3D Animation

Elves vs. Robots

November 13, 2008 While not as endearing or well known as the eternal struggle of pirate versus ninja, elves vs. robots is a powerful conflict I don’t think has been adequately explored.
   

As a Special Topic Presentation in our program, the class has the option to explore a subject that does not receive a module of its own as part of the curriculum. According to our instructor Pete, most classes take this opportunity to begin sharpening portfolios and preparing for the Rendering module that will ultimately form the foundation of their demo reel. But our class hit on this idea of doing a group project – something fun and light-hearted that could theoretically be done in a week. It would also serve as a preview or dry run for Practicum. Thus was born EvR.

We decided that Elves vs. Robots would be a fictional video game from a down-on-its-luck gaming studio. This would give us the opportunity to do a project of slightly larger scope because as a faux video game, we would have to keep polygon counts and texture sizes as reasonable as possible. Our goal: put together a trailer to highlight a combination of cinematic cut scenes and examples of game play from the third person perspective. Think Tomb Raider. Except with Orlando Bloom.

As a game, it would follow pretty standard conventions: throw hordes of a fairly repetitious enemy (the robots) at a lone hero (elf), who mows them down with an arsenal of weapons ranging from swords to bows to ingenious Ewok technology. We imagined the elven village as a place of peace, tranquility, and possible cookie baking until the day a horde of homicidal mechanical maniacs breaks down the front gates to begin a slaughter of epic proportions. Only one elf – that’s you – can stand up to the metal ones and stop the destruction of this Tolkien-esque hamlet.

Screenshot by Trevor Green

Not surprisingly, the scope was still more than could be done in a week. So we had to pare it down to a couple of scenes, but we're going to revisit the project in later weeks. What we accomplished in those 7-10 days was pretty amazing. The sheer number of models and textures generated by a class of five is a real testament to how much work a motivated team can achieve. My hat goes off to the artists who created this in just over a week.

Screenshot by Mike Kopilevich

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