Droid Mk 3 re-rendered

[Rob Lang]

The last time I rendered the Droid Mk3 was in 2004, so it was nice to dust off the 3D files. I found that there were a whole bunch of errors in the model, so I fixed those, resurfaced and re-lit it. It's much less shiny than the previous render.

This is for the Fleet Setting campaign sourcebook I am working on at the moment. Now I have updated this one, it's taking all my strength not to go back and fiddle with all the other older models. Perfect is the enemy of done!

[Evil Scientist]

Where are the sensors located? Under the vertical blue thing?

[Rob Lang]

Some sensors are in the blue thing, others are in the long spikes that stick out from the body. Some are woven into the skin.

The original aim for the Mk3 was for it to look "a bit cute" but humanity never got it off the drawing board. It was Droids that found it plans and constructed it!

The Mk3 is a bit like an old friend because I first drew sketches of it in the mid 90s but didn't have the skills to make it walk. Just as I wrote that I've realised that I could make animated gifs of it walking again - last time I tried they came out "too large for the internet" but 500KB is laughable now. I'll get on that.

[Evil Scientist]

Hah, I really dig that background story!

Also, a fancy animated "smart" rulebook would be fitting for ICAR... I don't know what current format would suffice (I mean, other than HTML with Flash and gifs or whatever or a self-contained software...)

[Abstract Machine]

Perfect may be the enemy of done, but effort is the friend of verisimilitude.

It looks both well-conceived & cobbled-together - a difficult combination to pull off. I like it.

[Rob Lang]

Hah, I really dig that background story!

Thank you! I have written it up in more detail in the up-and-coming Fleet setting.

Also, a fancy animated "smart" rulebook would be fitting for ICAR... I don't know what current format would suffice (I mean, other than HTML with Flash and gifs or whatever or a self-contained software...)

You can embed a Flash file into a PDF but I think that's dirty. Another option would be to make a rulebook as an App for iPad/Android. That's a huge amount of work.

Another option (much easier) is to make supporting stuff to go with the rules. For example, with WebGL (coming to most browsers soon!) I will be able to upload the actual 3D objects and have them render in the browser. With animations. That seems fitting to me!

Perfect may be the enemy of done, but effort is the friend of verisimilitude.

Wonderful! Duly stolen.

It looks both well-conceived & cobbled-together - a difficult combination to pull off. I like it.

Thank you. I hope I manage to do the other Droids justice!

[Rob Lang]

As an update to this, I didn't like the render. I kept seeing errors with the model and when it was rendered for 300DPI, it looked awful. OK, it didn't look awful but I could see plain as day all the problems.

So, I've just written about that.