Servo

A bored young businessman acquires the latest technological advancement – Servo.  The robot servant, however, isn’t quite up to the job but nevertheless an unlikely friendship is struck up.  Yet the company plans to rectify the fault and it looks as if the fun might be over… This sweet and funny short was created by students at the Kaywon School of Art and Design in Korea for their moving image graduation project. And altogether, it all adds up to a rather fine bromance.

Hum

A solitary dish washing robot living out his life in the back room of a restaurant is enlightened to the world that exists beyond his four walls, with the help of a small friend he breaks free of confinement to pursue his dream of exploration. Hum was created for the junior year advanced production class in 2015 by a group of students at Chapman’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. The film was created over one semester (February 2015 – May 2015) with a budget of $2000. 

Dance For Your Life, Puny Human

At least we now know what has happened to all of those people abducted by aliens over the years. They are taken to participate in a particularly lethal competition against a dancebot which just seems to win, whoever is put up against him.  For this particularly unballetic human specimen, things are not looking good in this animated short directed by Justin Connolly who should be snapped up by Aardman (or the likes) immediately.

Action Bill

OK, I really couldn’t make this up.  Stratford Upon Avon – my guess around 1605.  William Shatner, for reasons that will soon become obvious, travels back in time in a robot with the express intention of killing William Shakespeare.  Who will save Master Shakespeare? His savior comes in the form of someone not unacquainted with his works.  Oh – and it’s all in Lego.  Created by AMAA Productions from Austin, Texas, this is an absolute riot.

We Were Not Made For This World

Based on the story by award-winning cartoonist Paul Hornschemeier, We Were Not Made For This World is the story of a robot that searches for its creator in the desert outside the city where it was created.  It was created by Colin West McDonald as part of The Robot Scriptures, what will be a three part narrative film about the origin, evolution and exodus of artificial intelligence.

The Story of R32

When, in the future, old robots are discarded as they are replaced by more advanced versions, what will become of the obsolete?  Although the subject is touched on in a number of movies, this short focuses on one robot who just wishes to fulfill its primary function – to look after someone. Yet when the opportunity comes along, is it too late?  Directed by Vladimir Vlasenko, this short features some superb CG and enough pathos to pull even the most hardened of human heartstrings.

Meet The Loneliest Little Robot in the World

L3.0 is alone.  The streets of Paris have long since ceased resounding to the clamor of humanity and he is left to his own devices.  He spends his days writing notes on paper planes and jettisoning them over the city in the hopes that they will attract some company for him.  Yet one day something happens – he meets a living being and we finally learn the reason for Leo's solitude.  This animated short was created by a group of students at ISART Digital. 

Desire

Envy can be a great spur: not necessarily a wonderful one as one thing always tends to lead to another.  For one small robot, jealousy and resentment get the better of him but fortunately his desire to be the best is tempered by the generosity of his friends.  This animated music video short blends Rob Fetter's song, Desire with story, direction and animation by Scott Thierauf.  Only one word for it really: awesome.

Wilbert

Rosalie is a high flyer but an injured leg brings her down to earth – and face to face with her lonely domestic existence.  Fortunately she has Wilbert, a robotic manservant who can look after her and cater for her every whim.  Yet what Rosalie truly craves is company – can Wilbert provide that too? This pared-down and somewhat melancholic short film, directed by Ben Brand, asks some real if uncomfortable questions about our future relationship with technology.

Obsolete

A robot works on a production line – and discovers a sense of curiosity.  That is, plotwise, just about it but watch Obsolete because the colors are simply stunning, evoking a world boiling in heat.  No clues are given as to what caused this environment yet one suspects human hand even if not a single homo sapiens appears.  Yet despite our absence, Obsolete is brimming with pathos.

Obsolete was created by Smoking Robot, aka Lewis Gray and Esra Guldal, two students studying MDes Graphic Design at Sheffield Hallam University, specialising in motion and video.

Kuratas – The Giant Robot Controlled by an iPhone

Do you remember the scene from Aliens when Ripley, confronted by the queen which is about to mince up poor, tragic Newt, screams Get away from her you bitch! and proceeds to fight the monster in her exosuit cargo-loader? Fortunately for us, perhaps, the alien is still classified as fiction. The exosuit, on the other hand, just came a little closer to being reality. This is Kuratas.

Image Credit Flickr User scopedog

This leviathan is currently being exhibited at a Maker’s Faire at Miraikan, The National Museum of Engineering, Science and Innovation in Tokyo.  It was created by a team which combined science and art. Kogoro Kurata (above) is the artist behind Kuratas, and so has named it after himself (adding an s and why not). Wataru Yoshizaki is the engineer (aka tech guy) who helped Kogoro make Kuratas come alive.

Old Umbrella

This is a simple story very beautifully told and it is the work of Keisuke Ito as part of his graduation thesis from the Digital Hollywood School.  It tells the story (in wonderfully colorful CGI) of a time of robots – and a time of rain.

You are left to imagine just when this story is set but if it is in a future without us then it is one we would at least recognize.  There are still divisions between the rich and the poor and a small act of kindness can be remembered forever.

So, sit back and enjoy. I know I usually feature animations with lots of bells and whistles, explosions and action but this is very, very different to those.  It is also one of the lovelier shorts I have come across recently.

Discobot

When the lights go off each evening in a factory the robot workers are left in the dark. Unbeknown to their human masters the machines have something of a life of their own and very soon the factory is bumping and grinding as the sometime obedient automatons become discobots!

