DiscoverBot - HE'S ALIVE!!!

He's alive! My cute robot is really alive!

Ladies and gentlemen... for the first time ever... I present to you: DiscoverBot!

DiscoverBot - Adding some Texture

Alrighty... time to give DiscoverBot some nice textures and even a nice new paint job whilst we're at it! The first change (and probably one of the easier ones) are the legs. As seen in the sketches; the legs are not just going to be a pair of bendy poles; but pretty much like a chain of interlinked rings sitting on top of eachother. To be fair; this isn't as tricky as it sounds; and if I can make them look as such; by drawing lines on them on paper... then I can do the same here!

That's it... the texture I used. Just a grey box with a selection of lines... aaaaaand...

There we go! The legs now look a tad more realistic and less plastic. Creating more and more horizontal bars was simply a case of increasing the amount of tiling the map had (The legs are in fact around 3-5 copies of the map tall)

An exceptionally minor adjustment; which, quite frankly, is probably not very noticable. In fact I'm willing to bet that most of you thought I accidentally posted the same picture. In actual fact; the leg cords now have a 'bump' tool applied to them. I re-applied the mask as a bump; to basically 'cut out' the black lines; to make them somewhat narrower than the silver outer bars. It's a small change but adds to the realistic look of the legs.

The next step was to repeat the above on the neck. Though basically the same; the neck is much shorter in comparison to the legs. If the same map was used; the neck would have the same number of bars as the legs... and as it's shorter: the bars would therefore be much closer together (The previous images show you what I mean)

The next step was one of the worser ones. There was no putting it off; and unfortunately it proved to be the largest pain in the butt.... the gloves. Using the above texture; I had to carefully wrap it around...

The hands... and boy did it take a while. Sadly; I don't have the screenies of it... but basically it was sitting down and testing numerous positions and scales on the UVW Map tool. It took a lot of trial and error to get the pattern to encircle the orb in a straight line. After that; I basically cheated a bit and rotated the orb so that the pattern was facing the right way (Circle on the back of the hand). It's not an experience I'd like to re-live; that's for sure. Hair-ripping moments; that's for sure!

As well as an overall paint-job (testing new styles); you might also notice that DiscoverBot has had his shoes polished too.

Working on the head now... and the ear-pieces were simpler versions of the glove fiasco. Again; it took a bit of trial an error on the 'Unwrap UVW Map'... but I got there in the end.

The next step was going back and adding a spot of realism to the ear pieces and gloves. Much like the leg and neck cords; I used the bump tool on the patterns; to cut a groove in them... instead of just having black lines painted over the place.

This image captures one of the less stressful UVW Mappings. The top port (with the antenna). Much like the others; this was given a splash of bump tool; to add a little bit of depth. The 'groove' is also much larger than that of the ear pieces; hence why the 'selection' on the UVW window is so small (The line appears larger... with me?)

Here we go! DiscoverBot Mk IV. Coming along nicely. Time to crack on with the torso!

DiscoverBot Mk V: Given a stripe along the torso (following the original sketch)

DiscoverBot Mk VI: Overall paintjob made lighter, given a darker purple stripe and trim made white

DiscoverBot Mk VII: Trim changed into a pale purple; which suited the torso stripe nicely. The shoulder 'orbs' have also been tweaked; so that they now look like glass domes... or at the very least a little bit more fancy.

And there he is! A textured DiscoverBot ready for action!

DiscoverBot - Putting it together

So we have the main body parts. Here's what it's like so far with the current bodyparts.

Aww! Cute! Now I could leave it there... but some leg and neck joints would definitely look better.

That's more like it! The legs and neck were made in a very similar fashion to the antenna from when I made the head. It was a long string of many, tiny bones; where the tips were linked with the HI Solver. The netx major step was then to link everything up. Basically; in order to make my life easier; it paid off to link all the segments to eachother... that way; if I moved one bit; I didn't have to go around moving all the other bits aswell. It took some time to link the parts; particularly making sure that the HI Solvers still worked when they were linked to body parts. It took a bit of trial and error; but it's in a pretty good state now for animating.

And there he is! DiscoverBot ready for animation! Next step is to texture him so he doesn't look quite so plastic or like the older brother of Bomberman (Kids game... formed part of my childhood...)

