Conclusion

Im really pleased with this finished product i feel it captures Half life and Shirow Masamune quite well. The main character looks very similar to a cross between a half life scientist and one of shirows strong female characters, the only thing i really dislike about her is the head.

The robot was heavily inspired by the half life Loader robot but kept the colour scheme of  Shirows work because Cyan is my favourite colour and because i wanted to refer back to my blue colour scheme. Midnight blue for the sky but lighter cyans and turquoise's to highlight the characters. The main inspiration from the loader were the Legs and the gun which was just an edit of the hydralics on the back of the loader. Most if not all of shirows mechs look partially 3d and this is what im most proud of because i feel i have encompassed this very well as i do believe the mech looks quite 3d and realistic.

I wanted the environment to feel slightly depressing, dark and moody. To acomplish this i chose a night time storm scene on the roof of a building overlooking the city, i feel this captures the effect i was going for quite nicely.

After trying to base my style on Shirows ive come to realise i dont like it. It may be due to all ive stared at for the past month is this art style and image but i will take away some things ive learnt from it especially the linework and the gradient system.

The Finished Product

I think im pretty much finished, ive touched up a few things, fiddled the lighting and added a rain effect to keep with the dark depressing dystopian feel shirow is well known for.

Envirobot

I wanted a quick test aswell of the environment with the robot just so i can see whats needed to be done. It looks pretty good though, im quite pleased.

Im most pleased with the lighting ive done using gradients and masks for shading.

Environment

Ive tried to create my own environment a cityscape at night, trying to mirror Shirows Ghost in the Shell enironment. Its a filtered picture with some added things like window lighting and sky gradients.

Nearly there

Im nearly there! woo. Robot is done, Scientist is done. Just a background to do and maybe see if i can do some nice lighting effects but other wise im happy.

Scientist

Im pretty much done with the character of the scientist im tempted to redo the face because i hate faces and i can never get them right they always look 'odd' But otherwise im pleased with how she came out.

Looking good

All the main parts of the robot are done, ive even added some lighting to it which will be usefull for when i go over the entire image with overlays and crosslighting, this way i know where the sources are coming from. Just the knees shoes and vent to do, then its just little details on it.

Gradients

Ive gone back over the mech with a new idea. looking at Shirows work he merges his manga style with a gradient mettalic  look for his robots. Im trying to recreate this with my piece using the gradient tool and altering the levels.

New metal

Old brush

Continuing the character

Ive been working more on my scientist character and shes nearly complete i think. The last thing ive got to do is the head (the bit ive been dreading most) to tie in more with the half life theme ive added the black mesa reasearch facility logos on clothing and the clipboard. I feel ive made her quite a dominant character now i just have to not ruin her face. Underneath ive also added an example picture of what the final image is going to hopefully be like.

Character start

Ive also started work on my main foreground character, Im thinking of having 2 characters one facing the viewer and another just working in thew background. Below is my starting attempt at the foreground female. Ive taken alot of inspiration from Ghost in the shell and also a bit from other cyber animes notable the science team from Neon Genesis. 

Mech Start

If started the focal point mech creature and its roughly drawn. If started converting it into a photoshop and ive also done some starting test colour just to try and get a feel for a colour scheme.

Started drawing and outlining they major areas

Colour testing

Focal Point

My focal point is going to be the mech type creature so here are some concepts of the mech ive created ive tried to mix the half life 1 loader with the ghost in the shell mech as seen in my research. The combination of these two should create a pretty unique design.

Im loving the bottom right design so i think im going to follow that through for the moment.

Scientists

Selection of reference Scientists

Original Half Life Scientists

I know my scientist character is going to be female thats for certain. Half life had no female scientists but most if not all of Shirows Protagonists are female so im going to stick with his trend. The ususal scientist look is white clothing with short hair or hair bunched up. Shirows characters are normally quite scantily clad so im going to have them wearing little under the lab coat, what little they are wearing will most probably be skin tight (see evangelion picture). leather gloves maybe?