Power Song

Be the lungs

Be the heart beating

Be the muscle and sinew

Be the movement

 

This is my final entry for Bio-Cup 2023. The theme is Sports. The idea was my first one: A character that emphasizes movement, not just in posing but also by showing an (allegorical?) muscle system made of ziplines. Now, I've been using plenty of ziplines in my entries so far, but they've been brown and have represented leather and vines; stuff of nature.

This model has another level, too. It's somewhat uncanny giant half-robotic figure reflecting the running miniland figure which, along most of the base, is made of System. This reflects how damn complicated large Bionicle etc. constraction figures are to build, and hehehe, figure out. The parts are weird and multishaped and laugh at the system. The trick is finding how to connect them to the right angle and it's not always easy. The reward is the flow - essential in a build like this. This model, like the whole cup, has been rewarding - but not something I'd like to do the whole year round.

The character started with legs. The ankle joint is very illegal and took several reworkings to be able to support the whole figure - everything is on one ball joint... but it had to be a ball joint, because a very slight sideways angle is needed to balance everything. The model is so heavy that a rigid ankle with liftarm connections, for example, would never have worked. Even the twisting of a 3L axle caused problems here; the only key was a real balanced state - just like on real humans... Only my model was fixed in time and the factor of real movement couldn't be taken into the calculation.

The beginning of the zipline muscle system were the 7-line fibres running from the knees to the diaphragm. I believe this is the most important muscle when running, though it's obviously really not that long. These fibes connect to another zipline in the stomach, making the flexible enough for running poses (as you can see, the connecting zipline is diagonal). The neck fibres also dual-function as the wires of the headphones - referring to the name of the creation and also to the importance of music during running to many. They end up in the lower back. The arm fibres are more cosmetic - arms are not essential when running. The help to keep the colours more balanced.

The face deserves a special mention. My "basic human face" would have been too small here. The first idea was some sort of helmet, making the figure less human-like and more of a Bionicle hero paragon image. But as the model emphasised human mobility, it didn't feel fitting and I didn't find any good designs. This face tries to realistically portray human face. It might be somehow uncanny, but then again, that would the feel of 7-metre-tall robot human running alongside you. The manhole cover and the lamppost were added to accent this otherworldiness of the scale.

-Eero.