If you weren’t a fan of Matthew McConaughey’s brooding lead in Interstellar, then the obvious highlight of the movie wasTARS, the 70 percent funny army-surplus robot that accompanies him through space and time. This replica, made for Seattle Comic Con, honestly looks better than the real thing.
Iain Heath, the creator, pieced together an enthralling making-of that shows exactly what went into creating TARS 2.0. The basic structure doesn’t seem too challenging: two wooden rectangles, hinged together recreate the walking motion.
But it’s the technological attention to detail that really brings this little robot to life. Two iPads replicate TARS’s command-line readout (side note: I loved how the film resisted the temptation for another fancy UI; DOS is all you need to get to space), and Heath also installed a camera for forwards visibility, and sound effects for maximum authenticity. [YouTube]
