MASTER CLASS PROGRAM

Illustrating Tech
The Armored Figure

THE ARMORED FIGURE

There are three basic types of armored figures. The first is approximately the size of the human
inside and wraps the figure in a thickness of armor. The second is much larger than a human
(still in human-like form) with the occupant operating it in a fly-by-wire mode. The third is still
in exaggerated human form, but may be robotic, leaving us with much more design latitude.

In this section, a 'suit' of armor is wrapped around a skeletal human form in both light and
bulky armor versions. The mass of armor will be applied mostly outward from the human form,
as excessive inward expansion would be too limiting to arm and leg motion. Note there is a now
familiar perspective grid in one direction to allow duplicating key points of the armor cladding.
The first iteration seems acceptable and does not look terribly restrictive of movement. The
second however, is becoming very massive and probably represents the upper limit of size for
physical operation by a human. Muscle assistance technology would of course be needed at
either level of armor mass.

Here you see the simplified human skeletal with the grid in place. To this, we have added the
light and heavy armor versions as discussed earlier. I am not attempting to teach design, but
rather a procedure you can use to place components (of your own design) up and down the figure
and limbs. The human frame keeps the entire design in sync with our notion of what an armored
figure should look like.

You can see that you want the right amount of 'armor on the bone'. The silhouette of the figure
overall is extremely important...more so than the interior joints and details, and should be
shaded in an overlay to see what you have shape-wise. If the shape is pleasing, start working out
the joints. There are a billion examples out there so what you copy or invent is your decision.
The examples are 'at rest', as design must come first and…dramatic poses can come later.

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 MASTER CLASS PROGRAM
Illustrating Tech
The Armored Figure

Below are a couple of views of our generic armor scheme from a lower angle of view, both from
the front and rear. In all these examples the human form is our starting point.

Feel free to trace these

skeletal human figures
to try your hand at clad-
ding them. It still will
not be easy, but it will
help! Create a grid for
the above poses. Draw
lines from the bottom
of the heels and tops of
the shoulders until they
intersect, then add more
lines from that inter-
section through the key
points. Always use tra-
cing overlays on these
figures as drawing dir-
ectly (even on a print)
is intimidating and you
need to start with simple
blocks and tube shapes
anyway!

What will follow are a series of skeletal poses and a direct front and side view with armor added
and perspective playing no role in the resulting view. These last skeletals are a great place to
begin your exercises, as you do not have perspective foreshortening to deal with. You can concen-
trate on joint locations and general shapes, and how they work from front and side. Make cer-
tain key points line up between front and side views.

Exercises:

Using the front and side views…develop a design, both in light and heavy armor. Once designed,
apply it to all the provided skeletal perspective poses. This is not easy but the figure and grids
will help you line things up correctly.

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 MASTER CLASS PROGRAM
Illustrating Tech
The Armored Figure

Preserving the Traditions of the Masters

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 MASTER CLASS PROGRAM
Illustrating Tech
The Armored Figure

Below is the last of the skeletal figures...a standard three-quarter frontal pose. Use this and the
previous poses for your exercise.

In this next segment I will present a series

sketches that deal with the walking armored
figure, which in this case is one of the non-
physically operated machines. The operator
would likely be semi-seated behind the view
port. The walking pose is never easy to get
just right in a first sketch.

The first sketch is just that...an idea for a general pose. The second sketch begins to clean up the
design and establish an analog hip-pelvis unit and the ground point. Note that each joint is a
pair of ellipses...these are drawn first, with a light axle-line radiating from the RVP through each
pairs center-point. Light lines are drawn from the center of each outside ellipse to the center of
the next, as shown. Repeat this for the inside ellipses, then do the other leg in like fashion. As
always it is best to do this on a taped-down overlay, as you will probably move them several
times along with struggling to get the right ellipse shapes. TIP: If you get one that looks right,
trace it and use it in all the other locations (be sure the radiating line from the VP passes through
its short axis as shown). It is important that the ellipse be square with this line, and not angled.
There may be slight size changes from nearer to further away, but simply drawing slightly inside
or outside of the copy ellipse should re-size it enough.

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Below is the rough concept sketch.
The next sketch presents a cleaned-up and
in perspective view, with analogs to hip,
joint and feet. Leg connections are slightly
curved.
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MASTER CLASS PROGRAM
Illustrating Tech
The Armored Figure
In the final preliminary sketch all the forms
have been enhanced and in this case...a bird-
like leg structure was chosen with the knee
joint hinging rearward. A circular element
above the 'hips' allows rotation of the upper
unit, and some other tilting options are affec-
ted by pistons and other devices in the con-
nection area; you can be vague with these.
he gap between the rear foot and its shadow
tell us the rear foot is in mid-stride, and not
on the ground. Note also its drooping con-
dition. Shadows can be ruthlessly accurate
or just approximate as it is tough for a viewer
to find fault if you are close to correct.
On the following page I will show a sketch of
the walking gait of this machine in sequence
from contact-to-contact. Positioning legs and
feet is among the more difficult tasks you
will have to address. Note also that same side
legs and arms are forward verses backward
for balance. There is a point where both arms
can be exactly opposite in mid-stride.
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 MASTER CLASS PROGRAM
Illustrating Tech
The Armored Figure

Below you will see a rather cartoon-like diagram of the previous machine and it's principle walk-
ing stages. The odd look to some of the stages is due to the bird-leg reverse hinging. The stages
however are identical for a human rearward hinging leg.

To really represent the complete stride we would need to repeat the movements of the rear leg
(darker blue) with the near leg. Unless you are animating, this is only for general positions and
relationships of the four limbs at various stages of walking. The same exercise needs to be done
with the human legs normal hinging to see how that might look. I admit this diagram was dif-
ficult, and it required a great many changes to get it close to correct...so do not get discouraged
if you find it difficult. Of very special note, once again, the arms and legs on the same side of the
body are always moving in opposite directions for balance. At the passing stage you can see, that
for a brief moment they are both vertical to the ground.

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