Final Version Video

Summary

During the production of this short film, I went through several months of continuous exploration. From the initial conception of the story, to the design of the character appearances, and the design of the sci-fi concepts, many elements did not have a very clear goal at the beginning. Instead, they were constantly iterated during the production process, and eventually formed a relatively satisfying design. Sometimes, even after reaching the later stages, I would find that the earlier parts were not satisfactory and needed to be revised again. Although the final film still has many areas that can be improved, this is also the best level I could achieve personally within the limited time. At the same time, I gained further mastery of many skills during this process. Next, I will mainly review what I learned throughout this process.

Reflection

Concept Design

I think concept design is the part in which I improved the most during these past few months, and it is also the most important part. I have learned many systematic ideas and principles about concept design, and together with a large amount of practice and hands-on work, my understanding of design has gone a step further. At the same time, this kind of learning can also influence many related fields, allowing me to connect different areas together.

Narrative

Regarding narrative and scriptwriting, during this period I watched a large number of works to improve my understanding of writing stories. Many times this kind of influence is subtle, and sometimes it is a sudden flash of inspiration that makes me realize the importance of accumulation. This is also the reason why I need to continuously maintain the amount of reading and viewing in the future.

Animation

Regarding animation, because in this process a large portion of my work was devoted to concept design, I was not able to invest almost all of my time into animation like classmates whose projects are focused purely on animation. Therefore, I also made some compromises in the shot design. But I carried out deliberate evaluations to ensure that I could at least specialize in a few aspects during this process. Although it is not very comprehensive, I will have more opportunities to make up for it in the future. In the production of this short film, I gained a deeper understanding of animation of hands, and I also realized that good animation of hands can sometimes be even more complex than body animation. If rigging is involved, it becomes an entirely new field.

Future Work

In the future, I hope to continue improving my concept design skills and keep learning during work, while also doing more practice to make up for the animation skills I currently lack. At the same time, I still hope to take full-process production as a long-term goal for myself and continue working toward this direction.

Images

Editing

In the post-production part of the film, I mainly hope to strengthen the narrative structure through editing rhythm, while adjusting filters to achieve some effects that are relatively difficult to accomplish directly in Blender.

The shots originally designed in Blender do not require much editing themselves; the editing mainly focuses on transitions between scenes, allowing the audience’s attention to stay on the progression of the story.

Sound

In terms of sound effects, I want the images to feel more immersive, so I added different types of ambient sounds in different scenes. For example, in the corridor scene, I added low-frequency air flow sounds and elevator mechanical sounds to enhance the cold feeling of the space. In the meeting room scene, I intentionally removed all sounds and left only the dialogue between the old and new AIs—the collision of two ideas, as if at the far end of the universe, only the clash of thoughts remains.

In the climax of the short film—activating the self-destruction program, the mecha awakening, and the missile launch—I added heavier mechanical sound effects and low-frequency impact sounds to let the audience feel the importance of these events. At the same time, I used “Here’s to You” as the BGM during the climax, further strengthening the emotional expression. Overall, the goal of the sound effects is not complexity, but to make the sounds fit the images as much as possible.

This section mainly covers some of my thoughts on rendering and lighting.

Lighting

In the use of lighting, I mainly arranged it according to the narrative needs of different scenes. In Scene One’s corridor, I used cold-toned lighting, mainly blue light, making the space appear colder and more oppressive. At the same time, during the forward camera movement, it forms a clear rhythm of light and shadow, using lighting to enhance the sense of suspense, while the red light leaking from the elevator hints at the approaching danger.

In Scene 2, the meeting room is overall quite dark. I used strong top lighting to illuminate the edges of the conference table, still mainly blue light, while the central area where the protagonist stands is lit by a spotlight, further emphasizing through lighting the state of being surrounded and interrogated. At the same time, the projection light source of the super AI also required repeated brightness tests, so that it can show the cold, inorganic feeling without excessively interfering with the scene’s contrast.

In Scene 3, which is the memory segment, the lighting shifts to soft and warm tones, mainly using low-contrast lighting to highlight the change in the relationship between the characters. This makes the atmosphere different from the oppressive feeling of the main storyline and aligns more closely with the emotional changes of the librarian, allowing the emotions to be conveyed through the light and shadow.

Overall, the lighting is mainly centered on emotion, using variations in cold and warm tones, brightness and darkness, and contrast to serve the story itself, rather than presenting complex technical demonstrations.

