So what have I learnt from all these? Well the most obvious answer to that question is in the helmet, I definitely like them to be faceless, that doesn't necessarily mean featureless, but having no visible eye slot or hole is a big plus. Having lights or cameras or something in place of lights but not quite positioned correctly is even better. In fact lights in general seem to be pretty good, for eyes, on weapons, around exhausts, its all good.
The second point is that I seem to be fond of armour with very smooth panels and sharp edges. I feel like this leads to the most futuristic look. Too many sharp edges could lead things to be blocky and bulky more like an '80s imagining of the future but smooth panels with sharp definition lines is more like a 2011 view of the future.
The trends I'm seeing in terms of the armours mobility is to have large panels across the big body parts with the pieces getting smaller and more complex on the areas where flexibility is needed. Armoured parts combined with a kind of stiff rubber or other semi-flexible material under suit is an idea that gets repeated a lot and I am quite a fan of.
In general I quite like complex but minimal shapes in the armour panels. What I mean by this is that the armour appears quite faceted with many sharp angle changes and planes, but it is not cluttered up with lots of extra bits, like pouches, straps, pockets, holsters, if those things exist the have been hidden away or designed into the armour itself.
PS. I do not own any of these images and they are property of their respective owners.
This has cleared my mind up in terms of the design elements that I want to include and give me some more topics to research. Next time I'll be looking at real armours and hard surfaces which may have elements to incorporate into my design. Stay tuned...
