Week in Review #31: A Bird

Another thing I wanted for the jungle this year is a bird. Specifically a toucan. So I modeled one: And then assembled it: Ha ha…yes…yes… It's interesting to compare these side by side. Some of the sharp angles of the model are smoothed, like where the beak connects to the head. If I were more careful I could probably replicate these more faithfully, but if I feel like the model is lacking those details later on, I can reintroduce them in the sculpt. I'm trying to find the happy medium where I'm doing just enough on da computer to get me to where I want to be in da physical world. This model might have still been too detailed! (The feet will be wire and the tail feathers will be flat, so I skipped those for the papercraft step, if you're wondering.) Anyway, I stuffed the form with paper to give it some firmness. When it's got some paper mache on it and is solid, I'll cut the head off and re-attach it with a ball joint so I can also shove some servos in there and make it look around.…