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'Chappie': What It Takes To Render a Robot 44

Posted by Soulskill from the all-the-cycles-you-can-muster dept.
Nerval's Lobster writes: The visual-effects supervisor on the new film Chappie, Image Engine's Chris Harvey, talked with Dice about what it took to render the titular robot. Director Neil Blomkamp thought Chappie needed to look realistic, like something you might honestly expect to see patrolling the streets a decade or two from now. Image Engine took the concept artwork created by Blomkamp and WETA and rendered it in three dimensions, refining the mechanics so the animated Chappie would move realistically for a six-foot-tall, gun-toting robot. As the movie progresses, Chappie begins to take damage from bullets, flames, and thrown debris; if that wasn't enough, he also ends up covered in graffiti. That sort of wear-and-tear complicated things for the effects team; WETA had to produce three physical Chappie "skeletons" and a multitude of body panels representing the increasing levels of damage, and Image Engine needed to make sure every inch of the digital Chappie was rendered accurately to match. The movie itself might be scoring mediocre reviews, but at least the robot looks good.
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'Chappie': What It Takes To Render a Robot More

'Chappie': What It Takes To Render a Robot

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  • With all due respect to the submitter (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Chris Katko ( 2923353 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @02:41PM (#49199517)
    This article feels pretty light on the details. I'd find more details in my "making of Jurassic Park" book I got as a child. All it says is different people work on different stuff and they used physical models to figure out how to model some physics in the digitally version.


    I mean using a stand-in, instead of a tennis ball for actors to interact with? Did Lord of The Rings never happen?

  • great film! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lkcl ( 517947 ) <lkcl@lkcl.net> on Friday March 06, 2015 @03:04PM (#49199735) Homepage

    i just went to see it at the cinema, i'm a big fan of sci-fi films, and this one i really liked. if you're an afficionado of sci-fi books and films, there will be nothing new, you should be able to predict everything that happens but i was still absorbed by the novel way the story unfolded. yes it was violent - if you're going to tell a story about out-of-control criminal activity then that's hardly not going to happen - but it was also poignant as well.

    i think the best part about the film was that the robots, because they've been seen before in other stories by the same director (Elysium for example), are not "glorified", they're just "part of the story". the problem with novice sci-fi writers (book or film, especially film because it's a less mature medium for telling sci-fi stories) is that they tend to not really actually have a good background or story (which is why the marvel comics films are so damn good), so as a substitute the director "glorifies" the technology in a wealth of special effects. by complete contrast, the introduction of an entirely new type of consciousness - and its rapid development from child-like behaviour to above-average human intelligence through incredibly painful learning experiences and its desire to remain alive against a ticking clock - that's what really really makes this story so interesting.

    but the best bit i think is how this new being changes the lives of those who initially sought to profit from it (admittedly out of desperation), surprising even themselves by finding that despite their desperation and ganster background they begin to see this robot as a valuable conscious being in its own right.

    so although this film has aspects which have been covered before, i don't know of many films that have done proper justice to the emergence of machine consciousness and the respectf it engenders in those who come into contact with computer-based beings, in the way that this film has managed. it's just a pity that i feel that that message is completely over the heads of the average reviewer.

    • +1

      Saw this movie yesterday night. Absolutely loved it! I wrote another comment on this thread, but to me, this is probably how we will end up.

      You should also try Neal Asher's books. They are a more extremely and futuristic version of this movie - with a lot more violence, cyberpunk style action, homicidal aliens, etc. but the underlying theme is the same. And the AIs and robots (golems) are mostly similar too. Oh, it even has AIs that have gone insane, robots that have strange idiosyncrasies, and hybrid ver

    • i don't know of many films that have done proper justice to the emergence of machine consciousness and the respectf it engenders in those who come into contact with computer-based beings

      Try ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      • Damn, that was well written.

        I think it's a bit funny (and appropriate?) that the Japanese song sounds (to my ear) so much like a Vocaloid [wikipedia.org]. That said, to someone that doesn't speak the language a well-written bit of singing from one of those sounds pretty damn good.

  • Short Circuit Redux (Score:4, Insightful)

    by samwichse ( 1056268 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @03:10PM (#49199799)

    Is it just me, or does this movie sound EXACTLY like Short Circuit, but with the "grittified, modernized" feel to it?

    Sam

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AK Marc ( 707885 )
      I said that to the first person who described the movie to me, "So, just like Short Circuit and D.A.R.Y.L.?" Two "fear the 'alive' robot" movies. Automata recently was almost the same general idea. Seems to be a popular thing. Avengers 2 is the same, other than we aren't supposed to like the AI as we are in Chappie, Short Circuit, DARYL, Automata and others. Avengers 2 is more like iRobot in that sense. The "evil" AI created for good, but turns on us and we have to kill it.

    • Re:Short Circuit Redux (Score:4, Insightful)

      by lkcl ( 517947 ) <lkcl@lkcl.net> on Friday March 06, 2015 @04:07PM (#49200305) Homepage

      Is it just me, or does this movie sound EXACTLY like Short Circuit, but with the "grittified, modernized" feel to it?

