The Works

Directed by: Lance Williams
Country: United States

The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

An early 3D computer-animated film from the 1980s that was never completed. It is set in a future where a military supercomputer caused human extinction and then repopulated the Earth.

pioneeringunfinishedambitiousretro-futuristicbleakcerebralmelancholicexperimental

What happens

The Works is a shelved animated feature film written and directed by Lance Williams, partially produced from 1979 to 1986. If it had been finished, it would have been the first film that was entirely 3D computer-animated. It included contributions from individuals who would go on to work at digital animation pioneers Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. The film was developed by the staff of the Computer Graphics Lab in association with the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. The title itself was inspired by the original meaning of the word "robot", derived from "robota" (meaning "workforce" or "slaves"), a word found in Czech and many other Slavic languages. It was originally intended to be approximately 90 minutes long although less than 10 minutes are known to have been produced. A trailer for the film was screened at SIGGRAPH in Boston, Massachusetts in 1982. The project also resulted in other early computer animations such as 3DV, Sunstone, Inside a Quark and segments of the short film The Magic Egg from 1984. The story is set in a future in which the human race has gone extinct on Earth because of The Works, a military supercomputer that then repopulated the entire planet with robots. Only scientist-astronauts survived and over two millennia created a new society on asteroids. One day the androids stationed on the Moon send them an ambassador, Ipso Facto, tasked with recruiting a human so that he can speak with The Works and obtain data about the former terrestrial civilisation. He encounters a boy, Beeper Raxis, who becomes his companion on the adventure. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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