The new Netflix movie “The Electric State” depicts a world full of robots, but what we know is not robots.
By the brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (has previously personally obtained two Avengers blockbusters, “Infinity War” and “The Final Game”) The reported budget is $320 million“State of Electricity” occurred in an alternative version of the 1990s, with a bit of a robot for decades. It was enough to make them rebel against their masters of humanity, lose the war, and find themselves exiled to the Southwest – a region played by the movie heroes (this region played by Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt) had to sneak in.
Crucial to the visual effects is supervisor Matthew E. Butler, who are the “deliberate opposition” of today’s robots in terms of design.
“Most of us have seen modern robots…and are used to these designs,” Butler told me. “If you look at Boston Dynamics Robots, you’ll notice that they focus the mass of the robot at the center of the robot, and then when you go to the limbs, they’re getting less and less mass because it’s just a defensible design.”
By contrast, the movie’s robot Cosmo has a “giant head” around its neck, which Butler describes as “the worst design of a robot.”
Just like the movie itself, the design is based on the illustrated novel of the same name by Simon Stålenhag. But Butler explains that there is an in-movie explanation about Cosmo and other quirky robots that are often drawn from real and imagined pop culture: They are created as “unthreatening”, which is why they all look “a little bit cute, stupid and funny.”
All of this means Butler’s team had to start with a naturally unrealistic design, but ultimately created something “physically trustworthy and authentic.” For this reason, he said, they decided to commemorate the design of Cosmo in a “silhouette way”.
“If you squint, then set him a distance [the] The camera, he looks like Cosmo, just like he does in the book. “But, if you double-check your shoulders up close, you’ll see there’s putters there, you can see the motor, you can see the circuit, the ankle and the foot, too. ”
The purpose is to convince the audience that “things can really work.” Once convinced, they will accept the design of Cosmo and other robots without seeing all the details.
Yes, there are many other robots. Butler said his team had to bring “hundreds of unique robots” into life – not because every robot in this alternative world is unique, but because “in movies, we usually just showcase individuals.”
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts.
“We grabbed the head a lot of times – like, ‘What should we do?'” “If you have 100 different robots and they’re all moving, they have to be able to move, which means you have to be able to drill, so someone has to design them, someone has to paint them, someone has to animate them.”
To bring these robots to life, Butler said the team incorporates traditional optics Motion Capture and newer systems using accelerometer-based suits. This allows a troupe of seven motion capture performers to work with live and live performers and provide the basis for animation robots in their performances, whether they are human-sized, huge or the palm of the character’s hand.
Butler stressed that this process is much more complicated than simply transferring the actor’s movements into the robot.
“Take Hermann as an example,” he said. “You have [motion capture] Performer, he is increasing his talent, performance, and Chris Pratt can now act with him. Then you say, “Okay, but, the actual robot can’t do a lot of things this guy can do.” So now you need to change based on the design limitations of the robot itself. ”
And it’s not over yet: “Then you talk to the directors and the particular change of specific characteristics, you need honors now, so you change it, and then you have great voice actors who add a lot of stuff and now it’s like, if it’s a character, then [sounds like] That is the rhythm needs to be changed. ‘”
Butler said the robot we ended up seeing on the screen was created by the work that all these artists and performers came together: “That’s why we really just rolled up our sleeves and went on.”
