Tralfaz Posted October 22, 2009 Posted October 22, 2009 I needed to take a break from the Discovery model, so I started modelling this. All that detail was making me bleary eyed! Will get back to it shortly. In the meantime, can anyone guess what this is going to be? Al Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 22, 2009 Author Posted October 22, 2009 Dang! That was quick. Good guess Mark. Yes, it is the good ol' B9 Robot from Lost In Space. Al Quote
Darkwing Posted October 22, 2009 Posted October 22, 2009 i have a question, what are your render settings? i want to be able to render stuff like that Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 22, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted October 22, 2009 Yes, it is the good ol' B9 Robot from Lost In Space. Little known fact... he was the inspiration for this scene: danger.mov Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 23, 2009 Author Posted October 23, 2009 Hi Darkwing, here is a link to an explanation I did on Ambient Occlusion rendering in another post. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=267941 That clip was pretty funny robcat. Thanks Spleen. Quick update. Did some more modelling on the robot. The danged arm holes are going to drive me crazy! I have tried 4 or 5 times to model the openings, and they keep looking like crap. Oh well, will get it eventually.... Al Quote
TheSpleen Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 you are insanely fast! what do you do with all these models? you must have tons of em by now. Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 23, 2009 Author Posted October 23, 2009 Thanks Spleen. As for being fast? I just don't have a life... Today on my lunch at work, I finally got the arm openings modelled! What a royal pain in the butt that was, but I am happy with the results. Al Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 23, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted October 23, 2009 Today on my lunch at work, I finally got the arm openings modelled! What a royal pain in the butt that was, but I am happy with the results. If you had used a transparency map for the hole would AO render correctly? Quote
steve392 Posted October 23, 2009 Posted October 23, 2009 Realy nice modeling .Im looking forward to seing this one compleat ,an old favuorite Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 24, 2009 Author Posted October 24, 2009 Thank you everyone. If you had used a transparency map for the hole would AO render correctly? After seeing your suggestion Rob, I thought I would give it a try. In a normal render, the transparency map worked. However, in an AO render, the 'hole' rendered as black. Update on the bubble headed booby! Modelled the insides of the bubble (brain). Added the arms and claws, and started on the legs. So far, the model is around 9,500 patches. Al Quote
Darkwing Posted October 24, 2009 Posted October 24, 2009 muha ha ha, once my eric and trafalz model stealing/combining machine is ready, i shall be the greatest Am modeler that ever lived!!! *cough* ahem sorry really really good job. hm, come to think of it, Lost in Space is something I haven't seen the original of, I've seen Time Tunnel and a variety of other Irwin Alen stuff, but never LIS, I must get on that Quote
MJL Posted October 24, 2009 Posted October 24, 2009 Robbie the Robot next? They are cousins, aren't they? Masterful Job, Al. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 24, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted October 24, 2009 If you had used a transparency map for the hole would AO render correctly? After seeing your suggestion Rob, I thought I would give it a try. In a normal render, the transparency map worked. However, in an AO render, the 'hole' rendered as black. damn. Would a boolean hole cutter work with AO? Quote
Paul Forwood Posted October 24, 2009 Posted October 24, 2009 Excellent! I might have a go at Dr. Zachary Smith. : Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 24, 2009 Author Posted October 24, 2009 muha ha ha, once my eric and trafalz model stealing/combining machine is ready, i shall be the greatest Am modeler that ever lived!!! *cough* ahem sorry really really good job. hm, come to think of it, Lost in Space is something I haven't seen the original of, I've seen Time Tunnel and a variety of other Irwin Alen stuff, but never LIS, I must get on that Hmmm... stealing model machines... Isn't that how Skynet was born? Irwin Allen did some great shows and movies that I just loved when I was a kid. As a bit of trivia, I read that his office phone number was the serial number on the side of the Space Pod in LIS. damn. Would a boolean hole cutter work with AO? I've never used Booleans in A:M before, so not sure how that would work out. Booleans in A:M don't actually change the geometry, do they? Robbie the Robot next? They are cousins, aren't they? MJL, both Robby and B9 were designed by the same person, Robert Kinoshita. So I guess that does make them related. And both Robby and B9 appeared in an episode of LIS together. He looks great so far, Al! Excellent! I might have a go at Dr. Zachary Smith. Thank you David and Paul. It would be pretty cool to see Smith and the Robot together again! Update: I dug out my old Jupiter 2 model that I had started working on a while ago. Seems like I have lots of partly finished models, and not many fully completed. Oh well. Wanted to put the Robot in a more familiar setting and try some different rendering techniques. I did a standard lighting render and then one with AO turned on. The AO render used the same techinique as the previous clay style renders. I had to hide the top of the J2 hull, as well as the inner roof, otherwise the render was completely black except for the window. Even with those two parts hidden, I still had to use a couple of low intensity lights for the models to be reasonably well lit. Also, you may notice that the computer lights on the consoles are not nearly as bright as in the standard render. Same thing with the radar screens. Yet, if I turn off all lights, and do not use AO, the computer lights and radar screens show up perfectly. BTW, the AO render took just over 2 hours! Al Standard Lighting AO Render with minimal lighting Quote
