Blender assignment

by Michael Wilson

Blender object idea: Trebuchet

description:

A trebuchet is a machine that uses gravity to fling an object. The challenging part that I knew I would come across would have to be making it functional. the scale I used might be inaccurate, this could mean that the trebuchet weight/bucket is not heavy enough to swing the arm. The way I fixed that is by making the bucket have more leverage so it will be easier to move the arm.

##############################################################################

I started off building the trebuchet structural support. This was not that challenging because I  

 was only dealing with rectangles, I made the base and started building up so it could support  

 the arm and bucket.                                                                                                                      

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

##############################################################################

I made the uv map for the one structural support, then I started to making the texture for the    

 support in gimp.                                                                                                                            

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

##############################################################################

  I made a single support/connecting beam that connects the two structural supports together

then I duplicated the beam so there is more to keep structural supports together. I textured it  

 while I built it.                                                                                                                                

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

############################################################################## then I built the second structural support which I found was tedious and boring so I decide to  

 duplicate the first structural support and that worked fine. After duplicating the supports I        

connected all the pieces together with the little metal panels. The metal panels are just visualy pleasing, it will offer no structural support.        

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

############################################################################## I made a piece of plywood and textured it. it was easy, I just stretched out a cube to make a long skinny rectangle.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

######################################################################

#####################################################################

making the pivot point for the trebuchet was difficult because I wanted the arm to      

 have little friction with the pivot but I did not want to lose strength. so I developed a    

 bar that I deemed to be strong while keeping the friction low. once I was happy with  

 it I textured it.                                                                                                        

#--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

#######################################################################

############################################################################## making the arm compatible with the bar was one of the hardest parts of this project. It was    

 hard because I had to make the two parts fit together enough to make it accurate without        

 making the two pieces too tight which will result in a arm that does not move. basicly what I want was easy movement without losing accuracy. because of the little notch in the bar, the arm will not move left or right on the bar. Basically keeping the arm in the middle of the bar.                                                                                          

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

##############################################################################

 I had to make the arm just long enough so it could get the proper amount of leverage using    

 the bucket to fling the object. The arm has a little notch close to the end that will hold rope, and at the very end there is a little nub which holds the loop. so when the trebuchet is fired it will hold on to the sack and let go the item at just the right time. Then I textured it.                                                                            

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

#############################################################################

 I made the bucket which is the weight that will rotate the arm and fling the object.                    

 I either did not take a picture or I lost them, it was not difficult to make, it was just a hollow cube with two holes in it so it can be hung off the arm. .                                    

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

##############################################################################

 The skull was the most difficult part of the project. I used a sphere as the skull itself                

 I used a blueprint to get the right dimensions for the skull.I used a smaller sphere for the eye  

ball, I cut the sphere in half then merged it with the larger skull sphere. After that I made the cheek bone by extruding from the eye sphere. I did the same for the jaw. For the teeth I kind of just imagined what they looked like roughly and made them out of cubes. I then textured the        

 head a greyish colour then the teeth colour. I placed the skull on the front of the bucket so      

 when use it, the person who I am aiming at will see the skull.                                                    

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#

##############################################################################

############################################################################## Rendered end product
The way I textured my trebuchet would not allow me to render the textures so I had to make A new texture for all the components.

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------#