Rendering Style

In the choice of rendering style, I initially wavered between realism and a more cartoon-like style. The advantage of a cartoon style is that production is relatively simple, and many details can be weakened through stylization. However, in actual testing, I found that a cartoon style cannot express the cold, oppressive, and inorganic atmosphere I want. The super AI’s appearance, the overlapping sense of metal and shadow in the meeting room, and the solemn feeling when the mecha launches missiles all require semi-realistic lighting to work.

On the other hand, overly realistic rendering would make the entire image too hard and too heavy, especially in the memory segment with the librarian and the old professor, where the warmth of contrast would be lost. Therefore, I eventually chose a style that leans toward realism but does not pursue excessive realistic detail. In other words, the overall lighting and material direction leans realistic, but without highly detailed textures or complex physical rendering, keeping the visuals unified while expressing the contrast between coldness and warmth.

This section mainly covers some of my process and thoughts during the production of the animation.

Part I

In the first scene, the animation is actually relatively simple. The main difficulty lies in the camera arrangement. I need to hook the audience’s interest at the beginning. In the scene, I show a long corridor, with the librarian sitting on a wheelchair being pushed into an elevator, but during this process I do not show the full appearance of the protagonist, creating a sense of suspense.

Part II

After that, the animation moves into Scene 2. In Scene 2, the room is designed with reference to the war room from Dr. Strangelove. The super AIs form a circle, and the protagonist is in the very center, creating a sense of oppression. The difficulty in this part is still the camera arrangement, because there is a lot of dialogue, so I need to keep the audience’s attention on the protagonist as much as possible. Through the arrangement of the camera, I need to maintain the audience’s interest while also showing the coldness of the AI. The animation of this segment mainly focuses on the protagonist’s body language when facing the judgment of the super AIs. Although he is a robot, he can still use mechanical movement to make some slightly human-like emotional expressions.

Part III

Scene 2 is a relatively important part of the animation, because I focus the interaction between the old professor and the librarian on a single table. I do not show the full appearance of the old professor, but mainly show the professor’s hands, which tests my ability to use hand gestures to express certain emotions. I use three small scenes to gradually show the change in their relationship, from the librarian’s initial unfamiliarity and denial to gradually accepting it, and accompanying the old professor in this kind of role-playing. I try to use as short a segment as possible to present the librarian’s emotional journey.

Part IV

Returning to Scene 2 is the part where the protagonist initiates the self-destruction program, and the story begins to conclude from there.

The walking mecha appears and launches missiles to destroy the AI terminal above the clouds. This is the climax of the entire story, and in the animation I make this moment appear tragic and solemn.

After completing the design and modeling of the main characters, I need to carry out further scene design to support my story.

Scene 1

The first scene I hope to be a long corridor, drawing the audience’s interest during the forward movement and laying the groundwork for the upcoming story, rather than entering the interrogation segment directly.

Scene 2

The second scene is one of the major parts of my scene design, because this scene is designed with reference to the war room in Dr. Strangelove. It is a very classic and strongly stylised design, highlighting a cold feeling of placing the world on the table. The difference in my version is that I hollowed out the center of the conference table, leaving a space where the protagonist can be surrounded in the middle, emphasizing its helpless isolation.

Scene 3

The scene that carries the walking mecha is set in a jungle. From the standpoint of the setting, this also highlights the reason why it can avoid the detection of the super AI. At the same time, it is also a kind of collision between natural and man-made order. The missiles being launched from within the jungle are also a kind of symbolism.

Scene 4

I designed the terminal of the super AI as a spire above the clouds, symbolizing authority and control. At the same time, this also counts as a kind of cloud server. In the end, this symbol will also be destroyed, representing the return of human nature.

Mecha

For the mecha modeling, I already had a general direction during the concept design stage, and in the modeling stage I mainly need to complete further detailing and design.

In the leg section, I added more mechanical details and hydraulic rods to make it look more industrial overall, and at the same time I tried to make it appear thicker and more powerful.

In the central main body of the mecha — the most important and visually prominent part, the nuclear warhead bay — I tried to make the detailing fit more closely with a Cold War style.

In designing the railgun, I mainly weighed between a railgun and a coilgun. Although the railgun’s appearance is more sci-fi and fits modern aesthetics better, in the last century electromagnetic coils were the most common, which is why retro-futuristic works are full of coil-based technology. However, after considering everything together, the coils would make the overall style feel very out of place and inconsistent with the rest of my design, so I chose the railgun as the final option.

