Rampage / Skipjack, Movieverse

So, some might've seen this guy in my sig for a while. He's been on my mind for some time. Well, now I'm finally getting around to working on him.
START: IRL physical construction officially started 7/11/11
FINISH: for Glitch Con; by September 9th.

References:
Movie:

Concept Art:


Figures:

Man, I love this guy.

Materials:
Cardstock (shoeboxes & food packaging)
Cardboard (thin, shoeboxes)
Fun Foam - yellow, grey/silver, black
Paper Foam (stuff)
Hot Glue
Acrylic Paint
Elastic
Velcro
Under Armour

Cost:
Funky Foam (neon yellow): 1 sheet - $0.86 picture
[Mini] Glue Sticks: 125 sticks - $5.28 picture
Magnets (basic Elements): 52 pack - $6.16 picture
Sew-On Velcro/Hook & Loop: 3/4" x 3' - $0.84 picture
Everything else is pre-owned &/or acquired for free

Pre-Production

The idea for this costume is to have a foam sort of netting/cage underneath the parts (like I did for Brawl's under torso bit) to hold all of it together, with cardstock and card board for the supporting structures. He has LOTS of armor, and most of it's thin, so I thought Fun Foam would be a good choice this time around for the main stuff, and since I found out about the magic of fun foam on Brawl. I'll be using Cardstock for backing certain, if not all pieces, to help them keep their shape, and just plain cardstock where fun foam might not be good.

The treads/whips will be made of the same stuff I made Brawl's treads out of (the "paper foam" as I call it), as long as I have enough left of it.

Initial problems I'm encountering is finding exactly the type of foam I want locally, and hopefully already in black and yellow.

Yes, I've decided he will be yellow. Red really doesn't show up on film quite right, and orange is not my favourite color (some of his toys are orange, and it's a compromise between red and yellow). Furthermore, it'll make his exhaust and dirt /damage marks pop that much more.
If I can't find the kind of foam I want, I'll probably make him all cardstock.

My legs will not be bound together, sort of like how the toys' legs seperate. But I can still stick my legs together and Boingy- boingy-boing! XD

I also want to have some working hinge joints in some places on this guy, and the front pair of pistons I would like to be able to slide as I move.

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(2D) ART:
Initial imaging/concept work:
This is to help me figure out how I want the costume to fit and work, and if it is even conceivable (the character as a costume). It's the first thing I do when I decide I want to build a costume and God gives me the go-ahead.



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Turnaround sheet / Costume Design Reference:
Here is where I draw out the character (based on my reference material), and figure out exactly what shapes I want to build into the costume, and how it will be worn.


The final orthographic image for use in Maya.


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(3D) ART:

Day one:
Day one's progress. I'm still trying to understand the shapes in the leg, and playing with the design as I mix and match all of my references.
12
Day two:
More of the legs, and more playing with the design to be cool as a costume. Still some empty space on the back of the legs. Plan to fill it up with his huge piston - yet to be modeled.
1
Mirrored, to show the effect of the combined legs:
12
Day 4 (day 3 is one pic on my facebook...):
No arms yet, but pretty much everything else.
It's difficult to understand, and get his shapes to sit the way they should on a person. I worked a good amount of time into his outline/silhouette, so it's getting harder to see a human shape under his parts. A side effect of that was changing the proportions of a few parts, and moving them around a little bit to cover up some emptiness from a human's long torso (Rampage may as well not have anything between what would be a rib cage and the hips...).
12345
Day 4, part deux:
FINISHED. PHEW.

HEAD
086% Complete
100% Build
100% Rig
090% Paint
025% Details


MECHANISM:
[strike]The plan for his head - because he's hunched over with a long neck (or, if you prefer, his head protrudes from the front of his torso), and I want him to be able to move his head, is to have a simple mechanism connected to my head so his moves left and right when I turn my head (his head doesn't exactly turn...). The idea sprang from a wooden snake toy I bought when I visited Australia, plus some simple ingenuity my part to make it more controllable than aforementioned snake toy.[/strike]
I see now in 3D, my head has little/no room to turn left and right, and I think creating this mechanism might take too long / be too prone to break / etc. endless problems, so he'll have a static rig...though because of how long it is it's prone to be bouncy, lol.

Here's the top of the neck, without any supports currently.

and the lower neck pieces

face cut out,

folded...

and glued together!

Comparison of the real thing with the cg model.

Headsock/mask:
pattern

worn.

TORSO
090% Complete
100% Build
100% Rig
090% Paint
000% Details


The main torso rig, with the braces & back piece.


A completed piston! Shown working, here:
http://youtu.be/shVlsGDcuF8


The pistons extended and then scrunched back up.



The lower half of the torso + pistons, back and front respectively.


Worn!~


parts of the torso, + upper legs rigged together, and I'm sort of thinking of leaving them like that for taking on/off.

LEGS
070% Complete
100% Build
050% Rig
090% Paint
010% Details

[strike]My idea for these is to make the insides of the legs flat to sit together when they need to - and to have magnets to keep everything aligned when i put my legs together. :3[/strike]
While working on the 3D, I realized that would mean less bending of my knees available....so flat pieces is scrapped, and I'm just going to have to wing some interior leg design but still have magnets to make it line up.
Parts of his upper legs will not detach all the way - like his piston in the back, so it's a little like a skirt, like that. XD

Upper Legs:
Left half of the middle (knee) and most of the upper legs laid out on the floor, with some rigging laying next to it as well.

Both legs.

Lower Legs:

ARMS
060% Complete
100% Build
100% Rig
090% Paint
010% Detail

Hands:
12

videos showing joint:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPfAix3_2M4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blWf4axpHlY

Lower Arms:
Update2:
Bits of the lower arm!
1
video of mobility:
http://youtu.be/rS3WKf015es

Somewhere along the line I did the hands different than I planned in 3D...o.O
http://youtu.be/NOqyX7PSxUU

update3:
Most of the lower arm. About 99% done.

http://youtu.be/UUMy-aHFMFQ

Upper Arms:
update 4....the upper arms & shoulders are done after four days of work.

Shoulders:

Upper arms + shoulders together:

http://youtu.be/Fry-8VKFaBc

EXTRAS/FULL-BODY SHOTS

Like always, I want to make light-up stuff, but I don't plan on having that done in time for Glitch Con (maybe Halloween). First off, I have to learn how to do it. Second will be acquiring the necessary materials.
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im starting to bre able to see this come together.

test run of the torso + pelvis + upper upper legs.

Only concern during that was the lower half of the pistons are fairly heavy, so one day, if the velcro doesn't do it's job I may have to glue some things together.


GL!TCH CON 2011~~~
I *didn't* quite get Ramp/Jack done in time for the con. by the time sunday rolled around, i had some stuff i wasn't sure how to rig by myself, and plenty of stuff left to be painted. I had my new friends in Nintendude, and his fellow 405THer, and said friend's father (the photographer for a good number of pictures of me at the con) rig my last few pieces, and I went on a rampage in the costumes' full first test run in a not quite all painted outfit! XD but it was fun and I still got so many compliments!



edit:
link
Photo by Elizabeth.
link
Two photos of the back by Kat.

:3 I've moved out of the design stage and today started on the 3D that I will use to measure and build the real pieces. :3

3D is FINISHED! Phew!
I knocked that out in four days - now I need to start collecting MOAR materials. So far I've been bringing home lots of shoeboxes from work. Other cashiers have helped me too. XD They're so much nicer than the back room workers >.>; Heheh, anyway.
So, I have some black fun foam left from Brawl, Mom's found and given me one grey/silver piece, and I bought one yellow sheet last week. I've also dragged out my tread material, glue gun, and paints from storage, so I'm just about ready to get started on something physical!

edit: oh, and I just found out about there being an image limit per post - LOL.

I love how hardcore this is

@ Talon4ce: HARDCOOOOORE - - - cuteness!!! :3 With those cute li'l whips. Psht. XD ...As always, I'm putting my best foot forward, and gonna see the best way to make a cheap costume

Ok, so today was day one of construction. I cut out the lower part of the whips, which I will be thrashing about, and a about a finger out of cardstock/mock-up thingie.

It REALLY threw me for a loop today because I'd forgotten how I was measuring and making brawl's parts! XD
So I'm typing out my technique here so I don't forget again. XD

Step1: Measure EVERY EDGE (in EVERY axis in 3D space). That means triangulating the 3D mesh. Something I initially forgot to do. XP

Step2: Figure out what's going to be connected where when it's laid out flat on paper. Like unwrapping ( a 3D texturer's term).

Step3: Measure out the first edge on the material (I usually do one of the longest first).
Then measure out the next connected edge's initial distance with a dot at it's endpoint. Find the last side of the triangle and try to connect to aforementioned dot. Unless you're awesome with angles or occasionally just get it, you'll have to readjust and make another dot. Repeat until the proper lengths for each edge of the triangle are reached, for every triangle of that part.

Step4: Cut out shape.
Step5: Score the backing (whichever side won't be seen) of each edge, even if it's not supposed to bend much. It keeps bends clean when they do occur.

Step6: Bend each edge as necessary.
Step 7...Glue to appropriate place.

