SpartanFlower landing gear

I created a new preliminary design for the SpartanFlower's landing gear. It's got two pistons and a swing landing pad. I'm hoping that it fits well inside the SpartanFlower's gear wells. Rigging this should be hella fun!!!

Another (slightly modified & corrected) view of the landing gear:

New SpartanFlower

So far so good. The new SpartanFlower is well on it's way. I made a few design decisions that were for the best. Originally, the 'Flower was going to be totally spherical. The more time I put into her, the more I decided that some design decisions should be made for "realism's" sake. The windows are external with braces on them, the main thrusters are bigger and protrude less, the communications laser is in the rear and the maneuvering thrusters are not directly underneath the main bridge window. Still have to design the front hatch though.

SpartanFlower

I've decided to remodel the SpartanFlower. This decision was to correct a number of mistakes in the original creation of the ship. The ship was initially supposed to have a large communications laser that was to sit flush with the hull on the rear section. Because of various problems with the program I used to model it, I couldn't accomplish this. I first modeled it in a program called Electric Image Modeler (EIM). This was a NURBS modeling program and could be very cranky. Now I'll attempt to model it using Silo, a subdivision surfaces modeler. Hopefully, this will give me the control I need to model very specific pieces.

Here are my results from the first half hour of modeling (with interruptions):

First steps!

It's alive! ALIVE!!! Finally finished rigging the EVA Robot. It was a great experience. Rigging can be fun sometimes when you don't have to deal with skin weights (although I have to dig deep into that in the next couple of months).

Next order of business; remodeling the SpartanFlower, Hugo's surveying ship. Created the original ship in Electric Image Modeler from NURBS. It translates rather badly into Maya (although the textures look great in EIAS). There were some things I wasn't proud of with that ship (landing gear, no communications laser, no cockpit shielding), but I look forward to correcting all of that. It's going to be fun working out the mechanics of the landing gear to include shock absorbers.

I'm not sure whether to create the planet set in Vue or just use Maya. Vue will probably be superquick, but it's a program that I'll need to learn and I'd still need to bring it into Maya to use it with my other stuff. I may have to rig the plant that the Wutes use for sustenance as well (unless I can just slap a couple of deformers onto it to have it sway in the wind.)

EVA Robot Rigged

First small test animation:

EVAR: Storage Position

Just about finished rigging the beast. I'm feeling more comfortable about rigging in Maya, and that's a good thing! Still haven't finished texturing or sculpting on the robot so I thought I'd get something accomplished. Here's an example of the EVA Robot in it's storage position:

EVA Robot

Just a bit more detail. Slowed down today by a bit of sickness, but I'm determined to finish the texturing this holiday weekend.

EVA Robot: Space Module

When the EVA Robot is needed to repair the ship on a space walk, it ditches it's leg module and uses it's maneuvering thrusters to get from place to place outside the ships. It's big flood lights can illuminate the darkest shadows and it has two doors for it's robotic arms in the front.

I can't wait to finish texturizing and then distressing all the paint and materials (perhaps add a dent or two similar to the SpartanFlower herself).

Extra-vehicular Auxiliary Robot

Finally found a lighting solution that might be nice for the robot's floodlights and camera lights. Now for the endless tests. Still some texturing and hard surface sculpting needed for the body details (not to mention the dirtying it up a bit). Still not quite satisfited with the ankle and feet of the robot. Much to ponder...

Maintaining Momentum

On of the hardest parts of a personal project of this type is maintaining momentum. Life starts invading every aspect of a personal project. People get sick, you have to make real money, computers break down, vacations, holidays, they all combine to create a situations that distract you from your goals.

I constantly strive to keep my momentum up. I try to achieve this through watching other peoples films, shorts, looking at inspirational artwork and talking to like-minded people.

New Robot for Hugo

Here's the new design for Hugo's robot companion. Still have to do a ton of work in detailing, textures, UV's and rigging, but I'm very pleased with the initial work.

Hugo's Robot companion

I decided to scrap the initial design for Hugo's robot companion. It looks too much like something that's been seen before (although it does fit my design parameters) and it's very boring-looking. I'm going for a kind of four-legged spider design - spindly, but quick. I'll post some stuff after I ponder it for a bit.