Bunny Robot

Meet My Bunny Robot

When I first read about the contest, I immediately knew I wanted to create a robotic companion that felt cute and uniquely me. I brainstormed different animals and personalities before landing on this bunny robot. A friendly buddy who I imagined I’d want to hang out with, one that makes you smile just by looking at it.

I modeled everything using Autodesk Maya and hand-painted the textures in Adobe Photoshop. This project helped me grow my technical skills because I had never textured in Photoshop before.

I started by thinking about what kind of animal or companion I’d want by my side. At first, I was working with a cat-shaped robot idea, but after a few sketches and variations, the bunny design just felt right. It had the charm I was looking for. I love stars so I had to add a lot of stars to my robot. Once I solidified that concept, I moved into 3D modeling.

Modeling was the most time consuming and mentally challenging part of the process. Since I hadn’t learned character rigging yet, I manually adjusted the individual pieces of the robot into a final pose. This took a lot of patience and fine tuning, especially for small details like the ears, clothes, and how the body parts interacted. But after many days, the bunny started coming to life!

Next came UV unwrapping and texture painting. I grouped the UVs based on which parts made i wanted to be the same color. Because I was texturing in Photoshop instead of Substance Painter, the process was very hands-on. I painted the textures from scratch, experimenting with color palettes and design elements that matched the robot’s personality. This was my first time doing this type of texturing, so it was a learning curve. After testing a few styles, I locked in the one that felt the most cohesive and playful. I ended up making the color palette mainly purple because that’s my favorite color.

Lighting played a huge role in the final aesthetic of the project. I experimented with different background and lighting setups. I had a black background with strong contrast, a purple one for a dreamy mood, and finally a soft gray background that allowed the bunny to stand out without being washed out. Although I ended up choosing the gray, I loved how the bunny looked on the black background too. I even turned the black background version into a sticker!

Here is my finished bunny robot! I’ve included a turntable, front, and back views so you can see all the little details. I’m honestly so proud of how it turned out. It captures everything I wanted in a robotic buddy. I decorated my bunny robot full of my personality. From my favorite shape of stars to favorite color of purple, this robot is a direct reflection of me! My next goal is to 3D print the model so I can have a real life bunny robot buddy sitting on my desk. I’m overall so happy with this result and it was rewarding creating my first ever 3D robot!