You can blame @centrally-unplanned for this post. She(?) wrote…
The ‘chrome’ designs pioneered by illustrators like Hajime Sorayama (Sexy Robot from 1984, for example) tended to be more in vogue at this time (or just…a hot girl, who is apparently a robot, trust me bro), you don’t see designs like this too commonly until later (ask resident robo-fetishist/animator expert @canmom for details on that timeline).
After a challenge like that how can I refuse? Although the question is ‘when did robots get muscles’, this turned into something of a historical survey of robot designs from the 80s on with a throughline of biomimesis.
Originally posted by animationsource
(Originally this was just going to be an excuse to talk about Ghost in the Shell… but I gotta be thorough.)
Traditionally, robots have been made of hard, rigid shapes. Even very human-like androids, like the Terminator.
At some point, softer, more biological components started to slide in. Artificial muscles in particular. Nowadays, if you want to depict a fearsomely high-tech robot, it might look more like this…
So I ended up wondering - how did this happen, what were the precursors, when did robots get ripped? And that led deeper. And deeper.