Carl - Part V - The Legs (and Sneakers)

The final requirement for Carl is to give him something to allow him to move from place to place (and look super-trendy in the process)... and so thus section covers the creation of the legs and sneakers

The legs themselves were almost carbon-copies of the arms. An octagonal cylinder with 1 segment for the hips and 3 for the knee-cap and ankle.

VAs before, this was connected to the underside of Carl, who, as always, had a few holes punched into him before attachment.

The final step was perhaps one of the more taxing (thus is the price for fashion I guess!). In hindsight, blob-like alien feet might have been simpler... but a decision is a decision - The sneakers were staying! The key was just to work slowly. So, I started out with a large cuboid divided into several segments (In order to give me plenty of edges and vertices to work with)

The first step was to build the shape from the side-PoV. This simply involved a dip being made where the ankle enters into the shoe, and to round the front edge down. In this state, the shoes are passable for a robot... but not exactly the latest in high-street fashion...

So the next step was to start working on the curvature of the shoes, to create the bump and contours, and to further refine the side-port. Though progress was being made (albeit slowly), it was time to call in reinforcements...

So grabbing one of my trainers, I held it in front of me and observed the sole. Flipping the viewport to 'Bottom' view, I recreated the shape as accurately as I could...

And amazingly, that seemed to do the trick nicely. The shape was certainly looking much more shoe-like now. The next step was to add the fancy extras to it

The fancy patch on top of the shoe came next. Much like the shoe, this started life as a cuboid (albeit a flat one)

Through trial and error, the patch was made to fit snugly over the front of the shoe and follow the contours accurately.

Next up came the sock (A simple cone shape) and the tongue. Much like the rest of the shoe: The tongue was another cuboid, stuck onto the front of the fancy patch.

A bit of fun with pulling the vertices later, the tongue started to take one more of a tongue-esque shape.

The sole was then added, which was (yet another) cuboid, and altered to fit the outline of the shoe.

The final step was to add the laces. Build from cylinders and flat tubes, the laces quickly took shape and were attached to the front of the tongue. I tried adding the full laces, but those seemed to be better achieved via a texture on the patch.

I tried changing the colours of the shoes, as something didn't look quite right about them... yet, even as the colours took on a more fashionable form, the shoes still looked out of place. After a quick bite to eat, I found that, when coming back to it, the shoes were far too large on Carl. They looked like clown shoes and far too unwieldy!

A quick blast of the 'Scale' Tool, and the shoes suddenly looked like a perfect fit for Carl! Now he can be the envy of his alien pals with his red-hot sneakers! (Which, incidentally make him run faster)