FMP – E2

To create the character’s jacket, I used a blazer frommy previous project. This I resized to the model’s proportions and upgraded to have shoulder pads.

To construct a belt, I simply stitched 4 pieces of fabric together. [see below] This I could sculpt on top of later, to add detail, but fornow, was all I needed.

Then I cut the sleeves where the arm detatches from itself.

Mechanical Foot

I created a bare bones blockout of the mechanical feet from what I imported from Zbrush.

This I created by making one finger, then duplicating it to create the rest.

This formed the basis of what the joint on top would become

Originally, the concept for the joint was more sleek and contained. However, I thought that by having a revolute joint, instead of the spherical one would look better and fi the narrative. Afterall, the character is meant to have DIYed the whole thing, so something bigger and bulkier makes more sense for storytelling.

I also used pistons to extend and contract from the joints as the angle changes. This will later be constrained together, so that when rigged, they will behave like actual pistons

Throughout the modelling process, I have kept a version log. This enables me to track changes, and find it easier to find the correct version I’m looking for.

Next, I tackled the armature of the feet, and the knee rest.

This had several variations. I initially started out by taking a cylinder and extruding parts, but could never find the correct curve.

Eventually, I landed upon using the torus,reducing subdivisions, and using the outer faces as my starting point. I’d first get the curve I was looking for, and then extrude for thickness.

What really helped me – having realised it after one or two iterations – was using instances to maintain the world orientation, but applying it to the positioned mesh. This meant I could extrude and manipulate the object cleanly, whilst it being positioned in real-time, saving small adjustments down the line.

What I struggled with was modelling the joint. Topology really elluded me around the socket. I was modelling a spherical omnidirectional joint, perfect for handling all the necessary angles of the knee, but this meant that the topology needed to be smoother.

I liked the idea of a ball and chain punk-ish look

I began the “retopology” (I put that in quotes because I’m using it as a basis to start the actual modeling, rather than it being a low poly of a higher)

Finger Caps:

Import to Maya to begin retopology (again)

I didn’t like how many subdivisions it had so…. take 3!!

Used the model to live extrude from, became so wonky, so I did it again (take a shot how many times I redo something)

Finger caps oh how I hated you.

Here we break the chronology to continue logically. After this, I made the flexi-arm. But let’s continue with the hand

OH SO YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GOING REALLY WELL RIGHT????

no!

Unfortunately, Zbrush –> Maya hates me so much that no matter what I did, There would be non-manifold geometry.

– “Do cleanup!” I hear you cry,

IT ISN’T CLEANING IT UP

I despise it, it loathes me, it’s fine.

So from here on, here is me doing that all again…. 🙁 In Maya

I went right back to the basic topology, and worked to fix the topology where I could.

My only hope is that all of this work now, will make it easier later.

At this point, we are ready to start extruding areas

I really wanted the original curved caps. So in a stroke of geniu, I made some quickly using Quad Draw, and extruded the middle. Worked great!

This next bit skips chonologically, but for the sake of logical sections, here we go.

The Wrist Joint

To construct the wrist joint, I really wanted that corrugated edge feel, like a pill bottle lid. So I created a little jut and using Duplicate Special, I duplicated it around to create a cylinder.

Then I created a little pole from the hand which will connect to the wrist through a little dip in the middle to make it seem like it is actually connecting to something.

After modelling a lot of circular elements in this project, I’ve been saved by a Quad Fill Script. This allows me to select a vertex, and instantly fill in a hole without needing to manually work at the topology. #notspon

I also added some ornamented insets for decoration

Okay tell me why this took me so many damn tries….

So we started with SVG -> Geometry, then Texture -> Geometry. I genuinely started doing cleanup, then realised how many vertices there were… then I realised that Zbrush would BE SO MUCH BETTER smh

Following this tutorial : Hexagon Grid ZBrush 2018 – YouTube I managed to create a hexagonal grid.

Using a cylinder that had been reduced to a hexagon, I used the preset from the video to create this hexagonal grid. This could then be adjusted to my needs.

This was going really well, and I managed to create a tube using it.

However, I found issue with the fact that the ends just wouldn’t meet. (I figured out once I rubbed my two brain cells together)

So, thinking there was no saving this, I started on another method.

I used the ring plugin to create a circular path that I could put in an array.

However, I didn’t realise that they would not manage to join up, so this became ridiculously complicated.

I had found a way to flatten the faces, but the interior was still messed up, and it wasn’t a complete fix.

Fortunately, my two braincells came in clutch, and I realised that I had to mask out the edges so that they’d fit together once joined.

This meant that I could create the tube that I needed.

This looked great when connected to the arm! (Next would be trialing how well it stretched and squished.

I also modelled a port from the arm to connect up to the hex-grid

References;

A lot of designs use a revolute joint, constrained to one axis, with one singular rotational pivot at the base. This makes it quite nice to rig.

I modelled in sections, for the middle segment, and then mirrored them to create two identical bars. This I think I will make look better for now. But as they say, it needs to exist first.

After all this, this is what the version log is looking like.

Very long! But ultimately this will help if I need to go back and look for things.

Update: It really did

I simplified the topology of the armature to reduce poly count, could have been a bit more brutal though

I also added some ornamental insets into the poles for decoration, and to outline the features.

I realised that the ankles would not be able to handle interior or exterior rotation, So in order not to lose the joints I had worked on, I thought about creating a track that it could slide through

However, I realised that that would overcomplicate it far too much, so I added a simple spherial joint that can handle almost 360 degrees of rotation.

This joint would be able to sit in a little inset, and connect to the rest of the foot. The foot “pad” could then easily rotate up and down.

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Next I needed to add the toe pads to the thumbs

Little me once wished to be a fashion designer, Little me would have LOVED marvelous designer

The pattern pieces☝️

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Brought into maya, heres what the clothes looked like.

To easily create low poly clothing, I followed this tutorial by Olivier Couston

This allowed me to use the UV space from Marvelous to transfer the vertex position of the new topology effortlessly creating the low poly.

By importing both the 3D clothes and the 2D pattern from marvelous designer,I was able to use the UV space to retopologise and project low poly clothing. This made retopology so much easier as all I really needed to be conscious of was making sure that the amount of edges was equal for all seams, this meant that all I had to do was merge them later.

Progression —>

Then add teeth! The base model came courtesy of Simon Telezhkin which I found here, ArtStation, and retopologised in maya