Robots (2005)

After the first Ice Age, I moved to fx dept. I really enjoy developing techniques and writing tools for effects. Robots presents many new and unique challenges. Here are some of the shots i worked on.

The steam in this film has a heavy, industrial look to it. We developed a special volumetric shader to render it.







I was involved in the developing of sparks since the beginning. These sparks are voxel curves with lights attached to them, so they can really illuminate the surrounding environment to give subtle realism.


i developed a special rig to do huge number of sparks in chop shop.

the sparks of this whole sword-fighting sequence at the climax was my solo work.



Another really fun effect in this film is the crowd. I often study and analyze crowd movements in Grand Central, for inspirations to apply on crowd sim.







Confetti is one of my favorite effects in the film. It adds a happy, festival feeling. The most tricky part is how to make them land nicely like a piece of weightless paper.




This domino sequence is the most complex effect in the film. It requires significant planning and Layout, Animation, Fx departments all working together to get it done. i worked on the surf board spray dominos in this shot.


I also worked on some of the rigid body sim for junks on convey belt.


Dark diesel smoke has a very different characteristic from steam:




Ball Bearing effect:


This is an early proof-of-concept test for wielding effect. It was not used in the film: