Forging
Deputy Rusty
Have you ever had an idea stick with you, begging to be realized?
For me, this was the case with a character I call Deputy Rusty. A few years ago, I conceived this character as part of a homebrew Dungeons and Dragons Campaign set in a steampunk, fantasy Wild west. Even though I only ended up DM’ing one session, this character, and the world that came with him, stuck with me, and I found myself returning to him constantly in my doodles and sketches. Eventually, I just decided to bring him to life through 3D modeling.
This was my first sketch of Deputy Rusty. From the beginning, the fundamental trait of a robot wearing a cowboy hat was established. Some character traits were also cemented here, such as Rusty being kind and gentle, as seen by him gingerly holding a bird.
My first sketches tried to nail down whether Deputy Rusty would be bulky or skinny. Through this process, I gained another point of inspiration. Growing up I was obsessed with legos, especially Bionicles. With my favorite childhood toys as a reference, I ended up landing on a design that was very blocky, but not too bulky.
Continuing on with the modeling process, some visual motifs started to emerge. One of the biggest motifs in the design language of Deputy Rusty was the transition from circular connection points to quadrilaterals, primarily rectangles and trapezoids.
The upper joints of limbs, such as the shoulders and the hips, had cylinders that connect to rectangles rectangular prisms. Meanwhile, the wrists and ankles transition from cylinders to trapezoidal prisms. This latter motif is further echoed in the transition between the abdomen to the torso.
Making it Move
It was important to me that the Deputy Rusty moved was believable. Even though I was not designing a very complex robot, I wanted to maintain a solid range of motion, while having the articulations feel as if I was posing a lego action figure.
In this animation test I wanted to see how the parts interacted in motion. The way I designed the joints meant that no joint rotated on more than one axis, so areas of complex movement such as the wrist were broken up into multiple cascading joints. This created another deviation from my original concept art.
I had known initially that I would need some way to rotate internally and externally at the bicep and thigh level. In order to achieve a fuller range of motion, I added divides to the forearms and shins.
Part of the concept of Deputy Rusty was that the there was no points of articulation in his face, meaning that from a character standpoint, it is hard for him to express himself. However, I didn’t want him to appear soulless, so I needed some form of expression in the eyes. While I had been pretty adamant about creating points of believable articulation, I wasn’t quite sure how to accomplish this with the eyes.
So, I cheated. Instead of creating some complex system to operate movement of the eyes, I hid a squashed, emissive sphere behind transmissive pieces of glass. The glass ended up diffusing the light, giving it a soft glow, and allowing me to move the eyes around to give Deputy Rusty some means of self-expression.
I desired the Deputy Rusty’s textures to tell a story. So, who is Deputy Rusty? Well, without spoiling too much (since I plan on using this character in future projects) Deputy Rusty, despite his name, is actually in quite a good condition. Living in the harsh conditions of the old west has caused some wear and tear to his metal body, but largely he is undamaged and uncorroded. Specifically, with the undamaged part, this means to me that he can and has taken a few hits and walked them off. This toughness and this ability to be an impenetrable wall is what earned him the title of Deputy. The hand-painted star on his chest and his cowboy hat were both gifts from grateful townsfolk. In my mind, this relationship of trust is what gives Deputy Rusty a sense of character.
