Project 01 - Robot

In this project our assignment was to create a robot and a prop, from concept to final
composited image.
We should focus on wether it’s realistic, games or cartoony style. The robot also needs
to be believeable in the way that it has to have a functional design.
I made a time-plan right away, seeing as we only had two weeks on such a large
project, time management is fairly important.

Week1:
Monday – 09:00 – 16:00 - Create moodboards and play with design.
Tuesday – 09:00 – 16:00 - Play with the design and finalize a design.
Wednesday – 09:00 – 16:00 - Start modeling by blocking out a simple pose to see if it
would work, and start on the actual robot.
Thursday – 09:00 – 16:00 - Continue modeling and ask for feedback.
Friday – 09:00 – 16:00 - Finish modeling and prepare for unwrapping next week.

Week 2:
Monday – 09:00 – 16:00 – Unwrap the entire model (This day was shortened and I went
home at 14:00 due to a heavy headache, but I was able to finish most of the
unwrapping before I left.)
Tuesday – 09:00 – 16:00 – Start texturing! ( I came in earlier today, at around 07:15, to
finish unwrapping and stay on track due to my headache the day before.)
Wednesday – 09:00 – 16:00 – Finish creating the diffuse-, normal- and specular-maps.
Thursday - 09:00 – 16:00 – Light and render the scene.
Friday - 09:00 – 16:00 – Write the report and blog post. Submit!

Planning and idea development

I was very unsure about the style and type of robot when I started out, but I was pretty
sure I wanted to make a humanoid or military robot. I then found a lot of reference
pictures online to use as a moodboard.

After some thought I realized I would rather make something non-human and
animalistic, but I was still stuck on the military design.

I still wasn’t sure about the style and the military designs. Because of this I completely
rethought the idea and decided on making one that’s neither humanoid or military. I
then started drawing concepts and designs, coming up with a story that I would design
the robot around.
My idea was that the robot was built by a lonely man in a post-apocalyptic world who
wanted a companion. He built it out scrap around his workshop and the head came
from an old CRT-screen and is only able to display emotion through pixelated facial
expressions.
Because I wanted the robot to feel like a friendly companion, I decided on making the
robot small, and non-intimidating in his design. His head became a CRT-screen, his arms
slim and weak, and his legs short and stumpy. His hands were originally designed as a 3-fingered claw, but during modeling I decided against it as I felt it was more ‘evil’ and
‘friendly’ in its design. The prop I decided on was a brain, which will be explained in the
story chapter of this text.

After I had gotten the initial idea down I made a drawing of how I would pose my
robot. At this point I was still playing around with the idea of him holding something else
than a brain, bu tafter some thought I decided the brain would be the most fitting, and
break away from the ‘cute’ design I gave the robot, and give the model some
contrast.

Modeling

I started out by blocking out a small version of my what I pictured my robot would look
like, and his pose, just to see how things would be connected and if I had missed
something in my planning stages.

I realized that I would need to figure out how to attach the torso to the pelvis with some
kind of waist, but I would tackle that when I got to it.
Satisfied with the pose I began modeling the head, AKA the CRT-monitor.

Got the basic shape down.

Gotten the monitor done and made what would work as the neck. Since I wanted the
robot to look scared and protective of the brain, it was important that the neck would
be able to move at least somewhat like a human neck, to portray the feelings I
wanted. This made the neck consist of multiple parts and small engines that would
make it move in a believable way.

I got kind of stuck when figuring out how the neck would connect to the monitor, so
instead of dwelling too much on that I moved on to the torso and decided to return to
the neck later.

I made a few variations of the arms, but I decided on this design due to it’s functionality
and shape. Even though I decided to make a robot that wasn’t similar to humans, I still
wanted to give it a functioning design, and the human arms are a great source of
inspiration.
The shoulder joint rotates, and bends, then the elbow bends in a natural way, and the
wrist can also rotate and bend. At the end the claw, or pincers came. I decided to
have just two pincers instead of three. This was because I felt it looked more innocent
and friendly, while the three looked more ‘evil’. I n my eyes. I also wanted to make the
pincers look like they could take a beating, but also soft at the same time, that’s why I
made it more solid and sharp on the outside, but soft and ‘friendly’ on the inside.
Because the robot would hold something in the final pose, I didn’t want the arms to
block the view of what he’s holding, and decided to keep the forearms slim and the
upper arms a bit more solid without being too bulky.

At this point I had modeled everything except the pelvis and suitcase. My initial design
had a batterypack on his back, but due to the pose and camera angle I was going for,
I decided to make it a suitcase. This because the batteries wouldn’t really be visible
from the front, but also because the shape of a suitcase is easier recognizable and
adds more to the silhouette.

I wanted to have the suitcase stick to the robot in a natural and believeable way, so I
did the simple thing and gave him a belt to strap it to himself with. I also felt this was
easier to relate with than a metal contrapment holding it onto its body.


To get the brain looking the way I wanted I imported it into Mudbox and sculpted out a
highpoly version to bake normal maps with.
This is before the bake.

And this is after. It turned out pretty good in my opinion, and adds a lot more to the
shape without adding any more quads.

I took great care as to use my UV-space as best I could. This is an example as to how I
unwrapped the arms of the robot.

Finished product

These are just 4 of the 12 pictures we were assigned to deliver in this project.

When texturing it I wanted to make the face feel like a CRT-screen, which I think I
managed to a certain degree. Initially I had just a curved monitor with a diffuse, normal
and specular map on it, but after getting some feedback I decided to try something
different. I then separated the screen from the rest of the monitor, made an inside with
the face and gave the face a black and white map I could manipulate and give some
heavy incandecense or self-illumination to make it feel it’s behind the and not on top
of.

I also used an HDR image to give the glass and metal some better reflections to work
with, and honestly I think it paid off.

My focus on the facial expression was to keep it pixelated and simple in design so it
would feel simpler and easier to relate with.

Story

The story I made up for this robot is that many, many years after an incident that
destroyed most of life on earth, a lonely, old engineer decided he didn’t want to be
alone any more and built himself a new companion. This companion was a small robot.
The old man and the robot grew close and cared for each other dearly. One day the
old man had gotten too old to carry on, and instructed his robot companion to put his
brain in a container to keep it alive and find him a new body so he could live on again.
The robot did exactly what he was told, and would have done so anyway due to his
love for the old man. His belongings were packed up into an old suitcase and strapped
to the robots back, and the robot brought his friend and his belongings out into the
wasteland of the post-apocalyptic world in search for a new body.
After exploring the wasteland for weeks, protecting the brain from all the dangers of the
wasteland, something closed up on them in the night. Out of the sky, a bright light
shone down on the robot. Protecting what he held the most dear of all things, the robot
embraced the old man’s brain and prepared for the worst.

Self evaluation

During this project I personally feel I’ve worked very hard in the time period given. I had
a plan and I stuck to it. We had some trouble with our internet connection and Maya
licences during this week, but I kept my deadline in mind and did most of my texture
work during the downtime by hand-painting everything rather than relying on textures
online.

When deciding on the color pallette for the robot and brain, I decided to go with
something that’s been used a lot before, which is orange and teal, not because it had
been used before but because it fit my story very well. The robot had a very yellow
color pallette due to the colors warm and welcoming feel, but also because it can feel
a bit cheap.

The base of the brain’s bowl was made teal/blue because it’s a calming color that also
represents safety, which is exactly what the robot needed out in the wasteland.