#puppetchamber

[puppetchamber]

finally completed the model sheet for the arm.

This thing is approx 8 pebbles tall. assuming pebbs is 1.5 meters tall(5 feet) this thing is 12 meters long(40 feet) roughly.

Yikes. anyway next up is the character sheet for five pebbles and then I can start building the 30 or or so 3d models.

[puppetchamber]

The chain for the arm mechanism for section 3

section 4 is the gear 'mechanism'

section 5-e is also done. the little hoop is where it holds the umbilical cable.

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did a bunch today!

progress is going to be quick from here on out on the arm as the other parts are mostly modified duplicates of each other.

current progress:

[puppetchamber]

OK before I even think about references for the rest of pebbles puppet I need to face the music. I need to figure out how the heck the arm even works. I have been lazy.

this is my best guess after watching many, minutes of 5 pebbles plays pong videos.

Thank you Maxi Mol on steam. you are a livesaver!

ok so arm bone hierarchy WALL OF TEXT TIME time:

(it's behind the read more. I can be reasonable sometimes)

Train

ball and socket joint

Long bone+segments

A. Bone, B+C 2 segments, D short bone [These are connected by a pulley system so B+C curve]

4. geared hinge joint

5. Long bone+segments

E. short bone attached to umbilical, F+G 2 segments, H bone. [These are connected by a pulley system so F+G curve]

6. geared hinge joint

7. bone

8. hinge joint

9. Bone

10. hinge joint

11. bone

12. Attachment to puppet

13. Puppet

Notes:

As far as I can tell, the arm can only rotate at the base. This is excellent and will make rigging it WAY easier.

The rest of the rig(minus puppet) can easily be several sets of IK rig.

The segmented bones need to have have their rotations locked to each other and I can make a fake chain between the segments to mimic the look.

The segmented bone with the umbilical cord needs to have some kind of loop that the cable just threads into. I am NOT making them the same object, the modifier stacking would drive me bonkers.

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I will have to make the arm as straight as possible when modeling so that will be uh fun will probably model everything first then assemble the arm from pieces.

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So each individual cable needs to be a separate object.

there need to be parented empties(blender term for single point non-existent objects) to each cord end/plug

so aligning the cable heads is easier if say I want to animate them being plugged in or unplugged(off the string people unite)

so in terms of objects:

4 red,

2 blue

1 umbilical head.

1 umbilical middle segment chain array.

1 umbilical base

1 arm

1 puppet

(however many objects the clothes end up being. at least 2)

puppet chamber (1 outside greebles, 1 removable wall, 1 regular walls, 1 track)

at least 17 different objects not including armatures and empties to keep track of. Yikes. At least the cables are copies.

[puppetchamber]

Some more design work for my little project.

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5f is done of 13.

5G is done of 13

5H is done!

getting there!

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Now things are starting to come together! First umbilical segment where all the cords connect. Next up are the ones in the middle.

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Red cable time!

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Blue cable design. model will have 2 of these guys+the F ports which I'm still working on.

Yeah I took heavy inspiration from 15 pin VGA cables. I wanted some cable size variation on the back of the head+umbilical. for all its computer textures Rworld used a ton of textures taken from old computer motherboards and I wanted to roll with that vibe of familiar yet alien.

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plus all the variation between old computer cables is neat. I do like everything going to HDMI, USB, and Type-C for sheer usability but I feel like we lost metaphorical computer genetic diversity or something. idk.