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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 |
Building
Robby's ScannersNote: 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!
Robby looks like he has eyes, but he actually doesn't. I have no idea how he sees (unless it is by some form of radar-- in which case, he probably has no appreciation of color!). There are two pods on the side of his head which hold his blaster/neutralizers and his antennae. These make up his scanners, and they even have fins! They are so characteristic and important that we'll be very careful in making them. Our scanners won't be an EXACT duplicate of the original because I don't have the specs, but they will look like them and be easy to make in Bryce 5. There are a lot of parts to make here, so this section is a little longer than the others. They are easy to model as long as you have done the earlier sections and are familiar with the terms I use.
If you have saved and closed your model, open it now and go to the FRONT view. Select NONE and click on the SOLO button. You should have a blank workspace.
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Note: One trick to 3-D modeling is to use as few objects as necessary to do the job. Even though there will visually be two scanner bases (one on the right, one on the left) we can make a single object do the trick by passing it through Robby's head! The scanner base is hidden where it passes through the inside of his head, so it presents no problem, and saves us a step! |
Step 1: Make the Scanner Base If you are in wireframe mode and can see your model, make sure you have not selected anything and click on the SOLO button in the VCR controls. This will hide all objects in your wireframe view. You should be in the FRONT view (press 4 on the keyboard) and your workspace should appear to be blank. Click on the Cylinder in the Create Palette to bring it into your work space. It will arrive in the wrong orientation for our purposes. Click on the Attributes Box for the cylinder and change the Z rotation: Z = 90. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Open the Attributes box again and perform a Set As Unity. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Note: This section will really give you an appreciation for building a symmetrical model around the world center! Most of our duplicate objects can be easily positioned by making their positive X positions into negative X positions! |
Step 2: Make the Scanner Base Trims The scanner base has a nice curved edge. We make that with the torus. Click on the Torus in the Create Palette to bring it into your work space. It will arrive in the wrong orientation for our purposes. Click on the Attributes Box for the torus and change the Y rotation: Y = 90. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Open the Attributes box again and perform a Set As Unity. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Edit the torus. Radius = 150 Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) This makes the LEFT (Robby's left) scanner base trim. Making the RIGHT scanner base trim is easy. Select the scanner base trim and DUPLICATE it. Click on the Attributes Box. Set Position X = -19.90. Name the duplicate if you like or keep the Bryce 5 "scanner base trim 1". Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Note: We will make the left scanner assembly parts and duplicate them to make the right ones. Don't go chasing the right parts for now, trust that they are being positioned correctly. |
Step 3: Make the Antenna Domes Robby's antennae are attached to two domes. We make them from spheres. Click on the Sphere in the Create Palette to bring it into your work space. Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) This makes the LEFT (Robby's left) antenna dome. Making the RIGHT antenna dome is easy. Select the antenna dome and DUPLICATE it. Click on the Attributes Box. Set Position X = -19. Name the duplicate if you like or keep the Bryce 5 "antenna dome 1". Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Note: It will appear in the final model that there are individual blaster bases for the front and rear blasters. But in fact, thanks to 3-D modeling, we only had to make one object that will do the work of two. When you are developing a model, try to think of little shortcuts like this. It will save you time and effort! |
Step 4: Make the Blaster Bases Robby has four blaster/neutralizers. Two in front (right and left) and two in back (right and left). They are attached to the scanner pods by a cylinder. Switch to the TOP view to make viewing easier. (Press 2 on the keyboard). Select scanner base and DUPLICATE it. Click on the Attributes Box for the duplicate and change the Y rotation: Y = 90. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Open the Attributes box again and perform a Set As Unity. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This inherited the Robby Paint family from the scanner base. This makes the LEFT (Robby's left) blaster base. Making the RIGHT blaster base is easy. Select the blaster base and DUPLICATE it. Click on the Attributes Box. Set Position X = -18.10. Name the duplicate if you like or keep the Bryce 5 "blaster base 1". Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Note: You can set Attributes for selected objects, even if you have selected more than one. The Attributes will apply to all the selected objects! The blaster shell assemblies all have parts that need to be duplicated a couple of times. So you'll get plenty of practice with this technique in the next few steps. |
Step 5: Make the Blaster Shells Robby has four blaster/neutralizers. They consist of a number of important parts. First is the shells. Pick the CONE from the Create Palette. It will arrive in the wrong orientation for our purposes. Click on the Attributes Box for the cone and change the X rotation: X = 90. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Open the Attributes box again and perform a Set As Unity. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Click
on the Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) This
makes the FRONT LEFT (Robby's left) blaster shell. We
need to make the REAR LEFT blaster shell. It's easy. Now to make the right blaster shells! Select the two left blaster shells (cones). With them BOTH selected, DUPLICATE them. (CMD-D MAC or CTRL-D WINDOWS). The
duplicates will be selected. Open the Attributes box.
