FMP: Designing the colossus 2

Now I'm happier with the landscape I can focus more on the colossus.  I don't want to spend too long developing the design - I know it is important, but can always be a little better, and will undoubtedly prefer a different design later in the process - That always happens!

Well, I want it to have impact over being realistic or what ever, and will add extra crap that I don't think will fit but looks cool.  I'm considering massive chains like it is held in place maybe and even glowing eyes after its awakened.  Maybe even having some wings, maybe ripped like a fallen angel - quite Anime and JRPG ish... But people like it especially the young'uns!

I want a bit of surprise and have something for the player to work towards, and am hoping I can make it inconspicuous at first.  This will involve hiding the colossus' presence and camouflaging it as a rock formation somewhat.

Functional
The colossus has got to work - I want it attacking and stuff.  One way I was thinking of handling this is having the player on a mountain top and attacking the head and torso of the giant.  Another one was having the colossus be in some form of pit and have the player climb around it.

Here is a quick design to show the sleep and awake state idea.  I was originally thinking of chaining it to either side (where I was gonna have massive statues)
But I might use the space to facilitate combat

Limitations
All of the above involve too much travel.  Due to the size of the beast it can take five minutes just to walk a route all the way up them.  If Moses won't go to the mountain...  I am leaning towards having a rooted colossus (like the final colossus in Shadow of the Colossus).  With this I can actually separate limbs and other parts as different actors and mix with static meshes.  This might look gash though with the lack of dynamic lighting over millions of triangles - Will have to find out.

Armour/Ornamentation
One of the key features I want to add is carved parts - armlets, anklets, bracelets, collars, eyes for example.  This will help give it character and stop looking like a big pile of nature.  In Shadow of the Colossus they even give the colossi fur - It does look cool, and works great as the player often needs a surface to grip and climb... Not as essentail for my design maybe.

Lore/Back Story
I am going to give the colossus ancient & primitive motifs.  I will also look at the Wander (hero) from Shadow of the Colossus and apply some of his characteristics.  As this involves angular/chiseled edges I will sway from curves and use them sparingly.  Conversely I will have rounder bits early in level to contrast.

[Shadow of the Colossus] I will be paying homage to this character here a bit - quite like the lithic patterns anyhow

Materials
I will have to utilize every multi-sub object I can, giving me five materials to play with.  These can be very expansive, and I have no experience with skeletal meshes in UDK, I don't know how well they will be lit or how well they animate.  Will have to do some tests soon.

I think I prefer the stockier one I had originally

I'm developing the colossus here - Outlining sections and potential architecture

It seems I will spend forever designing the colossus unless I integrate it into the level with 3D modelling

I spent a little time learning about mental ray, rendering and viewport settings -My viewport is now sexxay (this is an iterative render though ;)

A new update for After Effects adds the option to create animated GIFs directly (above is my first go) I'm having a mess around - trying to get the colossus in the level and adjusting bits.  The animation is a basic grab - Which will be removed after I know the form of the colossus better.  Things like this help to get there - I will need to adjust the build of both the colossus and level to accommodate for some attacks - and some might just suck.  Is gonna be a long process with some trial & error.