DD3992 HONOURS PROJECT #5: Vehicle 1 Progress

Officially made a start to my project yesterday by beginning concepts on the first vehicle, the Stallion (I may rename that later...).
The Stallion is essentially intended to be a mechanised horse-like vehicle capable of traversing all terrains. I began by creating a mood board of images I intended to use as possible inspiration for the design. These included images of actual horses, walking robots, hover-bikes and other futuristic vehicles. You can see the finished mood board below:-

What follows is the reference list for the Mood Board.

1.  Drawing of a Destrier. http://feenixx-gallery.com/north_american_horses/import_horses/destrier.htm
2. Concept drawing of futuristic Horse Armour. http://alfazentaura.deviantart.com/art/Horse-armor-futuristic-169190211
3. Image of a black Friesian. http://sifrp.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/the-destrier/
4. Image of a white destrier. http://lalunadelasbrujasv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/los-caballos-de-guerra-de-la-edad-media.html
5. Image of Horse armour from the Royal Armoury. http://allvegashorses.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/jousting-mayhem-in-the-desert/
6. Painting of De Bohan’s Destrier. http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=destrier&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=667&bih=639&tbm=isch&tbnid=iJ2hi0zMHxh7wM:&imgrefurl=http://www.jamiewoodart.com/%3Ffeed%3Drss2&docid=-6YYQG5-WH7U5M&imgurl=http://www.jamiewoodart.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/de_bohun_s_destrier_final.jpg&w=3200&h=1800&ei=85iFUNOjFKWx0QW71YCoBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=356&dur=334&hovh=168&hovw=300&tx=85&ty=78&sig=109407711240239107895&page=2&tbnh=127&tbnw=199&start=12&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:20,i:133
7. Image of a Star Wars Speeder Bike. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2191592/Star-Wars-gets-real-The-hoverbike-control-mind.html
8. Concept Art of a Hoverbike from Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. http://thelifestream.net/final-fantasy-vii/2180/dirge-of-cerberus-final-fantasy-vii-artwork-collection/attachment/hoverbike/
9. Image of Cloud Strife’s Fenrir bike from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. http://www.flickr.com/photos/elitistczar/3131053369/
10. 3D Render of a Hoverbike concept. http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=hoverbike#/d2bycgh
11. Concept Art of a Hoverbike design. http://genesoul.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/hover-bike-concepts.html
12. Concept Art of various hoverbike designs. http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=hoverbike#/d23ogvh
13. Image of Project Nomad vehicle concept. http://www.treehugger.com/culture/best-and-worst-of-2009-treehuggers-most-popular-stories-on-digg.html
14. Photo of a hoverbike prototype. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2191592/Star-Wars-gets-real-The-hoverbike-control-mind.html
15. Render image of a Mass Effect Geth Armature. http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Geth_Armature
16. Render image of MGS4’s Crying Wolf. http://www.creativeuncut.com/gallery-06/mgs4-crying-wolf.html
17. Concept Art of a Hoverbike design. http://www.giantbomb.com/terran/92-976/
18. deviantART image of a TRON Horse. http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=tron+horse#/d3gzqey
19. Figurine of Odin in Gestalt Mode from Final Fantasy XIII. http://www.kotowari.org/omg-toys-final-fantasy-xiii-play-arts-kai-%E2%80%93-odin-transformable-figure/
20. Concept Art of a Hoverbike design. http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-model-futuristic-hover-bike/180646
21. deviantART image of a Hoverbike design. http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=speed+boost#/d2pd7x0
22. Image of a Light Cycle from TRON: Legacy. http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/news/tron-light-cycle-tron-legacy/

Anyway, using this as a basis, I started by looking at the general body shape of a horse. From that, I created some silhouette thumbnails of potential designs. As you can see, my initial designs were generally more like an actual horse, before evolving into something more like a hoverbike:-

Once I had these 8 thumbnails, I then gathered some feedback from my tutors and peers to see which designs they liked the best. For the most part, they tended to favour either 5, 7 or 8 (or a combination of these), so I decided to develop those particular designs further. I began by fleshing out the designs a bit more  from the silhouettes. You can see this below:-

Not finished yet. Still need to finish the development, but as you can see I'm making progress. My next DD3992 should include the finished design.