Arcade Hand from Logan's Run

epoxinator

Well-Known Member
Lr_american_cinematographer.jpg


The film Logan's Run has some my favorite film images. I love the concept of a sealed city under domes. I loved the mazecars moving through the city in their tubes of glass. I loved the curved designs of the structures in the city. What most people gravitate to is the Sandmen, whose job is to execute Runners, citizens who rebel against the city's mandated death upon reaching 30. And, especially the Sandman Flamegun, which shoots green flames out of side vents when fired.

But my favorite prop in the film is The Hand in Arcade, so named in the film by a would-be assassin who intends to strangle Logan near it to protect the secret of Sanctuary.

Though the statue is only seen a few times in the film, it was used heavily in promotions: you can see it in most movie posters, and it was featured above on the cover of American Cinematographer (thought it looks as if they flipped the image.)

I have long wanted to make one for myself: in fact I already have. I have built it in 3D, I have sent it out via Pepakura to be hand cut and built into an 8-inch figure. It's been my dream to output it as a 3D print, and cover it with laser-cut acrylic mirror facets. It looks perfect in the film, and I want to make mine as perfect as I can.
 
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3D version.jpg
arcade hand 4 sides renders.jpg
Paper arcade hand.jpg

Ken's styrene hand.jpg
arcade hands printed.jpg


I've created it in 3D, sent it out to Pepakura, printed it on paper to make a paper cutout, printed it on stickers to use to cut out pieces from mirrored styrene, and finally printed it out in 3D in a number of sizes. But I've never been happy with any of the results, though I will say I think they are gradually getting better. These have been evolving over the past 7-8 years. And I've never knuckled down and documented the process here, on RPF. Until now.
 
Definitely an Iconic set piece from that Movie

2nd and fourth pic look fantastic!
 
Arcade Hand original image.jpg


So, if I'm going to start from scratch again, where? As I did the first time around, with this image. It's a behind-the-scenes image with the camera looking nearly dead-on perpendicular at the palm of the hand.
 
Arcade Hand cropped.jpg
Arcade Hand outlines.jpg
Arcade Hand outlines over blue.jpg
Arcade Hand outlines facets.jpg

Image is cropped, then I outlined in red what I think are the structural edges. I made solid colors of the background. And finally, in white, I started tracing where flat planes have been subdivided into cut glass facets. I don't think these lines represent changes in the overall shape, though.
 
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thumb side red outlines.jpg
thumb side over solid.jpg
thumb side facets.jpg


Another shot, this time from the thumb side of the hand. The camera is now looking up at the statue. Sometimes it's hard to judge between what are edges and pieces of glass, and reflections of other edges.
 
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hand rear.jpg
hand rear red outlines.jpg
hand rear just outlines.jpg
hand rear sub outlines.jpg


This one shows the back of the hand. It's too bad that people are obscuring the base, but I can't find a still where there are fewer people from this particular angle. The final frame shows how much the individual facets of the statue can be divided into separate pieces of glass. That's one of the things I like about it. As the palm rotates and the camera moves around it, the statue shimmers and sparkles.
 
hand base detail.jpg
hand base red outlines.jpg
hand base over blue.jpg
hand base facets.jpg


This one shows the base of the hand and especially how the rotating hand sits on the top of the wrist, which is flared out beneath.
 
Definitely an Iconic set piece from that Movie

2nd and fourth pic look fantastic!
They do, and thank you: when I saw how they were coming out I was thinking, wow, I can't believe how good these are looking! These are coming from me?

But this little project has shown me that I have made some drastic errors in the structure of the base. More on that later.
 
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old images.jpg


When I started the first versions I made of the Arcade Hand, these are the quality of images I had access to. I searched through Virtual Vikki and The World of Logan's Run looking for anything they had that might help. This was in the early 2000's so the images, bound by the bandwidths of the time, were very small and compressed. I used them to make outlines just as I did with the larger and more detailed images in the earlier postings in this thread, to help me figure out proportions and angles.

Huge, huge thank yous go to Virtual Vikki and to World of Logan's Run for giving access to more research material than I had ever seen before.

Still, it was very challenging to come up with the dimensions and proportions when the images were so small, compressed and blurry and unclear. I went through countless versions of the model before it started to look right.
 
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3D wireframe closeups.jpg

4-view wireframe.jpg


And this model was the result, though I must admit that this model has been heavily edited with the aid of newer recently discovered prints and stills. I have also been editing this model for 3D print, building an inner structure to create hollow areas in the print, intended to decrease the weight, the volume and particularly the cost of the printing material used.

However, my current project, to rebuild from the ground up, has led me to find that the model I made is pretty inaccurate.
 
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errors 1.jpg


In matching up my model with this high resolution image, I noticed a couple of things right off the bat.

The fingers are too thin at the tips. I had some advice from an acquaintance online some years back that all the fingers (but not the thumb) were square in cross-section. The fingers were all made out of a single shape with the same top and bottom measurements, and then cut and angled to fit in their final positions. Once I learned that, it was relatively easy to place the fingers in their correct positions. The first ones I tried weren't square and were a huge pain to try to edit. Making them square immediately made them look right.

The second thing is that the wrist and the base are too thin side to side. Which is a good thing, because I have been trying to install a motor with which to rotate the hand, and a slip ring through which to light it, and the available room has made that a bit challenging.


errors 2.jpg


The arm and the wrist are too simple. I made them as perfectly flat, and three-sided on the bottom, six on the top. The real arm has two facets per side, not just one. The top of the black base gets narrower where the two facet corners touch it. The wrist has two facets that come to a point at the top, leaving it hexagonal in shape, so I believe I got that right.

