The Art of Love, Death + Robots E-Book

Ramin Zahed

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 127

Beschreibung

Immerse yourself in the official collection of artworks from the first three volumes of Love, Death + Robots, and discover the stories and inspirations behind this beloved Netflix series.Love Death + Robots is a Netflix series like no other--a breath-taking journey of mature, high-concept tales told with seductive characters, astounding plots, and explosive action. With each episode crafted by different animation teams across the globe, the thought-provoking anthology covers a vast range of animation styles from edgy 2D to stop-motion to anime to hyper-realistic 3D CG.In this luxury book, discover the wealth of artwork and stories behind the creation of the series' first three volumes. Includes interviews with key artists and creatives such as series creators Tim Miller and David Fincher, and is full to the brim with everything from beautiful concept art, character studies, costume sketches, paintings, vehicle designs, storyboards, and early vision decks, through to finished frames. Perfect for any fan of animation.

Leseprobe

WRITTEN BY RAMIN ZAHED

CoNTENTS

FOREWORD  I  6

INTRODUCTION  I  8

ANIMATION 101  I  18

VOLUME 01  I  24

THREE ROBOTS  I  26

BEYOND THE AQUILA RIFT  I  34

ICE AGE  I  40

SONNIE’S EDGE  I  46

WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER  I  54

THE SECRET WAR  I  60

SUCKER OF SOULS  I  66

THE WITNESS  I  72

SUITS  I  80

GOOD HUNTING  I  88

THE DUMP  I  96

SHAPE-SHIFTERS  I  102

FISH NIGHT  I  108

HELPING HAND  I  114

ALTERNATE HISTORIES  I  120

LUCKY 13  I  126

BLINDSPOT  I  132

ZIMA BLUE  I  138

VOLUME 02  I  144

AUTOMATED CUSTOMER SERVICE  I  146

ICE  I  152

POP SQUAD  I  158

SNOW IN THE DESERT  I  166

THE TALL GRASS  I  172

ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE  I  178

LIFE HUTCH  I  184

THE DROWNED GIANT  I  190

VOLUME 03  I  196

BAD TRAVELLING  I  198

SWARM  I  206

KILL TEAM KILL  I  212

IN VAULTED HALLS ENTOMBED  I  218

THE VERY PULSE OF THE MACHINE  I  222

JIBARO  I  228

THREE ROBOTS: EXIT STRATEGIES  I  234

MASON’S RATS  I  238

NIGHT OF THE MINI DEAD  I  244

FINAL THOUGHTS  I  250

THE TEAM  I  252

FOrEWORD

As an author, you’re pretty sure you know your work.

You’ve written it, after all. You created the story, put in thecharacters, gave them things to say and do, and have set them ona path that often leads to their redemption, or ruin, or sometimesboth, in sequence or simultaneously. You are the author. You arethe god of that tiny pocket universe. You let there be light and noteevery fallen sparrow. You know your work.

But then, sometimes, someone comes around and asks toborrow your work. Say, for a new Netflix animated series that theydecide to call Love, Death + Robots. They tell you they want to givethe story to some artists and filmmakers they know and see whatdirection it takes them in. You’re intrigued (and also, they tosssome money your way, which is nice), and you decide, what theheck, let’s find out where it goes.

Then some time later, you’re in your house, firing up the large-screen TV that maybe you bought with some of that Netflix money,and LD+R streams down the Internet into your living room. Youwatch the episode that those artists and filmmakers have madefrom the story you wrote. And then suddenly you have an epiphany:

You don’t actually know your work at all.

Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that once you did, butnow, as photons blast that image off the screen and down into youreyeballs, you’re getting a whole new view of the now not-so-tiny,not-so-pocket universe you wrote up. The world you created haschanged; gotten wider, more colorful, more visceral. Maybe not

more real—the images plumb the various depths of the fantastic,so ‘realism’ isn’t necessarily the metric you’re looking for—butcertainly more present. More abiding. More tangible. More more.

And as you watch this version of your work—created incollaboration with so many incredibly talented artists, animators,and filmmakers—the one that is new and wild and in so manyways unexpected, something happens: You forget you were thegod of this little universe at all. You sit and take it in and, for just amoment, you get a privilege writers never get, but that audiencesalways do.

You get a chance to be a newcomer in the world you made.

It is, simply, an amazing thing. And, when done right, a hell ofa lot of fun. LD+R did it right.

