5Th Mellinium Cylon

I was working on a Battlestar Galactica video project (now on hold at the best and dead at the worst) whose intro depicted three 5th Mellinium Cylon centurions. These were at a timeframe 1000+ years prior to the 1978 series. The best basis for this design seemed to be Ralph McQuarrie's original concept painting showing the Cylon warriors bringing Baltar in front of the Imperious leader. I combined that rough design with certain elements of ancient Greek armor. To show a less developed state, I opted for mechanical arms and legs. That ended up making it look a lot like a hybird with Ron Moore's mechanical Cylons in the recent miniseries, although that wasn't my intention.

I've not yet textured this thing, nor have I boned it. For me, that's the challenge since I've never boned a model. Nor do I have any experience with that sort of animatiion. So, this is a learning experience for me. I welcome any help and guidiance.




Sandy

[skyhawk223]

It's a great looking model. However, it doesn't look that menacing perhaps because it looks a little squat.
Goo dluck on the animation. I am at the same stage you are with this.

Thanks Skyhawk. You're right, its not all that sinister. I'm trying to do a couple of mods to make it look a bit better. I've straightened out all of the pivots and can do some very crude animations through keyframing but haven't figured out how to bone the thing without distorting it yet. I'm reading through Dan Alban's LW 8 book and going to watch the vids.

I should have learned bones 2 years ago but have let that all slide. Trying to catch up now.

Here's how its developing. I'm going to replace the hands and do a bit more detailing on it.




Sandy

I Donno, if I saw it I'd run, regardless of how squat it is


I'm not one for LW, but wouldn't it be easier to use IK rather than Bones for a non-organic model ? Then again I've never really used either so

Ryoken

Ryoken,

It might. I've been modeling solid, non-moving things for ages. I'm stepping outside my comfort zone for this guy.

I need to get good with both. To date, I've simply been locking the pivot points and keyframing it all. I'm also trying to figure out if I want the chrome look or not. Here's the alternate finish on him. (I still need to do some more detailing on him before he's ready, even once I figure out how to move him correctly -- make him walk, turn, punch buttons. I have to replace the hands also. The ones on there are temporary.





Sandy

This is why I stuck to modeling ships, bases, etc.. I never had much fun with anything organic, or land based.. though I've done a few things with slight moving parts.. Guns, rotating sections for Gravity, etc..
Also I've obsessive complusive, so everything I do has to be very mathmatical, and organics is the opposit of that, as are terrains..

I vote chrome.. Looks nicer if done right, but it always a pain

Ryoken

[skyhawk223]

Chrome gets my vote as well.