OVERRIDE {...}
The movie background
OVERRIDE {…} is a short movie inspired by science fiction, post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk genres. It tells the story of a small robot serving his constructor in a health critical phase. There are two places of action, one which is a post-apocalyptic inspired wasteland scenery, which should give a brief view of what the world looks like. The second place is a science-fiction and cyberpunk inspired bunker, converted into a place to be able to live in permanently which also houses the liquid filled capsule-like machinery where inside the human tries to heal.
The story
The story of our short movie engages in topics like human vs. machine, AI and future outcomes of human failure. A small robot, made to serve for specific tasks, is programmed to constantly provide the human life support system with energy in the shape of special crystals which he has to find somewhere outside the bunker. Though, there is one time where he executes this task and starts to run into a problem which for him means to make a decision whether he wants to live or die, however, there is still another issue. He can either decide to let the crystal run the health support system of the human or charge up himself and sacrifice the human. As every robot, he works by the three laws of robotics:
- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
But if something goes wrong and a command gets overridden, the robot longs for life.
The production
This movie was as a project part of a University degree in computer animation. It has been completet with a team of three 3D-Artists, one composer, one sound effects artist and a designer. The goal of this short movie was to gain knowledge in several 3D programs and methods of creating an animated 3D movie like character design and development, world building, VFX, specialized rendering or compositing. The programs which have been used for this project are Autodesk Maya, Houdini, Unreal Engine 5.4, Substance Painter, Nuke and DaVinci Resolve.