Hot Dog! I figured out how to do some basic animation to get this droid careening into the enemy landing bay, hovering for an instant, then planting itself, extending its arms, and getting ready to use its tools to cause some dammage.
You can watch the version I made for Instagram, which I had to redo in a square for their format. It’s not as good of quality as the video on YouTube, but it repeats endlessly, which is fun.
My favorite unintended part is that long shadow on the ceiling when the droid enters the landing bay. Dramatic! I’m also partial to the way it banks around almost out of control, and of course the great unfolding of the legs.
The hardest part to animate, by far, was the appendages. It’s complicated to get those really long legs to untuck, and extend, without them running into and blocking each other. I’d say it’s a flaw in the design, because a human couldn’t operate it, but for the AI of a droid, well, there’s no problem. Computers can do super sophisticated math instantaneously.
The first video I made was just the droid going from a default position to moving most its parts (there was no reason to raise the 5-chamber-gun…]. This shows how the legs and descending disc operate and can collapse back into the underside of the droid.
And the Instagram, square, less sharp version:
I didn’t see animation as part of my repertoire, and it’s not at all why I got into digital sculpture and Blender. But now I am already getting ideas for more animations.
You can also get a really cool print that goes a little something like this:
It’s available in my INPRNT shop:
And a special thanks on this New Years Day to my cherished patrons via Patreon and Paypal!
~ Eric Wayne
And if you like my art or criticism, please consider chipping in so I can keep working until I drop. Through Patreon, you can give $1 (or more) per month to help keep me going (y’know, so I don’t have to put art on the back-burner while I slog away at a full-time job). See how it works here. Or go directly to my account.
Or you can make a one time donation to help me keep on making art and blogging (and restore my faith in humanity simultaneously).
Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 
That looks great, I can see why you are so pleased (:
LikeLiked by 1 person
That ceiling shadow really is super. I’m wondering about the forced square format on Insta—I’ve seen several videos that looked close to either 35mm or 16:9 format there, and a lot of others that were of course square. I know you can pinch photos down to their proper vertical size so I’m thinking there must be a way for videos too.
LikeLike
I researched it and made a video precisely 1080 X 608, which is allegedly their preferred landscape aspect ration. It still cropped it. So then I just resigned myself to a square. I could use video software to ad a white or black band above and below, and that will easily fix the problem. I’ll probably do that in the future. Blender is also a video editor, but I haven’t learned how to use it for that yet.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love this new direction with the animations!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I seem incapable of not exploring just about everything that comes up.
LikeLike