Robbie the robot

[Freemind]

Introduction. Modeling of Mechanical objects in Blender is a great bien todo improve your modeling and rigging skills and is often easier than modeling purely organic ob-jects. In this tutorial, y Will guide you th rouge a high level approach todo creating an anthropomorphic robot character called Robbie.

Reference images and sketches.

I used several sources of Inspiration when sketching Robbie, ranging from movies such as robots, by Twentieth Century Fox todo the almost limitless supply of images provided by google. While the reference movies and images helped develop the sketches, y found small model robots, similar todo what you may find in a estoy shop, the most useful for Understanding how the various joints worked.

Figure shows the final sketch that i used as the basis for the model. While the sketch is quite basic and is posed diferently todo the FinalRender, the essential characteristics and relative proportions should be clear todo se, one of the decisions that i made early on in the de-sign process was that Robbie would be a friendly looking robot and have certain human-like qualities, it is for this reason that he has large eyes and his jaw was modeled todo appear like he is smiling. Anatomically, he losely matches that of a human, but youll notice that his arms are disproportionate in size with his legs and body, the reason for doing this was two fold, firstly i wanted todo give him a bit more character and experi-ment with the idea of him being a robot. The second reason was todo make future animation of the model easier as it far more dificult todo convincingly animate a model with exact human proportions.

Modeling the skeleton framework.

The modeling process started with creating the ba-sic skeleton framework. While most of the skeleton would later be hidden from view, y used it as a guid when modeling the visible parts of Robbie and later in the rigging process, each component of the skeleton frame started of as a simple primitive object such as a uv-sphere or cylinder. Placement of the ball and socket joints was achieved using Blender Snap cursor todo object and Snap object todo cursor operations, the ball and socket joints were created from a uv-sphere with 12 segments and 12 rings [12,12].

The socket Joint was modeled by selecting the third edge-loop [alt-right mouse button] as shown in figure 002, duplicating [shift-d] it, separating [p] it from the parent object and then using a series of extrudes [e] and scaling operating [s, shift+x] todo create the tapered socket Joint as shown in figure 003. Creases were added by placing loop-cuts [Control-r] in close proximity todo existing geometry. Smoothing was added todo both the joints and sockets and a sub-surface modifier was added todo the socket Joint. After creating the first socket Joint, it was then duplicated [shift-d] and rotated [r] about the centre of the ball. Each ball and socket Joint in the model is Simply a scaled linked dupli-cate of these thre objects. Using this simple ball and socket Joint, together with open cilindros consisting of 12 segments, y created the skeleton framework as shown in figure 004.

Modeling the head.

I wanted Robbie todo possess human-like characteristics and todo look friendly. I therefore decided todo give human-like eyes and modelled his jaw such that it appeared that he was smiling. The head started life as a uv-sphere[12,12]. Half of the verti-ces were removed and a mirror-modifier about the x-axis was added, y created the jaw by se-lecting the Faces shown in figure 005, duplicated [shift-d] and separated [p] them and extruded [e] the región. Addi-tional detail was added todo the jaw by adding loop-cuts [Control-r] around the axis of rota-tion as shown figure 006 and extruding [e] a face todo re-semble a toth.

Im not not going todo cover how todo create Robbie eyes in this tutorial as there are some great eye tutorialesavailable on-line and in previous publications of Blender art magazine, y did however enhance the eyes by adding a bottom eyelid and placed a tapered cylinder above each todo ACT as an eyebrow. When creating the eye socket, the aim is todo create a realistic.

Hole in the Mesh without generating ugly geometry. I was able todo kep the Mesh clean by deleting [x] one of the Faces and selecting the resultant edge-loop [alt-right mouse button], snapping the cursor todo object [shift-s] and selecting todo sphere from the Mesh tools menú, the edge-loop was then scaled slightly todo accommodate the eye as shown in figure.

Robbie no sé was created using the Bolt factory wizard located in the scripts menú. The default settings create a Bolt with a lot of geometry, especially around the shaft of the volt. As most of this Will be hidden from view, y deleted it and replaced it.

By extruding [e] the edge-loop where the shaft mets the head of the volt, the head was completed by adding a Low-poly Bolt todo each side. The Low-poly Bolt was created from a uv-sphere[12,12] where half of the sphere is de-leted and the largest edge-loop extruded and scaled in-wards. It was then extruded once more todo form the cylindrical section of the Bolt as shown in figure 008, the slit in the top of the Bolt was created by extruding [e] some of the Faces inwards along their normals.

Modeling the upper body.

