AT-ST

Good day people. Okay, as complained and requested by mr.meteor yesterday morning, here is a more elaborate breakdown progress of the AT-ST i'm working on. So far so good. Have been rigging the model for two weeks now and i'm feeling pretty good about this baby.

Not much of a skinning skinning going on but more calculations and thinking needed to constraint this and that. Here is a simple tiny walk of the AT-ST...



Well, this is not the final walk-cycle of the fella...as the Foot-Roll wiring is still under-process. Slacking abit larh but will finish it up soon.

Here are some breakdowns of the small small little details in the foot rig.

This clip below, you can see the stretch and squash of the cable at the knee-joint.



Each end of the cable is attached to a dummy point; that each dummy are respectively attached to the different part of the AT-ST leg. By using a SplineSelect; select a vertex end of the cable and attached it to the dummy by applying a Link XForm.

By doing so, the vertices will follow the position and rotation of the dummy. As the dummies move closer to one another, the cable will deform accordingly; whereas it will stretch accordingly when the dummies seperate.

Next, this shows the mechanics going on at the back of the knee area. You will notice the two metal plates reacting to each other's movement. The lower part of the leg will push the upper metal plate outwards as it rotates itself forward.



This little fella is alittle bit tricky. It has got to do with wiring calculations of the positions and rotations of the x/y/z axis of the two components. As the entire leg uses IK chain properties, the lower leg doesn't rotate if manually controlled. Therefore, we will need to calculate the pos/rot of the controller moving the IK chain in reference to the upper plate rotation contraints. There are still things need to be resolved here. To put it simply, headache`

This last clip below shows the motion of the pistons.



The pistons are basically two cylinders each attached to a dummy point. The dummy points are placed on both ends of the motion; one attached to the thigh-leg of the AT-ST while the other to the uppermost leg connected to the pelvis of the robot.

For the pistons, we use the LookAt constraint for the orientation. Basically if piston A is attached to dummy A, it will then have a LookAt constraint to dummy B. While piston B attached to dummy B will have a LookAt constraint to dummy A. What it does is that, however the animator positions the AT-ST, the two piston cylinders will always be looking at one another.

So, that's the end of my little breakdown of the AT-ST as requested by mr.meteor. I'll probably talk more about earthly matters on the next writing. Have a smooth-sailing week ahead`

Hey peeps...sorry haven't been around fer quite sumtime to tell stories.

Everybody love stories. Well, life's good in some ways...smooth-sailing it feels. Been focusing my energy on other things than just work. Think that helps alot. A while back, thot of a couple of people i've not catch up with. Will ring 'em soon or sumthing.

By the way, it's the Raya's once again. This year things are more slow; in every sense. After the morning raya prayers on tuesday...went home, took a nap...napping all the way till three before heading down to grandma's at the other end of the island. One of the few places i'll be safe from lost'ness in the east. Other than that...tour guide please..

Took some days off from work. Went around running errands i've thot of settling months ago...such as troubling Ms. Daphne who works in the bank; answering all my thousand and one requests and questions followed by more requests.

Crap! Pressed sumthing...all gone...lucky there's this saviour (Recover post button) thingie at the top here; if not i'll probably shut the IE off and go to sleep...sheesh. The first time i wrote this blog had that similar incident. Had to rewind the mind of all the words that has gone from the brain to the keyboard. I hate that. It's like the first writing flows from the heart....the second writing is just a recall from the mind.

Okay, back to Ms. Daphne. She's such a sweet; they never fret. Always looking forward to fulfilling your next thousand and two request. Kudos to her and the bank people...A1 service. School's been great, finished with the first half of my showreel...now working on the AT-ST rig. Will upload the demo movie once i render it out and compress it for this blog. But for now, fer those who knew me from the past, here's some memories to share... fer those who know me now, here's a glimpse of past times....found 'em in some dusty albums while cleaning up the room for the festivities`



Grad Dinner '02: People who share my crap everyday for the past 1095 days`


Grad Dinner '02: Who wud have thot i'd finally start learning it three yrs later`


Grad Dinner '02: People of the table`


Grad Dinner '02: After party lobby people`


Nyp '02: ahh yes...the usual place where Rush's scooter wud be park at point A
in the morning, and end up at point B in the afternun`


Nyp '02: The Applegates. Sang: Beautiful day [u2]; Shiver [coldplay]; Jumper [3eb]`
Time cut short. Unsung: Why does it always rain on me [travis]...what a pity`


Graduation Day '02: Nad & me...minutes before i raced off back to camp`


Graduation Day '02: Found my speedy rugby winger a minute earlier`


Graduation Day '02: Found this babe much earlier...`
Would have died of deafening boredom without her`


Bunkin days : Redz & me`
Herman wud sure to watch over the snacks when i'm around`


Bunkin' days : People love stories`


Bunkout day : Picked a nice spot fer the final march out`
That's Deddy; a.k.a Rock. Played rugby with me in sch; bunkin' with me in camp.
Not known where he is present`


Slumber party '03 : I only cook italiano`
The leftover pasta however turned into a rubber basket`


Slumber party '03 : It's just fan trying to suck up aid's brain oats`