Step-by-step making a cohesive mech

One Mimic design details

TWO Add nCloth to problem parts

THRE add Asymmetry

FOUR Material hierarchy

For this mech, half the inspiration came from robotic factory arms and the other half from aggressive sportscar styling. Try to mimic your details as much as possible. Whenever I get stuck in an area, I look around the model itself for ideas. I set up some rules so I can hold the design together. My first rule is to use angular styling for any armour plate. The second is to use ring bolts that are found on robotic arms for any rotation joint. Cloth can save you time when elements do not connect smoothly. I solve this by using nCloth in Maya. Copy your geometry and reduce it to its basic form without fine details. Next, cut it up or smooth it for dense quads and good topology. Scale it up so the cloth encases the problem area. Convert the dense geo to nCloth and let the CPU take over! Try not to overdo it. Save nCloth for when you catch yourself wasting too much time. Once everything is working design wise, add some asymmetry. These can be wires, decals, techy modules, missing parts, and so on. This works well just like in character design when someone has a scar or parrot on their shoulder. Most machines never look perfect, but they usually have some random functional attachments. My favourite is when sportscars have an offset bulge on the hood. Since this asymmetry will stick out, make sure you mean for the viewer to look there. I tend to stick to a maximum of four different colours and if necessary, two different accents. It’s best to develop a hierarchy of these materials. For example, I used a matte graphene for body shapes, a glossy black for an accent, a shiny grey metal for the angular pieces and a chrome accent for tiny pieces like bolts. The cloth was just a dirty greenish tint. Finally, I used a bright red for the sparse wires to make things pop.