DiscoverBot - Hands

The hands are a rather simple component. Much like the boots they're not heavy on the number of parts. To allow more freedom; I'm going for floating fingers/thumbs; much like the hands. It'll allow me to push reality slightly if the hand needs to hold something; but the fingers are too short to go around it. Depends on how well it works really... it might actually be easier to have fingers; depending on whether this setup will look good...

The basic palm is nothing crazy. A sphere with a cone on the end. Just for style; the cone has been pushed in a bit to create a nice dent. It just looks a little bit more stylish than a flat cone, after all. Everybody knows that...

Just for more style; another Torus trim has been added to DiscoverBot (I love my Torus' this semester)

And it's then just simply a case of putting in the fingers and thumb. Just a lot of spheres with a bit of scale tool applied to different dimensions. They've been linked to the main hand; so if that moves; all the digits will move with it too. Handy that (Pun unintentional)

DiscoverBot - Boot

Time to create the boots! The legs will get left out for the time being. As they're a bit more fiddly and will be used to connect most of the components together; it seemed a better idea to wait until the end to start building the neck and legs. Anyways; to the boot...

Hey now, this looks cool! Was this really made from sitting down with the editable poly tool and pulling vertices left, right and centre until I had this shape?

... No, unfortunately not. This shape is literally a hemisphered ball, a cone and a cylinder... all painted black (Like the Rolling Stones' song). Easy huh?

Now for the sole of the shoe. A complicated spline extruded perhaps?

... Or maybe just a pair of cylinders on the bottom... your choice...

A quick Pro-Boolean later to chop out a heel... and we're done! Nice and easy. Group it all so it moves as one... and we have our boot.

DiscoverBot - Torso

The torso is a relatively simple component of DiscoverBot. It doesn't need to have any moving parts and is nothing more than a funky egg.

The first step was simple; make an egg (Take a sphere and have a bit of fun with the 'scale' tool) and hemisphere it so that the bottom segment is chopped off (To create the skirt-like style I settled upon)

Just for aesthetic purposes; I added a Torus onto the bottom to create a funky bit of trim

The 'neck brace', where the neck tube will feed into, was another Torus (Basically a doughnut) delicately placed on top of the egg.

Just for a little bit of style; some wing-like shoulder segments suited the torso nicely; and help to add more 'direction' to the torso; rather than just an egg with a mini-doughnut (As you can probably tell by the repeated food references; it's almost lunch time). The basic wing shape was simply a cylinder that had about 3 of its vertices pulled out. It was really that simple.

Twist them, tweak them and round them. Plonk them onto either side of the torso and see how it looks.

It seemed a nice idea to add some 'power orbs' or something equally stylish onto the shoulder pads. For one thing; it adds more to them... and secondly; trying to cut out a hole was more trouble than it was worth. If I tried to ProBoolean out a pair of holes of the finished shape; it'd crash... and if I placed them in beforehand; then the MeshSmooth tool would throw a wobbler and create some unusual lines on the poor thing. So I scrapped it and plonked a few spheres onto the ends.

DiscoverBot - Head

And so the construction of DiscoverBot begins! The best place to start would be the head...

Though it might have been stronger to work from a sphere; I felt that working from a cube was more advantageous. The head is an unusual shape that's pretty much half-cube, half-sphere with a few segments pushed inwards. Either way; it would be easier to round off a cube; than trying to straighten out a ball. So taking the cube; I upped the number of segments (On all axes) in order to give me more vertices to work with. It was then about sitting down and just tucking parts in; pushing segments around and created a decent shape for the head. Not bad; let's see what this looks like with a bit of MeshSmooth applied to it...

Pretty nice! Not quite as 'round' as I hoped... time to go back and push some more of then edges inwards; thus cretaing a champher; which when rounded will become more of a nice curve. Job done!

The screen was nice and easy. Take a sphere and have fun with the scale; in order to flatten areas and create a flat oval to go onto the front of DiscoverBot.

Aww! Cute! The eyes are simply a pair of spheres... nothing exceedingly 3DSMax-heavy here

Ear-port-thingies were also just a pair of compressed spheres.

Same with the antenna-port. Exceptionally simple shapes... but creating a rather cute and endearing creation!

