MMP1 | alexa echo-defense bot
This is a little transformer-type character I designed as part of my semester-project for university (second term). The idea was to give an everyday object a completely new meaning and breathe life into an inanimate thing.
main render and blueprint-mockup to promote a tad bit of authenticity.
The result is this echo-defense sentinel. It is equipped with two open-bolt weapon platforms chambered in .22 short, resulting in a quite competent defense robot. His sensory array consists of one large IR-capable wide-angle camera and 4 smaller depth cameras for enhanced depth perception.
The robot was designed to be somewhat believable and - from a mechanical standpoint - fully operational.
The animation was created mostly as a gimmick and to experiment with marker-based motion tracking aswell as trying out HDRI-creation. The biggest challenge was blending the smartphone footage with the 360 HDRI turntable spin. The result is far from perfect and - if more time had been available - could've been further refined.
promotional image for thumbnail purposes
Modeling, texturing and rendering was completely done in Blender. I used Adobe Photoshop to color-grade the final render and to add typographical details. The animation was finalized in Adobe Premiere.
Overall, I've learned quite a few techniques and approaches to cleaner topology aswell as the digitalization of a real environment using HDRI capturing.
-Markus K. Gruber
