I think we can all tear open a bag of chips, pour some Saki and agree that, next to Akira, Ghost in the Shell (GITS) is the absolute best of 20th century Japanese Animation. The last scene where our cyborg heroine, Motoko, battles a massive 6-legged spider tank is some of the best animated carnage created.
Paulius Liekis is a fan too, and took it upon himself to create a more-or-less scale version of the GITS Hexapod Tank, aka T08A2 / R3000 spider tank, and it looks AMAZING. He’s documenting the entire process, providing specs, electrical, software and yes, the 3D design files.
“I’m a bit Ghost In The Shell fan. I always felt like I wanted to [do] some fan-work. At some point I realised that tank from the final battle of the original GITS movie would be a good choice for a project. One of the goals I had [was] to make it move like no hexapod moved before. That’s what I like about that tank in the battle – it feels angry like an animal, but then transitions back to a mechanical feel in an instant.”
We’re with you man. This thing puts Robocop’s ED-209 to SHAME. And the motion, oh the motion, he has captured it perfectly. Here’s the video. (Pssst! If you remember the scene from the movie, you’ll probably notice something.)
Is that not just the COOLEST?! Matches the battle scene to a T… well, minus the carnage, Motoko shots and the rain. Paulius designed and built everything over a 2.5 year period, modeling it first in 3ds Max using stills from the movie, modifying it to actually function.
The electronics include:
- 2 Raspberry Pi micro computers (one for motion control and one for face tracking)
- 1 camera (for face tracking)
- 8 servos
- 3 servo drivers
- 2 lasers
- 1 distance sensor
- 1 PS3 controller
He’ll be releasing those details in the near future. Until then, you can download the files on Wevolver and begin your own build. (Bonus! You can read the full story and build process here.)
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