From Photoshop to Maya - Modelling the Upperbody and Arms
Now I needed to model the upper body of my Mecha/Robot. In order to do so I needed to do so I needed to finish the ball-joint 'mechanism' that connects both the lower and upper segment together. How I did so was by using a basic cylinder polygon grouped and combined with a circle (curve polygon) - which I then set a pivot point to for animation purposes later. However for the actual upper body modelling I took one simple cube polygon of which I dragged the two front-facing, upper vertex's backward to make this almost Rhombus looking shape that would be the bottom base for it.
From this point what I did both to save time and to create the best, symmetrical and authentic looking Mecha/Robot that stayed within the guidelines of my original concept piece was to duplicate the bottom-base polygon and scale them down until I reached the head/top section of the upper body. I made minor alterations to the other sections of the upper body to avoid over-using the same polygon. These changes included bevels, creases to make it a lot smoother rather than a basic hard, matte look.
In the screenshot above, you can see I have added two pauldrons/shoulders which will be the base shapes to hold the spaulders/extended shoulders which will prop and arms or cannons. This is where I felt my design started to come to life and really look like the Photoshop concept piece. I also modelled the centre and head of the design which I mentioned previously. Not only this but I also added blinn materials onto all of these polygons to give it a more metallic and sheen-like finish until I begin to add my own textures to the model later on.
One risk/challenge I came across throughout this creative process was the lack in orthographic drawings for my Mecha/Robot. Since I didn't have this I had to really think about what was/was not needed in my design so that when I came to model I could avoid specific things that weren't essential and served not functional or realistic purposes. So that is what I did, below I have a screenshot that shows the areas on my Photoshop concept I was not going to model as I felt they weren't needed.
As you can see I cut off a lot of extra, pointless parts. I felt they just weren't needed and I wanted to be efficient with my time especially with the entire modelling process since that would take a while.
The next part was the spaulders which had their own unique design. Reason being is due to the fact that the spaulders didn't have anything on them in the original design. What I added was drastic enough to change my concept piece design entirely, however it did add a small 'something' to the design. The reason I did this was because I didn't want a completely bland final model.
The next step was the arm/cannons. These were going to hang down from the spaulders and were simple to put together since I wasn't going to have any animation on these. They were also very simple in terms of actual modelling. The cannons are comprised of three cubes and one cylinder that have bevel and creased edges for aesthetic purposes. Once I created one, all I had to do was mirror it.
The ideas for both the arm/cannons and rocket spaulders came from military equipment weapons during my research phase. The spaulders had a humvee tow missle and the arm cannons are a shelled-out grenade launcher. I chose these since they look appealing and say within context of the design.
By this stage, my model is complete. The next stages are to add details and features to the model.
From this point what I did both to save time and to create the best, symmetrical and authentic looking Mecha/Robot that stayed within the guidelines of my original concept piece was to duplicate the bottom-base polygon and scale them down until I reached the head/top section of the upper body. I made minor alterations to the other sections of the upper body to avoid over-using the same polygon. These changes included bevels, creases to make it a lot smoother rather than a basic hard, matte look.
In the screenshot above, you can see I have added two pauldrons/shoulders which will be the base shapes to hold the spaulders/extended shoulders which will prop and arms or cannons. This is where I felt my design started to come to life and really look like the Photoshop concept piece. I also modelled the centre and head of the design which I mentioned previously. Not only this but I also added blinn materials onto all of these polygons to give it a more metallic and sheen-like finish until I begin to add my own textures to the model later on.
One risk/challenge I came across throughout this creative process was the lack in orthographic drawings for my Mecha/Robot. Since I didn't have this I had to really think about what was/was not needed in my design so that when I came to model I could avoid specific things that weren't essential and served not functional or realistic purposes. So that is what I did, below I have a screenshot that shows the areas on my Photoshop concept I was not going to model as I felt they weren't needed.
As you can see I cut off a lot of extra, pointless parts. I felt they just weren't needed and I wanted to be efficient with my time especially with the entire modelling process since that would take a while.
The next part was the spaulders which had their own unique design. Reason being is due to the fact that the spaulders didn't have anything on them in the original design. What I added was drastic enough to change my concept piece design entirely, however it did add a small 'something' to the design. The reason I did this was because I didn't want a completely bland final model.
The ideas for both the arm/cannons and rocket spaulders came from military equipment weapons during my research phase. The spaulders had a humvee tow missle and the arm cannons are a shelled-out grenade launcher. I chose these since they look appealing and say within context of the design.
By this stage, my model is complete. The next stages are to add details and features to the model.
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