"The Machine" and other short animations from Rob Shaw, USA

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Author - Rob Shaw

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"The Machine"
October 8, 2009

DIRECTOR Rob Shaw
ANIMATION STUDIO Bent Image Lab

"The Machine" is an animated fable following the path of an innocently forged mechanical creature. As his independence and knowledge of the world grows on his journey, as does his desire to conquer all that we encounters, from the pastures of a farmer to the realm of man's entire world.

The story is in itself a mechanized apparition, the characters and scenery exisiting inside of an early 20th century nickel arcade and being driven forward by the gears of this machine.

The main character, the innocently created, human like mechanism whose power knows no bounds, thinks of himself as invincible, that no man or spirit could ever overpower him. Yet, the irony is that he himself is only a small part of a greater device, and in this case, a mechanized stage for passers by to waste a nickel in.

This film was shot over many hours at Bent Image Lab over the course of several months in 2008-2009. Animated using stop-motion puppets and sets, then composited together in After Effects, the film has a mixed media presence to it that is accentuated by the machine's own collage like form.

CREDITS:
Film by Rob Shaw

Narrator
Andrea Schuch

Voice recorded by
Angela Poschet

Animators
Rob Shaw
Sarah Hulin

Sound Design
Brian Kinkley

Music
Sirrobrob

Color Correction
Orland Nutt

Additional effects
Fred Ruff

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"Moodbot" for Zune
August 5, 2009

This is a stop-motion music video I directed for the song "Dirty Laundry" by Bittersweet. It took 5 weeks and lot of volunteered time from some awesome sculpters and painters. Everything is practical, aside from a few composited effects.

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TMBG Computer Assisted Design
February 2, 2010

This is the music video I directed for They Might be Giants' latest kid's album. It's a mix of stop motion and CG.

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God Monkey Robot
August 3, 2009

An animated music video for the Apparitions song "God Monkey Robot" directed by Rob Shaw. We mixed stop motion, CG and 2D animation.

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Paper Robotics Feild Test
April 1, 2014

The paper Robotics Institute is dedicated to finding useful real world solutions to modern day problems through paper robotic technology. This field test was conducted in Portland Oregon on March 28th with PRI model X075.

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They Might Be Giants, "I'm Impressed"
September 9, 2009

DIRECTOR Rob Shaw
ANIMATION STUDIO Bent Image Lab bentimagelab.com
MUSIC BY They Might Be Giants

For this music video, Rob Shaw took his robot minions quite seriously. In an early section of the video you'll notice soldier robots popping out of paper sheets and folding themselves into three dimensional shapes. This was actually how each robot was made. Rob Shaw created a design with which he could print out paper cut outs of each robot, which would then be folded into the characters.

Known for his character animation, Shaw used an all paper set and cast of characters in a combination of techniques to create this robot-ruled Rome. You'll notice that many shots were created using 2D techniques, while others utilized 3D paper puppets.

Rob Shaw's music video for the They Might Be Giants song, "I'm Impressed" won a gold plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival.