ALIEN-TANK

This is the Alien tank I have created for my college RTS game project and it is an autonomous machine that can move and engage targets on it's own with no need for a driver. It was meant to feel sufficiently alien whilst also not being overly designed or complex as it's purpose needs to be immediately obvious to the player as a devastating weapon and lastly it should look aged, battle-worn and ancient all whilst still feeling suitably futuristic and advanced.

Creating an Alien tank was one of the harder things to do not because of any extra skill or effort needed in actually modelling it but decided what concept to go with! I had several ideas of what to create but often struggled to choose one to begin modelling as I was constantly met with my own self criticism of "hmm, not quite *alien* enough!

HOW I TRIED TO MEET MY DESIGN CRITERIA

-I wanted to give an ambiguous impression that the tank was alive and didn't need a driver or anything so it doesn't feature a cockpit or drivers viewport

- I wanted it to feel somewhat majestic in contrast to it's grim purpose so I added shields that would move forward into attack position from it's back when an enemy was spotted

-I wanted the tank to look aged and ancient so I added scratched and "dinged" metal damage specifically to the shields to imply that it has faced a lot of damage but is more or less impervious to it when it hits the shield. however, the hull features a baked style of damage which implies the Tank has remained exposed to the sun for extended periods of time and given the strength of the shields this might imply an extreme amount of time passage!

- I wanted the purpose of the machine to be obvious to the player from a distance so the entire tank is essentially one huge floating set of guns with a shield protecting the power supply - this is a mirror of how traditional tank designs are for humans as *all a tank is and ever was is a mobile platform to cart-around large and devastating weapons*

THINGS ID CHANGE

- I think the guns look far too normal for such an alien looking hull; the guns appear in very familiar design and asthmatic to human weaponry making them contrast negatively against the hull design - In essence I've failed the rest of the design by having them be so "standard" feeling. To fix this I would perhaps consider using alternate materials or colors for the gun barrels whilst adding complex and unusual shapes through extrusions and additions.

- Some more hull detail would be nice although I quite like it's simplicity as it makes it feel somewhat mysterious and advanced so I'm torn on adding more tail to it