I’m working on the epilogue for the new DVD release and took a brake to show the bizarre, close proximity I am to what I’m editing.

This has been online for a few weeks, I just forgot to post it on the blog (which is why you should like Bots High on Facebook, because there’s where I post everything first).

It’s from the 2011 BattleBots IQ tournament, which happened last month. 120 lb. open division – last year’s champ Witch Doctor vs. Grasshopper, Jim Smentowski’s robot, who also did BattleBots champ Nightmare. He also runs Robot MarketPlace.

The first video I posted was more of a teaser – the raw footage from Sir Cam-a-bot, my Flip camera crash house. I died laughing when I watched it – it’s like something from a cartoon.

The first video of the full fight was shot in slow motion at 60 fps.

Get all the videos on YouTube.

Check out the brand new trailer for Bots High, the documentary that follows high school kids battle it out with epic robots. I’m going to call this the official trailer, so please post it around!

Vimeo Version

Starbot is pretty much the nerve center of robotics in South Florida. It’s a center that focuses on enabling high schoolers to create whatever they can imagine. Though it’s usually robots, I’ve seen student work on go-karts, R/C cars, art projects, and even a camera dolly (ok, that was me during some down time).

An independent, non-profit organization, it’s great because even if you’re a student at a school that doesn’t have a machine shop (like most schools), you still have the opportunity to get involved with robotics and other cool programs. They even offer a large amount of classes, from welding and mill work, to design methodology and marketing.

Find out more about Starbot by checking out their website.

One of the biggest elements in Bots High is featuring girls build robots and involved in fields that statistically you don’t usually see them in – science and engineering. Two of the three featured teams are all-girls teams (My Mechanical Romance and Mechanical Misfits), and girls play important roles on the other teams as well.

This Short Bit is a clip straight from the film, featuring young girls starting to build robots and Elizabeth and Danielle’s experience in competing at national competitions and being one of the few girls there. It also explains the importance of engineers.

This little sequence above has turned into one of my favorite parts of the film. When I got to Texas for sound designing, they said “We have an idea,” and suggested adding an announcer to this sequence. Coincidentally, the head of the sound studio is also a voice actor and has one of these epic voices.

I was a little hesitant to add a narrator, but he recorded it anyways and I was convinced. Add the campy sound effects and rock music and we’ve got an epic sequence.

I recorded a lot of video of the recording and sound design of this. Check back for it soon.

Tomorrow – off to New York to color time the film! More soon!

Here’s a clip straight from the film – robot battle montage from the beginning at Mayhem in Miami. Bonus points if you can guess what Alain is saying.

Check out the latest Short Bit above, featuring a short but awesome battle between college robots Witch Doctor and Fuchsia Fusion (which was a former Carrollton robot that competed against Teenager in 2009).

I’m setting a goal of releasing a new video every Tuesday, creatively titled Bots High Tuesday. But I’ll be posting them on Facebook first, followed by all the other channels on Wednesday. So if you want to see them as soon as they’re online, become a fan of Bots High on Facebook.

Robot Building Time – Time Lapse Montage from Joey Daoud on Vimeo.

For the past few weeks I’ve been filming time lapse shots of teams building their robots. I set the camera to take one picture every second and when you play it back you get a lot of time condensed. It’s cool to watch stuff built really quickly.

This could very well be a part 1 of 2 as there will only be much more robot building in the week leading up to competition.

The First Adventures of ROFL from Joey Daoud on Vimeo.

ROFL is a BattleBot unlike anything you’ve seen before. It’s described as an angry child having a temper tantrum.

In later adventures, I put a camera in the box with ROFL and let him go at it. Stay tuned for that pretty funny footage.