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Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 29, 2018, 05:55:59 AM
On a side note I am buying up a few different 7 inch scale figures, and i'm hoping to get in touch with someone who does custom figure work to see if I can get at least four custom jobs done.

Drifter Predator (Fusing parts of Stalker(lt), Elder(lt), some odds and ends, and pieces of a repainted SPAWN cape or custom fabric material.)
Warden   (Would be made out of a Colonial Marine and a Candy Man figure, with some hefty repainting and adjustments to armor.)
Van-Cleef (Made of a Ripley with jacket, Alien 3 Ripley lower torso, and a "Luv" head(Blade Runner), repainted ginger.)
Ikeda (Repainted Vasquez in BDU's with a Portal Chell head.)


Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 28, 2018, 03:58:24 AM
Quote from: Wysps on Jun 24, 2018, 07:49:17 PM
I like that flanging and metallic timbre.  Not that I have a trained ear for this, but I do appreciate that it has more texture than a regular "beacon" noise!  Was this done in Audacity or taken from a film? 


I actually sampled the sound from an old Star Trek toy and then did several layers at different pitches to create the final sound. It'll actually have three forms. The version heard there is what I call the "visor" form. Which is heard from the Predator's field of view. There will be a more dissonant version used for the opening shot, and a more crisp version used when the EEV has made planet fall.





Experimenting on recreating the Alien shrieks.

Posted by Wysps
 - Jun 24, 2018, 07:49:17 PM
Quote from: OpenMaw on Jun 24, 2018, 02:55:40 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byCT7lhi2P0

Hunters will sometimes mark their prey, making them easier to track.

(Messing with some sound design.)

I like that flanging and metallic timbre.  Not that I have a trained ear for this, but I do appreciate that it has more texture than a regular "beacon" noise!  Was this done in Audacity or taken from a film? 

Quote from: SiL on Jun 24, 2018, 05:53:15 AM
Quote from: OpenMaw on Jun 22, 2018, 04:58:10 PM
SiL, you did better than 96.327% of the fan fiction ever written for any of these franchises and I would say you match James Cameron's script for Aliens in most areas. The only place your script lacked was character development and a proper "finale" for the human side of things, otherwise what you had was freaking awesome.

First post in the thread under background information, there's a link to a post with a link to the second draft of SiL's script.  :)
Fixed all of that by draft 4, but like heck I'm leaving that on the web ;D

So there's an even better version of the script that's being hidden away somewhere?  :P
Posted by SiL
 - Jun 24, 2018, 05:53:15 AM
Quote from: OpenMaw on Jun 22, 2018, 04:58:10 PM
SiL, you did better than 96.327% of the fan fiction ever written for any of these franchises and I would say you match James Cameron's script for Aliens in most areas. The only place your script lacked was character development and a proper "finale" for the human side of things, otherwise what you had was freaking awesome.

First post in the thread under background information, there's a link to a post with a link to the second draft of SiL's script.  :)
Fixed all of that by draft 4, but like heck I'm leaving that on the web ;D
Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 24, 2018, 02:55:40 AM


Hunters will sometimes mark their prey, making them easier to track.

(Messing with some sound design.)
Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 22, 2018, 04:58:10 PM
SiL, you did better than 96.327% of the fan fiction ever written for any of these franchises and I would say you match James Cameron's script for Aliens in most areas. The only place your script lacked was character development and a proper "finale" for the human side of things, otherwise what you had was freaking awesome.

First post in the thread under background information, there's a link to a post with a link to the second draft of SiL's script.  :)
Posted by Wysps
 - Jun 22, 2018, 04:26:14 PM
Quote from: SiL on Jun 22, 2018, 12:54:32 PM
That thing is like ten years old and full of cringe ;D

Even better  ;) I keep hearing amazing things about it here and have yet to come across it.  Where can we find it?
Posted by SiL
 - Jun 22, 2018, 12:54:32 PM
That thing is like ten years old and full of cringe ;D
Posted by PredBabe
 - Jun 22, 2018, 03:40:37 AM
Quote from: OpenMaw on Jun 06, 2018, 06:23:10 AM
Quote from: Wysps on Jun 06, 2018, 01:28:15 AM
Looks like it has a solid foundation :) Curious to see where you go with the two human leads, especially Van-cleef. Thumbs up.

She's based on my last boss/manager. She was always on edge and prone to going from very playful and funny to pulling her hair out and being incredibly sarcastic.


She sounds relatable!

Looking forward to seeing more, I'm really digging the general concepts you've mentioned throughout this thread. The tattooing for the predators is a really interesting take.

