Tag: modeling

The Razorback – Part 21: Starting the Armor Plating

In this video, we take a look at the hurdles involved in armor plating this autonomous vehicle.

The armor of the machine can’t cover the instruments, as this would look bad and would be a waste of time. We really want the armor to encase the vital components, protecting them from various angles, leaving them accessible from vital ones.
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Creating Pipes Using the Chamfer Tool in Cinema 4D

This tip demonstrates a simple technique for rounding, extruding, and detailing some simple metal or PVC pipes.

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The Razorback – Part 20: Hazcams and Hazcam Brackets

The term Hazcam is taken from the cameras on the front of the NASA/JPL Mars rovers. It stands for Hazard Avoidance Cameras. I think the instrument density is at a good level. We’ve still got to include an antenna array and several GPS sensors as described in the book.
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4 Ways to Join Gaps in Cinema 4D

This tip focuses on a situation, and not a specific tool or object. Cinema 4D does not have the most robust polygonal modeling tool-set of all 3D applications, however it does have a few very versatile tools that offer useful workflow shortcuts.

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The Razorback – Part 19: Joining the Upper Arm to the Wrist Pivot

In part 19 of the Razorback screencast series, we use a Boolean operation to join now separate components of the upper arm to the rotating disc/bearing area that we’ve been calling the wrist. Keeping with the visual trend of the robotic arm up until this point, I blend the cylindrical part into the rectangular part of the arm. We’ve used this approach  Read More

The Razorback – Part 18: Splitting the Upper Arm Into Two Parts

In this part of the Razorback series, we split the upper arm into two pieces. Earlier on in the series I wanted to keep the robotic arms as simple as possible, and while doing so, I unintentionally hampered the range of motion. The following video follows me as I try to correct this situation. The result is actually better looking in my opinion.

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The Razorback – Part 17: Tweaking the Upper Arm and Kickstands

In this part of the Razorback series, we are going to revisit the Pneumatic kickstands. First, we take a second look at the upper robotic arm and make some pretty dramatic tweaks.

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The Razorback – Part 16: Refining the Upper Robotic Arm

In this installment of the Razorback screencast, we kick things off by reconstructing the upper robotic arm of the machine. There’s a bit of modeling, and some new techniques in store for you.

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The Razorback – Part 15: Refining the Lower Robotic Arm

In this part of the series, we continue refining one of the robotic arms, in an effort to make the Razorback’s arms more polished and complete.

Most of the video is spent cleaning up geometry and beveling edges to create smooth transitions.

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The Razorback – Part 14: Refining the Robotic Arm Base

In this part of the video series, we start to give some attention to areas of the model that are still very primitive. I kick things off by refining, smoothing and merging the base of the robotic arms. The base part of the arm has a motor mount fused to the housing as if it were cast from a single mold.

We start by merging the objects, giving it a yellow color and running through some Boolean techniques that may sound familiar if you saw my recent videos on Booleans in Cinema 4D.

I realize that at this stage of the modeling process, I may be making up words like: Boolean-ing and Boolean-ed… I’m OK with that. If we can Google something, then I can consider something Booleaned.

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The Razorback – Part 13: Instruments Tweaking and a Test Render

I don’t practice using the MoGraph module enough, and this video proves it.

We start this video on a critical note as I realize that I’m still not happy with the instrumentation cluster on the front of the machine.

At the end of the video, there’s a test render with some simple Global Illumination.

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The Razorback – Part 7: Kickstand Pivot and Ram Brackets

This video is a bit longer than the others (sorry), but there’s some good modeling technique in there. We look at creating the brackets/cradles for the hydraulic rams of the Razorback. Before getting into that heavy modeling, we look at the approach I settled on for pivoting them into and out of position.

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