Design Concept and Visual Language
I’m a big fan of Evangelion, and I find its EVA unit designs particularly inspiring. Although they are essentially biological armor, the design cleverly combines the elegance of the human form with the bold, heavy aesthetics of industrial machinery. I see this as a compelling starting point for my own exploration.
I also took notice of one of the early design approaches used by hard surface designer Vitaly Bulgarov, which features a very distinctive visual style. His design methodology is clear and systematic — building up details step by step to reveal rich mechanical layering. Studying this style will be very beneficial for improving my own modeling practice.
A experimental direction
This design (as shown below) reflects one of VB’s signature approaches — a clear, mechanical-like logic that builds from the inside out: starting with the internal structure, then the muscle layer, and finally the outer shell. It balances smooth, streamlined shapes with rich layers of detail, much like real-world mechanical design.
Reflection
After several days of research, I feel I’ve gained a basic understanding of robot design. It can be divided into two main parts: the overall shape and the internal details.
- The shape should remain clean and simple, avoiding too many small lines that could break the visual flow.
- The internal details, more is not always better — a good balance is to follow a seven&three distribution, focusing the detail in a specific area to maintain visual harmony across the whole design.