This box will control both selected objects. Two blaster shells will be set on the right (Robby's right) side of your workspace! SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 6: Make the Blaster Reflectors The blasters have reflectors, much like a flashlight. Select the "blaster base" cylinder and DUPLICATE it. Click
on the duplicate's Attributes Box and set the following
coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose Brushed Silver. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) This makes the FRONT LEFT (Robby's left) blaster reflector. We need to make the REAR LEFT blaster reflector. It's easy. Select
the blaster reflector and DUPLICATE it. Now to make the right blaster reflectors! Select the two left blaster reflectors (cylinders). With them BOTH selected, DUPLICATE them. (CMD-D MAC or CTRL-D WINDOWS) The
duplicates will both be selected. Open the Attributes
box. This box will control both selected objects. Two blaster reflectors will be set on the right (Robby's right) side of your workspace! SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 7: Make the Blaster Sleeves The blasters have protective sleeves. Select the front left blaster reflector and DUPLICATE it. Click
on the duplicate's Attributes Box and set the following
coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose Brushed Silver. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) This makes the FRONT LEFT (Robby's left) blaster sleeve. We need to make the REAR LEFT blaster sleeve. It's easy. Select
the front blaster sleeve and DUPLICATE it. Now to make the right blaster sleeves! Select the two left blaster sleeves (cylinders). With them BOTH selected, DUPLICATE them. (CMD-D MAC or CTRL-D WINDOWS) The
duplicates will both be selected. Open the Attributes
box. This box will control both selected objects. Two blaster sleeves will be set on the right (Robby's right) side of your workspace! SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Note: Using multiple duplications we have made 16 objects in little time more than it took to make four. The symmetrical coordinate system is the key to this easy trick! |
Step 8: Make the Blasters At last, we make the blasters! They are a pointy kind of bulb. They do light up, but we'll use a material to give the illusion of illumination. Select the Sphere from the Create Palette. Click
on the sphere's Attributes Box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose the Shiny Blue from the Simple and Fast materials. Be sure and set the ambience color to match the diffuse color. Then when you want to make it appear "lit", you just have to increase the ambience setting! This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) This makes the FRONT LEFT (Robby's left) blaster. We need to make the REAR LEFT blaster. Select
the front blaster and DUPLICATE it. Now to make the right blasters! Select the two left blasters (spheres). With them BOTH selected, DUPLICATE them. (CMD-D MAC or CTRL-D WINDOWS) The
duplicates will both be selected. Open the Attributes
box. This box will control both selected objects. Two blasters will be set on the right (Robby's right) side of your workspace! SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 9: Make the Left Antenna Staff Robby has two spinning antennae. They are made of three parts and will be grouped so they can be animated later on. Switch to the FRONT view. (Press 4 on the keyboard). Select the Cylinder from the Create Palette. It will come into the workspace in the correct orientation for our purposes. Click
on the cylinder's Attributes Box and set the following
coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose the Brushed Silver. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 10: Make the Left Antenna Sleeve A sleeve connects the antenna staff to the antenna ring. We make it from the scanner base. Select scanner base (cylinder) and DUPLICATE it. Open
the duplicate's Attributes box and set the
following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose the Brushed Silver. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 11: Make the Left Antenna Ring A ring tops the antenna. We make it from a torus. Select a Torus from the Create Palette. It will arrive in the workspace in the correct orientation for our purposes. Edit the torus. Set the Radius = 135 Open
the torus Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose the Brushed Silver. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Remember: When you apply a Set as Unity to a group, it only sets unity for the group itself, not the objects within the group. So you have to select the objects that belong to the group and perform a Set As Unity on them as well. Selecting multiple objects (which is not the same as selecting a group) lets you do this in one step instead of many!