My black base is a triangle, but that isn't quite right. The angles of the top of the real base facing away from the camera, don't meet up as they do on my computer model. By extending the lines I came up with a theoretical shape in yellow where the base sticks out in back about half as much as in front. That was making me rethink the entire base as a 4-sided shape, not 3. Then I noticed the shadow in the original photo: if the base and the arm did stick out as far as I extrapolated they might, then the shadow on the ground would probably be cast on the legs of the man on the right. Since the shadow doesn't do that, in fact it looks like it's coming right at the edge of the black base, I'm thinking the base is actually a five-sided shape, similar to Superman's shield. At least, that's the direction I'm going to take it. I'm also going to assume that the rear face of the arm, like the left and right sides, has two facets that come to a shallow angle in the center.

Speaking of shots of the hand from the back, I had assumed that there existed some shots from the other side of the arm. But in reviewing all the old and new stills I have collected, I realize that I have only ever seen the statue base from the angle pictured. The closest I have seen to a rear shot are pictures from the top of the escalator shooting down, and there are always people on the escalator blocking the view of the base. Anyone else seen one?
 
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Here are some photos of the back, and I can also get the sides.
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Hand almost rear.jpg
Upward shot hand.jpg
hand rear closeup.jpg


Bondservnt:

Thanks again for the links. Like an idiot I posted this response as part of your message, instead of here where it belongs.

The links and the pictures are proving very helpful and are much appreciated. Still hoping to find a shot of the sculpture base from the other direction. The top down shot is panning down but ends just before it reaches the base.

Thanks.
 
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3 base splines combined.jpg


4 extruded base rendered over movie still.jpg
5 extruded arm rendered over movie still 2.jpg
6 arm top first attempt.jpg
1 proposed internal.jpg
2 half shape of base mirrored and extruded.jpg


Trying to add the images in order, but RPF seems to be jumbling them in where they fit together. I'm making the images much smaller than previously. The second to last picture is supposed to be first in this sequence: it shows my proposed base design in yellow, underneath my red tracing of what I understand to be the sculpture geometry.

The last picture is supposed to be #2. In this one I have lined up my 3D camera (in Cinema 4D) as much as I can with the photo. It's not perfect: especially on the right you can see where the mesh doesn't line up. I have created 4-point spline making up one side of the base. I mirror these to make up the entire shape. This lets me work on one point at a time rather than two. I'm making the base roughly triangular, but with small facets between the side and back facets to make the lines match up. As I mentioned I can't get the left and the right sides to all line up evenly. I'm assuming the original real camera has some distortion that I can't quite figure out, or maybe the entire sculpture wasn't built with bilateral symmetry. Whatever the reason, I'm going with symmetry in my recreation.

The first picture is supposed to be #3: in that one I have merged the 4-point spline with its mirrored duplicate into a single spline outlining the entire base. I duplicated that spline and scaled it down to match the points where the arm element attaches to the base. That duplicate spline will now be where the arm plugs into the base. A copy will become the base of the arm. As I discovered in this revision, each side of the arm element seems to be made up of two facets, not just one as I did in my original version. I added points in the middle of the lines of the arm shape, and moved them around to match the points where these inner angles meet with the base.

The second picture is my fourth in the sequence. I have replace the background reference picture with a wider shot of the same image showing the entire sculpture, and I have again adjusted the camera so the base, extruded and now textured a shiny reflective black, matches (nearly) the position of the real base.

The third picture is my fifth in sequence. I have taken the arm outline spline and extruded it up and scaled it up into an arm element, matching the reference photo. I put a mirror texture on it and added a couple of digital humans scaled to match the actors in the scene. Mostly to see how they reflect in the arm element. I don't think it's quite right: the front shouldn't stick out so far, I think.

Finally, the fourth picture is my sixth and final of this sequence. It's the wrist element on top of the arm. There is a kind of complicated transition from the top of the arm to the top of the wrist, and I don't yet have it right. This will need to be changed.
 
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Impressive attention to detail! My attempt seems pedestrian at best looking at your work; really excited to follow this!
EasternBloc:

Thank you. Are you the person who in 2018 had a thread about building one out of wood? If so, how is it progressing? I have not been able to find that thread today.

Lt Washburn:

Thank you.
 
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forming the palm.jpg


Forming the palm: 1 make a cube, lined up with bottom of palm in reference image. 2 Textured cube with half color and half reference image to contrast object with original image, so the cube will stand out more easily. 3. switched reference image to side view of palm. 4. aligned cube to match bottom of palm on image. Grabbed the points of the cube on the top and pulled them to the right, to match the angles of the reference image. I have to be careful to always move matching points, so I don't break the perfect flat planes that make up each side. I've made this mistake far too many times... 5. Switched reference graphic back to the front of the hand. New cubes, here colored yellow and green, which will be used to slice off chunks of the cube which will become the palm of the hand. Camera moved off position temporarily to show all objects in play. 6. Camera moved back to match reference image view, cubes for cut moved into position to match the angle of the reference graphic. 7. Cuts made to palm cube. Also have matched up a cube to the pinky side of the palm off-camera and made that cut as well. 8. Moved camera to show first two cuts. These facets will bear the index finger on top and the thumb below. 9. Camera rotated to show two cuts to palm above the front of the palm. 10. Two more cuts to the rear top of the palm. The 6-side facet will bear the other three fingers. 11. Camera moved to the front of the palm again. Palm front facet has been cut away from the rest of the palm to stand alone. 12. Palm facet has been rotated backward to lie flat on the XZ axis. Red glowing crystal roughly set in the center of the palm. 13. Camera position moved to directly overhead, and red crystal centered relative to the reference image. And, as I cut the palm facets surrounding the red crystal, I finally notice that the upper right angle is off a bit. I go back and fix that issue off-camera.
 
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