Hey twisty puzzlers!

I am just now putting the finishing touches on something that isn't a puzzle. I give you:
ATLAS


In the Portal 2 Coop, one of the loading screens was a series of fake blueprints for the two player robots, ATLAS and P-Body, who are in my opinion, two of the most adorable, lovable, hilarious robots since R2D2 and C3PO. (Wall-E wins this title as well.)

Since I'm me, the blueprints immediately made me want to try modeling them in SolidWorks. I started with ATLAS because there were more detailed drawings of him. If he turns out well, I'll try making P-Body, too.

By the way, this took somewhere around 40 or 50 hours of work to model in Solidworks. Every single sketch is fully defined. I'm just OCD like that. The shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees are movable, with set screws to hold them in place.

I'll post here again when I get the physical robot from Shapeways. In the meantime, enjoy these screenshots.

-Eitan

excellent! Would be very nice if you make a printable version too!

It is printable! Unfortunately, I don't think I can sell it on Shapeways, as the robots are probably copyrighted by Valve.

-Eitan

Very nice, although I always play as P-body
How tall is it?

It is approximately 15cm tall. The blueprints had inch measurements on them, making the whole robot about 73in tall. I took all those measurements and used them instead as mm, making the robot 73mm tall, and decided to scale it up by a factor of 2 in the end (which takes 10 seconds in solidworks!). As I designed it, I made sure to keep all features to be at least 0.5mm wide, so that they would be at least 1mm wide once scaled. That should make it nice and durable.

By the way, how do you choose who you play as? I've never figured it out...

-Eitan

The player who sends the invitation is Atlas, so my friend and I worked it out so we always get the right character

Ah, thanks!

UPDATE: I just ordered the parts! I'll post pictures when it arrives.

-Eitan

epic! I have no idea how someone would go about making such a complicated design. That just seems incredibly difficult. Nice work!

That looks amazing! Do you have plans for any other Portal 2 3D models?

As I said, I plan on making P-Body once I know that ATLAS worked out well.

Update: I just got confirmation from my sister, saying that she is willing to paint ATLAS for me. Woohoo!

-Eitan

ATLAS is finally here! The arms are a little flexible in places, but the legs are very sturdy. He holds up the portal gun very nicely.

Without further ado, here are some EPIC pictures. (Bonus points if you can figure out what the poster in the background is in the first picture.)


I'll be sending ATLAS off to my sister soon, and she'll paint him. I'll post more pictures when she sends them to me.

-Eitan

VERY COOL! This looks super detailed for how small it is. I love portal and your designs this is a nice combination of the two.

Oh, the nerd in me cannot be contained under the bombardment of the awesomeness of this! Can't wait to see the painted Atlas!

You should send pics to Valve when it's done. I'm sure they'd post them in the Portal 2 news feed.

I'm sending an email to Gabe Newell right now. I hope he responds.

Message reads:


I'll let you know if I get a response.

-Eitan

very cool and very well done! I hope you get a response.

Eitan,

This is extremely cool. I can't wait for the painted version.

I get the bonus points! The poster in the background in the first picture is without a doubt the Movie Narrative Charts Poster from xkcd.

Best of luck with Valve!

Skarabajo.

Now I have to watch primer AGAIN.

that is so awesome dude! I absolutely love atlas and always play as him
I can't wait for it to be painted

It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!!!!




Pantazis

Thanks everyone.

My sister painted ATLAS for me, and it looks fantastic! Unfortunately, it's packed away in the boxes I had shipped to my dorm, so I can't take pictures right now. But I'll take pictures tomorrow evening.

-Eitan

D: TEASE!

I'm a huge portal's fun! And you really did a great job! My only concern is the hand's pose (it feels really unnatural)... but this is just a character animator's point of view

Great job and can't wait to see it painted!

Max

Hey everyone,

Here are some pictures of the painted ATLAS. I'm sorry it took me so long to get around to taking these new pictures. I've been insanely busy, and it completely slipped my mind. The sharpie bled a little bit in places, but I think it worked out fine.

Enjoy!


-Eitan

looks amazing, I want one!

out of curiosity did Gabe Newell ever reply back to the message you sent them?

Nope. I might try contacting Gabe Newell again.

-Eitan

I want one!

Great job! Now all you need to do is design a wearable one for fancy dress parties

Brilliant Eitan - but a word of advice - Stopmotion!
Get it to solve a CurvyCopter whilst juggling 2x2's and break-dancing, and send that to Gabe.
Then whilst he (and everyone else) is in a good mood, get him to let you sell them, so I and my daughter can get one for Xmas.

Awesome! Ive been wanting to see this for a long time! And is your edge turning octahedron missing a sticker!?

Hi Eitan, nice job!
How about you give me one as a gift, and I give you some money, also as a gift, on a totally unrelated matter, let's say for Christmas

Yeah, that happened a while ago. I just haven't gotten around to cutting a new one.

-Eitan

Hey everyone,

I got a response from Valve! It isn't directly from Gabe, but I am pretty sure that Gabe actually did read the email, since he definitely forwarded it to the right people. I got a response from an Arsenio Navarro (what an awesome name).


Oh my.... I can't wait to find out what they're sending me! I'll let you know what it is when it arrives...
I responded:

About 20 minutes later I got this message from Tristan Reidford, who is apparently one of the modelers who actually created the Co-op bot models for Portal 2:

I sent back a message thanking all of them, and letting Tristan know that I would absolutely love to see the OBJ file of ATLAS from the actual game.


And he sent it to me.


And there's absolutely no chance whatsoever that I will be distributing it to anyone, so please don't ask. Sorry, but Valve is the last company I would want to piss off. (They've got Gordon Freeman, GLaDOS, and Chell, not to mention loads and loads of zombies at their beck and call.)

I do realize that if you dig deep enough in the game files, you can probably find 3D models of ATLAS and P-Body, but I figured that might violate some sort of EULA that i agreed to. (See previous paragraph about not pissing off Valve.)

In all seriousness, this may suggest a new career path for me, so I want to play it safe and not betray the trust that these animators have given me.

In any case, when you compare the model they sent me (made in Maya) against the model I made in SoldWorks, the only differences are the pistons (which I got rid of in order to make the robot posable) and the small details (which wouldn't have shown up in WSF printing anyways).

I'll post here when I find out what they're sending me.

-Eitan

Well thats just about the most awesome thing i have heard all day! i want to work for valve after a graduate from digipen (portal originally came from a digipen game :] look up narbacular drop.) if you get a job as a modeler i will see you there! also if you like dota, the guy who made the first dota mod goes to my school and works at valve now, good luck!

Awesome that you got a response. Let us know if you do end up animating for games and where we should look for the easter egg fully functional DeFTI

A hobby that turns into a career! Well done and good luck.

So jealous,

Very Awesome though.

Prepare yourself to be even more jealous...

I just got a package from Valve. It contained:
1. A shirt with ATLAS on the front and "Cooperative Testing Initiative" on the back.
2. A shirt with the old "Aperture Science Innovators" logo on the front.
3. A mousepad with one of Rat Man's drawings and poems about the Companion Cube on it.
4. A poster of in-game placards with warnings about Hazardous Environments and how you shouldn't "Look at, touch, ingest, or engage in conversation with any substances beyond this point".
5. A large version of one of the in-game posters about the mannequins made by the old Aperture company.
6. A huge poster of ATLAS and P-body looking all awesome and badass, with the signatures of the whole Portal 2 dev team. I'm not sure whether Gabe Newell signed the poster, but I think he probably did.

The posters are now up on my wall, taking their rightful places alongside my XKCD posters.

This has been a wonderful experience. I have never gotten such incredible recognition from such a great company. I've attached some pictures.

-Eitan

Did jeep barnett sign it?

I believe so. Just above P-body's left hip (our right), there is a "JB".

-Eitan

thats so awesome, he came and did a guest lecture last year, i havent seen him since, but i see his brother every day. They are our idols, the ones that proved that us students can really achieve excellence. I hope you get a job

Really really kewl... thanks for sharing all those details.

Carl

If they give you permission to sell this I'll buy. What would be pretty cool too is if this toy was reproduced through Valve.

This is an incredible story.
I am happy for you that you've got the recognition and response that you deserved.

Thanks a lot for sharing!

That's just scary, Eric....

By the way, ATLAS saw the Companion Cube trapped in the mousepad, and tried to get it out. No luck yet.

-Eitan

Wow
Wow wow wow wow wow
That is awesome!
Valve is awesome
I'm actually... kind of speechless...

Jealous indeed. I suddenly have the urge to build a fully animatronic Atlas in order get some loot of my own...

What you need is my 3x3x3 companion cube to keep ATLAS happy