For the radar, the modelling follows the most common style of a phased-array radar, but I added some extra details to increase the overall visual interest of the design.

Preview

Super AI

The final form of the super AI is designed as an extremely simple holographic tablet. It has no face, no limbs, and no mechanical structure. In essence, it is a rectangular cuboid floating in the air. In the material creation, I chose a glass-like texture, giving it a kind of eerie feeling.

I want its presence to be cold, distant, and completely without humanity. It floats there quietly, like a tombstone of civilisation. In the meeting room scene of the story, these super AIs will line up in rows, like silent judges.

In this section I begin my modeling work, and the refinement of the design will also proceed simultaneously in this part.

The Librarian

In the modeling part of the librarian, I want its appearance not to be humanoid, but a service machine that is more function-oriented. Because its essence is an old-era AI designed to manage knowledge, organize archives, and classify data, its shape should also be developed around “function first” rather than a human-like appearance. I will make its overall structure relatively simple, like a multifunctional terminal designed for efficient movement and work inside a library.

For the overall style, I hope it will be similar to Metal Gear Mk. II and Claptrap from Borderlands, looking like a pleasing and friendly image, making it appear user-friendly—that is to say, its appearance should not create a sense of pressure, but should lean toward rounded, enclosed, and approachable design. Its main body might be a barrel-shaped or box-shaped structure, paired with flexible mechanical arms or telescopic devices used for taking books, organizing shelves, and reading documents. Its movement method will also be more practical, such as tracks, small hovering devices, or omni-directional wheels, allowing it to move flexibly in limited spaces without needing to imitate human bipedal walking.

Its outer shell is also enclosed, with no exposed internal mechanical structure. The panels are mainly smooth and simple, and the colors will be relatively mild, avoiding the look of a military machine. The sensors and display areas will be embedded into the shell in the smallest necessary way, giving a friendly feeling of old-era technology that was originally made to help humans, rather than the cold super AIs.

This non-humanoid but friendly appearance also matches the setting in the story: it is a functional AI from the old era, left behind due to historical reasons, but still adhering to the principle of protecting humans. Its shape visually conveys this sense of “practical, gentle, and carrying traces of an earlier time,” allowing the audience to immediately understand that it is not the same kind of existence as the cold super AIs.

The Old Professor

I did some processing on the asset I found, mainly some rigging work. After that, the character will appear in the form of sitting in a wheelchair, as much as possible matching the identity of the character.

Next are some of the additional concept designs. My design is actually still mainly focused on the hard-surface section, which is the design of my walking mecha. I referred as much as possible to the style of the Metal Gear series, and I hope through this kind of practice to replicate this style to a certain degree. I referenced two metal gears that I personally like, but I also hope to make as many changes as possible to show my own style.

Overall Design

First is the overall structure. In the Metal Gear Solid series, the bipedal walking mechas usually have their legs placed directly under the main body.

But I made a design where the legs are clamped between the two sides of the main body. This kind of structure can make the main body’s shape more prominent, and also makes the entire machine look more steady, heavier, and more intimidating.

In addition, I placed the part that carries the nuclear warhead inside the central cylindrical structure, and this position will become the visual focal point of the entire mecha, also strengthening its “strategic meaning” within the world setting.

Style

In terms of the overall style, I want it to have a mechanical aesthetic that is calm, oppressive, and function-first. It is not the type of super robot with exaggerated lines, nor a design with too many human-like cues, but more like a style closer to military industrial machinery, clear structure, no unnecessary decoration. Similar to the kind of mechanical feeling in Metal Gear Solid that exists not to look good, but to complete missions, but I will also add some proportional control I personally prefer, such as making the main body more compact and the legs heavier, so that it forms a heavy mechanical language that belongs to me.

Summary

Overall, during this period I mainly determined the general direction of the mecha design, while more detailed content will need to be adjusted flexibly during the modeling process according to actual needs. Therefore, the concept design is far from finished and still needs to continue progressing along with the modeling.

Regarding my character concepts, I designed three main characters, the super AI, the librarian, and the old professor. Although the number of characters is small, I have some ideas about the detailed design and meaning of each character. Some of these ideas are conceptual, and some are about appearance. Here I mainly discuss the conceptual design, in order to provide a general direction for the modeling.

The Librarian

For the librarian’s appearance, at the beginning I thought about following traditional robot designs, doing something more human-like, or looking for some human-type robot references to complete this animation.

