This video has been linked all over the place, but it is worth it.
It appears to be a demo for a visual effects company. The video is a commercial for an imaginary robotic police officer. It is one of the best produced visual effects shorts I’ve ever seen. The entire video has the feel of roughly collected news footage, and only in a few unfortunate shots do the visual effects become obvious.
It is creepy, unsettling, and amazing.
Comments
democratica - April 21, 2004 2:02 PM
Somebody should make a video that polished of George Bush hoovering up a bunch of cocaine at a 1980's oil exec party or something. That would be a good use of the technology.
Steven Marshall - April 21, 2004 3:08 PM
I think what impresses me most about that clip is how the robots not only look, as you say Steven, like they're on news footage but also that they make very natural, almost-human movements.
A strong contender, if ever I saw one, for the visual effects company on the upcoming Transformers movie.
Ryan Hillier - April 21, 2004 6:08 PM
Steve, you certainly are not alone in appreciating this amazing short film. It was made by Neill Blomkamp, a young up-and-coming director & animator.
Blomkamp shot all the footage a Canon GL2 camera when he lived in Johannesburg. When he was 18, he moved to Vancouver and got into animation. He recently took this footage and created this visually stunning short film. It was featured on a RES DVD last year.
jkottke - April 22, 2004 5:21 PM
Reminds me of the Mini Cooper robot.
Thomas Sibley - April 24, 2004 9:03 PM
Its gait and movements are so real, which while being stunning for animation, is also, as you said, a bit unsettling. What happens when one can no longer tell the difference?
Konstantinos - April 24, 2004 10:04 PM
[Slightly off-topic] Steven, does this post show up in my AOV RSS feed many times over the last few days, because you're constantly editing it or something, or should I notify Bloglines that there's a bug with their service?
Steven Garrity - April 24, 2004 10:06 PM
Konstantinos, I haven't been updating the post a lot, no.
clarissa - April 27, 2004 10:04 AM
hey i have tons of robots that u guyz can have
*austinpowers
*smarterchild
*miahamm
*zolaonaol
*ringmessenger
*recipebuddy
*santsclause
*delldudesteven
i have more but i just dont feel like typin em in lol
dusty - May 10, 2004 3:40 PM
Probably the coolest aspect of the video is my sense that such a robot would <i>look like this robot</i>. That's more than half the battle. In my perception utility robot's won't look like Robocop or I,Robot, they'll look quite non romantic, just like this one.
Randy - May 10, 2004 4:15 PM
Along the same lines as Konstantinos' comment above, this post just showed up in my bloglines account as a new post. I am syndicating the "AOV post" feeds, but it looks like the date for that feed might correspond to the date when a comment was posted. I was notifiedthat this was a new post about the same time someone left a new comment to the post. Any thoughts, Steven?
Steven Garrity - May 10, 2004 4:22 PM
Yeah, something is amis with the RSS feed. I'll get it fixed. Thanks.
Paul - August 15, 2004 5:39 AM
The video is not available :o(
Carl - August 19, 2004 11:15 PM
Yep I also check the link :o( there is any other link available ?
Freddy W - September 22, 2004 2:20 PM
There was a lot of help by a lot of people that went
into this peice. It looks like there is one really good animator here on the side of the director, which in directing
is more or less just edited clips of raw footage.
Sergey - November 20, 2004 8:45 PM
Carl, here's an alternative URL for the clip
http://www.analogik.org/games.php?i=tetra
rudy-san - April 5, 2006 8:53 PM
I was Watching this on Google Video under the category "robots". After viewing Honda's Asimo & Sony's Q (don't know name) I came upon this clip, titled "robots as cops" I thought this was that new tehnology for sentry/stationary robots that are rumored to be active in Japan.
How wrong I was. This short clip really bursts up debates of Advanced robotics & A.I.
I don't know about you guys, but this really gave me goosebumps after watching it several times.
The unsettling question arises: Will human kind exept it? A.I. controled mechs armed to the top, walking the streets & patroling them. Facing it, it only examines you as data material = friend or fue. and then the possibility of system error melfuncion, switching the command lines from friend to enemy.