They even have a very clever way of ensuring that the slow song necking can go ahead…

This is an amusing and engaging animation by Michel Doidic. It is amazing how something like a factory robot can acquire a personality when animated by someone who knows what they are doing!

Celebrity Robot Audition

So, you are considering getting a robot to handle the luggage at your hotel. You get two of your best Human Resources officers to conduct the interview and to be honest, they don’t go so well.  What would you expect from a host of robots from the last fifty years of science fiction all queuing up for the privilege of working for you?

This is a very clever piece of advertising from Yotel. Their hotel in New York now has a robot to do what the bellboy used to do. It automatically places the suitcases in lockers for guests who want to ramble round New York.  The video was put together by Looseworld, a creative agency that specializes in new media like music videos, short films, and branded content.

I am still wondering who I would have employed, had this not been the case. Probably R2D2. I always had a soft spot for the little fellah.

Somali Pirates Vs Robots

I am really not too sure about whether to post this or not - see what you think and please do make comment, perhaps I am being oversensitive and should just take it as the fun it is intended to be.

Created by Saatchi and Saatchi for the Turkish export company Vestel, this CGI drenched TV advert pits Somali pirates against a team of robots hidden on board a cargo ship, you know, just in case they are boarded by Somali pirates. While its production values are extremely high I do wonder whether or not this TV advert would make it on to the screens in many countries, being so absolutely sure which specific nationality the robots are fighting. 

As Somalia is effectively without government or leadership it does seem like kicking an entire country while it is down.  However, having said that, none of the pirates featured here look or sound like any of the many Somalis I have had the pleasure to meet.  I do too, wonder what Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British couple captured and held by Somali pirates for over a year would think of this. Wryly imagine what they would have done with their very own Vestel robot? I doubt it.  Let me know what you think? Should this be regarded as just for fun or in poor taste?

Tabula Rasa

This is rather beautiful and thought provoking. An android, alone on a desert planet, comes across a piece of vegetation which has, somehow, rooted in the arid wasteland. Determined to secure the plant’s future the android goes to great lengths to assist its success.

I can’t quite believe that this sophisticated and beautiful looking piece of animation is a student film.  It was created by the very talented Arnoldas Vitkus, who describes himself as a one man CGI army, for his final graduation piece at high school (which he does not name).

In computer science, tabula rasa refers to the development of autonomous agents which are provided with a mechanism to reason and plan toward their goal, but no built-in knowledge-base of their environment. They are thus truly a blank slate.

Perhaps this proves, finally, that it isn’t electric sheep, after all!

Alley Dog

Humanity has abandoned the planet and all that is left are robotic vestiges of the lives which were once played out here.

A robot mutt, looking for its next meal of nuts, bolts and general circuitry stumbles across some potential prey and a chase through the derelict city ensues.

This is a very cool animation by the team of Trisha Johnson and Casey Pike. Both attended South Oregon University and have since graduated.

This is their collaboration for their degree – an ambitious project it has to be said for undergraduates. Yet they pull it off with aplomb and panache.

Origins

A little robot made of scraps wonders though the woods until he comes across a sign that will help him discover where he belongs. Yet when he gets there he may not find what he is expecting.

This was Robert Showalter’s senior thesis at Ringling College of Art and Design. He was responsible for everything you see – except the music, which is supplied by Cody Cook.

I like the colors that Showalter has used in this piece - and the empathy which he has given the character of the little robot - something which is difficult to pull off in animation.  A sign of much bigger things to come in the future from Mr Showalter, we hope!

SadBot 4000

If Sundays make you feel a little melancholy, then here is something to cheer you up.  After all, they say that misery loves company.  This is the tale of a sad little bot who has nothing much to do on a rainy day – in some ways he reminds me of me when I was a kid.  Yet you can read something a little darker and more adult if you chose to so – it’s just I prefer not to!

Talking of childhood this also reminds me of the way my grandmother would take the leftovers of one meal and turn it in to something quite new the next day.  So it is with this short movie – SadBot 4000 is the remains of a previous project by filmmaker Eric B Shanks.  I know there isn’t a real cutting room floor anymore but metaphorically that is where this footage would have been had it not been for a case of creative cabin fever as he puts it.  SadBot 4000 was created in three hours.  I know -  I have just gone a little green around the gills too.

The song, just in case you are wonderfing is Holocene from Bon Iver.

Jouet

It is the year 2031 and the cost of the war in America has been enormous to the British Armed Forces.  To compensate and support British war widows, they have been issued with Jouets.  Yet some of them have exceeded their original programming and have become more attached to their human host than was intented.

This is an interesting and thought provoking film by Mike Buonaiuto which creates more questions than it answers – very often the sort of science fiction that I like.  It relies on atmosphere rather than CGI and was filmed without the aid of the spoken word which makes it, if anything, a much more enigmatic piece than it otherwise would have been.

Quite what the precise nature of the jouet is we are left to surmise on our own. Whether they are replicants (as in Blade Runner), clones or robots is left very much to the imagination. Their purpose around the house, too, is left to the imagination. However, if they were simply intended to help with the chores they probably would not have been created quite so muscular and attractive – if you get my meaning.

This is thought provoking film making, very much in the school of less is more.  As such it treats its audience as adults (unlike so much work in the science fiction genre) and demands engagement.  You may say – being used to Avatar and the likes – that nothing much happens.  Yet, hopefully like me, you will find that this resonates and that once you have seen it you will find your mind returning to it.