ideas

with the help from my peers, i finally had an idea as to what to do for my assignment. for this to work, i had to brain storm heaps of ideas and stick with the one that work the most. here's the process:

Idea generation #1

Idea generation #2

i first thought of having a robot in the scene and the possibilities are endless for that one. the first brain child that i had was a robot break dancing and he was versing this guy who was also a good dancer. it was a good plan except the animation part for that might take too long for me to achieve in a span of 10 weeks.

the second idea that i had was about this robot who was a plumber. he wasn't very good at it and he can't fix anything. he encounters this leaking tap and decides to prove he can fix taps. in the end he hits the tap and it it just stops leaking.

the last idea that i had was about this guy who liked a girl and decided that he would use his robot to deliver the message to the chick that he likes. the guy would record his message on this robot and the girl would receive it as a hologram and it will contain his confession of love to her.

all of these are ideas that i loved working on, but sadly i can only pick one; and i choose the plumber robot. :)

the idea is to show case a robot that looks old. and this will be the basis as to why my robot can't fix anything, he's old. the photos below illustates what im after:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/421824345_7de48cdf16.jpg

http://s2.hubimg.com/u/1343513_f260.jpg

from the video origins which can be found here:  http://vimeo.com/24030911

http://www.swiss-miss.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/090709oldrobots-480x647.jpg

here are my initial sketches of B08-8I3 or "BOBBIE". In part A, we can see that there are variations to bobbie. the first one that i thought of was a design that was similar to Wall-E because the "old robot" look was really chunky and wasn't a sleek design. I had to move on from that idea because i know i can do better.

Robot Designs Part A

 

Robot Design Part B

the next design i came up with was a one eyed robot. sadly, this was a more modern design and didn't suit the "old appeal" i was after because the one eye trend was too modern for an old geezer design.

the 3rd design i came up with was based on a toilet plunger, a common household item that is used when the drains are clogged. it suits the whole appeal and frankly he was close to the old geezer look i am after. but like the other two, i had to press on with more designs.

the last robot i cam up with was based on Blinky, a robot who was meant to serve humans and ends up killing his human owner. for those who haven't seen the video, heres the link. this convinced me that "hey, i can have an old looking robot but not old when it comes to its movements". the reason i liked blinky's design was because blink has a smooth rotation around his head. i mimic this design to bobbie to give him a more smoother rotation around his head. to give bobbie that old robot look, i planned his body to be a bit chunky and a wide to give him the illusion that he is big and plump. this body houses his whole circuitry  which will be seen through the door panel in the front view of his body.

bobbie's feet will be running on wheels. the reason for this is because he can move faster and it will save me alot of time rigging a walk cycle. his hands are wrenches which can turn any bolt and hold any object he can get his hands on. all of his animations will be done by myself.

bobbie's colours are based on rust. his will give him an older look and feel which the audience can be able to translate. here are some sample colour palettes im working on for bobbie:

http://th05.deviantart.net/fs32/PRE/f/2008/206/d/8/SV_Rusty_Robot_Vol_1_by_bupaje.jpg

machinarium band- http://www.cgsociety.org/stories/2010_01/machinarium/page02_img_01.jpg

 the texturing that i want to do to my character is similar to the machinarium band. it is on the cartoony scale but at the same time the rust texturing feels real. this give it an overall "old" look and will complete the setting.

so now that we have the characters, heres how the story will go:

the story will go in depth later on. but basically, the scene starts with the faucet dripping. then on the next it jumps to the character zooming as fast as he could to get to the leak. he assesses the situation and hits the tap with his hand. that fails the first time so he grabs a bigger wrench and hits the tap harder and the tap gets fixed. the robot celebrates, looses his grip and falls inside the drain. at the moment, it is still a working progress, but i will defenitely sketch out a more detailed storyboard prior down the line.

now im off to find more ways to make this work!

ciao!