).

[Gui]

The boomers from Bubblegum Crisis have very organic looks too, and don't forget GitS. Also, there's some cool organic mecha designs in the whole Gall Force series (made by the same studio than Mospeada btw...), the aliens from Gunbuster may be considered as organic mecha designs (well, they are organic looking, just dunno if they're considered as mechas actually ) and some zentran machines always looked organic to me while I'm at it

[Boxer]

...forgot about Gall force. IIRC, a robotech site out there pulled a few quad-leg Gall force mecha and called them 'invid machines.' More proof that the RT fanbase pulls anything from anywhere to cram it into the already beloated frankenstein.

I'm interested in trying to replicate that kind of organic feel from the Inbit for some of my mecha and need more than just the Inbit designs. I consider myself good enough to draw Steel battalion knockoffs, so I wanted to try the other extreme.

And do Aramaki and Kakinuma have any books out?

[JB0]

...forgot about Gall force. IIRC, a robotech site out there pulled a few quad-leg Gall force mecha and called them 'invid machines.' More proof that the RT fanbase pulls anything from anywhere to cram it into the already beloated frankenstein.

I just did a search for "Gall Force mecha" to see what we were talking about, and found a properly credited one.

...

And it DID look enough like invid mechs that I can see someone thinking it had to be an "abandoned Robotech design."

But I think a lot of the pulling-in comes from teh RPG side of the fanbase. RPGs are known from pulling random elements from other media in to fill out a story. It's just the RT people's dumb fault that they're taking unofficial campaign fodder as canon.

[Noriko Takaya]

the aliens from Gunbuster may be considered as organic mecha designs (well, they are organic looking, just dunno if they're considered as mechas actually  )

326550[/snapback]

The aliens from Gunbuster are actual life forms which live in space. They just have the ability to project energy from their bodies as a weapon and travel through warp naturally.

If anything, the mecha in Neon Genesis Evangelion can be considered organic, as they are restrained living beings housed within an armor shell.

[Boxer]

Heh... Here's some examples here

A Confused Cel image

"Conjectural Lost Invid mecha" Artemis games

The latter is where it was said these designs were from Gall force. Same mecha designer as the Inbit?

I also know of the Gunbuster aliens, but I think they go too organic for what I'm looking for. The same thing possibly with Eva and the DYRL? Zentreadi- I'd like to draw up mecha that look Inbit/Orguss in origin, rather than one of the hundred million Gundam Clones that exist out there (or a 'mecha' swamp thing )

Eva IS Organic from what I can tell. We're never really exposed to the inner workings of an Evangelion (There were some abandoned prototypes that looked cybernetic in construction). We know some things, but I'd slap them under cybernetics or 'synthetic organs' instead of being purely organic. The chaotic nature of the Evangelion is really something of a controversy- probably the thing that makes Eva mecha so appealing to some audiences.

[JB0]

Heh... Here's some examples here

A Confused Cel image

"Conjectural Lost Invid mecha" Artemis games

The latter is where it was said these designs were from Gall force. Same mecha designer as the Inbit?

The second is the link I found earlier.

And it DOES look a lot like the same guy.

[wolfx]

Eva IS Organic from what I can tell. We're never really exposed to the inner workings of an Evangelion (There were some abandoned prototypes that looked cybernetic in construction). We know some things, but I'd slap them under cybernetics or 'synthetic organs' instead of being purely organic. The chaotic nature of the Evangelion is really something of a controversy- probably the thing that makes Eva mecha so appealing to some audiences.

326750[/snapback]

If you've watched the series, and movies, you'd know that the Evangelions are all organic creatures wearing armour as a means of being controlled by humans. Think Dino-Riders.

There was once a thread that linked to a site where some famous mecha were re-done using the style of the Five Star Stories guy, whatever his name was. I really liked the SDF-1 and Valkyrie designs from that site. It looked organic and pointy.

[chrono]

Never really thought of the Invid as 'organic', until they 'bleed'. They've always come off as more 'smooth' then 'organic'. But then again there is a fine line of distinction between the two, so it's near really easy.

Probably the key feature that makes the Invid stand out is the utter lack of the typical panel lines that you see in other mecha. And is the largest difference between them and the Zentraedi mecha.

[zeo-mare]

do not know if it counts but the Alien tripods from the new War of the Worlds film are pretty organic looking almost coming off like a giant 3 legged spider they are very fluid and seem more lifelike than a machine filled with hydraulics and gears, if these type of insect like mech are up your alley you might like these a real lot.

[That NOS Guy]

Maybe it's just me but the WoTW tripods have no organic feel at all, except for the ferry scene and that's a big maybe.

Edited September 8, 2005 by That NOS Guy

[zeo-mare]

to me they always seemed organic almost like a insect , everyone is different i guess

[armentage]

It's the legs & arms on the WOTW mecha. They really had an "alive" way of moving around. Like the way we move our arms & legs, as opposed to the way the Honda ASIMO robot moves mechanically and unnaturally.

Now that I think about it, those WOTW mecha moved a lot like Octopuses and Squid under water. That smooth, coordinated flowing movement... totally creepy!

