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Review: Tears of Steel (Open Source Film with Blender) "Tears of Steel" – Science Fiction in Open Source

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Tags: Blenderfilmfilm analysisOpen SourceScience FictionTears of Steel

Science Fiction, made with the help of free tools, available to anyone. The free short movie "Tears of Steel" takes the viewer into a world broken by a broken heart.

A young couples argues because he does not like her robot hand
Disliking the spare parts of the girlfriend is a really, really bad idea, licence of the image like the film

Story: Do never break the heart of a robot girlfriend

"Tears of Steel" shows the future, a future like in a Terminator movie. Mankind and robots are fighting grimly. While the war is getting closer, a small group of survivors in a hidden laboratory participate in a bizarre experiment. Their aim: Prevent the war by bringing the emotions of the robot mother in order. The 12 minute short movie is licensed under a free Creative Commons BY of the Blender Foundation. Have fun watching it!

As expected, there are a lot of questions left open: What has happened in the years between the episodes? Will the robots accept the offer of peace? However, the goal of "Tears of Steel" is not answering these questions. It is more about the power of truth in order to hope for peace. Although it is a short movie, the story line is thick and calls for a lot of empathy from the viewer. However, the story is only one side.

Background: Blender, 3D animations for anybody

The star of "Tears of Steel" is technology. Without the robots and futuristic buildings, it would have been impossible to create this atmosphere. Interestingly, the movie was entirely created using the free 3D software Blender in seven months of work by various 3D artists.

Humans fighting robots
Humans versus robots. The old sci-fi story in a new form, license of the image like the film

If the movie made you want to know more about the possibilities of 3D: There is a nice online course on Blender by Neil Hirsig with a lot of exercises and materials. Furthermore, Jonathan Williamson and Andrew Price collect video tutorials on the Blender website.