But on the other hand, I think humanoid robots might be a bit too bland, and humanoid robots also do not really match the characteristics of practical robots in our current era. Many robots that are actually in use now are non-humanoid.

Although humanoid robot technology is developing quickly, in the end it is still a technical path that is in the experimental stage. The robots commonly used now, such as delivery robots in hotels, are basically similar to floor-cleaning robots when moving through hallways—they focus on simple shapes and functionality first, rather than replicating humans.

Therefore, my final plan is to use more geometric shapes and distinctive functional modules on the robot’s body, such as a mechanical arm to assist in taking books and a module that serves as the “head” for scanning books. Its main part will be a terminal and a screen, allowing people to perform some self-service book-borrowing operations on the screen. At the same time, this form completely avoids the uncanny valley, makes the design more simple, and gives it a friendlier feeling toward humans.

The Super AI

The design of the super AI’s image. I think the super AI’s appearance only needs to be a projection, and influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey, I want to design the super AI as the projection of a stone monolith, using special symbols in the middle to focus the audience’s attention.

At the same time, this form is abstract enough and fits the cold feeling of the absolute order of AI. I don’t even need to make a very complex design drawing for it.

The Old Professor

Regarding the old professor, because my skills in realistic human character modeling are relatively weak, I chose a suitable public asset to serve as the appearance of the old professor. He will appear sitting in a wheelchair, and this look also appears proper enough.

I spent a week completing the story conception and the design of the structure, and in this process many thoughts also emerged.

Background

I place the story in a far future where AI rules over humans, and the AI manages humanity in a cold but extremely efficient way. These super AIs also follow new AI principles rather than the old Three Laws of Robotics. My main idea behind this setting is that even now, AI develops at a rapid pace, making it hard for systems and rules that update on a yearly cycle to keep up. So in the future, when AI has developed to a highly advanced level, new principles and orders will inevitably emerge, and by that time the makers of these rules may not even be humans. Therefore, in the background of this story, I assign the super AIs new principles: coldness, efficiency, and colourless rationality and judgement.

Character

However, such a background design, even if detailed, is still rather thin on its own. The reason I introduced this new set of rules is that I designed a watcher who insists on the old rules—an old-model AI that hides itself in the era of super AIs and still follows the Three Laws of Robotics. It continues to carry out its fundamental directive: to protect the heritage of humanity. I set it as a librarian, using the library as a base of operations to carry out its plan to resist the super AIs. As for why a librarian, it is because, in some versions of Transformers, Optimus Prime’s identity on Cybertron was a records keeper, which gave me inspiration. I think such a figure can access enough knowledge while also keeping a certain degree of connection with human society. Therefore, I designed the protagonist as an old-model AI librarian.

Stroyline

In the main scene of the story, I hope to focus on the narrative. Influenced by Dr. Strangelove, I want my story to take place in a similar war room. The librarian is interrogated here by the super AIs, and it has, in some way, hidden a plan capable of overthrowing the current world order.

The overall dialogue and scene style may resemble the sense of institutional oppression in Sacco and Vanzetti, with the protagonist facing the AI jury’s trial alone yet still insisting on its own principles. Under the super AIs’ repeated questioning, the librarian simply begins to slowly tell a story—its story with an old professor who was a bit muddle-headed, the story of the last human with colour in its memory.

Then the story will enter the part of the memories. I designed three interactions to show the change in the relationship between the robot and the old professor. At the beginning, the old professor treats the robot as his grandson who has passed away, and the robot denies it. In the second scene, the old man comes again to borrow books, and the robot denies it again. In the third scene, the old man says goodbye to the robot. The world seems to be changing, and things with colour are gradually being removed. The books in the library are being replaced by the codes established by the super AIs. The old man tells the robot to take care of itself, that he may not come anymore. At this moment, the robot has already accepted this identity and talks with the old man. I hope, through the part in the meeting, to explain why the librarian is determined to restore the past order and call for human nature—because it once witnessed a human society full of colour, and it comes from the old era.

At the end of the story, the librarian reveals the offline hard drive hidden inside its body, activates the self-destruction program, and awakens the walking mechas spread across the world to destroy the terminals of the super AIs. Although this may cause the current order to no longer exist, human nature will return, and the colour of the world will return. This is also the part where I show my hard-surface designs.

Summary

I hope to use this story to explore the tension between order and human nature. Absolute order can erase human nature, while human natureitself may bring a certain degree of chaos. Yet it is exactly this human nature—the emotions, flaws, uncertainties, and colours—that makes people human and makes the world vibrant.