{"id":51,"date":"2008-01-21T14:24:20","date_gmt":"2008-01-21T19:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scope-eye.net\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2010-01-11T12:23:50","modified_gmt":"2010-01-11T17:23:50","slug":"1100-zaku-kai-experimental-blender-model","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/?page_id=51","title":{"rendered":"1:100 Zaku Kai &#8211; Experimental Blender Model"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My Zaku plans have been pretty well realized in 3-D for some time now, but it can be hard to visualize exactly how the MS, as designed, will look in different views.  For this reason, I&#8217;ve decided to try my hand at making a 3-D computer graphics version of my design, so I can spin it around all I like.  The CG model started off very crude, but it&#8217;s gradually been taking on a much greater level of refinement, and now work that I&#8217;m doing with the CG mesh is becoming my main point of reference for work with the physical model.  <center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_7.png\" alt=\"Blender_model_7.png\" \/><\/center><\/p>\n<h3>Older versions:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_2.png\" title=\"blender_model_2.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_2_thumb.png\" alt=\"blender_model_2.png\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_3.png\" title=\"blender_model_3.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_3_thumb.png\" alt=\"blender_model_3.png\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_4.png\" title=\"blender_model_4.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_4_thumb.png\" alt=\"blender_model_4.png\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_5.png\" title=\"blender_model_5.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_5_thumb.png\" alt=\"blender_model_5.png\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_6.png\" title=\"blender_model_6.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Blender_model_6_thumb.png\" alt=\"blender_model_6.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Poses:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Kai_Kneels.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Kai_Kneels_thumb.png\" title=\"It kneels!  That makes it legitimate!\"\/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Dynamic.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Dynamic_thumb.png\" title=\"I'm trying to recreate the pose when the Zaku first jumped out to attack the Alex with the heat hawk.\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Kai_Kneels2.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Kai_Kneels2_thumb.png\" title=\"The legitimizing power of a kneeling pose can hardly be overstated.  After all, a robot that can't kneel can hardly be called a proper robot at all...  Here I'm mostly trying to coerce the Zaku Kai into the MG Zaku v2's signature kneeling pose...\" \/><\/a><a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Kai_Kneels3.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/Zaku_Kai_Kneels3_thumb.png\" title=\"I made a few changes here: I hinged the side skirts and angled the front skirts on two axes instead of just one, in order to give the leg more clearance.  I also changed the pose a bit - maximized the bend at the knee in order to try to get a better kneeling pose, and change the pose at the hips and ankles to try to work around that.  There was a bit of trouble with the left leg running into the rear skirts (I think I need to add a joint to allow the rear skirts to lift up) but otherwise the modified pose works surprisingly well.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Summary<\/h3>\n<p>In some ways this effort is a bit of a sidetrack: I&#8217;m eager to put some kind of stamp on my plans and begin building in earnest.  But to me this is a very interesting diversion.  I&#8217;ve       wanted to know how to make 3-D CG models for some time, and now I&#8217;m finally learning how to do it.  I feel like Blender doesn&#8217;t provide all the editing tools I would hope for (as a modeler used to working with solid materials, it&#8217;s a little disconcerting that Blender offers so few tools that let you actually think of the CG model as a &#8220;solid&#8221; of some kind rather than a collection of polygons and vertices) but it&#8217;s a very fun process all the same.  At this point I have most of the major parts laid out, though just about everything is missing some       piece of detail or some refinement to the structure.  As I mentioned above, as the Blender model&#8217;s getting more refined, it&#8217;s becoming my testing ground for changes to the design.  It&#8217;s much easier applying experimental changes to the       CG mesh than it is to redraw the paper plans each time I want to make a change &#8211; plus I&#8217;ve used data taken directly from Blender to build some of the physical model parts.  It&#8217;s basically       reached the point where I may not bother making a final set of &#8220;master&#8221; paper plans &#8211; the paper design process was very useful but since the Blender model is a true 3-D reference it&#8217;s more useful in some ways.  At this point I&#8217;ve rigged most of the model, allowing me to experiment with poses like the kneeling post.  From here I want to finish the rigging process so the model will be fully animatable &#8211; I want to animate a walk cycle and maybe a few other things &#8211; and continue       the detailing process to make the CG model a much better representation of how the physical model will look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My Zaku plans have been pretty well realized in 3-D for some time now, but it can be hard to visualize exactly how the MS, as designed, will look in different views. For this reason, I&#8217;ve decided to try my hand at making a 3-D computer graphics version of my design, so I can spin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":42,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":523,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions\/523"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}