      Sam

      short circuit was designed to appeal to kids, and also featured a robot that, whilst sentient, never went beyond child-like human-level consciousness. the difference here is that this machine consciousness quickly exceeds human-level intelligence whilst at the same time maintaining both an integrity and naivety that is a product of its fast and harsh yet poignant upbringing. in another post i point out that this film has aspects of other films and sci-fi stories that you will definitely have seen before, but please do consider suspending judgement and just enjoy the story as it is :)

  • Chappie looks a lot like a Warhammer 40K Tau jump suit - mostly the head, but still the overall resemblance is there.

    like here: http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs23/f/2007/321/8/f/El__Jor_by_squirrel_san.jpg [deviantart.net]

    Combine Chappie's head and the suit form District 9, and voila you have a Tau jump suit, albeit a more rounded and less armored version.

     

  • want to puke! It's rated R and doesn't need to be so cutesy. All the wonderment, all the "oh, I've got feelings!" Data pulled it off much better in TNG. Even the name Chappie is a too sickly syrupy. I'm sure he turns into an amazing warrior for justice and the downtrodden and my heart would swell with his humanity, but I don't want to see this. Give me Data with his emotion chip and the his crazy laughter/break down when he and Geordi were scouting that ship...that was hard enough to watch. Give me Sh
    • Sorry, South African aesthetic...

      • Chappies is a brand of bubble-gum here.

        One thing you must remember, is there is a lot of social injustice in South Africa. It will no doubt haunt the country for a long time to come. I am looking forward to seeing the movie, actually.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by X.25 ( 255792 )

      want to puke! It's rated R and doesn't need to be so cutesy. All the wonderment, all the "oh, I've got feelings!" Data pulled it off much better in TNG. Even the name Chappie is a too sickly syrupy. I'm sure he turns into an amazing warrior for justice and the downtrodden and my heart would swell with his humanity, but I don't want to see this. Give me Data with his emotion chip and the his crazy laughter/break down when he and Geordi were scouting that ship...that was hard enough to watch. Give me Short Circuit. Heck even Earth to Echo was consumable. Maybe I'm just too American and can't quite stomach this Australian aesthetic. Just one guy's opinion...I'm sure you've got one too.

      So, you haven't watched the movie at all, but you already have an opinion.

      Says a lot more about you than a movie.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pepty ( 1976012 )

        So, you haven't watched the movie at all, but you already have an opinion.

        The trailer doesn't exactly leave much out.

      • I'm pretty sure the purpose of trailers is to help you form an opinion, so the only thing it says about me is that I am susceptible to advertising. Thanks for the vote of confidence :-)

  • Did you know (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Did you know that Chappies [wikipedia.org] is a brand of bubblegum well known in South Africa for having "did you know" trivia printed on the inside of each wrapper?

  • No Amount of Effects (Score:3)

    by xdor ( 1218206 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @03:33PM (#49200023)

    Can fix a story we can't care about.

  • The linked article give it a C. That's quite a bit higher than Kenneth Turan implies in his review: http://www.npr.org/2015/03/06/... [npr.org]

    • Re:Mediocre? That's being generous. (Score:4, Informative)

      by asliarun ( 636603 ) on Friday March 06, 2015 @04:25PM (#49200465)

      The linked article give it a C. That's quite a bit higher than Kenneth Turan implies in his review: http://www.npr.org/2015/03/06/... [npr.org]

      Don't believe everything you read. If I had mod points I would have upvoted lkcl's earlier post.

      I saw the late night show of Chappie yesterday. I am a science fiction nut (especially hard scifi and cyberpunk - Neal Asher, Peter F Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds, Stephen Baxter, etc.). Chappie is not hard scifi, nor is it grand theatric soap opera. But it paints a vision of how robots and AI would eventually get integrated into society. And I *loved* the movie for it. If you see District 9 (the director's earlier work), you will see that Neill Blomkamp has a very distinct and unique viewpoint. He focused not on technology, not on robotics and special effects, but on how all this will eventually coexist in our super fu*ked up world.

      And the irony is thick in the movie. You have a bunch of outlaws - violent thugs - that first ridicule the robot/AI and try to take advantage of it, but eventually respect the being for what it is - an independent consciousness. Chappie eventually becomes part of the family. And I agree with the director's vision. The urban backdrop of modern day South Africa / JoBurg - it personifies a certain grittiness and bizarreness that just works perfectly for the story.

      Sure, the movie and story has huge shortcomings. But for me, the main storyline, unique viewpoint, and the way it is directed - it all adds up to make a superb movie.

      It is also worth reading Neal Asher for an even more violent and futuristic version of what this movie essentially is.

  • Image Engine took the concept artwork created by Blomkamp and WETA and rendered it in three dimensions

    You don't say. These pioneers sure are blazing a trail.

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