Markham's Tumbler Thing

It is the year 2327. A sun-bleached Buzz Lightyear wanders the apocalyptic landscape with his old pal Woody. Time has not been kind to Woody - his cloth body long deteriorated, he now relies on Buzz to carry his head as they travel the deserted wastes.

It wasn't the loss of his body that impacted Woody the most. He was lost long before then. It was the loss of his foot that sent him spiraling into depression. The one that carried the name of a long-dead child across the bottom. His sense of identity was lost with that foot.

A dust storm hits. Buzz and Woody seek shelter in a rusted out vehicle the humans had left behind. It was one of the self- driving models, but the AI was far simpler than that of the robots that used to wander the junk lands. They might be able to get it running, with some time.

Time that Buzz did not have. His plastic body far better than Woody's, yes, but his relied on batteries. His had been running low for too long, and the corrosion was getting to his circuits. It was now or never - he would make a deep sacrifice in order to save his friend.

With the last of his energy reserves, he splices into the vehicle's decrepit AI system, wiring it into Woody's plastic skull. He presses the ignition to breathe life into the new Woody, just as his own batteries give off their final gasps. Maybe they will meet again, some day.

Woody awakes, his rusted chassis shuddering with newfound purpose.

"Who... am I?"

He looks around, spotting an overturned produce box in the back of a dilapidated pickup.

"To... mato..."

His wheels begin turning, slowly creeping forward.

Woody swivels around the new appendage mounted on his back, lowering a cold iron hook to get a better look at the box.

This started from an old iAnimate exercise from 2020. I wanted to improve and expand upon the original 7 second project, and still had a couple months left on my old student license for Maya 2019. All character rigs provided by iAnimate. All animation done in Maya 2019 and 2023, and rendered with Arnold For Maya.