robotic arthropods WIP - need help!!!

[cunabula]

Personally I'd start with this link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthropod , work out what sort of arthropod you want to model and then do a Google image search from there.

Also work out what what materials you're going to make the robots from and collect plenty of reference images of the materials in different lighting so you can really nail the textures.

Looking forward to seeing how the project progresses.

A

[tmr232]

here is a screen shot of the model i made for practicing modeling, rigging and animation of such models.
http://somewip.blogspot.com/index.html
i want to show my progress in the animation of this model too but i dont know where can host it. any suggestions ?

[tmr232]

i had put a test animation online now
here it is:
http://ourmedia.org/node/29673

[Eleven-Year-Old-Kid]

Awsome animation... I'll keep my eye on this WIP. Looks good. :P

[tmr232]

Eleven-Year-Old-Kid: thanks for the comment, i was beginning to think to think that no one was going to reply about my project.


i am having a slight problem with my animation:
i dont know how to use the NLA window (action strips).
i will read about it in the manual, but if anyone knows of any tutorial which isnt in the manual i would be really happy to know about it!!!

[Apollux]

For a proof of concept it is quite nice. Now. if you are taking that animation to final stage, this are some things to keep in mind.

A.- Body stability. I know it is a robot and robots are supposed to calc everything, but still I don't thing that the robot would be very stable once all 4 feets are off the ground. You need to model something extra ... be it some small helper feets, be it a flat base.. I don't know, but something so that it doesn't relly on equilibrium calcs only.

B.- Time offsets. The machine is imitating the flesh, so one would expect it would adopt some of the flesh's behaviors.. like not moving all 4 feets perfectly simetrically and at the exact same time.

Do a research on "animation principles". Lucky for you, you don't have to fallow then to the letter because yours are machine, but you stil got to keep then in mind.

(Comet Cartoons http://www.comet-cartoons.com have 2 really amazing articles about the subject.. go to "3D Help" and then scroll down to "Animation and Setup Tutorials" )

[tmr232]

Apollux: thank you, i think you have really pointed out the main problems. but the reason i made this was to check the leg movement, anyway, i will fix that soon and upload a new animation.

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