My take on what I think the Alien Grunt should look like.

i kind of wanted to give him a mechanical vibe since these creatures are pretty much made in factories. but i see how it can look kind of odd. i’ll work on a version without the slots.

This is amazing! I can’t wait to see the model when it’s finished!

You’re right, actually, I was forgetting that some of the later Xen biotech had a more regular design to it. Whichever you ultimately choose, this is going to be one awesome model.

Please, with the Hivehand … pretty, pretty pleeeeease 8o

helmet is a wip.

I think you should make the armor look like in your first concept and change the pants to fit better to that kind of design. And yea, I don’t like these edges (steps) on the shoulderarmor of your current concept…

i’ll work on the shoulder pads since everyone’s been requesting those changes.

also i made the third arm bigger and longer so he can operate consoles/machinery/etc.

played around with the armor.

i figured it’s made of some really bizarre xenian metal so i tried to make that evident in the design by giving it weird reflective properties. i changed the shoulder pads back to my original design apart from a few changes. i also matched him to the original hl1 colors.

what do you guys think?

Love the metal, the armslot in the armor finally looks like it comfortably fits the arm, the new shoulder pads are pretty good but I honestly think I was mistaken and the old design looked pretty good too, the texture just blows me away (although I would say less metal than, again, some kind of carapace)… but I’m not sure if I like the conical/triangular back of the helmet.

EDIT: Suggestion: Have the helmet end where the grunt’s skull does, and then have several smaller plates going back down the horizontal part of the neck.

It looks phenomenal. No kidding.

thanks a lot guys. i’ll look into developing the helmet a bit further. also i updated the OP with the most recent image so newcomers don’t have to scroll through the whole thread to see the progress.

One criticism I have about the metal is that it seems to have very high color contrast. The green seems to have a sharp, sudden transition rather than a smooth one. It’s fine on the shoulder pads, but on the front chestplate it kinda bugs me. Other than that, it’s great.

Perfect!

thought i’d let you guys know that me and a friend are going to start modelling the agrunt this week.

<3!

Can’t wait!

Nice.

Will it have facial flexes?

Badass work as always.

As a non-modeler, though, I have always wondered: what do you do to make a model look smooth in-game, when here and in most other outside renders they are very obviously made of polygons?

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.