Robot Battle

Animation l created for  IMD3900 - 3D Modelling.  The objective was to create a character driven animated short film.  I was inspired by some early mecha series such as Gundam Wing and Neon Genesis.  Since this project took place over a semester of senior year, I decided robotic characters would be easier to animate than something organic.  As I began animating, I simplified the camera angles and environment to save time and allow me to focus more on the movement.

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When designing the characters, my focus was on rigging the characters in a simple yet mechanically accurate way.  The arms and legs of the characters use inverse kinematics as well as additional handles for extra parts such as the shoulder plates.  For the monster's tail, I used a spline with several handles to give me full control over the curve and twist.



I would have loved to have spent more time cleaning up the movement and speed, as well as modeling a better environment and proper introduction and ending.  Below is a short animation playblast where the rigs are still a work in progress, it shows the IK setup in gray, rig handles in blue, and the spline handles in red.