In the most recent tutorial with Jon he suggested that I look at my theme in much more detail. As it stands I am looking at steampunk, but as much as I like this genre there is something much more appealing to the Dieselpunk counterpart, the main thing that I can think of imediately is that Steampunk is a pretty well received genre and as such there are a number of expectations attached that I could possibly overlook, however Dieselpunk is more function over aesthetics, I can still take elements from both themes as they are often regarded as cousins. With this in mind I have decided to shift my theme closer to Dieselpunk as it has slightly less expectations attached but also has internal combustion rather than steam power meaning I could create engines and power supplies that are fuel and electrical based rather than having to think of ways to (I guess) retrofit and reverse engineer objects that don’t physically exist.
I’m still looking at games such as Bioshock and Wolfenstein for inspiration however Jon has mentioned a series on Netflix called The man in high castle, which may be worth looking into as well as a documentary on Steampunk. Though my theme has changed a little I feel as there is a reason for machinery and objects it gives more sense to the final theme.
Steampunk looks to be more ornate in nature, sure there are pipes and various functional elements but at the same time there are a number of decorations and materials that would be quite expensive such as coloured wood, and various metals such as copper, etc. Although this is aesetically pleasing to look at it feels like something that is shown to make people jealous in a way, it looks nice and to a degree is functional but it’s the sort of thing theme I’d imagine wealthy characters would show off. More so if there is clockwork machinery and steam-powered technology visibly working in an environment.
However Dieselpunk looks more function ready, I may not be an engineer but it’s obvious to some objects that a panel is in a specific place because it’s dictated by the function of the machine. With this in mind the materials that look to be most common are in fact metals, perhaps iron, steel and aluminium, there are also colours. As metal can be weathered to create a narrative there is a way to make use layers in substance painter to show this same process. As dieselpunk relies on internal combustion there will be a series of engines and objects that serve a purpose, with this in mind I am limiting my work down to a number of models that fall under a Wolfenstein inspired theme; with this theme in mind I am thinking of including a mix of engines a few variations combustion (If possible) and some more sci-fi inspired such as energy cells.
From breif read through common complaints in some forums about the pricing of 3D assets, a common request was for modular assets. Although this seems more tailored to games it may also prove to be useful when creating the assets for my final models.