Ork Reference

In order to get an idea of the Ork half of my race cross over I needed to research and gather reference material of existing Ork models and artwork. Here is a selection of what I gathered.

 

 This is the official Ork Codex from Games Workshop, it details all the Ork units and background information, along with everything needed to build and play an Ork army within the game.

The following is a selection of Ork Units, all imagery can be found on the Games Workshop Website, found here!

This is only a very small selection of the units within the Ork armies. It helps to illustrate the variety of sizes, colours and abilities involved. For example some Ork characters are very small, other units are much larger, some units can fly whereas others are very slow moving etc. The design of Ork units can also vary widely as they designed to be scavengers meaning their units can have multiple styles and parts incorporated into them.

Despite their scavenging tendencies Orks still have a very distinct overall style which is noticeable and  uniformed throughout their entire army. In order to incorporate the Ork style into my new models I need to nail down what 'Ork' fundamentally is, so when people see my models they immediately understand that they are based on Orks. 

Planning The Project

This project is going to span over a few months and there is a lot that needs to be considered and happen during that time. So I wanted to have a quick think about planning out my project roughly and thinking about what I need to get done.

Referencing - This has got to be the most basic thing I need to get done and do it right. As I'm doing a cross over between two existing races I need to accurately incorporate parts of each race into my designs and this can't be done if I don't reference them well. Referencing will be an ongoing and developing part of my project as I encounter specific design problems referencing and incorporating ideas will help to move me forwards.

Design/ Concepts - Although my designs are likely to change and evolve several times throughout the project I need some strong designs and concepts as a starting point. Concepting is an important part of the beginning of my project and has already started (some sketches will be uploaded soon), it will help me to bring my ideas together and let me see if they are looking good visually. Concepts and designs are also an integral part of development, I need these designs in order to begin modelling.

Modelling - There is a whole variety of issues that will be faced during the modelling phase of my project, including; what program do I use?, how complicated can the model be?, does the model have to be built in a specific way to be 3D printed?, what file type does the model need to be? etc. These are all questions that need answering sooner rather than later as 2 weeks spent modelling could be wasted if I've not built it in the correct way for printing etc. As I'm not building for use inside a game I am not bound by the traditional triangle budgets that I'm used to, however there are bound to be other limits that will restrict and dictate how I need to build and export my models. These are all issues that I will be looking into and addressing over the next few days.

(I didn't make this)

3D Printing - The aim of my project is to have finished models in hand, to make this happen I need to have them 3D printed which has luckily become a much easier and accessible process for the public. There are still however considerations which need to be addressed. The capabilities of 3D printers vary greatly and it is possible to have things printed at different resolutions, this means one type of printing may offer much better levels of detail. I therefore need to research and decide how much detail I want and need within my models, this may in turn impact the size of my model and the price, which both need to be considered. Another factor around the 3D printing of my models is overall finished quality, I want my models to be as close to Games Workshop quality as possible, I also plan on painting them afterwards. I therefore need to consider what material I need to get my models printed in. Time, this is another very important part of 3D printing my models. While the rest of my project is under my control sending my designs off to be 3D printed by a company is not. I need to allow the time it will take to have the models printed and returned to me within my plan, I also need to adequately allow for delays or problems involved with this part of my project. I plan on having some test prints done in order to evaluate all these issues as soon as possible.

Refining and Evaluating Models - Even if my models look amazing digitally and I think there is no way they could not be awesome in person, they might look rubbish printed. I need to allow time within my project plan to review the printed 3D models and evaluate if I'm happy with them or not. Not matter how well I try design my models there is no way of telling just how they will look and feel in person until they are printed. Ensuring I have this time within my project will enable me to make changes based upon reviewing the printed models and get new models printed. This section of reviewing, evaluating and refining my models is important in ensuring I'm satisfied with my finished models.


Painting - A huge part of being a Games Workshop hobbyist is painting your models. Models are always advertised and showcased with their eye popping paint jobs which make them really stand out and come to life. Painting therefore has to be an integral part of my project. There is not point creating an awesome model that looks flat and boring because its just completely grey or black. I need my models to be painted, and to a good standard, to grab the attention and imagination of everyone viewing my models. Fortunately painting Warhammer models is something I have some previous experience of (look out for some photos) and should be a fairly straight forward, if a bit time consuming, part of my project.

Staging/ Showcasing - This project is going to be an amazing look into how models are designed and created for the Warhammer 40k universe and there is going to be a lot of unseen processes throughout the development of the project. Showcasing all the work involved is therefore an important part of the project in order to give the finished pieces a sense of development history. I don't want my project to just be the finished models sitting there, I want my project to be a journey throughout the whole development process. Thought and time will therefore need to go into the design of how my project is showcased in order to show the development history of the project along with the finished products.
 
Project Review - Although my project is largely going to be a lot of fun and a fantastic way to spend a couple of months doing something I'm going to really enjoy, it is still a university project and requires a certain amount of review. This blog will serve as a constant method of review and development logging but I will still need to allow enough time at the very end of the project to formally review and document my entire process. 

Initial Ideas

The first major part of this Warhammer 40k project is to decide what exactly I want to design and make. I originally thought about designing my own characters from 3 preexisting races, these would be; Space Marines, Orks and Tyranids.

Although doing this could have produced some interesting and good results I wanted to go a step further. I wanted to create my own race!

Creating a new race would give me the largest scope for original ideas and designs, the challenge is therefore keeping it realistic within the Warhammer 40k universe.

Technically creating a new race would be a very complicated if they were to be played with. For example if Games Workshop created a new race they would need to create all the different units required, ensure they were balanced and work out exactly how they would be played with.
Fortunately this isn't the goal of my project, I am focusing purely on what it takes to make a 3D Warhammer 40k model.

I want to keep things relatively straight forward and simple and am therefor going to do a race 'cross over' using preexisting Warhammer 40k models to help me stylize and design  my own models.

Chaos - Orks 

Both Chaos and Orks have large, varied and interesting armies but they don't overlap. I find both armies extremely interesting and awesome looking, along with Space Marines they are my favorite races in the 40k universe. A cross over between these two races if done well could work really well.

I'm pretty set on going this cross over, out of all the possible cross overs that could be done I think this own has the most potential for me personally.



If you don't already know you can check out the basics of each army here:
Orks
Chaos

You can also check out their complete armies on the Games Workshop website which can be found here!

Previous Warhammer Work

Although not related to this project I wanted to show a couple of screens from a previous project I've done which was heavily based in the Warhammer 40K universe.

In this project I had to design a roof top, and of course I went with a 40K roof including big anti air guns, missile launchers, big towers, fancy statues and of course loads of skulls!

Many of the textures in this project where hand painted and the models designed and built around existing Warhammer models/props. Doing this project really helped me get into the style and design involved in Warhammer 40K. 

What is this Blog about?

This is my personal blog tracking my thought processes and progress while I design, sculpt, 3D print and eventually paint my own Warhammer 40K models.

I am undertaking this project as part of my Video Game Art and Design degree course at De Montfort University and for personal enjoyment.

I have always enjoyed collecting, building and painting Warhammer models and am specifically interested in their unique look and style. Throughout my University course I have tried to incorporate various little bits of Warhammer stylization into each project so I'm really excited about being able to base my Final Major Project around something I'm passionate about.

This blog is designed to follow my progress and give me a place to air my thought processes as I work through the project. Warhammer 40k is a massive and ever expanding universe full of individual ideas and opinions so I'd be interested to hear about other people's views or input about my ideas along the way so feel free to leave comments!