My Giant Robot!

The Big Board!

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:24:00 +0000

I added a 4x8' bulletin board to my apartment to keep track of the project, "at a glance."

House Robot: Under Construction

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:29:00 +0000

I'm still tweaking this giant, but you can take a look at the progress. (It'll take a moment to load the Quicktime movie). Once again, special thanks to Horizon's Mike Beaumont for another amazing effort with the sound design. I love hearing the car alarm flying out of sight!

Robot Powers in Stereo

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:42:00 +0000

Experience Lovey's super strength, super spin, and super blast in stereo thanks to the talent of Horizon's Mike Beaumont. You can view the animation and hear the sound design right here. (It'll take a moment to load the Quicktime movie).

Robot Powers

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Wed, 17 May 2006 13:13:00 +0000

To pose the question "What kinds of powers would you give a robot?" Lovey demonstrates three from his arsenal. Super strength, super spin, and super blast. Take a look! (It'll take a moment to load the Quicktime movie). This animation marks my first attempt lighting a 3D character with HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imagery). Huh? Basically, it's a technique that uses a panoramic photo you've taken to emit light in 3D space giving you a far more realistic robot. For more info on HDRI click here.

Lovey

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 05:34:00 +0000

Two of Avery's responses begin and end the film. Pint-sized bookends if you will. And why? Because I believe he might be from another planet, and that jives well with the sci-fi nature of this particular project. So take a look at the development of his brick robot by clicking on the image...

An Original Score

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:49:00 +0000

Dolf Kämper of the ANALOG arts ensemble is composing an original score for the film. ANALOG is a collective of artists and musicians based in Baltimore, New York, and Omaha. As a composer, Kämper has had performances in the U.S. and Germany, and performed as a trumpet player with symphonies in Omaha, Baltimore, Mexico, and Germany. Kämper is also the founder of ANALOG and contributor to ANABlog.

Super Inspiring

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:13:00 +0000

I just bought a book at the Wexner Center book store that has me pretty fired up. It's a collection of photos of Japanese robot toys from the 70's and early 80's entitled Super #1 Robot. There's a brief intro that outlines the history of the "super robot" and the rise and fall of the genre's popularity. There's something very noble and pure about the design of these robots that I'd like to capture in My Giant Robot! I think you might notice the influence as I go. The one shown here is from the book, all beautifully photographed by Tim Brisko, which I highly recommend.

Tape Transfer

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:12:00 +0000

I just got my 6 Sony HDCAM masters dubbed to miniDV for the final edit. There are not many Sony HDCAM decks in town and a few phonecalls lead me to our local CBS affiliate, WBNS, for the best transfer rate. My friends at Spacejunk Media have been kind enough to allow me to capture my anamorphic footage uncompressed, so the final film will look nice and crisp! Excellent...

There Goes the Neighborhood

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 23:45:00 +0000

So there's been some trial and error, and there's bound to be more, but here's a look at where I'm at with the Toon Shader. I have plenty of compositing to do to get the look I want - both with the appearance of the "neighborhood" as well as the background. Plus, my outlines (dark purple) are so thin and close together on the front porch, that they're flickering. Kind of annoying... Anyway, here's a glimpse of it in motion.

lights CAMERAS action

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:49:00 +0000

With the toon shader set up, I need to prepare each shot before rendering. So I had to place cameras in my 3d scene and pick my shots. Seems straight forward enough, but then you realize you can put the camera anywhere! So I focused on stringing a series of shots together that would best tell the story. The house robot gets up, sets off a car alarm, and kicks the car outta the neighborhood. Done. So here's a rough cut with 7 shots from 7 separate cameras in my scene... Click here to check it out - and here if you need Quicktime.

Toon Shader

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:29:00 +0000

I'm playing with the new toon shader menu in Maya 7. This is just the "fill" colors for the house robot. Now I need to add the "outlines" which will make it easier to see the details of the porch, windows, door, etc. The purple outline is just a stroke in Photoshop. Anyway, next to the 3d model you can see where I sampled the color palette from Kendal's original drawing (and desaturated them a little). So far so good...

Changing Directions

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 15:30:00 +0000

I originally intended to add photo-realistic visual effect shots to bring some of the kids ideas to life. For a variety of reasons, I'm planning to rethink this approach. For one, each child's imagination works differently - so why shouldn't each of their "dreamlands" look different too? And secondly, it's been almost four years and I need to finish this short film. Ha! So I think I can speed up the animation process a little by being more creative. Uh...and I quit my day job. Seriously. I'm committed to finishing this before the kids can drive to the premiere. Yikes.

So here's where I left off with Kendal's house robot. The blue/gray image shows the lighting pass in Mental Ray while the other shows a ROUGH composite of the textured house robot over the live action background plate. This is all about to change...

Youth Orchestra in the Trailer

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Tue, 30 Dec 2003 15:41:00 +0000

The Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra's recording of Gustav Holst's The Planets will be heard throughout the trailer for the film. Central Ohio's aspiring young instrumentalists in grades 9-12 perform in this ensemble, directed by Columbus Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson.

How Tall Would Your Robot Be?

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 17:52:00 +0000

To pose the question “How tall would your robot be?” Andrew’s Mr. Smiley makes another appearance, this time in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Director of Photography Wayne Sells shot the buildings at sunset in HD. The animated robot, his reflection in the facing windows, and a small dust cloud were composited into the shot paying close attention to the long, cool shadows and warm sunlight. Sound designer Mike Beaumont brought the scene to life with the mechanical stomping, creaking, and big city traffic sounds. Check out the Quicktime here, or view a Windows Media Video here.

Giant Trailer on the City Skyline

info@mygiantrobot.com (No Boddy) — Mon, 17 May 2004 13:47:00 +0000

The MGR! trailer has been included in the programming loop airing on ADTV (Arena District Television) - a huge 31' 6" x 18' 3" light emitting diode (LED) video display. This massive screen broadcasts to the large plaza area in front of Nationwide Arena. If you're out on the town, be sure to look up when you hear kids talking robots!