Nomad Pt.1 - Insignia and Concept Art

Nomad. We had a goal in mind for this Legion's creative process --- we wanted the Base and Upgrade units to share rigs and animations as much as possible and keep the production cost/time low. Some ended up more successfully than others, but I think that the goal was achieved pretty well. As always there was no need to polish the concept art if I am the one modeling the unit; the design is in my head. :P

Designing a legion (race) always started with making a moodboard. This is when I collect images and idea notes that will inspire me throughout the concept art process. The program I use for this process is PureRef.

I try to incorporate elements of unit design into the insignia, especially hinting at the T6 (strongest) unit.

Alternative insignia sketch which I ended up not going with because its silhouette shape wasn't unique or simple enough.

The color palette was locked in pretty quickly since Insignia is the first thing I create. For Shaman and Rhino Rider I wanted to re-use Rig/anim from existing Mercenaries...

"Madmax Rats". I just needed one rig and animation set for Upgrade and re-use on the base. These are the cheapest units that will be "spammed", so the mesh needed to be very simple.

Harpy. I loved giving them a hint of African tribal accessories. I'm simplifying the wings and using alpha transparency to mimic feather silhouettes.

Renamed later as Sky Queen. Her rig and animation set was made and applied to the Harpies. The only things to worry about were the soft bits like head feathers and tails.

Not every member of Nomads are wise, so we needed a dummy! You can upgrade him to either Linoness or Alpha Male.

I remember thinking about the Black Panther movie while doing this one haha. Just like in nature, she's the best fighter in the pack.

His name became Alpha Male to push his theme; he gets a debuff when next to another Alpha Male or more expensive units than him. He can buff synergize very well with Lioness. He had to use a diff rig to show his personality.

This idea was scratched out, but I thought about using Dark Mage rig/animation into a cute rodent Shaman. He might come back as a mercenary in the future.

The blind goat shaman. He had such a unique posture and shape that he needed a new rig/animation, but I think it was worth it. I really liked putting the African mask element into the Upgrade.

"Rhino Rider" idea was tricky so it became a tanky Pangolin. He uses Dino's rig/anim. Simple, good boy.

I usually pull ideas from mythology from around the world, and this time I was focused on Dingonek. While I liked the aggressive design, it started to look too monstrous so I pivoted.

Mononoke Hime's boar was the main idea for these two.

I think it became a bit vanilla but Dingonek story was so niche anyways, so I don't regret pivoting the idea.