About "The Works"
"The Works" was a film developed by the New York Institute of Technology's Computer Graphics Lab (or NYIT CGL for short). Starting in 1979 and finally ending in 1986 [1], the lab aimed to use the budding technology of the day to develop the first fully-CGI-animated movie.
The film was produced by NYIT's founder Alexander Shure, who saw potential in computer graphics in filmmaking, and so founded the lab in 1974 and provided it with its cutting-edge technology. The script was written by Lance Williams.
"The principal robot designers and modelers were Lance [Williams], Bil Maher [2], Dick Lundin (designer of the famous robot ant), Ned Greene, and Carter Burwell. Some of the animators were Rebecca Allen and Amber Denker." (from "Brief History of NYIT CGL").
Some good places to read about the NYIT CGL include its Wikipedia page, this excerpt from "CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference" by Terrence Masson, and the article "Light-years Ahead" by Diane DiPiero.
[1] "CGL researchers spent 1979 through 1986 striving to develop the first feature-length 3-D computer animated movie, titled 'The Works.'". ("Out of This World" by Joseph C. Pannetieri)
[2] Here is a link to Bil Maher's archived portfolio site, which is one of the only places I've been able to read about him.
▲ Two Lab members, Cam Macmillan and Alex Hawley, working on an animated sequence. (Click for higher quality. Shared to the Internet Archive by an anonymous source with Ziggy Cashmere.)
Plot
Not much was known about the plot of this film. It apparently followed a humanoid robot named T-Square [3] and a frog-like robot named Ipso Facto.
After the 1978 screenplay was shared online in 2021 by the user Maximized Animation in collaboration with the late Lance Williams' wife, Amber Denker, the full plot was revealed, although it differed from what little details had been shared. (Personally, I think this could be due to a natural tweaking of the plot as time went on.) The script's plot is as follows:
After a supercomputer named The Works wiped out humanity on the Earth during a world war, the only remaining humans live in colonies in asteroid belts. 2,000 years after this war, a strange ship approaches the human city, and a boy named Beeper heads out to confront it. The ship contains Ipso Facto, a robot from the Moon. He recruits Beeper to help him carry out his mission from Selene, a research facility computer on the Moon-- prove to The Works that humanity is still alive, and for humanity to reclaim their long-lost heritage on the Earth from him.
[3] "For example 'T-Square', the robot heroine of the story[...]" ("Inside The Works" by Suzan D. Prince; page 18 of Computer Pictures March/April 1983)
About this Website
My name is Fortis, I'm a young-adult artist in the USA. I became interested in The Works in May 2019 after The Art of Lost and Cancelled Media Twitter shared images from it. I was fascinated by the trailer, and since then I've enjoyed researching it and I want to share as much information about it in one place.
In February 2021, I made a wiki for it on Fandom.com, but it was deleted for inactivity. Now I'm here to make my own website without that threat of deletion! Later in early 2023, I made a Discord server for it, where people have since gathered and shared tons of wonderful new findings together.
From the bottom of my heart, thanks so much to all the artists, researchers, scientists, archivists, and other passionate people who have helped share this movie with the world.
If you want to see fanart and other posts about this movie, I have a blog where I sometimes share about it! You can find it here (link).
I also have a personal website for my own art, linked at the button below.
Site Credits
Material from various official sites & videos includes: the favicon, "The Works" logo (& gif), the side images of Clyde, Ipso, Bulldog, and Panzer; any thumbnails shared on the "Characters" page.
Material created by me based on the official material includes: the backgrounds, the "under construction", "no image", and "shrug" graphics; the site button.
No copyright infringement is intended! This site is made for informative and entertainment purposes, without intention to profit off it. Please e-mail me if you need me to take anything down at lucidlunarbeast @ gmail . com.