Irozan Faction

Irozan is the first of three factions in the fantasy based Project Realm. The Irozan's are learners of instrumentality, magical engineers. They traveled east into barren canyon-lands and settled on cliffs above the sea. They draw from the waters to help power and cool their magical glowing, steaming machines.

Irozan designs follow the etchings of their visionary mage leader who founded their belief in the powers of instrumentation. The three shapes of Irozan are the circle, square and trapezoid. They also adhere to the rhythms of the Gear (which in profile is made up of their three primary shapes). An interesting thing about the earliest markings found on Irozan artifacts is they are all etched in perspective. A 3d representation of their shapes forming spheres, cubes and cylinders. Artifacts from other factions show etchings of two dimensional shapes. This indicates Irozan aptitude and ability to think and see in broader dimensions. Irozan aimed to achieve the creation and development of perfect circle and square forms in their instruments. They believed if they could create these perfect forms they could increase their powers greatly.

The Irozan race of humans are short and stocky, they are muscular blacksmiths who utilize magical powers that drive their gear, weapons and machinery. The Irozan Snealth is a type of ranged warrior. He primarily uses cross bows and steam powered weaponry. When he gets in close he also uses explosive devices to take down targets. Seen below is an Irozan Snealth medium res model with diffuse textures.

I create keyframe imagery for every animation for every character when I use foreign animation outsourcing. Here's an example keyframe sheet I quickly created to describe and visually convey what I want for the plant explosives animation. 

The Irozan Juggernaut is a large magically powered suit or armor. The driver fits inside the torso and looks out of the porthole. This heavy suit is designed primarily to withstand attacks while pushing frontlines to destroy enemy towers and fortifications. The image below shows a rapid process I used to get this character designed, modeled, weighted and rigged for animation in less than four weeks while also doing many other tasks. The sketches are quick thumbnails that conveyed enough information to start the modeling process where I easily refined the design in 3d. The model images show a default upgradable hand attachment. It may be replaced with a variety of weapon mounts like blades and the glowing orange molten metal pummel fist. This Juggernaut design is intended to be an oversized suit of armor, not a "mech". Remember a driver sits in the torso and drives the heavy suit with Irozan magic. The torso is a large solid unit and the legs are shorter to give it this feel. The design matches the short and wide physicality of the Irozan people.

Below is a quick styleguide I put together to convey important hip translation requirements to the rigger.