Why do all "nimble" western mecha look like... this?

>AI

I wish I had better language to describe why and how much I hate artstation mechs. I think the killer is that they're typically not made by mecha fans, they're made by CG fans with portfolios of toasters and motorcycles. Highly detailed garbage with awful shapes and proportions.

Also similar to AI in that I think they use each other as reference, so you can see Titanfall and Bayformer and Blomkamp details slowly melting into a sludge together until it's like an ugly ghost of something that once had some effort put into it.

>>23373477
The style you're talking about CAN look good sometimes, but making it feel distinct takes some effort.

>>23373485
>The style you're talking about CAN look good sometimes, but making it feel distinct takes some effort.
I mean, the reason Aaron Beck type photobashed machine shop prototype tacticool mech design got popular was because it was novel in the late 2000s.

>>23373426 (OP)
Realism cancer.

>>23373426 (OP)
they wrongly believe that having exposed mechanical components = realism
really its a crutch though. when you dont know how to mate the different parts of a design in a sensible way or in a way that complements the overall visual design you just throw random parts inspired by production lines and car suspensions until it looks like it makes sense
bonus if you have plastic or cloth sheathing on it that really helps it look like you knew what you were doing

you ever try chasing down a chicken? bitches be nimble as fuck

>>23373757
that's not a chicken, that's a digitigrade biped

>>23374501
>I have brought you a mech, plato!

>>23373663
>they wrongly believe that having exposed mechanical components = realism

Which is kind of weird, you don't see f-22 showing wires or screws.

>>23373757
this desune

>>23373426 (OP)
These >>23373662 >>23373663
This being said, there's some decent reasoning behind kibblecore designs. Many military machines tend to be geometrically smooth or simplistic for practical reasons, but they will be adorned with many parts and components that break up that shape, e.g. compare something like an M113, Bradley, or F22, F16, F/A15 to something like a Maxxpro MRAP. Western designers, at least IMO, are rather like the western public and don't necessarily know what real realism looks like, but do want an impression of it, so they add a lot of details which don't necessarily mean anything because complicated = real.

However >>23373757 is also a part of the problem, if one could call it that. See, these western designers are correctly drawing from nature and realizing that digitigrade organisms are very quick and nimble, which is how things are. However, the redpill the nips embraced a long-ass time ago is that a machine doesn't need to walk to move fast, or walk period, since other methods of movement will always be faster. This eventually evolved into a medley of forms like skating, hovering, transforming, everything being flight capable, etc. which in turn became a western stereotype of unrealistic nip mecha, so the west, wanting to be le grizzled and realistic, makes "fast" things digitigrade footsloggers.

>>23375373
>>23375807
for ground vehicles at least, add on armour, recovery points, smoke launchers, lights, optics, and engineering equipment might as well just be visual noise. audience and artists both dont know what those shapes are or what they do so exchanging it with a gear or a piston or am exposed wire, or random starwars greebles just gets the same feeling across
if you are familiar with real military or aerospace designs it takes you out of it but were a niche market

Is this the artstation slop thread or what?

>>23377140
>Why are my calves so tiny holy fuck

>>23377140
This is a generation 3 AC, Japanese through and through.

>>23373757
Japan did chicken walkers better though. Even in a comedic series like Xabungle. Bonus points for giving them "Jeep" faces because they can go anywhere.

>>23377382
Proof?

>>23378334
... the fact that it's literally an Armored Core?

>>23377140
This doesn't have randomly exposed internal assemblies so it's not artstationslop

>>23376079
The thing is, ground vehicles are small. The hell of an M1 Abrams is just under 8m long. Double it and get a full body shot and those bolts will be a lot less noticeable. Plus, while they are reliable, bolts feel very anachronistic for a flashy sci-fi world.

Not just mecha

>>23378586
Looks more like battletech to me. You sure about that?

>>23378849

for reference- art for AC3: Silent Line

>>23378849
>>23377140
It's literally just someone's custom gen3.5 AC. All of those are recognizable parts from the games, especially the Vixen/Stinger legs and the AMS on the front of the core

>>23373426 (OP)
You can thank Apple for the minimalist tech look that took the west by storm.
>>23378849
>Looks more like battletech to me.
Well Kawamori did design both

>>23377140
This is what the SOLARWIND will look like in the Armored Core 4th Gen remaster!

>>23373485
Man, Ethan was fucking awesome.

>>23375807
>Western designers, at least IMO, are rather like the western public and don't necessarily know what real realism looks like, but do want an impression of it, so they add a lot of details which don't necessarily mean anything because complicated = real.

This sentence hit the nail on the head on a feeling I had for quite some time about westerners. They can't wholeheartedly enjoy fiction like Japanese do but at the same time have no regard for actual realism they supposedly favor. I can't understand what causes this. It's so damn prevalent too. It's pretty much the default mode for westerners.

>>23382064
I feel like it would work better if they embraced realism as something that can be cool, rather than realism for the sake of it. Kind of like how the hypest character in a lot of fiction is the regular dude that manages to kick ass alongside the overpowered guys. Hell, it's half the reason people like Scopedog so much. Realism being treated like the underdog aesthetic can work well.

I feel like much of the american perspective on mechs could be summed up with a sketch where a guy sends a mech back for looking unrealistic so they paint it brown camo and bring it back to him saying "finally, some realistic mechs around here!"

>>23373426 (OP)
It's the hip and shoulder joints. I mean, just look at your pic. The joints flare Outwards For No Apparent Reason. This isn't so bad if the mech is big and stocky but thin things down and it's downright inhuman.

Now look at the Leo. The Shoulders are Literal Balls and the legs go Into the hips rather than shooting out to the side like a truck axle.

>but why
Because western mechs are designed to be a Vehicles where eastern mechs are Proxies for the pilot. Look at any gundam and there's an impression that it's some dude in armor. Look at any battlemech and it looks like it's got a 12 speed transmission.

>>23385980
>Because western mechs are designed to be a Vehicles where eastern mechs are Proxies for the pilot.

That isn't true at all. A Bigfoot Dougram isn't any less a proxy for its pilot any obvious Battletech traced over knockoff like the Zeus is.

can someone explain to me why people took the striped paint warning patterns and assumed this meant literal parallel lines carved into the metal

>>23385980
I think you are making several fundamental misreads of franchise-specific mechanical direction.

>>23377140
>this was designed by the main mecha designer of armored core 6
Let that sink in.

>>23385980
>Look at any battlemech
They frequently look like this. Something like 2/3rds of battlemechs are just boxy guys, and this is after most have been redesigned to cater for the boxy crowd. The only difference on whether this is a mech or power armor is being told so.

>>23388666

>>23388659
those legs are sex, holy shit.

>>23388666
Sometimes they even have "guy who could just be an Iron Man villain."

>>23385992
That's because BT basically stole the designs.

Gimbals started to grow on me