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        It seems as though every year computers are used in the creation of films more and more. Movie makers are breaking barriers and pushing the limits of technology with every movie made. A great example of such a film is the 2004 movie “I Robot”.
     I Robot’s Visual Effects Supervisor, John needed a way to get the robots on screen and there are only a few ways of doing so. The first was animatronics, which was a technique used in movies such as the Terminator films. It involved and actual machine that is somehow remote controlled. This however was much too limited for the amount of robots in I Robot, as well as the range of movement that was required in the film. So that was out of the question. The next possible option was the use of a man suit. This option could not work either because the robots in the film had a much slimmer thinner body profile than that of humans. The only feasible option left was to us Computer Generated Animation. The robots would be completely computer generated. A company, Digital Domain, was left with the task of computer animating the design of the robots in the film including the main robot involved in the plot named “Sonny”. There were over 460 shots with computer generated robots out of a total of 500 shots, 300 of which were devoted solely to the main robot in the film “Sonny”.
     In order to shoot just one single robot scene there had to be 4 separate shots or “passes”. For Example; The first shot consisted of shooting star actor Will Smith playing out the entire scene with actor Alan Tudyk dressed in a green suit, who was the voice behind the robot “Sonny”, playing out the scene as the robot. The second shot consisted of Will Smith acting out the scene alone without Tudyk. The third shot or “pass” featured shooting the scene with a full size “Sonny puppet”, which was a near exact replica of the actual computer generated robot, used to find out what lighting needed to be used in the scene. The final shot was simply a background shot of the set for that particular scene with no actors. This method caused for more realistic scenes as all other actors actually had a person to look at and speak their lines to in the scenes. However, it caused for an extremely large amount of editing to take place after the scenes were completely shot.
     This process called for over 200 scenes to have Tudyk painted out which is an incredible task for any editing team.
     For the rest of the action scenes with robots, the movie called for actors to be covered with 48 sensors that were applied to a computer generated skeleton. This process is called motion capture animation. There actions were captured and recorded by 22 cameras which allowed one camera to be displaying the live-action plate and the other to display the motion capture animation. This made the timing of each scene much easier for the production team because they were able to view the actions side by side. The team would then combine this method with another method called key-framing.
     Key-framing is a means of computer generating movements by individual frames on film. The computer generators break a desired movement down into small adjustments much like a flipbook might do where you draw a similar but slightly adjusted image on each piece of paper and then flip through the pages. The Company that the movie hired to help with the computer generation, Digital Domain, wrote a program that allowed for the motion capture animation to be used with the key-framing. This allowed for a realistic motion capture animation run or walk by the robot, into an amazing key-framed high and lengthy jump or flip of some kind that seems beyond the human abilities (because they are robots of course), and then using motion capture animation again to have the robot walk or run out of the scene. This allowed for the robots to take on humanistic traits while creating a separation between the robots and humans with a key-framed jump twenty feet into the air. The audience could then see the similarities and differences between robots and humans in the movie.
     The audience notices these details in a movie as they watch each scene where computer generation has taken place. It makes the movements and actions in the film seem realistic yet unbelievable. I administered a two-question survey to about twenty people asking them whether they would prefer to see a movie with great computer generation and special effects or one without such effects. I also asked them whether or not they like the computer generations in movies and if they were realistic enough for their tastes. Question #1 was “Do you prefer a movie with computer generated actions and special effects over a movie without those features?” Question #2 was “Do you personally enjoy special effects when you see them in movies, that is, do you find them realistic enough for your tastes?” The results are shown in the following chart and graph.
 
 
 

     Although the robots had a great part in the movie there were several parts of the movie that were seen less by the audience but were just as important. Since the movie’s setting is well into the future, the Chicago skyline needed to be “updated” into a more futuristic skyline. This called for 30 brand new high-resolution buildings to be computer generated and created to add to the Chicago skyline. In addition, the existing Chicago skyline as we know it today was edited using computers in medium resolution so that the futuristic skyline would be recognizable as Chicago’s skyline yet completely different than the one we see today.
     In addition to the computer generated skyline, there were also street scenes, cars, trucks, and explosions. There were about 8 different models of cars and about 6 different trucks computer generated to be used throughout the movie. These vehicles were completely dreamed up by the crew and created using computers. There were also explosion scenes that were much too fast paced for the use of miniature explosions of any kind.
     It’s amazing what people are capable of creating with computers. In the case of I Robot, one of the largest stars and contributors to the plot of the film was completely computer generated as the robot “Sonny”. In fact, in the end of the film, Sonny winks at Will Smith’s character in the film, signifying trust and showing Smith’s character that Sonny is in fact on his side. This is one of the most important images in the ending of the film and it was completely computer generated.
 
 
 

Bibliography

Bielik, Alain. “I, Robot and the Future of Digital Effects”. VFX WORLD. URL: http://vfxworld.com/?sa=adv&code=57c5ed8a&atype=articles&id=2162&page=2 (July 16, 2004)

Brian, Marshall. “How Centropolis FX Creates Visual Effects”. How Stuff Works. URL: http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/cfx1.htm
 

Magid, Ron. “I, Robot”.  Hollywood Reporter. URL: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/crafts/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000718391 (November 12, 2004)
 
 
 

Links to Sources

Source 1: I, Robot and the Future of Digital Effects

Source 2: How Centropolis FX Creates Visual Effects

Source 3: I, Robot : (Hollywood Reporter)