Walker design (no56k)

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-18 07:35am

Hi all, thought I'd share this here. Building my own walker, with heavy elements of existing walkers.

Posting my WIPs as I work through what it's going to look like.

early shots:

initial stance:

current stance:

initial hull proportions:

current mockup, sturdier leg design:

Antipersonnel pod, shades of RWS. Automatic grenade launcher on left, twin autoblaster on right.

Fuel slug (aft detail):

Heavy weapons:

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2007-10-18 08:13am

Looking good! I always love to see your work.

Red Star · Post by **Red Star** » 2007-10-18 11:52am

Very nice!

What program do you use? Maya?

Cosmic Average · Post by **Cosmic Average** » 2007-10-18 02:49pm

Whoa... That looks like awesomeness.

Good job.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-10-18 03:06pm

That's fantastic--really amazing modelling, I'm not sure what it is, it's just that something subtle that makes it look real. It looks like you've already rigged part of the legs. You gonna animate it, or release the model?

Hawkwings · Post by **Hawkwings** » 2007-10-18 04:57pm

Who do you work for, how much do you get paid, and are you rich and famous yet?

salm · Post by **salm** » 2007-10-18 05:10pm

Thumbs up. Great stuff.

Kanastrous · Post by **Kanastrous** » 2007-10-18 05:29pm

That's some nice work.

Please keep posting pix as it comes along.

fusion · Post by **fusion** » 2007-10-18 07:20pm

Dude he works for the CIA for making and designing military walkers...

Nice work anyways. It always nice to see you here...

TheMuffinKing · Post by **TheMuffinKing** » 2007-10-20 12:57pm

I love it! The references to other designs you mentioned are easily visible and the way you've combined them with your own talents is really amazing. I hope to see more work from you, for this is really cool! I really like how it resembles a short AT-AT, with SPHAAT legs!

fusion · Post by **fusion** » 2007-10-20 03:10pm

Look him up on the internet he has his own website somewhere...

There is an Executor, a star destroyer, and others

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2007-10-20 03:21pm

Looks like an AT AT head on legs.

Anyway, how does it turn?

Zor

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-10-20 03:39pm

Detailing is reasonable but...

Zor wrote:Looks like an AT AT head on legs.

The ground track looks too wide for operations in urban or forested terrain, and I'm not sure what the point of a walker (particularly an unstable bipedal one) that can't do that is. This is an inherent problem with high walkers like that - improving stability by widening the track decreases maneuverability. This thing is still fairly unstable in the pitch axis and has a very high profile.

Anyway, how does it turn?

If it wasn't for that little piston linkage, the legs could pivot around the feet's central vertical axis; the gait would be odd (and might give the pilots motion sickness - but then most bipedal walkers have that issue) but it should be fairly efficient (for a walker).

Assuming you've kept the armour weight down enough to make the ground pressure usably low, the recoil from those heavy cannons is going to be a bitch. It looks like they've got muzzle brakes but no recoil compensation. You might be better off putting in some big rear gas vents and making them recoilless - or at least some recoil travel.

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-20 05:58pm

Update:

I started this project more as a visual study in blending walker design elements; I envisioned the walker as a bipedal AT-AT, trading the troop and cargo capacity of the larger walker for slightly higher linear speed, better acceleration, lower cost and more (if not necessarily individually more powerful) weapons for engaging targets by direct fire. Essentially a complementary vehicle to the AT-AT's assault role - flank security and fire support, "enforcer".

Starglider wrote:Detailing is reasonable but...

Glad you like the detailing.

Starglider wrote:Detailing is reasonable but...

The ground track looks too wide for operations in urban or forested terrain, and I'm not sure what the point of a walker (particularly an unstable bipedal one) that can't do that is. This is an inherent problem with high walkers like that - improving stability by widening the track decreases maneuverability. This thing is still fairly unstable in the pitch axis and has a very high profile.

The width of the walker scaled to the AT-AT should be comparable - only a few meters greater if that, with the height of that test shot coming in around chin level to an AT-AT, but I'm still working on the final scaling. In any event, AT-ATs hardly seem to be designed for close quarters operations either, and if this is to be deployed in similar environments/situations, I don't think its size is necessarily a huge drawback.

Height and profile considerations are identical to that of the AT-AT. Yes, you are an easier target as a higher vehicle, but simultaneously you have greater range with the line-of-sight weapons that seem to dominate the medium range star wars battlespace, better resistance to mines, as well as make a psychological statement to your enemy. As a walker that will advance rapidly to an area and proceed to attempt to dominate it in concert with infantry-carrying vehicles such as an AT-AT, height defnitely carries with it certain advantages.

The pitch stability problem is one that any bipedal walking system needs to deal with. In the final form, I imagine a largish turret assembly on the back will balance out the weight cockpit and forward weapons, with the hips acting as the pivot, similar to the way the tail of a theropod balances out its torso and large head, only being much more compact lengthwise of course.

