An Animation in Progress

Minor Project Submission

12/01/2016
By Adam Stone

The Project: Summary

My minor project submission is about working towards an animated short. The
animated short is set in 1970s America and will feature a mischievous robot that
misbehaves when its owner is out of the flat. We join the action just before the
owner gives cleaning and cooking directions to the robot and exits the scene.
While the robot is going about its usual business, drinking its secret stash of
dry beer, an advert comes on that catches his attention, its a Hoover. Though
this is no ordinary hoover, its the super sleek and sexy Deluxe Hoover Cleaner,
the best hoover ever made! After a short pause the robot recognises the box
shown on screen, its the box thats in the corner of the room. Several attempts
to woo the attention of this inanimate hoover later and the homeowner comes
home to find her robot arm in arm with her brand new hoover. We cut to a new
scene and see the robot and hoover together on the sofa with the hoovers box
all taped up in the background as muffled cries for help come from the box.

Why the 1970s?

I chose the 1970s as a setting because it was a heavily stylised
decade in which I felt would give rise to interesting pathways in terms
of design around the robot. Another reason for choosing the 1970s
was because technology was flourishing and having a house robot
was seen as a luxury item that everyone wanted but couldnt have at
the time due to technical boundaries. My animation would explore a
world where its possible for a robot to have an almost human
sentience without the owner knowing until its too late. Ill be trying to
show this in a comedic manner.
So lets move on to my first storyboards

Storyboarding
This is my first set of storyboards, completed in
Photoshop, some aspects of the animation
have changed since the creation of these. So
the previs is different but the concept of the
story is still the same.
As you can see here; the homeowner leaves,
the robot activates, turns the light back on and
proceeds to grab the remote control to the TV,
chucking it behind him.

Storyboarding
After the robot chucks the remote backwards,
he then goes to catch it but hits the sofa and
falls to the ground, he gets back up and
proceeds to get bored, he soon starts spinning
on his head on the sofa. Followed by building a
pillow fort and finally noticing the brand new
automated hoover chug past him.

Storyboarding
As he puts his arm out to turn off the TV, the
pillow falls down to form a ramp and the robot
re-makes the sofa in the hope to entice the
hoover into giving him some action. Because
the hoover is not sentient and is just set up to
go round the house it keeps going past him.
He grabs the hoover and drags it back into
camera view, this blows the motor a little and
he believes that hes got its attention.

Storyboarding
The Hoover starts back up again and runs the
robot over, this really upsets the robot so he
shuts down and sulks. As the hoover comes
back to go over the piece of carpet the robots
on, it bumps into him
The robot believes that this is an attempt by
the hoover to get his attention and apologise
for running him over.

Storyboarding
As the hoover keeps trying to go past the
robot, he thinks its trying to press against him
in a sexual way, so he obliges to the demands
of the super sexy hoover. The screen fades to
black. Here we take the POV of the owner as
she comes home from work, we see the robot
and the hoover getting up to something on the
floor, the robot notices that hes been foundout and then slowly picks up the hoover to then
put it in a cupboard as if nothing had
happened. The homeowner (us) is shocked
and the animation ends.

Amendments to The Story

Reviewing the storyboards I felt that it was a bit bland and lacked a punch on
the ending. After a bit of figuring out with my tutor I was able to sort something
out that I was happy with, this can be seen in my 5th version of my
previsualisation tests (video is available below this presentation). Although
some alterations still need to be made to it, I believe that it gives me enough to
work from; know that when I animate it again using my actual characters and
set, I can be confident that itll produce an entertaining animated short.
The next step was to begin designing the robot.

Influence Maps for Robot

Here are my influence maps for my robot, I looked at serious robots that were made at the time as well as robots that
Were made later on which took inspiration from the 70s style. Bulky designs that were trying to be as sleek and modern
As possible.

The Design: Robot Sketches

While sketching different
iterations of the robot, I
was keeping in mind that
Itd have to match with a
70s style, while conveying
enough personality for the
audience to sympathise
with him and support him
in his antics.

The Design: Robot Sketches

Due to my sketches being a little unsuccessful in creating
something that I liked, I attempted to create some shapes in
maya and form them together in order to get a shape and
rough design that was visually appealing.
I found the shapes i was after when i smooth-previewed the
model on the far right of the image to the left. I thought it
looks innocent and could even resemble a child in its
proportions. I liked this in terms of my story because the
robot is supposed to be a bit naughty. So it makes sense for
him to seem a little immature.
The image in the yellow circle is the one Id be taking forward
into the next stage of design.

The Design: Colour Variations

Here Ive added more details
using a paint over and
experimented with a few colour
compositions with my robot, it
also features one of my early
titles. However Ill be scrapping it
for a new tittle, the logo of the
Rob-o-Matic.
I chose colour comp 1 to go
forward into modelling.

The Design: Modelling

Heres my robot fully modelled,
textured, skinned and rigged. It
took me a little while to figure out
how I was going to make the
wheels spin as the character
moves, but with a little help from
my tutor Alan, I was able to use
set driven keys and a bit of math
work to get it all working. His
eyes will be used to convey his
emotions so it was important that
theyre blend shaped properly.

The Design: Hoover Sketches

Once the robot was complete I began on the
design for the hoover. The drawings to the left
were some of my first designs, I was trying to take
influence from women's legs and curves to make
it seem more appealing to the robot. However I
found that this made the hoovers seem futuristic
and out of the 1970s vibe I was going for.
Therefore I began looking for influences from
actual hoovers that were made in the 1970s.

The Design: Hoover Models

Due to my sketches being a bit lacklustre, I
attempted to work on the shape in Maya as I
found it much easier. To the left are some of my
favourite models, I chose to take the one in the
middle forward because I thought it really did look
like a high quality hoover from the 1970s.

The Design: Hoover Final

To the left is my hoover fully modelled, textured and
rigged and skinned. The hoover spine can move back
about 30 degrease and the hoovers hose can freely
move around using set driven keys on 54 joints that go
up the hose. Its important that this is a feature
because of the robots interactions with the hoover,
which involve him holding the hose and kissing it as if
it was her hand. The colour for the hoover was
originally going to be a very bland colour to match the
hoovers of the time(example to the right). However I
needed it to stand out and contrast with the robot
effectively. So I went with a bright pink, this gave me
the contrast and also let the hoover seem more
feminine at the same time.

Influence Maps for The Living Room

Here Ive looked for inspiration in terms of design by looking at heavily stylised living rooms and furniture from the
1970s. I wanted to keep the relative simplicity of the set, shown in my first set of storyboards. I worked from the previs
Set to create the image on the next slide which shows the set as it is at the moment.

The Living Room

I am personally very happy with the living room as it looks at the moment. I
realise that it still needs a lot added into it for it to look like a real living space,
but I like the overall set up of colours and furniture that I have at the moment.
Its just a matter of cluttering it up a bit and adding in some extra bits to the
textures like dirt and grime in an attempt to take it away from looking so
computer generated.
Ive also got to add in some rough kitchen accents to show that theres actually
a room there, not an empty space.
Due to the room being a bit one dimensional, I am also thinking of adding a
window to the scene but Ive yet to figure out how Im going to do that using a
matte painting.

Reflection on the Project

Personally, I think that my minor project has gone well and I hope to continue
this into my major project. Itll allow me to spend more time on getting the set
just right and give me plenty of time to get the animation correct which is very
important in a comedic animated short such as this. Id also be able to get the
voice acting properly done instead of my placeholders.
I look forward to continuing this project into my major if possible.

An Animation in Progress
Minor Project Submission
12/01/2016
By Adam Stone