(Did you know that giant squid have a whole seperate brain & nervous system attached to each arm, that are coordinated by the central brain? When prey moves by an arm, the sub-brain does ALL of the work involved in catching it!)

[Boxer]

Chrono has a point... never noticed that.

Never saw WotW- I'm not much of a horror fan. Besides, from what I've heard it isn't as close to the origional story as I'd want to see... the martians are feeding gigantic plants? They come from underground, instead of from mars even? Enough on that...

WolfX- I HAVE seen most of the Eva episodes- and I refuse to watch the movie because I don't see it as canon (I see it as Anno's retribution to fans who raised a fuss about the TV ending). I know that they bleed, have organs, and what not- but if they were truely biological creatures then I doubt they could be simply switched on and off and run off batteries and an overglorified extension cord

I asked earlier if the Inbit designers have any books out. Is there anywhere where I can find some more lineart for the Inbit?

[chrono]

Another good source of 'organic' looking quasi-mecha is Masamune Shirow's work, not the movies but his books. They show a great understanding of biomechanics and that's probably one of the key features of organic looking mecha.

Just gotta be careful because if you stay with a ball type of joint they all start to look the same.

[Myriad]

The Inbit jouney the universe looking for that perfect life form. The different stages of the Inbit show their different stages in evolution through the years. The Inbit cleaned the Earth up and started its restoration. They eradicated all harmfull things man had made that were slowing destroying the planet. The Inbit would have left the Earth (continuing their journey to become the perfect life form) had the humans left them alone.

Brief Synopsis of what Hieki Kakinuma said from the liner noted of the Mospeada DVD set.

Kakinuma designed most of the Inbit mechs and Aramaki designed the human mechs according to the liner notes in the DVD box set.

[wolfx]

WolfX- I HAVE seen most of the Eva episodes- and I refuse to watch the movie because I don't see it as canon (I see it as Anno's retribution to fans who raised a fuss about the TV ending). I know that they bleed, have organs, and what not- but if they were truely biological creatures then I doubt they could be simply switched on and off and run off batteries and an overglorified extension cord

326913[/snapback]

Even our bodies need power to run. We eat to get the power. Evas don't eat (not until later when 01 gets the S2 unit, which ironically is where the stomach is) , but they still need a power source, thus umbilical cable.

Or you could just think of the power cord is needed to maintain the nervous system link between the cockpit and the eva, not to directly power it.

Anyway on topic of organic mecha, wtf are aura battler dunbines? They look organic enough, but are they, or are they fully mecha?

The Escaflowne movie version was pretty organic as well.

[zeo-mare]

Chrono has a point... never noticed that.

Never saw WotW- I'm not much of a horror fan. Besides, from what I've heard it isn't as close to the origional story as I'd want to see... the martians are feeding gigantic plants? They come from underground, instead of from mars even? Enough on that...

326913[/snapback]

they are from space, but they sent their ships years ago in preperation to the attack, just the ships were deep in the ground hidden, the pilots were still from space. as for the giant plants i am not sure what you are talking about, they begin to re-terraform Earth to look like their planet but it fails those are the only plants i know about.

chris

[Boxer]

Wolf- my point was that they were not entirely organic. Since they need that energy source they have to have some bionic enhancements in some way. It's not, say, a Zentran with armor and a cockpit module with a brain-cockpit interface

My understanding of Dunbine says that they are more organic than even the Zentreadi. They use grown muscle tissue to move their ara battlers, instead of synthetic myomer muscle found in Battletech robots or whatever Gundam & co. use for thier machines. Despite this, I think they are thought of as bug machines with pilots.

Z-M: My information is second hand. I wasn't too impressed by what I heard from those who have seen it. I would have been impressed with one closer to the... wha, 1980s version? The flying wing was awesome.

[jenius]

Didn't the mechs/spacecraft in WotW have sphincters they used to eat people... people they carried around in a scrotum? I'd say that was pretty organic looking to me.

Also, don't you guys think the Q-Rau is kinda organic? Was it mentioned already?

[JB0]

I meant to head out on opening day of War of the Worlds. Not to watch it, just shout "THE ALIENS CATCH COLD AND DIE!" at everyone waiting in line to buy tickets.

[Boxer]

Then all the people who have no knowledge of good old movies would shout back that you spoiled it for them. But all the tom cruise fans would still go in to see it, anyway.

True, the TV Zentreadi mecha have some kind of organic feel to them, IMO, but the feel isn't as strong as the Inbit. Even though the Inbit have panel lines, whoever designed them used them well enough to make them seem... I dunno, organic looking. The Iigaa looks more like a mass-produced inferior combat creature than a robot. Same thing with the Gurab and the Gamo- despite the metal bits and pieces.

As for Escaflowne, I haven't seen the series, but the movie version seems to scream techno-organic at whoever's watching... even moreso than Eva.

[chrono]

Well the Escaflowne series is more industrial 'smooth' tech then organic. In a way it's simply stylised tech. But if your gonna use EVA material then you should also use RahXephon material and possibly Z.O.E. as well.

But frankly all of those are well away from the Invid style that your looking at.