RoboCop (2014) | The Humanity in Machine

The RoboCop (2014) is Sci-Fi Film that offer a pleasing mix of technology, and moral and ethical issues. It seems that themes of humanity, law and ethics will sit alongside the action set-pieces, offering hope that this’ll be more than a generic sci-fi.

In this film, Alex Murphy, a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex's life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

The most powerful scene  shows Murphy strapped to a docking station, watches himself being disassembled in a mirror as each mechanical part is removed one by one until all that’s left are his head, lungs and throbbing trachea. in this scene, you’re looking at this guy who is mostly now a machine except for his brain, a portion of his face, and parts of his lungs and hands. Obviously only a full CG takeover of the suit and dock would suffice!

One of the many talented artists working on the film is Igor Knezevic. Knezevic is an award-winning professional designer and architect specialized in creating 3D environments, concept designs and product designs who's worked on big budget films like  X-Men: First Class (2011), In Time (2011) and R.I.P.D. (2013).

Igor Knezevic worked mainly on hi-tech table / machine assembly design used to assemble and disassemble RoboCop in a pivotal scene in the film. It was a combination hi-tech medical table into which RoboCop is "plugged". Then, the whole thing can split apart and disappear into the floor.

“We built it to be as realistic as possible, even to the extent of building a layer of goo above the brain so the light would refract correctly” adds Adrian. There was quite a lot of detailing in how the 3D was put together to make it look as realistic as possible. The first shot in that sequence is particularly hard because of the sheer length of it, the amount of motion and the camera move – it needed all aspects of compositing.” Igor Knezevic explains.

Explains Nordin Rahhali (on the making of this scene) "When RoboCop is fully disassembled there is so little of him left resulting in a lot of negative space.  We put Joel in the scene with Gary Oldman and we shot it.  We brute forced took out his body where we needed to and restored the background.  We did take him out of the suit so we could clearly see his lungs and throat moving.  When we replaced the body digitally and had the view of his lungs we could match them to when Joel was actually breathing and when he spoke his throat was actually moving.  We made a conscious decision that we would for the intimacy of the scene and performances of the actors we wanted them in the scene together.”

RoboCop is a 2014 American science fiction action film directed by José Padilha. It is a remake of the 1987 film of the same name and reboot of the RoboCop franchise. The film stars Joel Kinnaman in the title role, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, and Samuel L. Jackson.