That said, the suspension system of this walker can yield a pretty stable firing platform - the hip joints on both legs are mounted on a series of telescoping joints visible here:

These enable a lot of vertical give to each of the walker's legs, allowing (as I see it) the walker to keep its main hull level - and guns on the target, even without the independent elevation available to each gun system.

Anyway, how does it turn?

How does an AT-AT or an AT-ST turn? Small adjustments in step, *maybe* slight rotation at the hip. The ankle of either of those vehicles has no horizontal rotation available either. I'm thinking that the head of this walker will be able to turn slightly side to side to compensate, though obviously not as much as the AT-AT with its much longer neck, or the AT-ST which can rotate its entire (much smaller and lighter) cabin around the drive assembly. The head is currently a temporary placeholder, more for sizing and placement, without a proper finished connection to the hull. Also the primary weapon will be a dorsal turret or barbette assembly, allowing engagement of targets oblique to the walker's direction of movement.

Actually all of the walkers in the star wars universe seem to be conspicuously lacking in turning ability relative to their speed for their size. Some walkers make up for it by traversing their whole weapons flatform (AT-ST), others by having independently-tracking weapons (AT-AP, AT-TE). This walker I envision as combining a dorsal turret and some small traverse in its head-mounted medium weapons to engage targets.

Starglider wrote:Assuming you've kept the armour weight down enough to make the ground pressure usably low...

The ground pressure should be similar to that of an AT-AT, even with equivalent armor. This walker is bipedal, and if it stood as high as an AT-AT it would have roughly half of the AT-AT hull volume, and by proportion, the footpads are actually larger on this walker than those of the AT-AT.

Starglider wrote: ...the recoil from those heavy cannons is going to be a bitch. It looks like they've got muzzle brakes but no recoil compensation. You might be better off putting in some big rear gas vents and making them recoilless - or at least some recoil travel.

The medium weapons can travel in their own assemblies along the indented grooves underneath the cockpit of the walker, similar to the system used by the AT-AT for dealing with the recoil of its heavy chin cannons. The primary weapon, which I currently envision to be a turret-mounted system on the back, will indeed likely be a recoil-less rifle style weapon.

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-20 07:57pm

fusion wrote:Look him up on the internet he has his own website somewhere...

There is an Executor, a star destroyer, and others

http://fractalsponge.net

Some of my stuff is up there. Good shots of the Executor and droideka aren't up there yet.

Hawkwings wrote:Who do you work for, how much do you get paid, and are you rich and famous yet?

PhD student, not enough, no, and no, though Lucasarts apparently likes my stuff enough to use it without telling me. Check the Force Unleashed trailer.

Red Star · Post by **Red Star** » 2007-10-21 12:37am

I would love to see a detailed image of your super stardestroyer model, cant seem to find it on Scifi3D

I seen your Droideka model on CGSociety...amazing you are good!

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2007-10-21 01:15am

Looking up close at how the feet and joint components come together, I'd have to say that if there's really a Licensed Walker Maintenance Engineer job somewhere, I don't envy the guys who have that job.... however cool it might seem like now.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-21 02:02am

Not to add more to the "wow!" echoes in this thread, but those really are amazing. As for Lucasarts stealing your work, perhaps you should apply for ILM. It certainly seems like you're good enough.

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-21 09:50pm

Another small bit - too bad it'll mostly be hidden

- retractable missile launcher:

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-23 10:31pm

OK, now that I'm officially sick, updates will be less frequent till I get better. Slowly going through some detailing on the cockpit, and working through the neck articulation:

Darmalus · Post by **Darmalus** » 2007-10-23 10:58pm

Right on! SW needs more missile launchers.

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-26 01:00am

Mostly better now. Fixed the small barrels - looked too skinny as Dr. Jones noted. Doing some systems integration on the walker:

linky:

Alan Bolte · Post by **Alan Bolte** » 2007-10-26 04:04am

fractalsponge1 wrote:Lucasarts apparently likes my stuff enough to use it without telling me. Check the Force Unleashed trailer.

Holy shit, you're right, I didn't recognize it until now, but it certainly looks more like yours than like the physical studio model.
I guess this is a little different than the time someone's original Centauri fighter design ended up on the cover of a B5 book, but I would think you're at least entitled to some compensation for your labor, if not for IP. I could understand why you wouldn't want to make a stink about it, though.

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-10-30 07:04pm

Alan Bolte wrote:
fractalsponge1 wrote:Lucasarts apparently likes my stuff enough to use it without telling me. Check the Force Unleashed trailer.
Holy shit, you're right, I didn't recognize it until now, but it certainly looks more like yours than like the physical studio model.
I guess this is a little different than the time someone's original Centauri fighter design ended up on the cover of a B5 book, but I would think you're at least entitled to some compensation for your labor, if not for IP. I could understand why you wouldn't want to make a stink about it, though.

I would complain, but short of sending snail mail to lucasarts, I have no idea who to get in touch with. Might start posting around and see if it happens to hit anyone useful. Very cool that it was used, and very uncool how it was used...

Anyways, the panels are starting to get filled out:

fractalsponge1 · Post by **fractalsponge1** » 2007-11-01 01:33pm

Blocking out the main turret. Need comments on this.