Darkwing Posted October 24, 2009 Posted October 24, 2009 that's looking really cool, and BTW, its more of a model skill stealing machine Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 24, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted October 24, 2009 I've never used Booleans in A:M before, so not sure how that would work out. Booleans in A:M don't actually change the geometry, do they? No, they don't, but when you need a hole in a shape and they just wont' spline together booleans are there. wireframe showing boolean Quote
Eric2575 Posted October 24, 2009 Posted October 24, 2009 Al, you got it all wrong - The first pic is brighter because the Jupiter is in Earth's orbit, lit by sunlight. The second pic was obviously take way out in deep space. Get a clue and just look out the viewport. Geez, I hate to point out the obvious, but... Quote
bighop Posted October 24, 2009 Posted October 24, 2009 I just found this post from your other thread. How did you model the openings for the arms? Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 25, 2009 Author Posted October 25, 2009 I've never used Booleans in A:M before, so not sure how that would work out. Booleans in A:M don't actually change the geometry, do they? No, they don't, but when you need a hole in a shape and they just wont' spline together booleans are there. wireframe showing boolean Hmmm.... will have to give it a try and see how it works. Al, you got it all wrong - The first pic is brighter because the Jupiter is in Earth's orbit, lit by sunlight. The second pic was obviously take way out in deep space. Get a clue and just look out the viewport. Geez, I hate to point out the obvious, but... LOL! Makes perfect sense now! I just found this post from your other thread. How did you model the openings for the arms? I wish it had been magic. The arm holes were a real bugger to do. I will try and put something together to explain how I did it. And now the final model (minus textures)... Al Quote
bighop Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 That is too cool for school! Do you have any idea how many hours you have on this? Quote
*A:M User* Shelton Posted October 25, 2009 *A:M User* Posted October 25, 2009 Good job Al. You and Eric and Stian and Rodger should put together a workshop on mechanical modeling. I would buy the dvd! Excellent work Steve Quote
steve392 Posted October 25, 2009 Posted October 25, 2009 Realy nice modeling and so dam quick .Graet stuff Quote
largento Posted October 26, 2009 Posted October 26, 2009 Excellent job, Al! I was curious and did some reading on the costume. To move the robot on camera, they had a cable that some crewmembers would pull. To make it easier on the actor, there was a second version of the lower part of the costume that only came down to the actor's knees. They called it "The Bermudas" because it looked like shorts! I did a google image search hoping to turn up a picture of this, but like Scotty's missing middle finger, they must've gone out of their way not to photograph it. Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 26, 2009 Author Posted October 26, 2009 Thank you so much everyone. All your great comments are really appreciated. I am not sure how many hours I've worked on this bighop. I started the model a week ago though, and worked on it during my lunches at work, evenings and the weekend. Thank you Shelton for including me with the likes of Eric, Stian and Rodger. They are outstanding modellers and I still look up to them for inspiration and help. I know what you mean about the robot costume Mark. And you are right about Bob May (the actor inside the suit) legs showing every now and then. I know I've seen them in a season 1 episode, but can't remember which one right now. I will scan through the episodes when I get home tonight and see if I can find it again. In finding reference images on the web, I did come across some that show the power cables going to the robot running along the ground. Funny, that as a kid, I thought it was a real robot! As for Scotty (James Doohan), are you saying he was missing his middle finger!? Never knew that. This will probably be my final update image. Spent most of the weekend trying to get a half decent image of the robot on the Jupiter 2 flight deck. Finally ended up with this one and am fairly happy with it. Lighting and texturing is a whole other art form, one that I need lots and lots of practice with. Al [edit] P.S. I found one of the pictures I was talking about with the cables running from the back of the robot along the ground. [/edit] Quote
