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Other
ClydeSight Productions Bryce 5 Tutorials:
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Learn Bryce 5 modeling by building a robot model based on "Robby, the Robot™"*
See local media coverage of this tutorial!
| This tutorial is intended to teach Bryce 5 users basic modeling techniques by building a robot BASED on the character Robby the Robot™. The Bryce 5 model can be used for educational and personal use ONLY. Commercial use of the model will require a license from Turner Entertainment Co., A Time Warner Company. ClydeSight Productions does not condone or imply any use of this model that would be construed to violate their rights, nor does it use the model in any of its own commercial products. See Disclaimer |
Setting
Up Robby for PosingNote: This is a highly detailed tutorial. I STRONGLY suggest that you print these pages (there will be a lot of printed pages!) and use the hardcopy as a guide while working. It's much easier than having both Bryce 5 and your browser open and then flipping between applications!
If Robby was a statue, we'd be all done. But he's virtual-- a cyber-puppet--and we might want to pose him. It's easy to do in Bryce 5 with MEGA groups and linking. We'll do that now. To properly pose him, you have to understand how he works as a costume.
Obviously, he can move his legs, and he actually sat down at the end of the movie "Forbidden Planet" (when he drove the spaceship)! We will leave his legs "stiff" for our posing purposes however, as it would get too complicated for this tutorial to go into the details of jointing all the parts.
Robby can bend over. When he bends, he does it from two places. First, he bends from the hip. But he is limited by his "girdle" in his bending movement. His chest would eventually bump into his girdle lip. For further bending, he bends his whole girdle, pivoting on top of his legs.
Robby can turn his body. Robby doesn't twist his body at the hip and upper legs as we do (although we can make our model do that). Instead, his chest assembly (remember that MEGA group we made?) spins on top of his hip. And, since he can bend and turn at the same time, he does have that nice "three degrees of motion" every good robot needs!
Robby can turn his head. His head spins on top of his chest, just as his chest spins on top of his hip. But he can't bend his head up or down. He has to bend his upper body for that.
I haven't seen him move his blasters or neutralizers, so we won't worry about posing them.
Of course, Robby can move his arms and we have set him up for that. We also have it set up so we can open and close his fingers, but we don't have complete jointing set up for his hands, as we really don't need it here.
Robby can also bend his hands, and we're set up for that too. They bend from the palms.
So, we've done good posing prep work and have just a few details to manage and we can practice posing him!
You'll find that for the most part, all that grouping we did is going to come in very handy.
To ensure that you don't ruin your model, make a copy of the Bryce 5 file itself. Do the work for this section from the copy. That way, you always have your original as a backup!
If you have saved and closed your model, open it now and go to the FRONT view.
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Step 1: MEGA Group Robby's Head. If you are in WIREFRAME ( not SOLO) mode and can see your model, make sure you have not selected anything and go to the FRONT view (press 4 on the keyboard). Pan and zoom so your complete model is visible in the workspace. Click on the little triangle next to the VCR controls when the object selector pallet is active and you'll get a pop-up list of options. Find "Select All" and click on it. Everything will be selected and the pop-up will go away. Click on it again and point to "Select Groups". A pop-up list will appear that shows you ALL the groups you made for the model. The "super" and MEGA groups we created will have a check mark next to them meaning they are selected. Hold the SHIFT key down and click on the top MEGA group: A lower body group. The pop-up list will close and you'll see in the wireframe that this group is no longer selected. This is what we want (we are limiting the selection of groups). Keep the SHIFT key down. Click on the triangle, go to "Select Groups" and hold the SHIFT key down and click on: A upper body group. That group becomes deselected. Finally, with the SHIFT key still down, go to the object palette and click on the infinite planes object. (It's the brown square, second in from the left-- your left). This will de-select the ground plane. Your wireframe should now be showing you that ONLY the Robby head parts are selected, including the long spheres that are part of his skull and dome. There will be a little G in the icon column. Click on the G to GROUP the items. We've just made another MEGA group! Click
on the group's Attributes Box and check the following
coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (.01) then Name: A head group. Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Keep the group selected and go to SOLO mode. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 2: Setting the "A Head Group" Origin Point We need manually position the A head group origin point to X and Z zero (0) coordinates so the head spins properly. With the A head group selected and in SOLO mode, switch to the TOP view (press 2 on the keyboard). Open the group's Attribute box and click on "Show Origin Handle". Click the Check Mark to apply the change. In
the wireframe, drag the green square until it is aligned
with the center of the pilot lamp group. You may have
to try this several times to get it right. When you think
it is in the center, check the Attributes box for the
group. The origin and position should be: DO NOT attempt to change these locations in the Attributes box. Just exit the box and keep moving that little green origin point until you get it as close to center as you can. (You can be off by .01 and things will still work okay). When you have the origin point centered, click out of SOLO mode so you can see your entire model. Stay in TOP view. The wire frame will look very complicated. Don't worry about that. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 3: Setting the "A Upper Body Group" Origin Point We need manually position the A upper body group origin point to X and Z zero (0) coordinates so the upper body spins properly. It's a little trickier because it has a hollow center (it's made from tori) and there's no center point to reference. But we'll use another centered object to help us out. Make sure you are in full wireframe mode. Use the Group Selector to select the A upper body group. Hold the SHIFT key down and click on the yellow light object in the selector palette. This will pick our spherical light (it's centered on the X and Z axes so it makes a great reference point) as well. Click on the SOLO button to enter SOLO mode. Things will be much easier to see! Open the A upper body group's Attribute box and click on "Show Origin Handle". Click the Check Mark to apply the change. In
the wireframe, drag the green square until it is aligned
with the center of the yellow light sphere. You may have
to try this several times to get it right. When you think
it is in the center, check the Attributes box for the
group. The origin and position should be: DO NOT attempt to change these locations in the Attributes box. Just exit the box and keep moving that little green origin point until you get it as close to center as you can. (You can be off by .01 and things will still work okay). When you have the origin point set, click anywhere in the workspace outside the wireframe to deselect the group. Click on the SOLO button to go back to your full wire frame. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 4: Establishing Linkages Remember the song "Dem Bones"? It had lines like "...the foot bone's connected to the leg bone..." and so on. We're going to establish a few linkages just like that to make posing Robby very easy! Head to Upper Body Link: In the full wireframe view, select: A head group. Open the Attribute's box and click on the LINKING tab. In the LINKING tab, click on the Object Parent Name box and select "A upper body group" from the pop-up list. Make sure ALL the options are checked on (they are by default). Click on the Check Mark to close the Attributes box. The A head group is now LINKED to the A upper body group. This means that any changes, rotation, position, size that takes place in the A upper body group will be imitated by the A head group. Set the Hip for easy selection: In the object selector, look under the torus for the hip object. Open its Attributes Box. You may have to click on the general tab if the Linking tab is showing. Re-name it: A hip. This will place it at the top of the list and make it much easier to select when posing. The hip is a key posing component. Upper Body to Hip Link: In the full wireframe view, select: A upper body group. Open the Attribute's box and click on the LINKING tab. In the LINKING tab, click on the Object Parent Name box and select "A hip" from the pop-up list. Make sure ALL the options are checked on (they are by default). Click on the Check Mark to close the Attributes box. The A upper body group is now LINKED to the A hip object. This means that any changes, rotation, position, size that takes place in the A hip will be imitated by the A upper body group, and since the A head group is linked to THAT, it will ALSO follow the hip! SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 5: Posing Robby's Complete Body Go to the EDIT Palette (not the edit menu!). Click on the little triangle next to the rotation control and select Object Space. This tells Bryce 5 to follow object and groups internal X, Y, Z coordinates (remember how many times we Set As Unity?) rather than the World coordinates. Right now, they are both the same, but if you were to turn Robby, they wouldn't be. We want Robby to move from his own coordinate center and coordinate system, not the World one. Posing Robby's Complete Body: Everything is controlled from the "A lower body group". Here's how it works:
Although the head and upper body are linked to the hip in the lower body, they can always be moved, rotated etc. on their own. This is the "parent-child" relationship discussed in the Bryce 5 manual (page 221). To make a universal change, just change the A lower body group and everything else follows it! This is a simple IK chain -- "master" control is manageable from the A lower body group -- yet each group can be managed independently as well! By combining groups and links we have set up our Robby for the most flexibility. To turn Robby's complete body, select the A lower body group and use the Rotation control in the Edit palette. Or do it numerically from the Attributes box.
You can also drag this group anywhere and the whole body will follow. You can resize this group to make Robby larger or smaller to fit in your scenes. How to store Robby in Bryce 5 itself: You can store Robby as a complete model in the Bryce 5 folder, so you don't have to open scenes and copy him-- you can pull him right out of the Create Palette!
For more about this process, see the Bryce 5 manual, page 75: Preset Objects. You can actually create your own personal user folder and keep objects and models stored in it. This folder becomes is part of the Bryce 5 defaults, so any time you use Bryce 5, your model (or anything you have in your User or personal model folder) is available to you like any create object! If your Robby is stored here, he will have ALL his materials saved with him. We keep the group name because this what Bryce 5 is "keying" on. If we change the name, when you import Robby into a new scene, the "A lower body group name will be replaced with whatever name you changed it to here. This may cause you to think that the group wasn't stored. It was, just under your new name! We will be "painting" him in the next section, so you may want to do this step as practice, and replace him in your area after you have applied the final paint job. |
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Step 6: Posing Robby's Legs To pose Robby's legs, select either the right leg hip group or the left leg hip group from the group selector. These are groups we established origin points for and have the legs and their hip connectors grouped. If you like, you can rename these with a capital A at the front to move them to the top of the group selection list. Robby's legs should only rotate along the X axis. You can rotate them on any axis in Bryce 5, but in the real world, this would be possible only to a very limited extent. To make him swing a leg forward (like a kick) drag on the X rotation control in the Edit palette to your left. To swing a leg behind Robby, drag to your right. If you switch to the RIGHT view (press 3 on the keyboard), you can see this more easily. You can do this numerically in the Attributes Box. A positive X rotation makes him kick, a negative X rotation makes his leg swing behind him. |
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Step 7: Posing Robby's Chest Lateral Turning: Select either the A hip object or the A upper body group from the object or group selector. Robby's chest should spin only along the Y axis. To make him spin, drag on the Y rotation control in the Edit palette left or right. Because this is a "child" group, you can rotate the upper body no matter what position any of the other objects are in. This allows you to get some interesting poses! Bending 1: Select either the A hip object from the object selector. Robby's body is bent by rotating the A hip object on the X axis. To make him bend drag on the X rotation control in the Edit palette left or right. Watch your bend to ensure that the upper body is not bent so much that it encroaches on the girdle object visually. Bryce 5 will allow anything, but we want it to relate to limits of real world mechanics! Bending 2: If you need to bend Robby more, switch to the hip group. To make him bend drag on the X rotation control in the Edit palette left or right. Watch your bend to ensure that the girdle/hip group does not encroach on the legs visually. Bryce 5 will allow anything, but we want it to relate to limits of real world mechanics! When Robby's hip or hip group is bent, you can rotate the A hip or the A upper body group on the Y axis to turn him at an oblique angle! If you switch to the RIGHT view (press 3 on the keyboard), you can see this more easily. |
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Step 8: Posing Robby's Head Robby can only turn his head laterally (that is side-to-side), so you will only rotate it on the Y axis. Select A head group from the group selector. To make him rotate his head, drag on the Y rotation control in the Edit palette left or right. Robby can turn his head 360 degrees, but he can't bend it up or down or rock it side to side. So when rotating Robby's head, ONLY use the Y rotation control. Because this is a "child" group, you can rotate the head no matter what position any of the other objects are in. This allows you to get some interesting poses!
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Step 9: Posing Robby's Arms and Hands Robby can rotate his arms in any direction, so you can rotate them on the X, Y or Z axis. To pose Robby's arms, select either the right arm group or the left arm group and drag on any appropriate rotation control in the Edit palette left or right.
His hands will follow his arms because they are part of the group. Posing Hands : To pose Robby's hands, select either the right hand group or the left hand group and drag on any appropriate rotation control in the Edit palette left or right.
Posing Fingers : To pose Robby's fingers, select and finger group and drag on any appropriate rotation control in the Edit palette left or right.
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Step 10: Sample Poses You can have a lot of fun posing Robby for all sorts of activities. Here are two renders, the ever popular "Robby Slips on a Banana Peel" pose and the equally charming, "Robby Dunks a Donut" (looks like he prefers chocolate) pose. In the donut image, we see Robby enjoying his "Lady Gertrude Mug"-- and you can get one of your very own from our ClydeStuff store! (Robby will take you there if you click on him). Yes, even robots must get thirsty, and, of course, being a BIG robot, Robby proudly owns the large size mug! Note: If you have jumped to these images from the Table of Contents-- Rendered Images section, you may wonder why Robby is gray. At this point in the tutorial, we're still modeling Robby and have not yet applied his final "paint" job. The gray color here (the Bryce 5 default) makes the modeling process much clearer than if we used a dark material. Try the tutorial, you'll figure it out!
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Congratulations! You have learned how to pose Robby in almost any position. You can set him back to his original "default" position by opening the Attributes box for any group that you have rotated and setting the rotation back to zero (0), then following up the IK chain for all the linked objects.
Posing Robby can be a fun and interesting activity, and you can spend hours playing with him this way. By setting up our groups and linkages carefully, we have taken a static model and made it into a true cyber puppet! And, since he is poseable, he can also be animated-- but that's the subject of another tutorial!
We have one more section and this tutorial is complete! We need to give Robby his final "paint job", set up a scene for him and light him.
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Tutorial copyright - © ClydeSight Productions - 2004
