TITLE: Mechanical Doll
NAME: Masanori Imazu
COUNTRY: Japan
EMAIL: imazu@leaper.ne.jp
WEBPAGE: http://www2.leaper.ne.jp/~imazu/
TOPIC: Gadgets and Odd Devices
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: medollmi.mpg
RENDERER USED: 
    povray 3.1

TOOLS USED: 

        Microsoft Paint for making textures and editing poster,
        Microsoft Photo Editor for softening textures and changing format of
graphic files,
        CMPEG for creating MPEG file,
        and papers and pencils for designing the mechanical doll.

CREATION TIME: 
    Rendering took about 8days

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium 233MHz, 64MB Memory

ANIMATION DESCRIPTION: 

 This is my first elaborate animation. I had made only several simple
animations.
 When I read notes of the topic 'Gadgets and Odd Devices', a Japanese mechanical
doll came into my mind.
 I don't know about the mechanical doll very well. Maybe it was made by some
craftsperson 100 to 200 years ago.
 I don't think the doll was useful because it was able to bring a cup of tea or
some small sweets only few meters.
 But it must be cute and enough to surprise people. I think the craftsperson
made it with playful mind or his obstinacy.

 I have never seen real mechanical doll. I have seen it on a film or something
else long time ago.
 So I imagined and designed it in detail. Almost of the mechanism are made of
wood except shafts and bevel gear which have to transmit big torque.
 All gears are engaged properly though that cannot be seen very well in this
animation. And the links are also moving properly.
 Wound power spring drives the first gear and then the power is transmitted next
gear. Thus the power is transmitted.
 And the roller is driven by a string and the doll goes forward.
 An impeller installed on a shaft with fourth gear controls speed slow. Feet are
ornamental which are shaken by links.

 The floor is very Japanese mat called 'tatami'. It makes the atmosphere of
animation very oriental, doesn't it?


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED: 

 I made all objects in this animation for this animation. These objects are not
made from special shapes like mesh object but standard primitives like sphere,
lathe object and etc. and modified them.
 I have not used any modeler programs. And I painted textures of cloth, doll's
face and hair, cup and floor myself using Microsoft Paint.
 I made some mathematical expressions for driving mechanism properly.
 I don't upload source files because the source files are messed. I couldn't
have enough time to make scene files. And these are messed so I hesitated to
upload them.
 If you have any question or suggestion about this animation, please ask me
freely.