[MOC] PAIGE

[Aanchir]

PAIGE (Prototype Artificial Intelligence, Gynoid Expression) was created by robotics student Letta Arkwright to simulate the kinds of social competencies she struggled with in her own day-to-day life. PAIGE is powered by a digital brain with an unprecedented social learning engine. As PAIGE teaches her creator to relate to others and to understand her own emotional needs, she is also learning for herself what it means to be a person.

This model of PAIGE uses over 830 pieces, stands 18.1 inches/46 centimeters/57.5 modules tall, weighs about 24 ounces/672 grams, and has 36 points of articulation. Her mouth, eyes, and eyebrows can be adjusted and/or swapped out to display different emotions.

[ZORK64]

That's a very cool-looking MOC!

But is it based on a real robot?

[Aanchir]

30 minutes ago, ZORK64 said:

That's a very cool-looking MOC!

But is it based on a real robot?

Nope, just an original creation that I decided deserved a short backstory. Glad you like it!

[ZORK64]

I see.

And you're welcome. I instantly liked PAIGE for her smooth and curvy design, which gives her a very humanoid look (which is quite an achievement in Lego IMHO), and now I just took a second look at PAIGE to check all the details in her build. I think my favourite parts of her are the back and the hip section, as both have very nice shaping (while in the latters case also still a decent range of articulation).

Also, one question... what's the piece you used for the ball-jointed toes?

[Aanchir]

4 hours ago, ZORK64 said:

I see.

And you're welcome. I instantly liked PAIGE for her smooth and curvy design, which gives her a very humanoid look (which is quite an achievement in Lego IMHO), and now I just took a second look at PAIGE to check all the details in her build. I think my favourite parts of her are the back and the hip section, as both have very nice shaping (while in the latters case also still a decent range of articulation).

Also, one question... what's the piece you used for the ball-jointed toes?

It's https://brickset.com/parts/6158469/3-2-shaft-w-5-9-ball plus either a 1x1 round brick for the big toe or a 1x1 cone for the other toes.

[Leewan]

Impressive. Your photos are very good, and the poses give a lot of life and expressiveness to the character (so does the color scheme). The build is clean, it almost doesn't look like Lego, and the lack of studs over her body makes her look smaller than she actually is (thanks for using different measuring units, btw, that's an appreciable effort). You did an excellent job here !

[Aanchir]

1 hour ago, Leewan said:

Impressive. Your photos are very good, and the poses give a lot of life and expressiveness to the character (so does the color scheme). The build is clean, it almost doesn't look like Lego, and the lack of studs over her body makes her look smaller than she actually is (thanks for using different measuring units, btw, that's an appreciable effort). You did an excellent job here !

Thanks! A few people I'd shared WIP pictures with were also surprised about how tall she was when I exhibited her at BrickFair. I probably ought to take some pics with a set or minifigure for comparison, but in the meantime, here's a pic of my BrickFair table if you want to compare her with some of my previous MOCs (the one standing next to her is 12 inches/30.5 centimeters tall, or around the same height as the Witch Doctor and Karda Nui Takanuva sets).

Also, something I learned after building this model is that BrickLink's Stud.io software is pretty good for giving you height and weight measurements for your models! Granted, if you have to use placeholder parts (like I did for the thighs and fingertips, which use parts that aren't on Stud.io yet) then it still demands a bit of adding and subtracting to get the correct weight.

Edited August 19, 2017 by Aanchir

[ZORK64]

On 19.8.2017 at 0:05 AM, Aanchir said:

It's https://brickset.com/parts/6158469/3-2-shaft-w-5-9-ball plus either a 1x1 round brick for the big toe or a 1x1 cone for the other toes.

Heh, I didn't even knew this piece was available in grey, nor that it actually has the right dimensions for the Mixel Joint. That's very useful to know!

[Aanchir]

On 8/20/2017 at 9:52 AM, ZORK64 said:

Heh, I didn't even knew this piece was available in grey, nor that it actually has the right dimensions for the Mixel Joint. That's very useful to know!

It's a very useful piece. And thankfully not a particularly rare one now that this year's Park Street Townhouse has been released with ten of them!

If anybody's curious about other details of the build, I just uploaded an LDD model of PAIGE. Some of the interior "filler" parts may vary slightly from the physical model, and each of the revolver pieces on the fingertips should be replaced with this piece which is not available in LDD, but otherwise it should give you a good overview of her design.

[JeffBuilds]

The first time I saw this MoC of yours, it was a thumbnail in your signature.

 

I must say, she's absolutely, positively, beautiful!

[Miro78]

Amzing sculpting. The curves and connections are so human and very feminine. It must have been an exercise in female body sculpting as much as technical connectivity. Great job in pulling it off. Getting shaping, articulation and seamless joints is not an easy task.

[Mitch Henry]

I got to see her at bfva. I almost said something about it but decided not to. I must say she really captured me. such an odd design but so full of life. Really great job here.

[Aanchir]

On 9/12/2017 at 4:16 AM, Jevil said:

The first time I saw this MoC of yours, it was a thumbnail in your signature.

I must say, she's absolutely, positively, beautiful!

Thank you! ^_^

On 10/26/2017 at 11:44 PM, Miro78 said:

Amzing sculpting. The curves and connections are so human and very feminine. It must have been an exercise in female body sculpting as much as technical connectivity. Great job in pulling it off. Getting shaping, articulation and seamless joints is not an easy task.

