ZVS Techniek Application

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

When we met our client from ZVS we were told that a lot of young people and students don’t directly choose robotics. This is because it is almost always thought of as boring which does not appeal to younger people from the outside. However there is a lot of cool stuff happening, which people don’t know about, because the right people are simply not there to show this to the world. That is where we stepped in. ZVS asked us to try to make his products and services sexy again. And so we did. ZVS wanted a tablet application that he could use to promote his most popular products. Also some new footage for his website and social media would be highly appreciated. With this in mind and some graphic guidelines we started to develop the application.

TASKS

My business partner and I developed this project from start to finish. We designed the concept and built the application. First up was the robot, we got a high res step file from the client which I needed to de-res first. After that I did the claws and the mounting system to attach the claw to the robot. For the claws we also got step files which I also needed to de-res. However the claws were the most important part of the application and therefore needed to look top notch. Also we decided that we wanted exploded views and an inside view of each claw. Throughout the modelling process that was something to keep in mind. After modeling was done, I needed to rig the robot and create an animation plan for both the robot and the claws. Stationary beginning and end positions were set in a basic Unreal scene and I animated all the possible transitions between them. In the basic scene I also placed some camere positions so I knew what would be in view and what not. Then I created key driven animations for the claws and for their exploded views.

Halfway through the project we decided we wanted to add a fun component to the application and that is where the “Demo” button came from.

Once all the models, rigging and animations were done I imported them into the engine. I started with a basic scene with basic lighting and basic shading. I hooked all the animations up to the application, created a basic interface and created a first android build. Finally I had to tweak everything like the shading, camera positions, lighting and the scene which was built by somebody else. The application eventually ran on a standard Android tablet, which meant we needed to manage the performance. Once the application was done I created a separate scene in which I directed a small movie which could be used on the website and social media.

Later on the client wanted a new version of the application that worked on windows so he could hook it up to a tv with touch screen. Of course we delivered that as well.

Client:  ZVS Techniek

SOFTWARE USED