Main Project Aesthetics Alternatives: Sci Fi Robot

My current plan for the aesthetic of my project is to create a sci-fi inspired robot, in which I was inclined to focus on aesthetic more rather than functionality given time and resources limitations for the course.

My Main inspiration arrives from the book Tales from the Loop written by Simon Stålenhag which is a wildly successful crowd-funded project that takes viewers on a surprising sci-fi journey through various country and city landscapes―from small towns in Sweden and the deserts of Nevada to the bitter chill of Siberia―where children explore and engage with abandoned robots, vehicles, and machinery large and small, while dinosaurs and other creatures wander our roads and fields. It has certain retro futuristic vibe where all robots are interlinked to story of humans and are part of their life in one way or another. 

To create something of this degree would be huge, but I want to start small and build something similar in much smaller scale but rugged & similar colors and impression to it. I am exploring to consider 3D printing to manufacture certain body parts of the robot with majority of them having made out of sheet metal to give the rugged look.

While, the first preference is for retro futuristic robots. I am equally if not more, inclined to recreate a much more modern sci-fi inspired robot alien, which is a character in Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary hard Sci-Fi book which I finished recently and is hands down ends up in one of top books I ever read. Alien here is named “Rocky”, the challenge here is Rocky is merely described as collection of words – as in how he looks, how he talks. There is no pictures of it. So, I did create few concept sketches of Rocky from his description in book which I remember of how he might look.

Rocky being from an advanced alien civilization certainly gives an alternative of aesthetics from retro futuristic vibes of Simon Stålenhag’s robots which are embedded in normal human lives.

Given, the timeline of project – I’ll start with certain simpler aesthetics which require less resources leading up to a project where I bring my favorite character from Sci-Fi books to real life.