METAL GEAR RAHMENAR - METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGANCE - FAN CONCEPT

Metal Gear RAHMENAR is a mech concept fan project I worked on for almost 2 months. My goal was to design a Metal Gear boss for the game Metal Gear Rising: Revengance and produce a full model sheet comparable to the Metal Gear art books. The final benchmarks were to have 2 full model sheets showcasing the mech's functionality as well as one cover depicting the mech in action. This is a fan project.

Pipeline

My pipeline involved starting with visual research, for that, I used Powerpoint and PureRef. The rest of the drawing and 3d modelling I did in Photoshop and Maya.

I made a brief to work off of detailing my constrants. 

Project Brief

Game: Metal Gear Rising: Revengance​

Origin: ArmsTech, US-based weapon corp. (2018)​

AI-controlled. No cockpit.​

Story pitch: An experimental Metal Gear meant to put the hyper-advanced systems of Metal Gear Excelsus (pre-final boss) into a more compact package. A mech designed specifically to kill powerful cyborgs like Raiden by negating the damage from any high-frequency blade with its impenetrable new prototype armour. It was a conventional weapon and couldn’t launch nukes. All things considered, RAHMENAR was sure to replace Metal Gear Ray in the US Military and had some very promising new tech to go about it. The only downside of RAHMENAR was that it wasn’t amphibious and had to be transported to its deployment zone by an external force. After the decline of World Marshal and the destruction of the only produced prototype at the hands of Raiden in 2018, the RAHMENAR project was reportedly shut down for good.​

Main purpose: Transforming armour. The mech is heavily armored, it can’t be penetrated unless it exposes its body-integrated missile launchers. In that sense, it perfectly counters Raiden’s main weapon. This Metal Gear is a modern one, so it won’t feature nuclear weaponry. The idea is to put a spin on the first boss the player will encounter in the game.​

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Weaponry: 4 mounted missile launchers on the back (avoid), 2 mounted machine guns (deflect), 4 mounted anti-infantry railguns (parry or avoid), body-integrated missile launchers (Blade Mode cut, use to reach torso), laser (avoid), a big sword (parry).​

Height: 22m​

Main inspiration: Metal Gear RAY, Metal Gear EXCELSUS​

Game Difficulty: Probably midgame-late game.​

Player Abilities: Slash, kick, jump, Ninja run (can run fast and auto deflect small projectile fire, you can use it infinitely), Blade Mode (time slows down and you gain the ability to slash and permanently damage parts of your enemies, you can use it only if the Blade meter is filled up), (the standard abilities the player can use throughout the game).​

Boss Mechanics: The mech will be able to boost/ dash to change position fast, the game is very dynamic in nature.​

Phase 1: In the first phase the mech will be invincible, this will put a spin on the first boss where you could just damage its legs and bring the Metal Gear down. The boss will be using 2 missile launchers (dodge), 2 railguns (parry), 4 machine guns (deflect), and leg ground pound (jump, avoid). Hit legs to force RAHMENAR to open its armour to use its integrated rocket launchers. Use the rockets to get to it and slice its armaments.​

Phase 2: The second phase will be very similar to the first one. During it the robot will be using 2 railguns (parry), 1 laser (dodge, explosion after-effect on the ground), 2 missile launchers (dodge), 2 machine guns (deflect), a big sword (parry), plasma cannon (dodge), leg ground pound (jump, avoid). You have to do the same as in the first phase. Attack legs to build up the Blade meter and aggravate the mech. When you’ve done enough damage, you use the big missiles to get close to the torso to destroy the rest of the mounted weaponry. You do that until all weapons are destroyed aside from the laser.​

Phase 3: The final act, in the tone of the game the third phase is more of a cinematic set piece rather than a mechanically complex fight. Now since there are no more mounted weapons on the Metal Gear and it’s suffered a lot of damage, it will be forced to expose its internal missile launchers which will open its armor casing. RAHMENR will start shooting a huge barrage of missiles toward Raiden (Player) and you will have to use them to get close to the mech again and slash at it until you defeat it.​

Silhouette

After doing some research it was time to start designing so I first made a bunch of silhouette thumbnails. The strong silhouette is the first key element that must be done right for a strong robot design.

After doing some voting on the thumbnails, I took the best ones and added more detail to them.

Ultimately I decided to go for a mix between 1 and 5 since a more sharp design would fit better with the game.

After I had achieved a good silhouette I decided to do some sketches of the mech performing the actions it's supposed to do in the game. A silhouette can be perfect when static but it has to look good in action.

Mechanical functionality

The next step was figuring out the functionality for everything from weapons to joints. Functionality is one of the most important parts of every mech design that's intended to be used in a video game or a movie as eventually, it will have to be 3d modelled and animated.

Next, I made some second-level of detail sketches to inform my model sheet drawing later.

Final benchmark

After all of the designing is done I could make a quick 3d block-out. The block-out is low poly and topology and polycount aren't important as it won't be used in the game, it is not a game-ready mesh. The purpose of the block-out is for me to trace over it for the final model sheets.

Finally, after the block-out is done, I could start working on the final benchmarks. It is a cell-shaded art style, so line art was first.

For colouring I used a non-destructive workflow by putting the various materials and the shading on separate layers. This is a slower way of working but it allows for adjustments later if needed.

Thank you! :)