Now way back in 1951, in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Gort was introduced to the movie-going public as an alien-manufactured robot. Not alot of CGI going on in those days, just a guy in a rubber suit with a metal helmet on.

We've come a long way.

Having a Kiwi as a gamemaster, and given the challenge of designing a bipedal robot, the noble kangaroo was chosen. The internet yielded a nice skeleton pic, and with the handy grid turned on in Photoshop, cones, cylinders, spheres, and torii were combined to form a rather convincing virtual replica. A bone colored texture was chosen, with a shine reminiscent of a hard plastic.

side view

front view

Taking a cue from special-effects master Stan Winston, a robot just isn't a robot without some shiny metal struts. The macro MakeStrut(end1,end2,thickness) was created and after some simple arithmetic, a nicely symmetrical musculature was quickly created.

As further homage, glowing red eyes were also added. And ears, definitely some big 'roo ears.

Shiny plastic wasn't going to cut it anymore. A trip to the local bike shop, and it was decided carbon fiber could be simulated from a simple checkered pattern of very glossy black and not-as-glossy gray squares. Put it all together, and Roobot R1-LR was born. Don't tell anyone, but there's a laser rifle concealed in the ribcage, little roo packs one heckuva wallop.

Roobot and its less technologically advanced trash cannish friend, Jo-E.