Doom redesigns v2

[Nathan92]

Sup guys. I've tried my hand at redesigning all the original Doom enemies once before, but never really got too far, because I was stumped at how I'd approach certain enemies. I wanted to try again, and this time I have a bit more of a specific design aesthetic in mind, and am planning on sketching everyone out before committing to any final pieces.

My idea is that I want to redesign them in such a way that doesn't look outright scary or monstrous, but 'gets under you skin' creepy, eerie and horrifying in a much more subtle way. I want to integrate elements into all their designs that make them unique, but also play up the whole 'blasphemous' imagery and aspects to further the idea along. This doesn't mean I want to go overboard with it, as I don't want upside down crosses, 666's and pentagrams on everything (which are all tried and cliche ideas now) but rather subtle hints of aspects that are similar. Also giving them a heavy-metal ish (again, not in a derivative way) sort of vibe in addition would be apt. I don't want Doom 3 (as much I love many of its designs) to influence the look I'm going for, and I want the original designs to at least somewhat stay intact, as much as I may drift away from them.

So, I have the list of enemies here and some of them are already accompanied by my first round of very rough design ideas, but I wanted to open it up to suggestions and idea from the other boardmembers here.

Zombieman/Former Human, Shotgun Guy/Former Human sergeant, and Heavy Weapon Guy/Former Human Commando: These guys I'm not super concerned about looking unnervingly creepy or anything, they're zombies and will never be that creepy to me. So, I think making the armor not like modern generic space marine armor will be the key part. That and facial expression.



Imp: Not wanting to incorporate generic spikes, gave him some growths that resemble roots with thorns on them, also gave him an indicated crown of the stuff. Don't know exactly how to approach the face, so any suggestions will help.



Pinky Demon:
This one has the opportunity to be more animal-like, so making it stand on all fours is something I want to keep. I want it to be lumbering and dumb, but still creepy of course.


Mancubus:
I like the smaller face, one that's less monstrous. I love Doom 3's Mancubus, but don't want to go the Cthulhu-like route. I also gave it large nails through the wrists to be what attaches the guns to its arms as another symbolic nod.



Baron of Hell:
This one is the biggest departure so far. It's the only 'palette-swap' from the original series, so I want to make it and the Hellknight to look considerably different. With the Baron being a more powerful enemy, I want to make it more of a sophisticated kind of imposing rather than brutish. I took the two horns idea and fashioned them like the cap of a bishop, and excess skin is used as a cloak of sorts. It will still have the goat legs.



HellKnight: I might want to play off the Roman gladiator helmets but in an organic way.

Revenant: Its design probably won't change too much from the original, so the pose is where I'll bring in the creepiness. I was thinking something reminiscent of a pose that Christ may have been put in in renaissance paintings, with arms at the side and palms facing the viewer.

Cacodemon: Unsure so far. Cyclopic creatures are hard to make look subtle and disturbing, so any suggestions are welcome! Any symbolism references you can think of are good!

Spider Mastermind: Going to make it look more feminine and H.R. Giger influenced. Makes sense as a queen, controlling her younglings.

Arachnotron: Playing off the Mastermind being their mother, I figured doing something with a baby skull influenced look would be cool.

Pain Elemental: Same issues as the Cacodemon. However, I do know that I want its mouth to be full of skulls and faces.

Lost Souls: I don't want them to be just skulls with horns, so maybe there can be a variety of them.

Cyberdemon: I've redesigned this dude before, so he'll be among the easier ones, but still any suggestions are welcome.

Arch-Vile: Definitely want to make them more feminine. At least androgynous with a suggested effeminacy.

Unsure if I'm forgetting anyone... May or may not include the Icon of Sin when I'm done with everyone else. The Soul Cube too.

Will post some other sketches after I get some replies or suggestions.

[Jaxxoon R]

I certainly don't see why it's necessary to give them genitals but whatever.

[raymoohawk]

the pinky looks realy cool!

[Soundblock]

Nice sketches (bar the baron - he looks like an entirely new creature, perhaps a Devil's Bishop?).

To make any final judgement on how well these translate the originals, we'd need to see coloured in variations. The shotgun guy for instance, is very recognisable in the original game for his unorthodox red boots. Do you plan to stick that close to the original coloring? My gut feeling says you should, but perhaps colouring in two different variants might give you an idea of which solution is more popular.

Also, don't underestimate the spookiness of zombies - yours look pretty spooky to me!

