Torbjorn (articulated print-in-place)

myminifactory

Torbjorn is one of 12 characters in Overwatch, a new game that Blizzard will likely release between this year's end and 2016 - we're all still waiting for the beta, aren't we? As a die-hard fan of Blizzard, I decided to spend some time building Torbjorn entirely in Zbrush. When the model was finished, I started working on an articulated version of it to create a toy that's completely support-free and can be printed in one piece. My sculpting process For this model, I began again with a dynamesh sphere, which allowed me to easily fix proportions and basic shapes of the dwarf. When I had the base mesh ready, I split the project into different subtools using insert spheres, cubes, or cylinders depending on the actual needs. Dynamesh and Zremesh played a primary role in speeding up the sculpting process, as well as my main brushes: Move, Dam standard, Trim dynamic, HPolish, Clay, Clay tubes, Form soft, Curve tube, etc. For almost all of the project, I had to manage a huge number of polygroups used in combination with select lasso or select rectangle to hide particular surfaces that were tough to modify. Adapting the final high-poly sculpt for an articulated toy free from supports and printed-in-place To do this, I studied a robot model and tried to recreate its joint structure in Zbrush while keeping care not to lose too much detail or main components. This phase consisted of a sequence of boolean operations using cubes and cylinders as main primitives to make holes, empty cavities, and gaps: dynamesh, Close holes, delete hidden is the pipeline here. The joints are linked using a "bones system" that I replicated three times on the legs, making an "L shape" only for the pelvis area, like a Tetris concept. The model has basically 8 parts split into two STL files: - The BACKPACK is the only separated part: I chose to do this mostly to keep similar shapes and proportions of the concept. The only way to have a Free support with the backpack included was to stretch the backpack to make it fit with the first layer, but I didn't like that, so I went with another solution. - The BODY has 7 parts printed-in-place. Two main kinds of joint types (one for legs and one for arms). It would be nice to test the helmet joints on a bigger scale (9cmx10cmx9cm didn't help much to show even the gaps). Torbjorn took me some time to optimize all the parts, create a Free support piece with joints that give the piece quite good functionality, movements, and poses. Feel free to play around with it if you like. Torbjorn concept description and story Torbjorn, a dwarven engineer, dropped armor buffs while he assembled powerful defensive turrets and shield generators. In his final moments on screen, he turned bright orange and seemed filled with the power of molten metal. At its height, Overwatch possessed one of the most advanced armaments on the planet, which could be traced to the workshop of an ingenious engineer named Torbjorn Lindholm. Before the Omnic Crisis, Torbjorn had gained notoriety for designing weapons systems used by countries around the world. However, his belief that technology must serve a better vision for humanity put him at odds with his employers, who desired to control his weapons using networked computer intelligence. Torbjorn had a deep mistrust of sentient robotic intelligence, and while many of his peers wrote this off as paranoia, his worst fears were realized when the robot populations of the world turned against their human creators during the Omnic Crisis. Because of his engineering genius, he was recruited to join the original Overwatch strike team, and his many inventions proved integral to ending the crisis. In the years that followed, Overwatch became an international peacekeeping force, and Torbjorn remained a critical resource for all its technological needs and signature weapons systems. But in the aftermath of Overwatch's fall, many of Torbjorn's weapons were stolen or stashed away around the world. Feeling responsible for his creations, Torbjorn is determined to stop them from falling into the wrong hands and wreaking havoc on the innocent.