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

The new Netflix film “The Electric State” shows a world full of robots – but no robots as we know it.

Directed by the brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (previously two Avengers Blockbusters, “Infinity War” and “Endgame”) for A reported budget of 320 million US dollars“The Electric State” takes place in an alternative version of the nineties, in which there has been factual robots for decades. This is long enough until they have rebelled against their human masters, lost the war and banished themselves to an area of ​​the southwest – an area in which the heroes of the film (played by Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt) have to sneak up.

In terms of design, these robots are “deliberately the antithesis” of the robots that exist today.

“Most of us saw modern robots … and are used to these designs,” said Butler. “If you look at Boston Dynamics Robot, you will find that you concentrate the mass of the robot in the middle of the robot, and when you go to the extremities, you will become less and less massive, because this is just a defending design.”

In contrast, the robot of the film Cosmo “has a huge head on a tiny neck”, which butler described as “the worst design for a robot”.

Like the film itself, this design is based on Simon Stålenhag’s illustrated novel of the same name. But Butler explained that there is an explanation for Cosmo and the other quirky robots that often come from real and imaginary pop culture: they were created to be “not threatening”, which is why they look all “kind of cute and silly and fun”.

All of this meant that Butler’s team had to start with a design that was naturally impractical, but finally created something that felt “physically credible and real”. He said they decided to honor Cosmo’s design in “Silhouette -Mode”.

“If you are crooked and a distance from it from [the] Camera, he looks like Cosmo, as he is in the book, ”said Butler. “But if you go up close and check a shoulder, you will see that there are push poles there, and you can see the engines, you can see the circuits with the ankles and feet.”

The goal is to convince the audience that “the matter can really work”. As soon as you are convinced, accept Cosmo’s design and the design of the other robots without seeing all the details.

And yes, there are many other robots. Butler said that his team had to “hundreds and hundreds of unique robots” to life-not because every robot in this alternative world is unique, but because “we usually only present individuals in the film”.

And unfortunately there were no abbreviations.

“We scratched our heads so often – like:” How to the devil do we do that? “, He said,” if you have 100 different robots and you move all, you have to be able to move, which means that you have to be able to equip you so that someone has to design you, someone has to paint you, someone has to encourage you. “

To bring this robot to life, Butler said that the team used a combination of traditional optically Movement recording And a newer system with accelerometer-based suits. This made it possible for a group of seven motion capture actors to work with the live action actors on site and on the set, their performance then forms the basis for the animated robots-whether they fit human size, gigantic or in the palm of a character.

Butler emphasized that the process was far more complicated than just transforming the movements of an actor to a robot body.

“Take Little Herman as an example,” he said. “You have that [motion capture] Actors, and he adds his flair, his performance, and it is someone with whom Chris Pratt can now act. Then you say: “Well, ok, but the real robot can’t do many things that this type can do.” So now you have to change it yourself based on the restrictions on the design of the robot. “

And it is not over yet: “And then you talk to the directors and there is a certain change in the properties that you now have to honor. Then change that, and then you have your fabulous language actors who add so much, and now it is like: ‘Well, when the character [sounds like] That must change the cadence. ‘”

Butler said that the robots that we ultimately see on the screen were created by the work of all these artists and artists: “And that’s why we really only rolled up ourselves and continued.”