Now I'm gonna read SiL's script too  :laugh:
Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 21, 2018, 06:55:04 AM



After thinking about it some more and going through the entire story in my head a few times I think i'll be going with my initial idea instead of the sleeping beauty version. That stuff will influence the back story but it won't be something I do with the film itself. The simpler approach is better.

Still, as a conversational piece,  this is what I would do with the female Predator idea if it were to ever be explored on screen. I don't see them as the bigger badder Predators like the novels. Instead I was more influenced by a pelty leathery American Indian feel. Both in look and in what their role would be in a greater Predator society.






I think Drifter is pretty much done. I'll be doing one last final pass on everything and doing a detail layer for texturing, shading, and adding his predator skin pattern. Need to tatter up the front side of the cape a little, too. I'm really digging the look I've come up with here. I'll be moving on to finer detailing on individual components for 3d modeling, and then onto the Colonial Guard equipment.


Some fantasy football actors i'm using as a general inspiration for my cast.

Tony Todd - Thomas Warden    (2nd LT. Security chief. Former Colonial marine.)
Lisa Eilbacher - Chief Adm. Alyssa Van-Cleef (Chief of operations.)
N'Bushe Wright - Dr. Mendy  ( Chief medical officer.)
Kim Miyori -  Fujiko Ikeda ( Security team's squad leader.)
Harry Connick Jr. - Elliot Wallach ( Security team member. )
Cástulo Guerra - Zach Martinez ( Foreman for the coring crew. )
Pruitt Taylor Vince - David Barker ( Coring crew operator. )


Keep in mind that my meta idea for this film is it would have been made in 1994 or 1995 after Predator 2 and Alien 3 had somewhat closed both franchises down and FOX was looking to pull a Universal ala Dracula vs Wolfman. So these actors would fit their roles in terms of age and active status at the time.

From that same token, in terms of design i'm going with the idea that Stan Winston Studios would be brought back in, as well as conceptual artists like Ron Cobb to expand on what he did with Alien, with Giger acting as a conceptual consultant for alien creature effects.

Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 19, 2018, 06:52:12 AM
Some developments have arisen over the last 48 or so hours. I've been experimenting and playing with a slightly different sequence of events. Not drastically different, mind you, but as I was developing things I started to notice a thread forming that I wanted to see how I could weave something a little more intriguing and original with it.

So...




The opening for the story that I had originally planned, and which is setting to the side as I try this slightly alternate approach, had an EEV mysteriously fall out the sky and inside was a nasty surprise.

Instead, imagine a predator pod drops out of the sky, and the humans come upon it, and instead of what we've seen before - A predator stepping out in full combat gear ready for a battle. They open it up and find "sleeping beauty" inside with a face hugger wrapped around her neck.

They both share the same Tattooing on their right arm, by the way. That wasn't a mistake. Though i'm not telling what their relationship is. Daughter? Mother? Sister? Cousin? Who knows. There's some kind of a ceremony at play in this version of events. It's not Bad Blood or anything. He didn't purposely infect her.

Once I get the Predators nailed down i'm going to be working on the human characters, including some of the new hardware. After thinking about I decided to try and find the middle ground between Colonial Marshalls and Colonial Marines, and so i'm utilizing a dropped concept from early on in Aliens development. The security force on Ixion are a small contingent of Colonial Guard. They're a lesser equipped version of the colonial marines, and essentially stuck to far off boony operations, their ranks littered with those who were shuffled out of the marines or other branches of service.


Also, in case anyone might not be getting the "Drifter" concept. Just take a look at this scene. 




Quote from: Wysps on Jun 19, 2018, 04:33:00 AM
Neat, I'm already invested in the character – can't wait to hear about the backstory when this is finished (I'm sure you want to keep a lot under wraps for the final product).  Like, where does the cape come from?  He's advanced in years, did he hold some position of leadership?  If he's the last of his tribe, wouldn't he want to fix that problem instead of going out in a blaze (i.e. progeny)?  Will he have the acid-resistant flesh that few sources suggest Predators have?  What relationship does he have with the Aliens – is this solely a retribution sort of thing?  So many questions

Well, not to humanize him too much but my inner feeling on where Drifter is at when this hunt begins is like... Almost manic. At a couple points i'm trying to hint at unnecessary brutality on his part. Not that he breaks what we would consider "Predator rules" but that he's a little feral in his aggression. He'll be poised and then just start wrecking your day.

And no, I went with the idea that the alien's acid will eat Predator skin and tech just as easily as it does anything else.  (His wrist gauntlet and mask are examples of battle damage sustained while fighting aliens. It's the reason he's lacking a right shoulder pad, too and he has that nasty acid scar there.

