During this stage of the project, I've started adding a few details on each Volt Machine such as landing gears, hydraulics, struts, weapons (ie. missiles), and a few other stuff like weapons. Here are the developments of each Volt Machine.
Volt Machine 5: Lander. Somewhat started detailing the right side (or everything that's gray) of the Lander with the exception of the front part (that pretty much looks like stairs). Anyway, specifically paid attention to wheels, struts, and dampers (or hydraulics) - although they won't be seen as much 'til the underside's exposed. Treating the left side is pretty much the same (or I can just mirror the whole thing when I'm convinced that geometry is done), with the exception of the cockpit where Jamie (or Megumi) sits.
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| Work-In-Progress of Volt Machine 5: Lander |
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On the two top frames (on the below), shows the work being done on the wheels' struts and dampers (for the pilot side of the Lander). You'd notice that one set are already angled and the others aren't. This is where I was still working on the Pivot and Link constraints on the angled suspensions (still need to apply to the ones that aren't angled yet). Plus I also made heavy use of dummy objects so as not to tamper geometry's location in space, scale, and rotation (even if I forget to apply the right pivot as well as X-Form). As for the "stair" pattern on the front, reference dictates that there are only four (4) whereas I have five (5), but who's counting anyway?
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| Work-In_Progress of the Lander's suspensions as well as the "Stair" pattern. |
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| Volt Machine 5: Lander's base model. |
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This is pretty much how the animation will go. Added a few hatches to cover the inner sides and top of both feet. Antennas fold and are tucked in.
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| Lander's animation sequence. |
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Volt Machine 1: Crewzer. Or is it supposed to be Cruiser?
On the image below, the top left shows the base model. Top right is the appearance after transformation (also slightly showing the face of the mecha). Bottom left is the exposed launch bay of the Crew Arrow (or Sky Rocket) tucked in fuselage, and one of the Crew Cutters at the tip of the wing. Bottom right are Crew Boomerang with the Claw Cutter exposed, and an appearance of a Crewser Missile after launch.
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| Work-In-Progress of Volt Machine 1: Crewzer's transformation sequence and weapons. |
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After the weaponry, it took me a while to figure out which landing gear configuration serves best. Initially, I was aiming for an assembly similar to an F-18's main landing gear assembly. But with too many moving parts, targets, and rigging to work at, I decided to switch to an F-15 and/or F-16 configuration which is a lot simpler. It's not exactly as heavily detailed, but I think I have the principle mechanics down from the hydraulic dampers, folding brackets, retraction devices, and even the basic lights.
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| Work-In-Progress of Crewzer's landing gears. |
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Volt Machine 2: Bomber. The image below shows:V2 Bomber basic on the upper left; Bomber bomb and bay; Bomber Missiles, and Bomber Hook (before and after spikes comes out).
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| Work-In-Progress of Volt Machine 2: Bomber |
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But then I had a slight trouble on the design of the landing gears. Military fighters doesn't basically fit on the Bomber. So I decided to look at actual Bombers. As it turned out, Northrop Grumman's B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber came as an answer. Just as I did on the Cruiser, I basically took only the principles (diving into too much details will just ruin the whole illusion) and yanked out the details ('cause that's a lot of polygons to deal with). Hence I came with quad tires on each main gear and dual tires on the front landing gear.
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| Updated V2 Bomber's Main Landing Gear as well as the Front Landing Gear. |
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Volt Machine 3: Panzer. At this stage, I didn't bother creating the treads. Too much polygons. I'll just use textures instead. On the top left, detailed view of the Panzer's bottom and rear. On the top right, one of two Panzer Arms in action. On the bottom left, stage one and two of Panzer missiles. On bottom right, Panzer Knuckle.
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| Work-In-Progress of Volt Machine 3: Panzer which includes missiles, arms (and claws), and the Panzer knuckle. |
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Volt Machine 4: Frigate. V-4 Frigate's mesh is pretty much done with front landing gear, main landing gears (which were pretty much the same landing gears that are used on the V2 Bomber), and Frigate missile. I could throw in Neptune Missile but it's pretty much the same as Panzer Knuckle.
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| Work-In-Progress of Volt Machine 4: Frigate |
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So now I move up to drawing the textures of sorts for all the Volt Machines. I might even edit a few of the meshes, but that's pretty much expected.
