Mech #3

This week I carried on with modelling, rigging and animating another mech. Kai had already done up a few concepts and we all chose which one we wanted to try complete. I chose a rather strangely structure mech, the legs remind me of a pair of bird legs. Once again I modelled, rigged and animated this mech.

The concept art for this mech was once again great, it is really great having a concept artist like Kai.

Concept Art:

Fig 1.1) Front and Side View

I had to change up a thing here and there to get the model in 3d to look and 'feel' right. I had to make changes for some of the joints to get them to look functional. After discussing it with Gordon, I also decided I would leave the legs straight instead of bringing the feet closer together like in the concept.

3D Models:

Fig 2.1) Front View

Fig 2.2) Side View

Fig 2.3) Perspective View

I have started to get use to rigging now, especially for legs. I managed to rig this mech very quickly and easily compared to the rest. I did a pretty basic leg setup, a joint for each rotational point and an IKhandle from the hip to ankle. Again, I did not have to rig the upper body of this mech as it will rotate according to the player. The only down side to this rig setup is that I don't have as much control over the rotational amounts of the bones in-between the hip and ankle.

Rigging:

Fig 3.1) Rig Setup

With this rig setup it was easier to animate than I thought it would be. I still have to check with Gordan if he is pleased with the movement this rig setup allows. I am pleased with the result I have achieved although I think there is room for improvement.

Animation:

That is it the last mech I will be doing for now. I will be moving on to do a few weapon models and hopefully get them ready for this next week.

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to comment (or criticize if you really must). Thanks.