How ‘The Electric State’ team created a world of unlikely robots

The new Netflix film describes a world full of robots “Electricity” – but not robots as we know them.

Brothers by Anthony and Joe Russo (previously two avenger’s clamps, “Infertility” and “Infinity”) A $ 320 million budgetThe “Electricity State” occurs in an alternative version of the 1990s, one occurs where September robots are available in decades. It should be entered into an area, long enough to rebel against human masters, lose war and exiling the southwest, and their heroes (playing by Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt).

Very important for visual effects supervisor Matthew E. Butler, Design-wise, these robots are “deliberately antithesis” of the existing robots.

“Most of us have seen modern robots … and we are accustomed to these designs,” he said. “If you look at the Boston Dynamicica robots, it is less and less massive in the center of the robot, and then it is less massive, because it is just a defenseless design.”

In contrast, the film’s robot Cosmo was described as “a huge head on a small neck”, “the worst design for a robot”.

Like the film itself, this design was built on the novel description of Simon Stålenhag’s same name. However, Uşak explained that an explanation in the film for Cosmo and the other Tirnic robots taken from real and imagined pop culture, so it all seems “cutesy and fun and fun.”

Butler team meant that his team had to start a design that was so impossible, but he had to turn it into something that felt “physically and true.” To do this, they decided to honor Cosmon’s original design in “silhouette fashion”.

“If you flutter and did you remotely [the] The camera is like space, it is in the book, “But you are approached, and you are approaching, and you can see the sticks there, and you can see the engines, you can see the same cycle with planks and legs.”

The goal is to convince the audience to “the fact that things can really work.” After sure, they will adopt Cosmon’s design and other robots, without seeing all the details.

Yes, there are many other robots. Usak said the team’s “hundreds and hundreds of unique robots” – this is not because every robot in the world is, because “we usually demonstrate people.”

In other words, each robot was an individual character. Unfortunately, the VFX team was not a shortcut that should make it as realistic as possible.

“We scratched our head many times -” How the hell is we doing? “” He said. “If you have 100 different robots and if you have moved, it means you should be able to move them, so someone should paint them, someone should revive them.”

To bring out these robots, Uşak said that the team used the traditional optical combination act And a newer system that uses accelerometer-based suits. A troupe of performers capturing seven moves, with the basics and voice of cartoons with performances, the basics and voice, which are suitable for human size or palm hand.

Butler stressed that the process is more complicated than to transfer the movements of an actor to a robot trunk.

“Take a small Herman as an example,” he said. “You have [motion capture] The singer and he added his performance, his performance and is someone who can move Chris Pratt now. Then, ‘Well, good, but the actual robot can’t do so much that this guy can do.’ So now you need to change it based on the restrictions of the robot’s design. “

And it’s not yet finished, then you talk to directors and now have a certain change of features you need to respect, so you have incredible sound actors that you have changed so much, and now, now, if the character [sounds like] This is then cadence [of the robot] need to change. ‘”

As a result, Butler, all the robots we saw on the screen are created by all artists and performers.