The Drink short film

November 7, 2021 8:51 AM

The Drink, a computer-animated short about a thirsty robot which rivals Hollywood in terms of visual quality and style, produced with the open source graphics program Blender. Oh yeah, it was made by a 14-year old kid, apparently.
posted by mokey (15 comments total)

Holy cow, that's amazing.
posted by The Half Language Plant at 9:07 AM on November 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Clearly inspired by Leonardo diCaprio in his swimming pool in "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood." And the Tin Woodman.
posted by Rash at 9:18 AM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

That's badass. I love Blender and the Blender community, you can see little bits of other blender artists and tutorial makers sprinkled throughout this. I picked pu Blender a year or two ago and it's an incredible program and one of the most satisfying things I've learned in ages. I actually use it occasionally in my graphic design job, today even I threw together a little coffin race to help me get the perspective right, took a minute or two to model. If you're any kind of creative or artist, it might be worth exploring blender, maybe try making the donut, because it's surprising how a little knowledge in the program actually can actually set you in a path to make something The Drink.

Also, if you're not creative, but are really clever with math or programming might be worth exploring Blender. Everything you can do in Blender you can also do without artistic skills in modeling or what have you, I've seen people create beautiful renders and animations basically working exclusively with the node systems.

I'm really happy for the kid who made the OP video, I was struggling to complete cruder, shorter flash animations at that age. I tried 3D back then... but man, it's a very different world. Back then finding 3D tutorials was arcane and we didn't really have youtube tutorials to follow along with, let alone for free with people willing to help along the way. The wealth of resources and knowledge, combined with great accessible tools like Blender out there today is fantastic, the barrier to entry gets lower all the time. Sorry to evangelize an artform and program, but it's just mind-blowing to me still how easy it is today to make amazing 3d models and renders for various uses.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:47 AM on November 7, 2021 [9 favorites]

I'm skeptical of this being the work of a fourteen year old.

"The Drink. Made in Blender."

I take that back.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:49 AM on November 7, 2021 [10 favorites]

This has a kind of early-90s-Pixar-short vibe. Huge kudos to the creator.
posted by gwint at 9:54 AM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Wow, just wow!!!

What a lovely short film. Clever, clear plot and great characterization.
posted by sammyo at 9:56 AM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

it's an incredible program and one of the most satisfying things I've learned in ages

Couldn't agree more, I'm constantly amazed at its flexibility and extensive features, and as you say, all the tutorials on Youtube pretty much mean you can do anything if you've got the time and inclination.
posted by mokey at 9:57 AM on November 7, 2021

Maya and the 3, on Netflix, was made using Blender.

Unfortunately, shortly after production wrapped, the studio shut down putting hundreds of people out of work.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 10:42 AM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ha, a Blender Bender.
posted by y2karl at 10:47 AM on November 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

Clearly inspired by Leonardo diCaprio in his swimming pool in "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood."

So have a fourteen year old Tarantino but for robots. We even got a nice shot of dripping wet robot feet after getting out of the pool.

This really is an amazing job though. I'm super impressed.
posted by Avelwood at 11:15 AM on November 7, 2021

Love this! I also love ESMA for great short animations.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:33 AM on November 7, 2021

That color grading is absolutely gorgeous.
posted by Static Vagabond at 4:17 PM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Loved this! Landgren has a great eye for direction and production design. And a great ear for under-one’s-breath grumbling.
posted by ejs at 6:26 PM on November 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

it's beautiful, yes, very well done.

what stands out because it is so good...

- the first drink is clear, with ice. when finished the ice is gone.

- returning from the store he appears to be driving from the passenger seat.
posted by gkr at 1:41 PM on November 8, 2021

The YT comments point out that the 70s film grain is actually a denoise filter.
posted by credulous at 6:11 PM on November 8, 2021