The antenna required a little bit more work. The rest of the head will work as one; even the pupils. They will all stay in the positions they are now; and turn/pivot/move as one. The antenna, however, will need to move independently. They'll need to be able to shake and move when DiscoverBot moves (To really up the realism). This was completed with a ton of bones; all linked with a very handy 'HI Solver; under the IK Solvers menu.

The solver helps to create more realistic limbs. Basically; you can link a bone with another one; and it basically means that if either move; all the bones inbetween them will move to fit. Let me give you an example...

Here's the basic bone structure of a leg. The top is the femur; followed by the fibia/tibia, and then the ankle.

Now; if I wanted to bend the knee; I'd first have to rotate the femur into position...

And then rotate the fib/tib back round. Thus creating the knee joint. However; this is quite time-consuming and would be hell for something like an insect; which boasts several legs!

So what we do is link the femur and the ankle with an 'HI Solver'....

So now; if you move the ankle; the Fibia/Tibia will automatically bend to fit. In other words; the knee will bend. Thus; instead of moving the femur one way, the tib/fib another... the leg will automatically bend. Now... take this a step further and you have something cool with the antenna...

If you place a ton of small bones over a thin cylinder; and place a solver linking both tips... the antenna will automatically bend and curve to fit the shape. Thus; I can get a nice, realistic curve with one movement (Rather than having to tweak the bones individually). It's so nice when life is made easier, isn't it?

Assignment - Character Design Concept

So we now have DiscoverBot. The next important step is whether I can animate the guy! Drawing it is one thing... but making it move in 3D without repeated problems is another...

Thus; the next step was to look at how DiscoverBot will be animated. A combination of bones and 'Linked' body parts would be needed to allow the cyber to be moved as one (And thus save time). The body will act as the central part; moving most of the body. The feet will be attached to the leg bones; and the head attached to the neck bone (I feel a song coming on...); both of which will be attached to the central core. The hands will remain independent; with the fingers all linked to central orb (Thus; moving the orb will move the entire hand; rather than having to move each bit)

In 3DS Max; the use of 'Dummies' will come in particularly handy here. By creating a network of boxes to one side; I can move them instead. It's basically like controlling a puppet (The dummies will get linked to the required bodyparts); saving tons of time and mistakes of trying to select the body-part you wish to move. Good stuff.

Now comes the tricky bit... creating DiscoverBot...

Assignment - Finalised Chartacter Concept

And there he is! DiscoverBot Mk II. The finished design of what I'm hoping to animate. There's not been too many changes to the last sketch; however, the main one is the introduction of the 'skirt' like torso. Basically; one of the biggest problems was how to link the legs to the body; whilst allowing a decent amount of freedom and still looking semi-realistic? The ideas of hinges, ball-socket joints and such were thrown about... but the skirt idea was most practical. That way the legs could have full-freedom without too many joints and attachments needing to be made.

Assignment - Basic Character Concept

So I had my robot... now normally this would be the time where I started to storyboard my ideas for the 3 idents and prepare them. However, in this case, I couldn't do that just yet. The crux of these videos is DiscoverBot. The little tyke holds the key; and needs to be animated well. As such; the important thing here is to make sure he's designed as efficiently as possible. Once he's made and animated; I can then start to work him into things. However; until I know the limitaitons of what I'm working with; it would be unwise to plan the idents now... otherwise I stand the risk of designing an ident that would just be too difficult; if impossible for the robot I have to work with. It's best that I make DiscoverBot first; and then work the ideas around what I can do. Back to the sketch-board...

The first important change to DiscoverBot was that he needed a screen. On paper; the initial idea of just the eyes on the head looked good... but in practice; the eyes would blend too much with the grey of the metal. Therefore, placing a light-coloured screen at the font would allow the eyes to become more prominent. It was also around this time that I decided to scrap the arms and instead go for a more 'Ray-Man' style idea and have floating hands. This is partly for looks (Less flailing limbs and allows more freedom on where the hands can go; without the arms being too long/short/getting in the way) but also for practicality. If you go back and view the Worms 3D clips; the lack of arms adds a lot more freedom to them. Their hands can hover by their sides, but can also stretch and scratch their heads/grab stuff... etc etc... for that to have been possible with arms; they would have needed to have had exceptionally long arms; which just wouldn't look as good as floating hands. It's the same here... I can stretch DiscoverBot's hands good distances without having to make him trail lengths of cable behind him (Basically he's going wireless!). The sketches below shows some of the initial developments.

