Robot movement example

This is an example of robot movement from the japanese anime "The order to stop construction". The robot in this film is very unstable and its character is clear through its twitching motions as it looks like it could break down at any moment. These are possible movements i could incorperate into my robot as is a good way of making the viewer beleive it is real and has character.



Steam robots

Chess piece - Knight

MOTIVATION - BE THE BEST YOU

Some food for thought

Chess piece - Rook

King chess piece

I have now finished modeling the king, queen and pawn chest pieces. I will continue to practice these and re do them if neccesary but I am now going to model the rest of the pieces to have a complete set.

                                   



Modeling - Queen piece test

I wasnt happy with how the top of the queen piece turnt out so i decided to start again from scratch. I am much happier with my second attempt.

This is a comparison between the first model I made and the improved version.

What is steam punk?

Steam punk is a genre of science fiction where steam power is used as the main power source for industrial technologies. Steampunk has become a subculture with a rather large following and doesn't just refer to books and novels written on the genre.With it being based on steam power most of the work on steampunk is set in an alternate universe of the 19th century and will normally incorperate fashion, culture and art similar to that era. Steampunk is influenced by, and often adopts the style of, the 19th-century scientific romances of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. Scientific romances and now commonly known as science fiction. Several pieces of work adapted the steam punk style before it was ever given a name. Most notibaly was Metropolis , a 1927 film by Fritz Lang. This film was set in 2026 in towrering city skyscrapers and featured robots and a stylistic genre which was uncommon at the time.

Although this genre had been around for decades the term Steampunk didn't arrive until the 1980s as a tounge in cheek variant of Cyber Punk. Cyber punk is a post modern scientific genre which focuses on advanced technologies and mega corporations. Many films show example of the cyber punk theme such as blade runner and total recall. Cyber punk has a strong influence in Manga and Anime and is very evident in Japanese culture and is well accepted. Animes that are well known and have adopted the cyber punk theme are Akira and Ghost in a Shell. 

Ghost in the shell

Akira

Steampunk has often moved away from just recreating known historical eras such as victorian and wild west and  has moved into fantasy worlds which rely on steam power technology. This is often incorporated into video games such as Final Fantasy and the Elder scrolls franchises. 

The Dwemer race in the Elder Scrolls video games is heavily influenced from steam punk technology and features a lot of giant cogs and mechanics and uses steam power. I will continue to research both steampunk and cyber punk and any ideas will be posted on here. 

Modeling Chess pieces - Pawn

Although I was happy at my fist attempt of the pawn piece I knew I could do better so i decided to practice and try again. I am much happier with the results 2nd time round.

Steam Punk Chess Robot Project

My task is to Design, build and animate a Chess Robot and its environment in the steam punk visual style that can apparently think, decide, pick and place objects. Your piece should focus on a limited "set" as quality and relevance is more important than volume, think elegant still life that moves.

The short film will be a vehicle to allow us to develop many aspects of the Animation Production pipeline, specifically on the creative side of the medium.

We were given examples such as the 1999 film Wild Wild West which incorporates a lot of the Steam Punk style. 

As well as getting some practice in modelling the required objects for this project such as chess pieces I am going to do some research into steam punk and related designs.