It was definitely a learning experience and I'm thankful to some of the friends who looked at some of my WIP pictures and gave me pointers on how female anatomy works and where the model could be improved. I do have a lot of experience building female figures, but most of the time it's armored Bionicle figures, on which the shaping tends to be less exact and there's more room for abstraction than on a smoother System creation aiming for a lifelike appearance.

I've been trying to build a male counterpart to PAIGE on Digital Designer in order to step outside my comfort zone and get a better understanding of how the shapes of the male figure fit together. It's been a little slow going, though.

On 10/30/2017 at 8:12 PM, Mitch Henry said:

I got to see her at bfva. I almost said something about it but decided not to. I must say she really captured me. such an odd design but so full of life. Really great job here.

Thank you! I was glad I was able to get all the parts I needed to exhibit her at BrickFair. I didn't get a lot of direct feedback from attendees or other exhibitors, but it's good to know you left with a positive impression of her!

[Voxovan]

Tbh the face kinda ruins the otherwise fantastic model. I'd suggest swapping the eyes for something less... nightmare inducing.

[Edward Jones]

Very cool creation, this is not very often that we see true human-shaped "action-figure" MOCS. Even less with such lovely curves.

Great job on capturing the organic shapes.

The color scheme is striking! The warm yellow with azure is a win, and the trans-clear cranium is a well-done addition to the overall aesthetic.

[Aanchir]

On 12/3/2017 at 6:19 AM, Voxovan said:

Tbh the face kinda ruins the otherwise fantastic model. I'd suggest swapping the eyes for something less... nightmare inducing.

I got similar feedback when this MOC was still in the WIP phase. I did explore some other possibilities, too, but ultimately I liked these eyes the best. The fact that they're cartoony, even to the point of seeming unsettling, reinforces her artificial/animatronic nature in a way I really like. Also the ball joint eyes are proportionate to the head in a way that larger or smaller eye pieces would not be.

The second-best solution I found is as simple as changing the color/pattern of the eyes like so. However, this also makes them less expressive, which I wasn't so fond of. I still think this could be a fun thing to do to have her show more extreme emotions, though… for instance, red eyes if she's angry, green eyes if she's super happy, etc.

1 hour ago, Edward Jones said:

Very cool creation, this is not very often that we see true human-shaped "action-figure" MOCS. Even less with such lovely curves.

Great job on capturing the organic shapes.

The color scheme is striking! The warm yellow with azure is a win, and the trans-clear cranium is a well-done addition to the overall aesthetic.

Thank you so much! The medium azur was actually sort of a happy accident. Originally, I had pretty much settled on black for the "hair" color, but then was surprised to find that a lot of the parts were much rarer in black than I'd anticipated. I had to sort of scramble to figure out a color I could get all the parts in before BrickFair Virginia, and Medium Azur ended up being the option that was both most affordable and best-looking. I'm glad I made that change though because it looks much more fun and futuristic than the black did.

Edited December 9, 2017 by Aanchir

[JoeyB]

This is lovely... I love the transparent head-piece showing her computer "brain", it reminds me of vintage Science Fiction serial robots, like Robbie, or- there was this oldish cartoon on CN or Nick about a robot in Middle School, the name escapes me- but it reminds me of that also. I'm also floored at how smooth she is, hardly a gap or stud showing! The colors work wonderfully too, the perfect contrast between the azure and the flame orange-yellow. The only disconcerting thing to me is the mouth, I get what you're going for but to me it just looks like a single buck tooth. I've started to look past that, though, since the rest of the model is so very impressive otherwise : )

[Aanchir]

On 2/15/2018 at 10:35 PM, JoeyB said:

This is lovely... I love the transparent head-piece showing her computer "brain", it reminds me of vintage Science Fiction serial robots, like Robbie, or- there was this oldish cartoon on CN or Nick about a robot in Middle School, the name escapes me- but it reminds me of that also. I'm also floored at how smooth she is, hardly a gap or stud showing! The colors work wonderfully too, the perfect contrast between the azure and the flame orange-yellow. The only disconcerting thing to me is the mouth, I get what you're going for but to me it just looks like a single buck tooth. I've started to look past that, though, since the rest of the model is so very impressive otherwise : )

Thank you! I think the cartoon you're thinking of is "Whatever Happened to Robot Jones?", although I've never seen it myself, I only know of it from online. Vintage sci-fi was definitely the look I was going for with the brain case though I didn't really have any specific series in mind. Smoothness was also a big goal with this MOC, particularly since I started out with the thighs and wanted to avoid them looking out-of-place or overly simplistic compared to the rest of the model.

Oh, I also shot some more pictures of PAIGE when I was home in late December/early January that I guess I never shared here. Just some more poses and a couple size comparisons. The lighting's not ideal but I ended up liking the photos anyway and I hope people here do as well!

   

        

[Asphalt]

I kinda need this.

 

[scralings]

Hey Aanchir:  I am going follow with your project (PAIGE) and turn into Spanish Dancer.   I will show it off on Brick Cascade (Portland, Oregon) on May 2023. Thanks for for getting the opportunity!!!!!  I will show you the outcome later...

[scralings]

     

[scralings]

 Length hair in the back; shorten hair in the front; black hair; tan skin; flower; windscreen 8x4 black (paint)