Robot Rampage - Suit and Movie

[Brad]

This thread is a continuation of a topic started in the forum is dead thread. If I know how to do a permalink I'd put one to that post here.

Even If you aren't able to help with the construction of the suit, I will need lots of help on the eventually movie. Actors, cameramen, extras, etc...

[zourtney]

This sounds pretty sweet! I'm not really sure what I can do, but...something! We should probably storyboard this out. Maybe even before you start the costume?

[Brad]

Yeah definetly need to do some storyboarding. I was thinking working on the design of the robot and the storyboarding of the movie would be done in parrallel. With the actual robot suit construction coming later.

Feel free to submit any storyboards or ideas. I have some time this weekend so I'll probably whip up a storyboard rough draft and then post it when I get back.

Also if you have any ideas on robot suit design or looks please feel free to post them here.

[Brad]

Tried working on some storyboards, but got stuck on figuring out the possible available settings I've got access to.

So far all I can come up with is:
House
Wilderness
Park
Garage
Rural Street

[zourtney]

I like rural street or some reason. Or at least a scene with a lonely robot walking down the side of a wide open, empty road. With some howling wind. Big hills with sparse shrubbery would be a plus for such a scene.

I kinda forgot your original storyline by now...

[Brad]

Did some work on this stuff this weekend. I even drew up a crappy looking storyboard for a possible intro and beginning. Also started thinking about materials and there pros and cons.

The list of possible materials as far as I can figure is:
Cardboard - cheap and easy to work with but flimsy and can look really bad
Wood - easy to work with but kinda heavy and also expensive
Metal - very sturdy, not as heavy as wood (can use thinner metal) but exxpensive and hard (for me) to work with.
Plastic - sturdy, not that heavy, OKish to work with, expensive if you have to buy it
Cardboard + Fiberglass - fiberglass is expensive and also nasty to work with, very sturdy and not heavy

I am thinking using a mixture of materials depending on the required sturdiness of the indvidual piece. Working on no budget pretty much so cost is a major factor.

Will upload the scanned storyboards soon.

[zourtney]

Plastic of some sort seems to be the most workable solution. Especially with the experience you guys already have. And it can be made to look decent enough.

And I'm related to someone who thought this would be a good idea to play with in the kitchen..!

[Brad]

Plastic would work great if I can find a place to get it for cheap or free. Using barrels worked okish but it is a lot of work to get any usable plastic out of, we never finished cutting enough pieces to complete the samurai armor.

Actual sheets of plastic would be fantastic, but something like sintra is expensive. Does cody know of a local place to get stuff like that?

[Cody]

There is a place a bit south of Portland that sells 4x8 sheets of high impact styrene sheeting. 1/8" thick. That stuff would be perfect for armor...but it isn't very cheap sadly. It is possible they have thinner stuff available at the store that they don't have online though.

Also, the stuff I got was only about $10 for a nearly 4x8 sheet and the shipping was fast and only $5.

...and yes, Sintra is far more expensive than Styrene and not really worth the extra cost in my opinion as it can't even be vacuum formed as well.

[Brad]

These styrene sheets for $10 can they be vaccum formed? That is tempting,not that I have my own vaccum forming table.

I am looking to spend less than $100 total.

My movie budget is as follows:
Costume design: less than $100
Actors: $0
Set: $0
Cameras and Lighting: $0
Special Effects: $0

[Cody]

Yeah the Styrene is a very common vacuum forming material. It is what I bought and have done all my tests with. The .060" or .080  would probably be the best for armor if it is going to be taking any sort of abuse, but if it is strictly visual the .040 would work. If you want to stop over here for a few minutes sometime I can show you what the plastic is like and/or how the forming process works.

Here is a link to the site where I got mine.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=22883&catid=715&clickid=searchresults

[Brad]

Awesome, thanks for the link!

I am not planning on using the robot suit as armor, the electrical components wouldn't hold up anyway. Lighter and more flexible is better for most pieces as long as it meets some minimum sturdiness standard. The torso neeeds to be fairly rigid though.

Do have any scraps of any of these thickness of styrene lying around that I can look at? Trying to get an idea about flexibility and flimsiness.

[Cody]

I have nearly a whole sheet of the .040 if you want to take a look at some of that. I haven't bought any of the thicker stuff yet because I am still getting used to the whole process. But yeah, you are welcome to mess with some of it if you like.

[Brad]

So here are my crappy storyboards for a possible movie intro and robot origin. For those that are unwilling or unable to comprehend my chicken scratch I'll go over the basic plot.

The movie starts with intro credits and music played over close up shots of code being entered, typing on a keyboard, using a mouse, etc... No dialogue or anything, just close up shots of programming, music and the intro credits.

The first scenes shows a guy working on the robot's software (see storyboard for camera angles, etc...). He is discussing his work with an off-screen colleague. While setting up the robots AI to be tested the next day he accidentally mistypes the AI evaluation library, importing System.AI.Evil rather than System.AI.Eval (why is there a System.AI.Evil library? because it is a cheesy movie). A distracting phone call keeps him from realizing this. He starts the compilation progress without noticing the mistake and leaves for the night.

During the night the compilation progress finishes and the robot starts up with ominous glowing red eyes.

What happens next? Well the robot escapes and causes mayhem obviously but I didn't get any farther with specifics.

What do you guys think? It's a silly origin for an evil robot, but hey it's a silly movie. I think the importing mistake joke could work in either Python or C# .NET. Yeah...... at least you see where I am going with this though right?

[zourtney]

Hmm, pictures aren't working for me, but that's a pretty hilarious premise!

Are you going to embrace the "programmers are h4x0rZz!1" stereotype and put crazy-complicated code on screen? Python could definitely work for this (more than C#). Though a line of Objective-C is a good alternative if you want to throw off the casual or uninitiated programmer (some syntax is decidedly non-C-looking). Assuming you're going for that kind of thing.

What was I saying again? Oh yeah, pictures are busted for me Maybe it's my phone...