largento Posted October 26, 2009 Posted October 26, 2009 It does seem awfully dark on the ol' Jupiter 2, Al. Those cables make you wonder how many times he fell over. :-) Yeah, James Doohan was injured during WWII. Ironically he made it up the beach during D-Day only to be shot at night by friendly fire while going between command posts. He was shot 6 times! One of those bullets took out the middle finger of his right hand. With that knowledge, it's fun watching old episodes of Star Trek and seeing how much effort he puts into hiding his right hand. Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 26, 2009 Author Posted October 26, 2009 Yeah, it is a bit dark. But after 4 hour renders, I decided that last one was a keeper!! LOL! I did take the image into Photoshop when I got home today and tweaked it a bit. Also, I found a spot in "Invaders From The 5th Dimension" which shows Bob May's legs. It was clearer in the video then in a still, but you will get the idea. You can definitely see the 'shorts' and a power cable coming out from behind the robot. If you look really closely, you can see the back of one of Bob's legs. I also did a check into Scotty's missing finger, and sure enough there were some photos of him showing the missing digit. Weird that I never caught onto it during all the viewings of the old episodes... Al Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 29, 2009 Author Posted October 29, 2009 I did a quick animation test of the robot. A huge thanks goes out to robcat for providing his concertina model which showed me how to rig the robot's arms. Couldn't have done it without him. In the video, you will see the robot's arms in action, the torso swivel, the head go up and down, the radar dishes (ears) rotate and the mount for the radar dishes swivel. Also, in the bubble, the blades near the top of the blade also rotate. The blades and radar dishes are controlled through expressions. Now, I just need to figure out how to animate the blinking lights through an expression. Al B9.mov Quote
largento Posted October 29, 2009 Posted October 29, 2009 Haha! That's great! You know, looking at the photos, it looks like the "gray" areas should be more metallic than a flat gray. I gather there were different looks from season to season. I found this company that will sell you a licensed automated replica for the low, low price of $24,500. :-) They look really amazing, though. The "design and construction" video on their video page shows a lot of details. Quote
Paul Forwood Posted October 29, 2009 Posted October 29, 2009 Robbie is looking terrific, Al. I'm glad to see that you got the arms working. I did try to rig an arm for you but my effort didn't work quite as I expected. Well done! Quote
nino banano Posted October 29, 2009 Posted October 29, 2009 Very nice modeling Tralfaz, I enjoy this model so much It was one of my favorite TV series Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted October 29, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted October 29, 2009 I did a quick animation test of the robot. B9.mov Looks great! Now, I just need to figure out how to animate the blinking lights through an expression. Do they not just cycle? Is there some other condition that controls them? Quote
NancyGormezano Posted October 29, 2009 Posted October 29, 2009 Oooooo...Robbie B9 Robot looks terrific ! Fun stuff...I agree with Mark tho, could be more of a shiny metallic, if you are trying to stay true to the original(s) (Robcat - that concertina rig is da bomb! - would also work well for other, simpler, bendy, squetchy arm, leg models) Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 29, 2009 Author Posted October 29, 2009 Thanks everyone. I saw that sight already Mark. Got some reference photos from there. Pretty amazing that they can find a market for these robots for that amount of money! I appreciate your trying to create an arm rig Paul. I was hoping to have the lights flash randomly through an expression Rob. I suppose it would be a lot easier to just create an action that flashes the lights, then have it repeat itself. From what I have read, there were definitely two different finishes on the robot (as there was a hero robot, and a stunt robot). One of them had a smoother silver finish and the other was a more textured silver finish. I was trying to go for the more textured finish, but am totally open to other options. A lot of the photos of the replicas have the smoother shinier finish, so I tried using a metallic paint shader from Darksim for the body color. Let me know if this is any better or not. Might need to be a bit brigher silver... Thanks... Al Quote
bighop Posted October 29, 2009 Posted October 29, 2009 That looks so cool! What is the concertina model ? I build a "Bender" model but had trouble rigging the arms and legs, they move much like the B9. Is there a post for that model? Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 29, 2009 Author Posted October 29, 2009 That looks so cool! What is the concertina model ? I build a "Bender" model but had trouble rigging the arms and legs, they move much like the B9. Is there a post for that model? You can find robcat's concertina model in this post... robcat's concertina model Al Quote
bighop Posted October 29, 2009 Posted October 29, 2009 Thanks! You're motavating me to do more modeling. Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 30, 2009 Author Posted October 30, 2009 And now a quick video of all the lights and whirly gigs buzzing away..... Lights need some fine tuning though... robot_auto_.mov Al Quote
Darkwing Posted October 30, 2009 Posted October 30, 2009 just a quick note, robbie isn't the one that trafalz is building here, robbie is from the forbidden planet and looks somewhat different, though i don't know which was first, lost in space or forbidden planet Quote
Tralfaz Posted October 30, 2009 Author Posted October 30, 2009 just a quick note, robbie isn't the one that trafalz is building here, robbie is from the forbidden planet and looks somewhat different, though i don't know which was first, lost in space or forbidden planet Forbidden planet was first with Robbie the Robot. It was made in 1955 and Lost In Space was done in the early 1960's. Al Quote
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