MMP1 | Alexa echo-defense mech

This is a little transformer-type character I designed as part of my semester-project for university. The idea was to give an everyday object a completely new meaning and breathe life into an inanimate thing.

The result is this echo-defense sentinel. It is equipped with two open-bolt weapon platforms chambered in .22 short, resulting in a quite competent defense robot. His sensory array consists of one large IR-capable wide-angle camera and 4 smaller depth cameras for enhanced depth perception.

The robot was designed to be somewhat believable and - from a mechanical standpoint - fully operational.

Modeling, Texturing and Rendering was completely done in Blender. I used Photoshop to color-grade the final render and to add small details such as the lines and text close to the borders of the image.

The animation was created mostly as a gimmick and to experiment with marker-based motion tracking aswell as trying out HDRI-creation. The biggest challenge was blending the smartphone footage with the 360 HDRI turntable spin. The result is far from perfect and - if more time had been available - could've been further refined.