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Step 12: Group the Left Antenna and Make the Right Antenna Shift-Select the three left antenna objects: staff, sleeve and ring. A G will appear in the icon column. Click the G to GROUP the objects. Open
the group Attributes box and check the following coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (within .01), name the group: left antenna group Now make the Right Antenna from this group. The right antenna sticks out the right (Robby's right, not yours) side of the right scanner. So we'll have to rotate our duplicated group on the Z axis. DUPLICATE
the left antenna group. Open the duplicate's Attributes
box and set the following coordinates: Check
these coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Open the Attributes box again and perform a Set As Unity. You notice that the figures for the X and Y sizes will change places. This is what we want. Now, shift-select (use the object selector-- it's easier!) the antenna staff 1, antenna sleeve 1 and antenna ring 1 objects. Open the Attributes box (it will control all three objects). Perform a Set As Unity. Click on the check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 13: Make the Left and Right Fins Being a 50's robot, Robby would not be complete without some fins! I have no idea what these are for, besides decoration. But they are a part of his design, so... Switch to the TOP view. (Press 2 on the keyboard) Click on the Torus in the Create Palette to bring it into your work space. It will arrive in the wrong orientation for our purposes. Click on the Attributes Box for the torus and change the X rotation: X = 90. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Open the Attributes box again and perform a Set As Unity. Click the Check Mark to apply the change. Edit the torus. Radius = 75 LEFT FINS: Open
the torus Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose the simple white. The fins look somewhat transparent, so give the material a 50% transparency level.. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) Switch to the FRONT view. (Press 4 on the keyboard) DUPLICATE the left upper fin and open the duplicate's Attributes box. Change
the rotation as follows: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! RIGHT FINS DUPLICATE
the left upper fin. Open the duplicate's Attributes box
and set the Z rotation: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Open the right fin 1 Attributes box and perform a Set As Unity. Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Open the right fin 1 Attributes box and set the following coordinates: (The size coordinates should be already set for you) Position:
X = -18.10, Y = 145.25, Z
= 0 DUPLICATE
the right fin 1. Open the duplicate's Attributes box.
Change the rotation as follows: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 14: Make the Left and Right Fins Intersect The torus objects are too round for the fin assembly, so we have to cut some of this out. We'll do this with a Boolean Intersect objects. Otherwise the fins will stick out where we don't want to see them. Switch to the TOP view. (Press 2 on the keyboard) Left Fin Intersect: Click
on the Cube in the Create Palette to bring it into your
work space. Open the cube Attributes box and set the following
coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Copy the fin material and paste it onto this intersection. Assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) Right Fin Intersect: Duplicate
the fin intersection cube object. Open the duplicate's
Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This inherited the material and family from the original. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 15: Group the Left Fins and the Right Fins Switch to the FRONT view. (Press 4 on the keyboard) LEFT FIN GROUP: Carefully shift-select the two left fins and the fin intersection. (Make sure you haven't selected any other objects!) A G will appear in the icon column. Click on the G to GROUP the objects. Click
on the group Attributes box and check the coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (within .01) Name: fin group. SAVE YOUR WORK! RIGHT FIN GROUP: Carefully shift-select the two right fins and the right fin intersection. A G will appear in the icon column. Click on the G to GROUP the objects. Click
on the group Attributes box and check the coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (within .01) Name: right fin group. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Right now it looks like this object is too large and will ruin the scanner base we made, but once it is grouped with its intersect, everything will appear fine! |
Step 16: Make the Head Mounts The sides of Robby's head are embossed where the scanner assemblies are attached. The embossing looks roughly like the shape of a keyhole, giving the appearance of a mounting ring for the scanners, and a lower "plate" for the side rings (which we will make in a few minutes.) This embossing follows the shape and contour of Robby's head. We can make both side embosses from two objects and an intersect object, which will give them the same shape as Robby's head! Select the Scanner Base and DUPLICATE it. Open