Anyway, not much progress for the day, but here:

Insides
other_outer_view

Also...something important...before bending the pieces, if you need more than one copy and don't want to have to measure each one over and over (angles and all) I recommend tracing your initial cut out piece. I remembered to do that on the front and back pieces for the finger, but not the big, complicated side piece, XD
So. step 5.5...copy as necessary XD

Ffffffffff how did I miss this! AWESOME

You are crazy.

GOGOGO! Can't WAIT to see this done!

HANDS have been updated. hope to have the whole lower arm done being cut out by next week.

It's fun watching her work on Skipjack in the Skype window ..... She's rather funny.

B| I'm watching you Mirai. Or, better yet. Bumblebee is.

O____O



OK! UPDAET TIEM.
Spent most of my day making this.
I would like to get the rest of the lower arm done soon, but I'm running out of day, and my next day off isn't until Saturday. I still need to log on to school today. Sadness!

Should I mention I do both sides at once? So I'm at equal progress on either side of the costume at any given point.

DUDE, no. We all know how terrifying that Bee is. So not cool. :k

Lovin' progress!

Lower arm's 'bout 99% completely built.
I'm hoping that during the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I have off this week to get another chunk of him done. I have his toes done too (the lowest armor on the legs), but nothing else on the legs, so I'll update that when I do more on the legs.

Plan on picking up Rare earth magnets today - right now. Baibai!~

Those look awesome!!! I can't wait to see more!

Upper arms & Shoulders will be done by tomorrow. Video shows everything but one bit of the shoulders attached (and I'm guessing you won't notice which part it is ). a little more work assembling the other arm has to be done (that's the tomorrow bit, lol).

So the arms are pretty much done being built. I'll paint them sometime, then, once the torso is built I can rig the arms (they attach to the torso). then the multitude of details in fun foam and paint wear I need to do. But they're built! yay!


Also! I chopped out about half of the neck while putting off the vicious circles in the shoulders yesterday.
Did I mention I hate circles? @_@;

So torso and neck rig I'm planning on working on building next after whatever with the arms...not sure when my next day off is. probably not till Monday again, so cheers!~


EDIT:
Shoulders are 100% built. I also glued together the parts of the Neck I had cut out already.

Building-wise I will need to do the torso next - head & neck will have to come afterward. But I'm debating whether the paint the arms before doing more building.

Torso has been updated with some of my progress. I have more parts of the torso (all of the torso, actually, except the part which the pistons attach to at their bottoms), but none shown yet because they haven't been rigged.

Speaking of rigging, the pistons upper halves will be rigged shortly, along with the other torso pieces. Pics will have to wait until I likely get that last torso piece done and rigged so it's not so weighted on the back by those heavy upper arms.
Rigged here:

UPDATES :]
Video

Both the head and lower half of the torso have been mostly rigged.

With this, all of the torso has been cut out (not all of it rigged in the video). minus details, of course. looks really plain without the fancy details, especially on the pistons ~:[ Oh, and I think I'ma chop one inch off the top part of the pistons. They look too long.
[edit:] Just finished rigging the entire torso (video) and test wore it. It's like wearing a brace for your whole trunk/torso! XD And I'll definitely be chopping at least an inch off the upper piston tubes due to I can't extend them far enough for as cool as I wanted them to look. Yay aesthetics. And I'm so happy that the torso is done.

Also, I just realized I glued a piece on backwards...d'oh...will fix that next chance I'm working on rampage....[/edit]

The head/neck is mostly rigged too...I still need to fix the way it sits/settles - hopefully with my jaw so it'll bounce when I talk like it initially did when I tried it out. And I need some rig stuff to keep it centered up top too.

Just to update for the week, much yellow-orange and black-ish painting was done, and, as of this post, his three lower leg/foot pieces. :B

Log percentages have been updated accordingly.
Pictures will likely come after details. No point, to me, in posted colored versions of stuff unless they're finished now, lol. Also...less than a month left! I'm getting nervous/antsy! D:

I'm going to focus on building and rigging the legs/feet now to have him all built and finished. Then painting everything, and lastly details in fun foam and more detail painting/wear.... Hope to have his legs done next week. Leaves two weeks for painting and details... D:

T-minus two weeks!

Test-Run Of the torso and waist/upper leg bits.
I've got ~10 unique pieces left to cut out for the upper legs, mirror them, so twenty pieces left to build and rig for the legs to be test-run able. :x

Other than that, the facial features are the only other bits not yet cut out. Once the legs and face are ready, then I've got to paint like the dickens, and do the details, and also somewhere in there test run everything together to make sure it works as a whole. XD It would stink if I ended up having too many problems. So, yeah.

Today's and yesterdays work consisted of working on the pelvis/upper-upper legs and bits of the lower leg respectively. Most of said pieces are also rigged too, with exception to some fancy spikes that velcro on.
Oh yeah, and i made my hood last night too! :3

Loving it!!