The book you have in your hands is a record of thesetransformations. It’s about the alchemy of turning words into art,and through that art, bringing new worlds to millions of people whoget to experience them for the very first time. It’s real work fromreal people. As you thumb through the pages, I hope you sensesome of what I felt when these same artists took my words andmade something else with them: Excitement. Wonder. Appreciation.Newness.

More

John Scalzi, September 7, 2021

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INTRODUCTION

The story of how Tim Miller, David Fincher, and the team at Blurwere able to make a groundbreaking animated adult anthologyafter knocking on Hollywood’s doors for over a decade must givehope to maverick filmmakers and artists all over the world. Whentheir dream project, Love, Death + Robots, premiered on Netflixin March 2019, it reintroduced adult animation to audiencesworldwide while bringing together the talents of indie studios fromaround the globe with the pro team at Miller’s own Blur Studio inCulver City, California.

Miller—who is also known for directing movies such as Deadpool(2016) and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019), as well as producing the Sonicthe Hedgehog feature (2020) and its sequel (2022)—says the originof Love, Death + Robots goes back more than fifteen years to whenhe first met Fincher. “David came down to discuss a project and likedthe artist-centric way we ran Blur,” he recalls. “David loves animation,so we discussed doing a project together, and one idea was to make anew anthology based on the 1981 movie Heavy Metal. That film had a biginfluence on me when I was young. I knew I wanted to be an animator

THIS SPREAD / The anthology formatcreates an ever-changing mix of genres,tone, and animation styles that make eachseason a unique experience.

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or illustrator, but I wasn’t interested in doing Hanna-Barbera cartoons.I wanted to do animation for adults; films like Fritz the Cat (1972) thatwere shown as midnight movies and had an edge to them.”

Fincher says, “I loved the work at Blur and thought they haddone a great job of incubating talent at the studio. Tim ran theplace in a way that inspired the artists, and they wanted to doanimation that hadn’t been done before. While we tried to set upHeavy Metal, we worked together on projects like the titles for TheGirl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011). Eventually, Tim, Kevin Eastman,

and I took Heavy Metal to every studio in town—at least twice. Ofcourse, this was all years before Netflix became what it is today.”

Although Miller and Fincher had directors like JamesCameron and Zack Snyder on board, they couldn’t get the projectset up at a studio. “We had the best pitch for a project I’ve everdone, with tons of amazing artwork. But people were afraidbecause it was R-rated,” says Miller. “They wouldn’t take a risk onsomething that hadn’t been done before.”

The tide finally turned when Miller hit box-office gold with

the blockbuster Deadpool in 2016. Fincher called and said, “Nicejob, mofo, now we’re going to use your momentary popularity to getHeavy Metal made!” There were some complications working underthe Heavy Metal banner, but the desire to do an adult anthologyremained. At a meeting with Netflix, Miller played Blur’s reel on aniPad to show the kind of quality the animation would have. “Netflixwas built on taking risks, and they were willing to dive right in,”adds Miller.

The next crucial step was picking the correct stories and

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assembling the ideal talent to tackle each episode. From the start,Miller had a pretty clear idea of the types of stories Love, Death+ Robots would contain. He explains, “I read a lot. I’m the kind ofdork who will read the back of a cereal box if there’s nothing elsearound. But there are so many interesting authors out there.”

One of the writers Miller contacted was British author NealAsher, who penned Snow in the Desert, Mason’s Rats, and BadTravelling, which Fincher would direct. “I wrote to Neal and askedwhether he had any other stories like Snow in the Desert, which I’dstumbled across, and he sent me fifty short stories,” recalls Miller.Similarly, “Marko Kloos, the writer of Shapeshifters and Lucky 13,sent me a bunch of stories—I love his Frontlines novels too! Thereare great stories everywhere, like Harlan Ellison’s Life Hutch, whichI first read in Epic magazine back in the ’80s and rememberedloving Ken Steacy’s illustrations. Then there are authors likeJohn Scalzi (Three Robots, When the Yogurt Took Over, AlternateHistories, Automated Customer Service), whom I’ve loved for yearsand who writes both comedy and hard sci-fi brilliantly.”

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A COLLECTION OF VISIONARIES

Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning director Jennifer YuhNelson—who directed DreamWorks’ Kung Fu Panda sequels andHBO’s Spawn—joined the Love, Death + Robots team in time forVolume Two as the supervising director. She heard about theproject from Miller over a lunch set by a mutual friend. “I wasn’tavailable to work on Volume One, but when Tim called about VolumeTwo, I jumped on board! I had spent my whole career wanting todo adult animation while trying to squeeze as much edginess intofamily entertainment as possible without traumatizing the kids!”