the duplicate's Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This inherited the Robby Paint family which is fine. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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When you stretch a rounded mesh object, the curvatures for the object also stretch with it! |
Step 17: Make the Side Ring Plate Under Robby's scanners are a column of metal rings. I don't know why. I call them side rings, although I am tempted to call them "earrings"! They are mounted to the embossed "plates." We make the "plates" from a single Rounded Cube #1. Select the Rounded Cube #1 from the Create Objects dialog box in the create palette and rotate it to -22.5 on the Y axis and Set As Unity. If you need a refresher on how to do this, click here. Open
the rounded cube's Attributes box and set the following
coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Edit the object to smooth it as many times as you like. Turn ON "Solid When Boolean Rendering". You can color this object simple gray for now. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 18: Make the Side Embosses Intersect The trick to this assembly is the Intersect object. It will have the same shape as Robby's head (i.e. Skull) so that when it intersects with the mount and plate objects, they appear to follow the contours of Robby's head. Select
the Sphere from the Create Palette. Open the sphere's
Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. This will have the Robby color, so assign it to your Robby Paint family (I used the dark green color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! Note: This is the same shape as the Robby Skull sphere, but it larger by 0.25 units. You'll see the effect when you render everything. Bryce 5 won't show it to you in wireframe mode. |
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Step 19: Group the Mount, Plate and Intersect objects Shift-Select the scanner mount, ring plate and scanner mount intersect objects. A small G will appear in the icon column. Click on the G to GROUP these objects. Open
the group's Attributes box and check the following coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (within .01) Name: scanner mount group. Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 20: Make the Left and Right Side Rings The metal rings under Robby's scanners are made from a torus. We make one torus, then Multi-Replicate it for the others. Select the left upper fin torus and DUPLICATE It. The duplicate is part of a group, which we need to set free. DOUBLE click on the LINK icon in the icon column to UNLINK the torus from the group. EDIT the torus and set the Radius = 100 LEFT RING 1: Open
the duplicate's Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. Apply a material color to this. I chose the Brushed Silver. This is a painted object so assign it to your "Painted" family (I used the orange color cube) SAVE YOUR WORK! RIGHT RING 1: DUPLICATE the left ring 1. Open
the duplicate's Attributes box and set the following coordinates: Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! MULTI-REPLICATE LEFT RING 1: Select left ring 1. Go to the EDIT menu (not the Edit Palette) and choose Multi-Replicate. In
the Multi-Replicate Dialog box enter the following coordinates: Click the Check Mark to assign the replication. You should see five rings appear under the first one similar to what is in this step (see above) MULTI-REPLICATE RIGHT RING 1: Select right ring 1. Go to the EDIT menu (not the Edit Palette) and choose Multi-Replicate. In
the Multi-Replicate Dialog box enter the following coordinates: Click the Check Mark to assign the replication. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 21: Group the Scanner Assembly You should be in the FRONT view. Use the marquee drag select method and select ALL the objects and groups you have made. A small G should appear at the bottom of the icon column. Click on the G to GROUP everything. This makes a "super group" because it contains other groups. Open
the Attributes box for the group and check the coordinates: If your figures match mine or are close (within .01) Name: scanner assembly group. Click on the Check Mark to apply the changes. SAVE YOUR WORK! |
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Step 22: Render Your Work! If you render your work while in SOLO mode, the scanner assembly should look like the image on the left (your left). If you exit SOLO mode and render your model, it should look like the image below. (I only rendered Robby's skull and mouth for these images).
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Congratulations! You have completed Robby's scanner assembly, the most complex of all the modeling we will do for Robby. Things get much easier from here-- there's not that much left to do! In this section, you learned and practiced more with Multi-Replicate, the power of Intersection and discovered a few tricks to reduce the number of parts for an assembly when you can make one part do the work of two!
We'll move on now to Robby's head vents. We only have to make and position one, then it is Multi-Replicate to the rescue-- because there will be 44 of them when we get through!
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