Robot designs from 2009

Today I found some really ancient files on my computer, concept art I made in 2009.

In 2009, I was working for a visual effects company. Not designing robots unfortunately, but as an i/o manager for a childrens' movie.

What i/o manager means is, for example I'd start the renders of the CGI scenes that the artists worked on that day, so in the morning I could replace the temp versions of those shots with more updated ones, for the director to see. It was a very technical job, and I was often almost alone in the company at night. It didn't seem possible that I would ever do anything creative. I was pretty unhappy at that time, and tried to cheer myself up by starting a creative project in my spare time.

So when I commuted home by train at night, I would draw some "droids" in a sketchbook. I wasn't really sure what it would become yet, but at least I could draw something fun.

At some point I thought about making these robots as life-sized puppets, and filming them in real locations, as if they were old, destroyed robots from some old war, and put dialogue on top of the footage. The story would be that they were too damaged to move, but they could still somewhat "communicate" with each other. So, kind of a weird artsy no-budget sci-fi film.

I researched a lot of ways to make robot puppets, and after a while settled on using 3D models, turning them into paper models with the software "Pepakura" and using resin to harden them (a popular technique in the cosplay community, mostly for making Iron Man cosplay outfits).

I still didn't have a story at this point. I'm sure I could have made something ... artistic out of this film project - my real talent I think lies in editing, so I need to have something first to start thinking about what to do with it - before I can start thinking about the story I kind of need to have the footage, so to speak. Fortunately I found someone who happens to be the opposite, she loves writing and contrary to me does not spend a lot of time drawing robots.

She was excited about writing a story featuring robots, however. In fact, she started writing diligently and in short time produced a feature script. I was impressed! It featured a lot of stuff that was too difficult for my silly Pepakura-resin robots however, like, you know, characters actually moving. That unexpected collaboration is what rebooted this project and changed it project to animation instead.

I will try to use these old designs in the animation project, because when I made them I was in a bad place, and if I use them at least some good came of that period. I hope you enjoy seeing them.

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