Final stages 3. Robot Promo Vid (Intro Ident)

I have been informed that my viva will no longer take place as it is not a requirement for my M.Res and my examiners have opted to assess remotely, this of course is slightly disheartening after all the prep work that has gone into the presentation over the past month and a bit. I am now working on a video for Alodus and trying to get some film documentation of how he operates and relation to theoretical work. I have a three week deadline to produce this footage so I am splitting my time - thus (week 1) Ident, video or robot in action, 3d graphics - completes the Promo Video. (week 2) The behind the scenes stuff, how the robot works, what the project is about and how it relates to theory. (week 3) Editing footage and making final renderings. 

I put together this simple ident for a made up company called CS-INDUSTRIES, I named it with one of my favourite fictional robotic companies 'TOA Heavy Industries' in mind. This was really quick to put together in after effects and Photoshop. I used sound clips from free sounds.org that I will reference at the end of the video giving the artist recognition. I sort of like the idea of this global company that in true skynet style is going to mass produce robots for the world that are inevitable going to go nuts. I still do not know how I am going to position these elements of the video but I will come to them as I go along and judge it as the theme progresses.  

Feelings: Slightly annoyed that I have missed work and put in many man hours into creating a presentation that will never see the light of day but these things happen and its about adapting and rolling with the punches. 

Evaluation: This has been a sort of going back to my first degree session as I am working in Photoshop and after effects which I have not really had to do for the best part of a year. Luckily its a pretty simple interface and not much has changed since the older version I had previously installed on my mac. I have also downloaded some new libraries called 'red giant' and they come with some really nice pre-set that you can adapt quite easily and make something unique so I will be looking at using them during the editing stages of the filming. 

Analysis: Things for the first time in this project feel slightly disjointed, I need to encapsulate everything that I had planned to discuss in my viva into video format. This may prove difficult as it was quite and in-depth presentation and that sort of material does not particular convey well through video. I think splitting the videos up and developing two different sides of the project... the theatrical and the theory into an accessible video presentation is the best way to get across everything that I need to convey to the readers / examiners.  

Conclusion: In conclusion, this is a very stressful time for me at the moment. Three weeks is not long to film / document / edit and produce the videos. I have asked a couple of friends to help me with the filming as it is very difficult to watch the camera, operate the animatronic and trigger automated responses simultaneously on my own. This will of course be a real test of the durability and adaptability of the robot as it will be running for long periods of time both when film and when setting up shots. I have decided to to all the practical filming in the post grad room as it has very good lighting in there and the back wall gives me a good reflective space to film against. 

Action Plan: I think this will be a difficult forthcoming session so I will not be updating on here, I will put a few pics and sample shots up on my facebook page as I can just upload them straight from my phone in real time rather than sourcing a computer. 

09.02.16

I am currently working on an academic journal entry covering the axis between robotics and animatronics via outlining the contours and contrasts of each practice in relation to organic emulation.

I will be in University this week with the aim of finishing the practical elements of this project in prep for my viva. All of the hardware is complete and tested, the only things that are left to finish are programming extra elements of the character that include the script for the presentation and voice rec interaction. I will be working on a story placement for the character, this is something I have not engaged with until now because I wanted to have a complete model to work with when augmenting the character in a series of storyboards. I have mentally kept a track of some ideas for this project and how I would place it within a genre, aesthetics, ambience, styling ect. I will produce these story boards digitally using my wacom tablet as this has proven an effect approach in past projects. It would be nice to write a short script for the character and have the robot recreate a short scene with a series of movement and interaction, but this will have to be done within the projects time frame.

Feelings: I am feeling a little anxious at the moment as I'm still waiting on my viva date, however, I have got a large part of my presentation finished and it feel like there is a good balance between my parts and the robots parts.

Evaluation: This session has been interesting, it's starting to feel like I am now working with another person all of a sudden, especially as I am writing dialog for both me and Aldous. I think if I can pull this presentation off it will certainly be entertaining if anything. I have also noticed some damage on the robot that was not there when I left for the Christmas holidays, it looks like the aluminium neck bracket has some how been bent and the paint has chipped around the edges. I have no clue how this has occurred or if an accident took place and the damage was a result of this. The damage however is repairable and is not too noticeable unless like me you have knew exactly how it looked before. This was also going to be an issue with taking the robot into uni as it very tempting for people to want to play around with it.. which I have sort of encouraged whilst I was in the room. Maybe this was not such a good idea in light of the damage to the neck rotational bracket. 

Analysis: The project makes sense, I would like to really work on getting the flash power point finished and maybe get some of the trigger words working with the voice rec set up. I was thinking specific words could be used to trigger the robot into conversation like 'Baudrillard' as its a unique name and I can then work that into a sort of performance piece between me and Aldous. 

Conclusion: In conclusion, apart from the minor damage and the nerves associated with having to do a presentation it is nice to have been back in uni again for a few weeks, I have missed it over the holidays. I am going to try and get as much done tomorrow as I can before I have to set off back home as I have late 12 hour night shift at work. Once I get all of the bits of dialog for Aldous finished I can simply just work on my own stuff at my own rate as I go along until the date of the presentation. 

Action Plan: Get presentation finished, work on it, perform it.. and get it running like clockwork.