Background Information:
So I’ve been trying to get my team to try out new color schemes for a while now, and there’s been quite a bit of pushback, which I think can be mostly attributed to nostalgia for previous years, as our color scheme up till now has been either black or clean aluminum with either black or clear polycarbonate, in varying quantities. Team branding thus far has consisted of Blue, Aqua, Black, and White, and our school colors are White, Navy Blue, And Columbia Blue.
Primary arguments against Blue and for Black are as follows:
But there has been some compromise thus far:
An so follows these questions:
Question # 1)
How does one make a bot with a blue frame that looks good with red bumpers on?
Question # 2)
How does one make an acceptable render of the aforementioned robot’s CAD?
Additional Details:
Blue Anodized Aluminum (014F8F [1,79,143])
Grey Smoked Polycarbonate
White Vinyl
Postscript:
CAD Software of choice is Inventor, but I’m flexible. I think.
You don’t. You make a bot with a blue frame and try to make sure the red bumpers, while still being red, clash as little as possible. And you don’t use the red bumpers for show bumpers, ever. You could see if a navy blue works.
Or, you go with the aforementioned strategy (330 did this as well): Look good without bumpers, let the bumpers blend in well wherever possible, and cover with as many blue banners as possible.
Our mentors likely have a better response but most of our parts are normally blue (Powder coated) and all our flat plating is mostly black anodization. Blue anodization looks different from blue powder coat for sure but there is a likely chance you can get a lighter color scheme that doesn’t interfere with red as dark blue sometimes interferes with red bumpers.
You can likely make some test parts from a piece of metal or a shaft to see and compare if you have multiple options to choose in blue (or black) before going for one specific color though.
Regarding question 2, I think @Situs84 can likely help answer this as our cadathon team (345) has used inventor for renders. Not sure what you want to use it for but here is an example of one of our renders:
We’ve been aiming for deeper, rich blue and yellows in recent years, which fit in better with the bumper cloth color we use. Additionally, there’s really just three main colors and two accents on that robot. Blue, yellow, and red, accented by black and white; even in the sponsor logos (though that’s a bit of a coincidence).
Personally, I think a lot of our recent robots looked better in red than blue bumpers as it’s a nice contrast to the blue frame instead of blending in. There’s a lot of different ways to make it work, though I have specific apprehensions using light blue, yellow, etc on the entirety of the frame near the bumpers. Remember that you can also tweak the bumper colors pretty significantly.
Paint/powder/ano will always be a balancing act of color, shade, the COTS components and materials you elect to use, overall geometry, etc. Even the small stuff adds up; we’ve elected to use different durometer wheels in the past just to better match the primary colors. It’s a very noticeable change to the cohesion of the color scheme.
If you choose a blue frame color that totally clashes with your blue bumpers it makes the red bumpers look much better.
I like the way our blues have looked with our red bumpers. I’m particularly fond of the blue anodized AM churro color against the red fabric we use. As a plus, it also looks pretty nice next to silver and black. Then again, we have had at least one color blind student involved in the build on the team for the past 7 or 8 years, so there is that to think about.
Unfortunately alliance 1 is always red, or we could all just forget red bumpers are relevant.
My solution, keep the blue bumpers on for pictures (we use our teal ones). No one is looking at your bumper color contrast if your kickin [mod redacted] on the field!
A word of caution - While a nice color scheme can make your robot look amazing, don’t waste too much of your time coloring a robot that won’t be built on time. In 2019, we lost a week waiting for powder coating. The robot looked pretty good, but we really could’ve used that week for something else.
As far as rendering goes, I use Solidworks Visualize, but if they don’t take it away Fusion has really good rendering as well. It’s pretty intuitive and produces some really nice renders.
In my experience, anodize can vary greatly batch to batch even from the same supplier, and even within the same lot. This may or may not be a big deal for you. Additionally, anodizing can make initial drill through a little rough on tooling if you need to make modifications.
Huh wack – parts are usually done within 2 hours for us (though admittedly we do occasionally put a freshman with a heat gun near them to make sure they dry fast)
As an aside, I’d honestly suggest picking colors that aren’t blue and black. Especially in Northern California, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of blue robots. Your team and robot colors don’t inherently need to match your school colors, or vice versa. Sometimes developing a strong brand can do more for a team than continuity with their school or program, but I defer to @leap for that.
I personally am a fan of red and white, ever since the poster for Last Jedi came out. I think Warriorborgs could pull off some sick colors and theming if y’all focus in on a unique brand and own it.
