wow! super cool to get User of the Day!

don't have a lot to share at the moment, i've been playing a lot of Armored Core 6. i'm overdue on making another mech model, so here's a sneak peek at that:

otherwise, saw a lot of cool submissions in the monthly voting, excited to see who wins. i know UOTD is random, but i really appreciate all the feedback etc i get on the stuff i post here. NG has a very enthusiastic and creative community.

- b

been moving *slow* on this one, i didn't really have a fully formed idea when i started, just knew that i wanted to make something industrial. not having a camera angle locked down probably kneecapped me on this too, but i refuse to give up.

WIPs in mostly chronological order:

and the most recent iteration, which i'm mostly happy with but still has a loooong way to go:

would love to hear what people think, any suggestions or feedback is always appreciated!

creative block laid me out, but i think it's leaving now. here's some WIPs from a scene i've been working on.

still plugging away at it. when i can't find the drive to be creative, i try to read/watch/listen to a bunch of stuff. seems to work the best. here's a shot list of that:

Tatami Galaxy by Tomohiko Morimi

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp

Tekkonkinkreet Art Book

rewatched Ghost in the Shell, and have been listening to this album:

-b

first vacation in god know's how long, PEACE.

long post detailing my overall process. if you have additional questions, fire off in the comments.

music

this project started with a tune. first time sampling, so an amen break seemed like an easy place to start.

https://barinky.bandcamp.com/track/manta

brainstorming

"sunfish" was an early idea, that mostly sprang out of the harpoon gun on the mech's right. liked the aquatic/submersible theming, but it was too chibi so it was scrapped.

"manta" was the second major iteration. wanted the head/shoulders to function as it's own "unit" separate from the limbs (i.e. if the limbs were damaged, they could be jettisoned from the core, allowing it to act as a submersible)

texturing

texturing was done very methodically. background elements weren't locked down, so preservation of texture space was important. lots of iteration during this phase.

ultimately ended up w/ plenty of unused space, which i'm counting as a win for texturing efficiency.

also during this part, after exploring a few palettes, settled on the wonderful Fantasy Kitchen by @qirlfriend

https://lospec.com/palette-list/fantasy-kitchen-16

modeling (cont.)

making the design symmetrical helped keep the process moving along, and after experimenting w/ poses certain animation/scene ideas started to take shape.

animation

for the animation, manta stays mostly stationary, with the background (and foreground) elements moving past. camera was set to "sway", but here's what it looks like locked down.

core aspects of movement were simple (left, right, slight tilts etc). lots of bells & whistles were added though, in the form of spray/waves, texture face animation for ripples, and a shadow that follows the mech.

some parts didn't read well in the final version, like the turrets firing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

that's it! Low Poly Day 2026 was rad as hell, TONS of very cool stuff was posted. i'm still working my way through everything, but i've already seen a lot of standout work.

stay tuned for more barinky ✌︎㋡

still working on some things, apologies again for going dark. will be back to regularly scheduled barinky content soon-ish!

wanted to post something as i will probably be quiet in the lead up to Low Poly Day (and to take the opportunity to say thanks for the warm welcome).

there's a lot really cool artists and very nice people here, it's been fun seeing folks get psyched about my work.

here are a few preliminary models i've been messing w/. it's been fun testing out ways to mimic water, and i want to incorporate that in more models/scenes moving forward (ʰᶦⁿᵗ: ᵐʸ ˡᵒʷ ᵖᵒˡʸ ᵈᵃʸ ˢᵘᵇᵐᶦˢˢᶦᵒⁿ ʷᶦˡˡ ᵖʳᵒᵇᵃᵇˡʸ ᵇᵉ ᵃᵠᵘᵃᵗᶦᶜ). all work is done in picoCAD 2.

-b