Gallery 2

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

AKIRA - Kaneda's Bike part two!


Well, that's as finished as that's gonna get! Didn't really turn out how I'd like but it was a lot of fun to paint. I'd imagined something lightweight looking and kinda less clunky but...eh.
The idea with this bike is that it's two-wheel drive with electric motors mounted within each wheel. The batteries are carried at the bottom of the central monocoque to give a low centre of gravity with a portion of the battery compartment in a quick-release cylinder (in yellow by his knee). I figure it's a stolen race prototype and that part of the battery would be able to be changed very quickly in race conditions, like refueling pit-stops. It would steer with both wheels at low speeds (less than 30km/h) and has huge aerated ceramic discs running around the wheel's circumference for braking. Or something!
I don't think Kaneda's outfit looks better in blue, he was just disappearing into the bike a bit when I painted him in his red get-ups. I also changed his riding position from feet-forward to a more traditional racer-style - not because I think it's cooler, just to try something different.
Anyway! Massif respec' to Katsuhiro Otomo, the absolute motherflippin' man!

8 comments:

  1. Nice! how did you do all the logos and stickers? (feel so noob) would love to see a video process of one of your paintings.

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  2. Hey thanks yous!
    Benjie - a bunch of those logos I'd already made for other projects and stuff so I had them as fairly high res images. Other ones I just made up and painted straight on there and a few were just done with the text tool. I rasterize the layer and go free transform>warp and push them about til they fairly closely match the perspective and then paint over them to help them sit on there a bit more comfortably.
    You can play with the layer blending options or even just lowering the opacity sometimes helps.
    Hope that helps!

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  3. Super cool! It ain't easy taking something so cool, changing it... and still keep it cool. The 'Come on' is a fun addition. Great job!

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  4. Hey Christian! I love Akira, one of my all time favorite inspirations. Once I saw the movie I had to collect all the paperback collections of the original Manga. The movie is great but reading page after beautiful page of perfect illustrations and compositions really boggle my mind. That dude can only be described as genius! I work with Jim at AGP. It was such a bummer I couldn't make it to NZ but I hope to still get a chance to meet you in person on e day!

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  5. Oh sweet yes! Wicked take on it. Youve got me all in the mood now, where did I put that DVD?

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  6. Fantastic!! Beautiful work my friend! The film is a little too violent for me, but is a classic none the less.

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  7. Kaneda's Motorcycle Concept Website:

    http://negatendo.net/kmc/

    ;)

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