[Nathan92]

Jaxxoon R said:

I certainly don't see why it's necessary to give them genitals but whatever.

I'm not attaching any sort of sexual reason for including them, it's merely for the sake of realism. (though designers like H.R. Giger used the sexual overtones to make his creatures terrifyingly disturbing). Creature designer Neville Page will add genitals to his creatures if only for the fact that it's part of their bodies. I'm not going to draw attention to them or anything, they'll just be indicated. Most of the enemies crotch areas are covered up anyway, so it will only be maybe a couple of them that actually show, such as the imp who's pretty much the only completely 'naked' enemy in the game.

Here's another sketch of the Baron. I do want him to be the most heavily redesigned, as I really don't want him and the Hellknight to look similar at all, but I'll still keep some elements from the original such as the goat legs and whatnot. To answer the other question, when I do eventually color them, I do plan on keeping the original colors intact, so that'll help.

[Jaxxoon R]

Nathan92 said:

I'm not attaching any sort of sexual reason for including them, it's for the sake of realism.

I never suspected you of doing so for the former reason. I just don't see how blasphemous abominations spawned of a skull in a wall would realistically have any need for reproductive organs or even genders if the wall makes more of them anyways.

[Nathan92]

In any case, I just think having the area look featureless is odd-looking and not in a good way. I don't want to cover anything with clothes if it isn't necessary, and I do think it adds a bit of a creepy kind of element to it in the end. Historically in Mythology and Folklore, demons would find ways to mate with humans... Not that I'm really going to explore that in this series, but I have been looking at a lot of renaissance/medieval depictions and stories of demons and whatnot as a source of influence.

As far as how detailed I'm going to be, it's not much. Gustave Doré, illustrator of Dante's Inferno (another source of influence) indicates genitals in a simplified way without drawing attention to them.

[raymoohawk]

maybe the cubes are more like pokeballs and they transport the demons rather than creating them (ive also been critiziced for adding genitalia to demons, this was my defense)

[Clonehunter]

I'm actually digging that Baron design. Though, when I first glanced it, I assumed it'd be the Arch-Vile ( a la the Arch-Bishop or however it goes) :P

[Nathan92]

Also, here's the sketch for the Hellknight so far. I'm not totally sold on it yet, so again, any design suggestions any of you might have, don't hesitate to bring em' up!

[Soundblock]

Nathan92 said:

Also, here's the sketch for the Hellknight so far.

That angry knitted eyebrow is as much a hallmark of the baron/knight as the goat legs, much thanks to the marbface textures. Shouldn't one of them have it? The multiple eyes makes me think of Doom 3's imp.

The hands might look stronger/tougher, to translate that loud ripping noise they make on melee?

Otherwise cool.

On the genitals discussion: it eventually brings up issues while 3D modeling, since any detail in that area require a seperate, more zoomed in vertex mesh, than the rest if the edge loops. If anything, its a struggle not to suggest anything in that area while modelling & texturing in anything over low detail.

[HorrorMovieRei]

Really liking these so far. Maybe for the Cacodemon you could make it so it's horns are more like pointy growths in the skin; and maybe add some sort of long finger-like appendages hanging bellow it's body. For the eye, maybe make it look like an atrophied lump in the middle of the "face", or maybe make it not have eyes at all.

[Soundblock]

HorrorMovieGuy said:

Really liking these so far. Maybe for the Cacodemon you could make it so it's horns are more like pointy growths in the skin

Yeah, that looks promising on the imp concept - even more added growths on impy might enhance that interpretation.

[LittleInferno]

ಠ_ಠ

The Mancubus rape face.

[Deleted_Account]

For the Hell Knight, any chance you drew inspiration from the movie Altered States?

[Shapeless]

your baron design looks awesome reminds me of a boss from dante's inferno game. but it also feels out of place imho

your pinky demon looks cool but the body seems too long

former humans have natural poses and look great.

[Nathan92]

Piper Maru said:

For the Hell Knight, any chance you drew inspiration from the movie Altered States?

Yessir!

I mean, I'm going to be tweaking these as I feel I get closer to finalizing each of these guys, but I do rather like the direction the Baron's heading in. My aim for him was to feel totally distinct from the Hellknights. In my original post, I had said that I wanted at least some of their designs to be intact a bit in mine, but many will be quite a departure in the end, but will hopefully have the same kind of essence I suppose.

I do like how the zombie's poses are coming along. Least happy with the Shotgunner's pose, as I might want to make it a little more dynamic, but I'm not unhappy with it. The poses on the rest of these are subject to change, as pose will definitely have something to do with creepiness.

Here's my first pass at the Spider Mastermind. Pose isn't final, the legs are just scribbled in more or less. I made the area surrounding her face resemble a Nun's headdressing, if that's not evident to anyone. Arachnotrons will look more like babies, but generally similar.



So, any suggestions for the Cacodemons or Pain Elementals? I'm stuck on these guys, I really don't know how to approach them... I was looking at Cyclopia birth defects which look horrifying on animals and human babies, but on a larger monster, and ones with such large mouths, it ends up not having the same impact.

Any suggestions on the Hellknight or Mancubus, Lost Souls and Revenant are welcome too. I'm closing in on the Mancubus, but if anyone has any suggestions (even totally new ones) on it's face, then shout it out! Hellknight can go either way at this point. I figure Goats are creepy as hell (pun intended?) so they won't be that hard to figure out.

But yes, any ideas on the Lost Souls and Revenant? Like I said, the Revenant will largely be about the pose, but it's not like I want him to be not redesigned at all, any ideas on what I could do for the armor and shoulder cannons?

Also, feel free to bring up any of those aforementioned blashphemous or historical aspects for further inspiration. Doesn't have to be directed at any particular creature, but anything you guys would like to see will help me out!

[Fuzzball]

Somehow I just had an idea for PEs to almost be like...half monster half small furnace...cooking the souls of the dead to make..well..lost souls :P

[raymoohawk]

mastermind should have romero's face :D

[Jaxxoon R]

^My immediate thoughts when I glanced over the mastermind sketch was "That's really goofy, it's just some woman. She's almost endearing, and quite friendly-looking. It reminds me of John Romero's head."

[HorrorMovieRei]

The little crab arms on the Mastermind are a tad goofy. But otherwise it's awesome. Reminds me of H.R. Giger's "Li II".

[raymoohawk]

maybe the arms could be arm cannons (they would probably have to be larger tho)

[Nathan92]

Her body is not resolved at all at the moment, so the goofiness and whatnot is just from me slapping it down so quickly. As far as the face goes, I did look at Giger's Li ii a bit. I don't want to make her angry looking, as I think a serene quality brings an interesting juxtaposition. Her face is still open for suggestions though, Im not totally set on it just yet.

Here's her babies currently:

[Soundblock]

Nathan92 said:

I think a serene quality brings an interesting juxtaposition.

She could always explode in anger during the firing frames...

Liking it the spidos!

[Marnetmar]

I like more ethereal take on the Mastermind, reminds me of SHODAN from System Shock, which in my mind suits her role quite well. Perhaps have her eyes rolled back in her head or something.

Also, something I've envisioned for the cacodemon before is a giant mass of cataract-ridden eyes dripping with pus/blood; atop a big gaping mouth, naturally.

[Nathan92]

I could do some additional illustration when I'm all done designing these guys, thereby showing more emotion, but I'll definitely be fooling around with her face more. For now, they're just going to be akin to concept art pieces.

Here's another shot at the HellKnight, I think unnatural looking bodytypes is another aspect that could really bring these guys to the look I'm going for. I tried making his shoulder rest really low, even if technically anatomically incorrect.

[Clonehunter]

Nathan92 said:

Baby Spiderdemon

Without the eyes, of course

[Captain Toenail]

Really like the Arachnotron, it has a B movie/comic vibe to it.

The Baron of Hell is a cool design, but it gives off a more regal or religious feeling suited to the Archvile. I think it's the head, shaped like a big pope hat.

Nice work anyway. :)

[Nathan92]

@Clonehunter- Ha, definitely!

@Captain Toenail - I'm still tooling its design, but I definitely want to go for the regal look for the Baron, its name just commands it in my opinion. The Arch-vile will kind of have a similar regal-esque quality, but much more feminine.

Here's some thoughts on the Cyberdemon. My previous attempt at redesigning him is still something I like, but want to try out a different head, and give it different details. I still want him to be a bit more on the lean side as opposed to freakishly muscular.

Here's the previous attempt:



and here's the new head I want to give him, more or less.



I also settled on the design for the Cacodemon finally, will post that one here in a bit.

[Jaxxoon R]

I always thought something about the goat heads looked comical, really. Their gazes are just so empty, but not in a way that's really unsettling, just dimwitted. It might have something to do with how far they are apart.

Oh well, maybe some else would find them creepy, who knows.