Another robot

Lately, I've been working on a character I call the Raider.

He may be built like a garbage can, but he can move fast when he needs to.

I've built two different cannon arms for him – one with a retractable dagger thing, and one with two barrels.

Also, a rocket launcher.

The Raider has roller-treads for feet. Like roller skates, only with treads.

And they're rocket powered!


I got the idea for the rocket boots from a video game called Cybernator.
In Cybernator, you pilot an extremely well-armed giant robot.

The Cybernator (of course the game would be named after the robot) walks pretty slowly, but when you need speed, you can dash.

What's nice is that you can change what direction you're going while dashing. You can pull off some satisfying maneuvers – like sliding backwards away from an enemy while shooting – with this ability.

Cybernator also happens to be the most explosive Super Nintendo game I can think of at the moment.

I got some inspiration for the Raider's design from the earlier Megaman X games.

I have a new computer, by the way

My old computer was falling apart, so I took it out to the pasture.

My new one...runs a bit faster.

Before, I was lucky if my project ran at 20 frames per second. Now, I can get about 200.

Below, you can see an incomplete portion of my demo environment. It looks so much better textured~!

At the very highest render quality, I get at least 60 frames per second. And look at those real-time shadows! Fantastic. Not that I'll be using them to this extent in the finished product – I'll be using light maps to shade the environment.

Fighting Luchador Robots

Luckily, a blog isn't a physical room, and doesn't take a lot of effort to clean up.

When you last heard from me about a hundred years ago, I was working on this guy.

He's a wrestling-themed robot with a TV screen for a face.

Said TV screen can 'mold' itself using normal maps.

I can combine one of the color textures (left) with one of the incandescence textures (center) to create a face, and use one of the normal maps (right) to give it shape.

Among the many faces you see is a Luchador mask (bottom right on the color and normal map) and a demon face (three down, four across on the color and normal map). These faces have multiple associated incandescence textures, so they can be animated to a degree.

I also gave the Bruiser a Stand (think Jojo's Bizarre Adventure) for so reason.

Ignore the fact that it only has one arm.

Oh yeah, almost forgot I had a blog.

WHAA~AT is this! This place is so dusty! There's cobwebs everywhere! Is that a tumbleweed!?

Grah, give me a few minutes, I need to do some spring cleaning.

Gatling Gun of Glass

It's always the happy little surprises that keep me going through the day.

Take a look at this:

...and now, take a look at THIS:

My intent was to use a bump map to give the impression of a six-barreled machine gun on a simple cylinder. Things took a bit of a different turn.

The material looks pretty amazing, especially if you zoom in and rotate around the gun. It looks like it's made out of semi-transparent crystal or glass.

It's a pretty simple effect to achieve - I used a phong material, with a color and bump map.

 Use a couple of gradients on the bump map to turn the single cylinder into a multi-barrel gun.

For the color map...

...create an appropriately angled brush with low roundness and a moderately high spacing attribute, then paint vertically or horizontally along the barrel as appropriate. Use both light colors and dark colors.

Next time: CHAINSAWS!

Back for more?

Did you have a good winter break?

These guys hope so...


...BECAUSE IT WILL BE YOUR LAST.*

The Razakel model - the most successful product of Project Asmodeus, the most infamous creation of Edda Robotics, and quite possibly the most feared robot in human history.


The Razakel is an enemy to be feared. It has several different variations, and each has its own strengths. The Trooper class is, technically, the least powerful of the Razakel models, but it makes up for its relatively low firepower and endurance by through tactics and coordination with other troopers. The Brawler has only one ranged weapon (its shoulder-mounted mortar), but is deadly in close combat, and its defensive shielding makes it nearly immune to most small arms...grenades don't work on them too well either, since they tend to catch them and throw 'em back at you!


Take a look at where I got the design for the Brawler's sword. You'll laugh.

That would be Asuna from Mahou Sensei Negima, if you're curious.



*Assuming there's any significance to the Mayan calender ending in 2012.