The upper body started life as a cylinder[12] with its ma-jor axis aligned along the z-axis. Once again, half of the vértices were removed and a mirror-modifier about the x-axis was added. A succession of loop-cuts [Control-r] added along the length of the cylinder along with scal-ing [s,shift-z] formed the basis for the object. Once i was happy with the proportions along the z-axis and x-axis i switched todo the side-view and scaled all the edge-loops except the ones at the top and bottom of the cylinder, this improved the proportions of the upper body, creases were added as described earlier in this tutorial, once i was happy with the general geometry of the upper body i selected the upper section as shown in figure and separated it from the lower section. This would later allow me todo place Robbie in a more natural postura by placing an Arch in his back, a plate was added around Robbie nek todo provide a Little more detail todo the model. This was complemented with a few Low-poly bolts as used earlier on.

Robbie head. A close up of the plate is shown in figure.

Modeling the lower body.

Robbie lower body was created from a Cube with one level of subdivisión [w] and all vértices with negative x or y coordinates deleted and a mirror-modifier added for both the x-axis and y-axis, the Cube was positioned as shown in figure and the base of the Cube scaled [s,shift-z] inwards while being locked in the z-axis. A total of seven loop cuts were added todo the Cube todo create the ge-ometry shown in figure 011. The lower body was.

Completed by adding four Low-poly bolts, two todo the front of the object and two todo the rear.

If you look carefully at the bolts, youll se that each has varying Degrees of rotation todo increase realism. The bolts not only help todo complete the model but a los cre-ate some nice shadows during the render stage.

Modeling the arms and hand.

The upper and lower arms were each created from a cylinder[12]. Thre Edge Loops [Control-r] were added todo the cylinder and scaled [s] outwards todo add some definition and a Smooth contour. Additional geometry was added todo the upper-arm around the shoulder by selecting the six Edges as shown in figure 012 and extrud-ing [e] them thre times while tracing out a curved surface around the shoulder Joint. Additional geometry was added todo the lower arm in exactly the same bien as shown in figure, but this time it was todo protect the el-bow Joint. Minor adjustments were made todo the arm while viewing the model from various angles and finally a Subsurface modifier was added todo each object and smoothing applied todo each of the Faces.

Robbie hands are based on a flattened Cube with two edge-loops [Control-r] placed at the locations of each of his thre fin-gers as shown in figure 014. Addi-tional geometry was extruded [e] from the side of the Cube where the thumb would later be attached. The fingers and thumbs are each based on Robbie arm skeleton, with an additional tapered cylinder[12] added todo each todo form the finger tip. Each of the digits were attached todo the hand and placed in a natural pose.

Modeling the legs and fet.

The upper and lower parts of Robbie legs were created in exactly the same bien as Robbie arms, actually, y du-plicated [shift-d] the arms and tweaked each of the edge-loops todo get the desired geometry. The only minor diference between the arms and legs is that the legs Bends in the opposite direction todo the arm and therefore it was necessary todo rotate the lower section of the duplicated arm. A detailed view of the geometry of the Robbie leg is shown in figure.

Moving on todo the last part of the model, Robbie fet. It should be of no sorpresa that each fot was created from a vSphere [12,12] with half of the Faces deleted [x] and additional Faces added todo form the sole of the fot, a sub-surface modifier was then added along with an edge-loop around the base of the fot todo create a solid crease and flat sole, the fot was then scaled [s, y] along the y-axis todo elon-gate the fot and give Robbie greater stability. The toe-cap on each fot was created in a similar bien todo how i created Robbie jaw. The Faces shown in figure 016 were selected, duplicated [shift-d], separated [p] and ex-truded [e] todo create the new región. Additional edge-loops [Control-r] were added todo the toe-cap around the axis of rotation and finally sub-surface modifiers and smoothing was added todo each part of the fot. As a fin-ishing touch, y added two Low-poly bolts todo each fot, one on either side of the fot todo give the fot the same level of detail as Robbie jaw.

Finishing up.

The final step in the modeling process was todo duplicate [shift-d] all the objects on Robbie left hand side and mirror them about the x-axis [Control-m,x], while ensuring that the 3d cursor was located at the origin, so there you have it, a high-level guide todo creating an anthropomorphic robot character called Robbie using primitive geométrical objects in Blender.

For those of you interested in watching a series of video tutorialesgoing th rouge each of the stages outlined in this tutorial, as well as rigging, lighting, uv-mapping, texturing and composite rendering of Robbie, por favor subscribe todo my Vimeo channel Robbie the robot http://vimeo.com/danieljhand/channels.

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