Another vital development here was the removal of the body segments. Creating a torso and hip segment, linked by a spine would be more hassle than required. In addition; a small round body is much cuter (I really need a stronger word than this...) and more versatile... so win-win in my opinion. And thus; a few more scribbles later:

We have DiscoverBot Mk I! Cute! Big round head, small eyes, tiny body, massive feet. Just the look I'm going for. I also finally sorted out the hands; which had been giving me some grief (Bottom right). It was hard to get robot hands that worked with the image of DiscoverBot... and the round orb with little floating fingers and thumbs suited it best. A few more tweaks needed; but this was roughly what I was firing for.

Assignment - Initial Ideas and Mood Board

So where is all this animaiton lark heading towards? Well, my little darlings, the task has been set! (Well; it has already been set for quite some time now... but my blogger-ness has had to plat catch-up. But nonetheless; here it is...

We have to create 3 idents (The mini-adverts for channels which they often plug inbetween their programmes; just incase you had no idea what channel you had changed your TV to (Channel roulette is indeed good fun if you're detrimentally bored and with a group of mates. Even more fun is muting said programme and adding your own dialogue... but I digress...))

So how to go about creating an ident? What sort of stuff would be nice to do? Well... I think the more important quesiton here is what would be more fun to do. We pretty much have a choice of anything; so at least pick a fun one to do! The idea of a robot instantly intruiged me. A cute little thing to animate. But doing what? What channel would it work well with?

I sat down and poured out a couple of sketches of robots and ideas; and this one in particular caught my eye...

A few more thoughts later and I had an idea... have a peek at the over-complicated mood-board first and I'll explain...

"A robot... and a lever?" you dryly proclaim; staring at your monitor wondering what elaborate joke this is. Is that it?

Indeedy! That's it. The immediate thing about this is that it's easy on the eyes. It's not overcomplicated and almost 'cute' for want of a better word. The plain background pushes the entire attention upon the robot itself (Now un-originally named 'Discover-Bot'). So why did I settle on this?

After seeing the robot just on a plain background... no gadgets, no fireworks, no over-sized pumpkins breakdancing to Hammertime... it reminded me of several in-game videos for a wonderful little gem on the PC called 'Worms 3D'. Have a quick peek at them. Notice a running style through most of them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IFQMr6u9no

As you can see; most of the videos have a worm, with a little patch of ground beneath them (Sometimes not at all)... and that's it. No complicated scenery and backgrounds... just them. And the amazing there is that it works. Your attention is completely focussed on the action; and it looks so pleasant and cartoony. It's perfect and entertaining to watch. As odd as it sounds... it's 'pleasing to the eye'. It's like eye candy that isn't packed with sugar; if that makes sense. The style of the videos were just the sort of thing that I thought would be fun to do.

From here; this also reminded me of one of my favourite adverts... 'The Famous Grouse'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAJ__XOmsLI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jF-x0Jn8hY&feature=related

Again; it's simple... it's just the grouse and the plain background... but it works! It's the simplicity of it which makes it work so well. Had the Famous Grouse been on a background of, say, a forest... it wouldn't have had the same impact. And that's the look I wanted to achieve with mine.

As for Discovery Channel? Well; that idea came about from what the robot would be doing. I had the style but not what he'd do or who for... Discovery Channel is well known so it was one of the first channels to spring to mind; and the name suddenly gave itself the theme... discovery! Thus, the idea was hatched... a robot on the simple background discovering things with each ident. One ident he finds a lever, tries to pull it... etc etc... and you just see him discovering different things with each one. And so, the plan had been decided!

So now; go back and look at the Mood Board. Though it might just look like a sketch... it conveys the exact mood I want from this... simplicity. Something easy on the eye... nothing overcomplicated with too many colours or things going on. That's not to say this is going to be easy. The increased focus on the robot means that he basically carries the entire ident. The animation has to be spot on for this to be enjoyable. If the robot's movements are weak and unrealistic; the entire ident will fall flat on its face. And that's where my focus will have to go... making the robot near perfect