MX-23-1
Exploration Mech Prototype
[Software/Hardware]
| Maya |
| Substance Painter |
| Photoshop |
| Unity |
| iPad Pro |
From an early age, my fascination with robotics and mech suits was undeniable. As a pacifist, I envisioned a combat mech repurposed solely for exploration. This idea blossomed into the concept for a board game prototype currently in development. Players navigate the MX-23-1 across a new planet, competing to discover, chronicle, and research new species. I began by 3D modeling several components for this prototype.
The exploration mech features solar panel wings, a three-axis claw tail, and a glass cockpit that seats two. Using orthographic references and blueprints, I modeled it at real-world scale, always keeping a variety of rulers handy. By using primarily quads and the occasional triangle, I maintained light geometry. I manually unwrapped, edited, and relaxed UVs, ensuring to hide seams along natural boundaries. UV shells were organized on UDIMs by material categories and efficiently packed without overlap.
After creating texture maps in Substance Painter, I imported them into the hypershade and utilized the Arnold standard surface shader for texturing. I rendered a material override, ambient occlusion, wireframe, z-depth, and beauty pass. The lighting was designed to emulate a cozy board game night, using warm tungsten light and positioning the key light as a backlight to produce glowing highlights and rim light.
“Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.”