Yuh Nelson, who directed Pop Squad and Kill Team Kill,loved working with the different producers and directors on the

anthology. “You get to see their faces light up because they’regetting a chance to create something they’d never be allowedto do anywhere else,” she explains. “Sometimes, people wish theepisodes were longer, but the short nature of the anthology meansthey can be weird. They can exist as pure, concentrated doses ofinsanity that don’t have to be liked by everyone.”

Supervising producer Victoria Howard came on board whenexecutive producer Jennifer Miller invited her to join the show. “Iwas so excited when I found out the kind of stories they wanted totell and how much it reflected the spirit of Heavy Metal [magazine].I grew up watching Star Trek, Star Wars, and Alien, and all of those

genres I love are represented by our show.”

Howard—who has worked on shows such as Robot Chickenand BoJack Horseman—has nothing but praise for the community ofartists the show has built worldwide. “When we started, our dreamwas to create a community that could learn from each other andelevate the work,” she explains. “It was a concept no other showhad explored. Meeting new studios and getting to know them, andlearning from them, was exciting. People worldwide have so much tooffer, and getting a glimpse into their lives and creative processeshas been special in many ways. This creative interaction is the thing Icherish most, second only to creating amazing animation.”

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A DETAILED SELECTION PROCESS

Picking the correct stories and matching them with the rightdirectors and studios is key to the show’s success. Yuh Nelsonsays, “Each director has a specialty, something they do beautifully,and we try to match a story with them. And we have an entire wallfilled with stories we’ve found and love to choose from.”

Each season goes through dozens of permutations. “A lotdepends on the alchemy of stories,” says Victoria Howard. “Youstart by picking the ones you love and then winnow it down fromthere. Then we figure out which company is best to produce eachepisode; there are many layers to this puzzle.”

“I love that I work on a show where I had to send an emailsaying, ‘I think we have too many A.I. apocalypse stories—we mightwant to change it up a little!’” Yuh Nelson laughs.

Tim Miller always wanted the show to have an eclectic mixof stories, styles, and directors. “I like sci-fi and fantasy best, buthorror, comedy, and drama are equally important to have in themix. All of our stories need action, scope, and heart,” he notes. “We

also try to find stories that work as-is. It’s important to us that wehonor the original intentions of the authors.”

Since Miller knew most of the boutique studios working in thegame cinematics industry, he asked them to collaborate with Blur.“They were our competitors, but we’re on friendly terms with all ofthem. We knew they wanted to create beautiful work, just as wedid. Most of these companies aren’t large enough to do features,but they could easily handle episodes of our anthology series.”

The show’s visual effects supervisor Jerome Denjean, whohas been with Blur for twenty years, welcomed the opportunity tocollaborate with these other companies. “I was a musician whenI was younger, and I love the band dynamic,” says the French-born VFX veteran. “My job is to make sure all the work hits thequality bar of the show and looks unique. We love variety, and it’simportant to have each story feel special. We try to gently pusheveryone outside their comfort zones to try new things. That’swhen the magic happens!”

Denjean believes the show’s legacy will be the variety ofways they’ve proven that animation can tell adult stories. “Initially,when we discussed adult animation, people thought it would bewarrior women in bikinis, riding dragons—naughty, but withoutsubstance. But we all know there are tons of stories with adultthemes that aren’t X-rated or hyperviolent. We can tell storiesabout the human experience, like The Drowned Giant or Zima Blue,which deal with life, death, and our place in the universe.”

Looking back at what they’ve done so far, Miller is amazed bythe level of passion and pride all the studios have brought to theshow and how excited they are to work on something that allowsthem to be so creative. “I don’t think you can find another projectwith more personal investment from the people working on it. Theyall view LD+R as an opportunity to do their best work, and we’re sohappy to provide the opportunity. Like us, they want the show tobe a love letter to the art of animation and the beauty of short-form storytelling.”

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PREVIOUS PAGE / The search for the rightartist to tell each story is exhaustive andvaried, from collaborating with veteranfilmmakers to mentoring first-timedirectors.

THIS PAGE / Twenty-one studios acrosseleven countries have been involved increating Love, Death + Robots’ thirty-fiveepisodes.

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ON BRANDING, TITLES + ICONOGRAPHY

Blur had found its stories and creative partners. Now they neededto craft an identity for the series. The short-form structureoffered a unique opportunity for the branding and design team,led by executive producer and creative director/designer JenniferMiller. “Our anthology is a collection of many different genresand a celebration of the art form,” explains Miller. “Our goal was