DarkSouls+ArmoredCore - Arena Entrance

I've always loved Armored Core, and I've always loved Medieval Fantasy and the Armor from Dark Souls - So I've developed a bit of an art style that sort of combines them together. My goal for this scene was to try and recreate that epic Arena Entrance cutscene that happens before every match in Armored Core, but with Medieval Knights instead.

I would describe my art style as "Medieval Tactical". Growing up in the south guns and military were always a natural part of my culture, and trying to inject some of that DNA into a Medeival Knight design was a bit tricky. But, I would say the sweatspot I've found is 65% Medieval, and 35% Modern Tactical seems to be what I've landed on. I definitely wanted the character to feel more "Knightly" than "Modern Military", but there is very fine line between it looking like "A Knight with a gun", and something where if guns had existed at the time of Knights, how would that fashion and design actually look natural -

One of the key challenges I faced was what era to base the clothing for the base fabric. I found that if I used modern military clothes, it didn't look medieval enough even with the armor. So, I went with World War 2 era soldier uniforms instead. And, that seemed to be a good natural looking base layer of clothing that didn't clash with the medieval armor -

It's still a work in progress, but I'm very happy with how it turned out - Hope you guys like the design :)

All the best,

-RS-