Bot & Dolly: Box

Posted by Justin Cone

“Box,” a new short film/performance from design and engineering studio Bot & Dolly produced in association with The Creators Project, takes projection mapping, well — out of the box.

Just to make sure you understand what you’re seeing: The above video is documentation of a live performance. I’ve been assured there was no compositing in post-production. It’s all live.

Bot & Dolly calls their combination of robotic arms and projection mapping a “kinematic projection platform.”

Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Creative Director at Bot & Dolly explains the setup: “Through large-scale robotics, projection mapping and software engineering, audiences will witness the trompe l’oeil effect pushed to new boundaries.”

For the animated content, Bot & Dolly brought on none other than Bradley G Munkowitz, no stranger to Motionographer. His trademark attention to detail is on full display in every frame of the project.

Update: I neglected to give props to the outstanding work on the music and sound design from Keith Ruggiero/Sounds Red. Without audio, there’d be little motivation for the performance.

Interview coming soon…


Production Company: BOT & DOLLY
Executive Producers: Bill Galusha, Nick Read
Executive Creative Director: Jeff Linnell
Creative & Technical Director: Tarik Abdel-Gawad
Design Director: Bradley G Munkowitz
Lead Graphic Designers: Bradley G Munkowitz, Jason English Kerr
3D Artists: Scott Pagano, Bradley G Munkowitz, Jason English Kerr, Conor Grebel
2D Artists: Conor Grebel, Ben Hawkins, Pedro Figuera
Director of Photography: Joe Picard
Lighting Designers: Joe Picard, Phil Reyneri
Projection / Touch Designer: Phil Reyneri
Robotics Animation: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Brandon Kruysman, George Banks, Michael Beardsworth
Robotics Operator: Michael Beardsworth, Brandon Kruysman
Prop Fabrication: Matt Bitterman, Ethan Dale
Script Supervisor: Ian Colon
Sound Engineers: Joe Picard, Michael Beardsworth
PAs: Sean Servis, Dakota Smith, Nico Mizono, Eric Wendel, Patrick Walsh
Editors: Ashley Rodholm, Ian Colon
Music / Sound Design: Keith Ruggiero
Sound Mix: Joel Raabe
Performers: Tarik Abdel-Gawad, Iris, Scout

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About the author

Justin Cone

/ justincone.com
Together with Carlos El Asmar, Justin co-founded Motionographer, F5 and The Motion Awards. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with is wife, son and fluffball of a dog. Before taking on Motionographer full-time, Justin worked in various capacities at Psyop, NBC-Universal, Apple, Adobe and SCAD.
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29 Comments

Piotr Borowski

Gmunk rocks as always!!!

Howard Benditsky

Off the charts amazing!!! G. Monk rules.

Gus

Gmunk rip’s off Maxim Zhestkov?

Mike Tosetto

No way! Nobody owns black and white geometric animation. Both G Munk and Maxim are legends in their own right but you can’t go as far as saying this is a rip.

Gus

Come on dude……. Gmunk even posted references of Maxim’s work in his design process and inspiration… click on the thumbs http://work.gmunk.com/BOX-DEMO

I mean really?

oeuf

You should take the time to read Gmunk’s “Design Approach” for that project. You’ll see where the inspiration comes from. Yes, he does have frames of Maxim’s work, but i’m willing to wager Maxim’s own work is inspired by the very things Gmunk writes about.

Gus

Gmunk even posted a straight set of entire work by Maxim on his site http://payload177.cargocollective.com/1/0/2995/5859181/02_LEV_08_20_905.JPG

………why not just go one step further and openly admit and say “i didn’t wanna think much but just rip off somebody else.”

oeuf

*mind blown.

Great stuff.

tuesday mcgowan

Innovating take on projection mapping and the black and white Gmunk designs are perfect (sort of an homage to early computer graphics).

Gus

Except Gmunk ripped off Maxim Zhestkov on this one. Not just the style but even the live action camera moves and animations.

Jon Malkemus

I see similarities (

, possibly a source of inspiration, or perhaps the team had never seen it before and it was a coincidence? Who knows. It would be a good question to ask.

Either way the final output is fucking ridiculously good and mind blowing.

Piotr Borowski

For me? It’s just a good inspiration and even better continuation of the story.

Gus

me ain’t the internet police but come on they could have asked Maxim instead of ripping him off.

PJ Richardson

@gus its simple shape and form, an exercise in graphic physics and energy in its simplest form of black and white, if you say hes biting maxim its like saying hes copying mograph with shiny textures or something super general. Theres just no way you can pin that on a single artist. Its clear the dolly and bot team used simple shapes and form to experiment (extremely well) with what projection can do to delight the viewer well beyond simply copying a style.

Gus

PJ, there’s millions of ways how to design and animate simple shapes but come on now this is so specific to Maxim’s style we sure can call it a rip off. Even the animation pace and timings are just the same.

PJ Richardson

@gus I dont agree with you, and second to that even, who cares? it looks good, its delighting viewers, bot and dolly arent nor ever planned to hire outside help since gmunk works there so fuckit. Whether it looks like maxims work or not, the bottom line is we are entertained to watch it which is what matters the most. You wouldnt even be hard up about the maxim reference if what they did at bot and dolly sucked.

thelever

@gus dude. you’re harshing my mellow

lumerbub

@Gus.. art is no competition. everybody gets inspired by somebody else…everything builds on something

serpent bird

@ ya gus is totally marshing my hello…

angiladie

PJ, there’s millions of ways how to design and animate simple shapes but come on now this is so specific to Maxim’s style we sure can call it a rip off. Even the animation pace and timings are just the sam
http://ebrandingexperts.com

ktxed

it’s really nice seeing zhestkov’s work combined with live action

marcowens

I find it far from groundbreaking, then again, maybe it`s just me. Well executed, nevertheless.

Met Hrovat

I wish I had those toys! It’s very inspiring.

Justin

Very well done, though I would really like to see some projection mapping that didn’t use this style, it’s getting pretty repetitive. Something other than cubes and shapes.

lynn lin

oh my,this is magic!!amazing !work!!

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