Archive for September, 2008

Sounds odd that I should want my robot to look like a skip, but I found some great reference for the kind of look I’m going for.  There’s some really cool weathering on this skip which is in a local park near me.

I’m now busying myself painting the robot to a similar effect.

Been working on the robot, here’s some pics.

Here’s some pics of the details on the back.  It’s all made from found objects; the big pistons are mini bike pumps, there’s bits of action figure in there and pieces of my old camera which I accidentally smashed.  The pistons all work and will move as the robot walks.

Turning my attention to the head now.  Not 100% on it yet, so might change what I’ve done….

Just abit of an update really. I’ve been painting the robot (and getting yellow paint everywhere).

Here’s some pics

I’m trying to get a weathered, industrial look partially inspired by the power loader from Aliens and this robot designed by Ashley Wood which I think is rather cool.

Been working on the robot(s).  Here’s a few pics.  It’s slowly getting there and I’ve begun painting it.

I’m also starting work on the robot disguised as a house:

Amazingly I found a shop which sells cardboard houses (small ones) so I got one,  Should make things easier!

So I’m currently building a robot (or maybe two) for the Measure of a Man video.  These are going to be large scale stop motion animation puppets – they should stand about two feet tall.

They’re basically being built over a wooden frame.  As mentioned previously I’m going for a retro look to the basic form.  This is then going to be overlaid with layers of detail.  This can be seen in the pistons that are being laid over the main structure.  These will actually slide back and forth as the puppet moves.

Here’s some pics of the main body.  It’s all going to be painted a dirty looking yellow once it’s done, in ‘homage’ to the power loader from Aliens which is one of my favourite ‘robots’.

And here’s some close up details of the hand.  I’m quite pleased with this bit – there’s alot of articulation and the pistons all work very well together.

So here’s a couple of pics of damage that I’ve added to shots of my brothers flat for the Measure of a Man vid.

I’ve just photoshoped chunks of building damage from google images in. The elements are then overlaid over the video as .pngs. This is a little easier than the bullet hits since the shots are all stationary.

So finally finished the embryo. Here’s some video of it sitting in it’s jar.

So here’s an attempt to add bullet hits to a shot from the Measure of a Man video. I used photoshop to create some .pngs (which are basically pics with a see through background) which I then overlaid over the video using Pinnacle Studio which is a fairly cheapo programme but not too bad for my purposes.

It gets a little complicated as you have to manually adjust each .png by hand as the camera moves so there’s a fair bit of guess work involved.

Not sure I’m entirely happy with it, but it’s not a bad first try.

I’ve recently downloaded Blender so if I can figure out how to use the programme I might have a go at creating some bullet hits in that. Machine gun sound effects come courtesy of Call of Duty 4 which I simply filmed myself playing! (unfortunately I don’t have access to real machine guns, which is probably for the best).

So almost done painting the Embryo now.  I must admit this has proved far tougher than I’d anticipated – painting silicon is bloody awkward and I was panicking abit thinking it was going to look crap.  Luckily, I think it’s OK.  I didn’t like the look of it much but it seems to photograph just fine.

See what you think.  Just gotta make the umbilical cord and I’m done!  Oh, I’m also punching some hair into it’s head.  I thought it’d be cool to see the hair moving abit once it’s in the jar and covered in liquid.

So I’ve started painting the embryo now.  It’s abit of a try and see approach with painting silicon.  You basically have to mix oil paints with rubber to do it then layer it on in very thin washes.  This approximates the look of skin as you get layers of transparency.

I’ve painted on the veins first and these should be visible through the flesh tones that are applied over them.  A fair bit of red is mixed in as well so try and approximate the look of blood under the skin.