TITLE: Robot Rampage
NAME: Greg M. Johnson
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: gregj56590@aol.com
WEBPAGE: http://members.xoom.com/gregjohn/animation.html
TOPIC: Animation
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
MPGFILE: rampage7.mpg
RENDERER USED: 
    Animation Master 99 http://www.hash.com/

TOOLS USED: 
    A M's toon render and CorelDraw 7 to make business sign, MainActor
to compile to MPEG.

CREATION TIME: 
    Approx 36 hrs.

HARDWARE USED: 
    Aptiva PentiumII 450 MHz.

ANIMATION DESCRIPTION: 
    Inspirations include the "Gumby & Pokey" video title of
the same name, "A Close Shave," and just being a frustrated office worker. Plot
synopsis (if you need one): Evil Ed runs a scrap metal shop, but also rustles
and destroys semi-sentient robots, who are lured into a melting pot by his
electronic controls. A superhero is lurking around the plant, unbenownest to
Evil Ed. He takes compassion on a wounded robot, finds a glass sphere, applies
his own scientific powers, and dumps it into the molten pit.  Evil Ed is
terrified to learn the result!

VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS: 
    none

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS ANIMATION WAS CREATED: 
    I used AM 99.
Models: everything is hand-stitched by me, except for the hands of the
characters and the lettering, which I got of the A:M CD. Over the past months,
I had made two human figures, one looked more "human" than the other, so I
turned the less human one into a golden robot (with many modifications!), and
turned the more realistic one into to characters: the (self-portrait) superhero
and Evil Ed.  The megabot is simply 10 smaller robots copied and pasted
together. 
Actions: I had a pre-existing walk cycle for the robots that I had made from
scratch. I made a modification to it for the "wounded" robot. I then set up
paths on the walkway for the scene where the robots fall into the pit. I then
made up actions for the two human characters based on their personality.
Choreographies: Pretty simple, just a few moving cameras. 
I'm still learning, self-taught at this software.  The lighting,texturing, and
"clothing" would still need a lot of work. There is one defect that occurs in
the final chase scene: it may be the result of the camera intersecting the body
of Evil Ed. I'm not sure, and the first two attempts to fix it were
unsuccessful, and I'm out of time. 

