As someone who's also dabbled in comic book art myself I'm very familiar with "anatomy" and "proportion" study. I mean my other blog is almost all about anatomy.
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| Nobel ponders whilst holding the head of a Quel. |
Gundams are made in humans image (obviously) and it's hard to not notice that. It might be one of the reasons why we like them so much. Or why some prefer more non-humanoid, monster like mechs.
I guess that might be why I like the Nobel Gundam so much. I always think of my Gundams as having "personalities" of their own after I build them but the Nobel Gundam's design allows it a certain level of "expression" that other Gundams just don't have. It's for this reason that I will probably continue to feature her in many pictures for this blog. She's just the best communicator in her class (1/144).
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| Of course her proportions aren't correct either (head to height is fine, as in human, but leg to torso is... haha) but this happens so often with women (models) that it's almost standard practice. Models tend to have physical proportions that most normal females don't. They'll even sometimes enlist the use of computers to assist in this... illusion. I'll let you guess who "they" are. |
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| Standard. |
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| Modded. |
Worth considering for future modders.
Interesting read man. I do think it is worth noting that mech designers change proportions because these are supposed to be giant robots. If they were to keep standard human proportions we would look at it and recognize it to be about the same height as us because it shares the same proportions. Changing the proportions is the artist's way of tricking us into thinking these things are massive. Just wanted to bring that up.
ReplyDeletefair enough my friend and thanks for the comment. i agree with you. i just wanted to bring it to the attention of others if something seems a bit 'off'.
ReplyDeleteWell, to set a few mechas as examples, we have Voltes V and Mazinger Z and theiyr counterparts. These earlier Mecha designs are "massive" to say at least, but, the are still well-proportioned.
ReplyDeleteI believe most Gundams are designed on the kit stage with designers following the nine heads rule WITHOUT considering the horizontal proportions, so they can follow the flow of the original design, or to follow that of the anime as close as possible.
I mentioned the Strike (and its relatives, specifically the Noir), the Exia, and the Turn A to demonstrate just that. Though they still basically follow the 9 heads rule for mecha design, they are also balanced width-wise all through out, with a bigger/wider head, ample-sized shoulder close to two heads width, and a good-enough waist-leg ratio for an overall balanced look.
As for the worst-proportioned? Aside from the Unicorn, what else but the RX-98-2?
Personally, some designs do look good at those proportions, Like, the Sinanju, for example. In fact most non-Gundam MS designs look good at that proportions. As logi has it, if you are going to make a "human-looking" machine, better make it look as close as possible like a human...
I think the word "anatomy" has a different meaning here then on your other blog BB. ^^;
ReplyDeleteAnd I've read ASM and GaiJin's post about your gathering. Must have been a hell of a time. XD
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ReplyDeleteBB, traffic from your blog to mine shot up on my stats after you posted this.
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