The more imposing and cunning the aliens are, the more suspense you have when the two creatures actually duel.
Posted by Wysps
 - Jun 19, 2018, 04:33:00 AM
Neat, I'm already invested in the character – can't wait to hear about the backstory when this is finished (I'm sure you want to keep a lot under wraps for the final product).  Like, where does the cape come from?  He's advanced in years, did he hold some position of leadership?  If he's the last of his tribe, wouldn't he want to fix that problem instead of going out in a blaze (i.e. progeny)?  Will he have the acid-resistant flesh that few sources suggest Predators have?  What relationship does he have with the Aliens – is this solely a retribution sort of thing?  So many questions
Posted by BigDaddyJohn
 - Jun 18, 2018, 01:54:51 PM
I like it so far. I can't wait to see what your xenomorph will look like  ;)
Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 17, 2018, 03:20:11 AM
Continuing to rework Drifter. As i've been working on the outline i've been making changes to the visual look.



Lot's of character details added here. The armor has suffered some hefty damage in places. His wrist blades are tying into a small power pack on his upper arm. Some kind of damage damaged the power supply to the mechanism.

The wrist launcher on the left hand now fires P2 style darts instead of the net. (I excised the net, no need for it.)

Finalized the Frag gun. I think it's going to look bad ass. If you look closely you can see it has it's own set of triple laser sighting on the top of the barrel.

The thing mid right is the tracking device. In it's deploy state it fires four harpoons into the hull of it's target and ratchet's itself tight to the hull. It is then programmed to emit a very powerful pulse beacon that Predators can easily track.

Those ornamental looking guys in the lower right are the new shrappers. The "bottom' blinks when they're armed. Designed to be huffed like a grenade. To an unsuspecting eye they don't look like anything more than ornamentation, but what they unleash is pretty brutal.

On the mask. I really wanted to keep the Jungle Hunter mask look intact, but I decided to infuse a bit of the "Narin" style mask and the ridge detailing of the original "Gort" mask.

I replaced the claw marks on his right arm with a far nastier looking acid burn. Small detail there is that a lot of his quills in that area are permanently gone.

The shin and chest pieces are actually taken from the "Rastafarian" concept art that ultimately inspired the final look of the Predator. My original idea for Drifter, before I started this thread, was that he was very much a cut down, back to basics, Predator. This, along with him having the cross draw frag gun, is why I took off the hip armor on the left leg.

Some people might question the logic of having less armor against an opponent that bleeds acid, but the prevailing wisdom, in my take, at least for some of the Predator's hunting the alien, is that you are better off being light weight and quick to react, then you are to try and bulk up in armor.






Rough color test on ol' Drifter.
Posted by OpenMaw
 - Jun 15, 2018, 03:20:19 AM
He has a fusion of both the City Hunter and Jungle Hunter armor pieces. Right shoulder armor was lost in battle. You can see talon scars on his shoulder there. Below that he has a tribal tatoo wrapping bicep. More lettering on his belt. He's sporting the tattered remains of a cape.



He has a scar across one eye, and a scar on one of his mandibles. The latter is actually taken from Bruce Campbell's chin.

Not only is his armor a mixture of the two OG predators, but he's sporting gear that intermixes the two, along with some new toys.

I decided to take the net launcher in the wrist gauntlet idea from AVP and plugged that into the City Hunter's gauntlet.

The Frag pistol has gone through several transformations. The initial gun shape was much more segmented like the shoulder armor on City Hunter, and it would unfold. I decided to go a little more elegant because I wanted something that evoked a revolver. It's basically a very nasty Predator M79 "thumper." It fires a liquid-fueled round that on impact releases not only fragmentation from the warhead, but also the equivalent to white phosphorous. Basically firing off burning metal shards and acid.

The shrapper is going to get a different design then what I have here thus far. In this early version I imagined them clipped to his belt and he would just arm and toss it from on high.(They have settings for timed, remote, and proxy.) The problem is, design wise it's too close to the disc, and it's bigger than I want it to be. I want something more porcupine in shape. Like I said, a knight's Mace spheroid shape almost. Something that at first almost looks like some kind of a relic, or a stone. IE: confusing enough to get a closer look at.

The tracking beacon will also likely get a new, more snail-shell like design. This version was aping off the mine/force field thingies from AVP:R, with red light going up the edges to the top. Be-deep be-deep be-deep...

Drifter's the last of his tribe. His hunting party was decimated en masse in a situation very similar to the opening of Peter Briggs AVP script. Given he's a Predator of advanced years there's doubtless motivation for him to go out in a very big demonstration.

Slight update, revised his mask:


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