Behind the Scales: Smaug, Benedict, and Motion Capture

Okay, so as a Lord of the Rings fan, I was discussing The Hobbit (both movies), with a few friends this week. During our discussion, we brought up how amazing Andy Serkis is as an actor bringing Gollum to life through motion capture. I have always been fascinated by motion capture and the capabilities that animators have when it comes to making a character come alive. However, I always suspected that the only way motion capture worked was with humanoid forms. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the character of Smaug in the Hobbit, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was brought to life on the basis of Benedict's performance in a motion capture suit! The endless possibilities that motion capture has opened for an actor's performance is incredible. This link is to a video about Peter Jackson's and Benedict Cumberbatch's opinions on the character and performance side of things.

What really took my breath away was the description of the animation from WetaDigital. Not only did they have control over the smallest details in the dragon's face (the throat, eyelids, nostrils), they had to take the time to bring Benedict Cumberbatch's human performance and translate it into a believable, fierce dragon. Seeing as human anatomy and physiology is very different from what a dragon's would be, I can't even imagine the challenge this created. Yet, they pulled it off splendidly. One of the things I love about the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is the incredible detail that they put into creating these films. Everytime you watch them, you encounter something new that you never noticed before and it is because they take the time to create those details most people would just shrug off. For example, there are one million scales on the character of Smaug and each one was created unique. They aged Smaug with flaking skin and scars that added to the depth and believability of the character. We may not catch all this detail consciously when we watch it, but subconsciously we realize that this is not just an animal, but a clever being with a past because of the detailed and careful animation. Right down to the reptilian eyelids and the preemptive glow of spouting fire, Smaug is a completely defined character and creature. This link is a video of their description of how they created Smaug. Notice how they started with the bone structure and built all the way up to the skin layer by layer. Amazing!

Amber Capogrossi

Greenscreen or GreenScam?

So over Winter Break I finally got to see the first part of the Lord of the Rings precursor series The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Now being a big fan of the original trilogy of the Lord of the Rings, I had high expectations for this Peter Jackson production after all of the the first series was such a huge success and best produced movie series in a long time in my opinion.

Back on target now, the first Hobbit movie was nearly three hours long and I could not have been anymore let down and depressed at what I had just seen. The script was just flat out boring and bland but what got to me most was that the special effects looked so overdone. The one thing that made the original trilogy so well done and having grossed over two billion dollars in revenue since the release was the groundbreaking special effects. Watching the Hobbit, I feel really bad having to say it but they dropped the ball big time.

Now I did not see The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug because I was so upset at the first part so I do not know first hand if the design team dusted themselves off and got back on the bike but this is sadly what is happening more commonly in Hollywood pictures nowadays.

Hobbit Post Production and green screening techniques

I have been following this series of production videos for some time but have not yet posted one to this blog. The video below is part 12 of a mini series that goes behind the scenes of the Hobbit shooting. This provides a glimpse of what it is like on a major motion picture set, a set that contains a lot of green screening. When watching this video I was shocked as to how much green screen work there actually was. Not only were backgrounds green screened but entire environments, theres a scene where Gandalf and Radagast were talking to each other in an entire green screen environment. So everything from the lighting, the background, foreground and other various elements would all be added later. There are several video segments where you get to see the original shot before the post production and then after, and so much of this movie is touched up in post production its unbelievable. While clearly post production CGI effects have their place, movies such as the Hobbit take this to a whole new level. There are minimal actual scene objects and environments, even peoples weapons and faces are covered in green to be added later. Theres a scene where the actors are supposed to be fighting spiders but the original shot shows nothing but them swinging swords around, this means the CGI battle must be matched to their movements in the original shot which In my opinion is rather impressive. Anyway, enough of my analysis and enjoy the video that I have posted below.

The Hobbit

It's finally here! The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey is now in theaters for everyone to experience and enjoy. I've been a Lord of the Rings fan since the first movies came out back in 2000, and have read the books twice since then (as well as any other readings that Tolkien and his son have offered). I was one of the few millions who went out and saw it at the midnight release and I can happily say that it does not disappoint. One issue I had was that I saw it in 3D and was forced to sit in the front row due to the theater being packed; so I unfortunately am not a good judge of whether or not the 48 FPS that everyone is talking about is a good or bad thing. The 3D was certainly a cool feature however, and I would like to see it again from a better perspective! The story holds up incredibly well. Peter Jackson does an absolutely faithful representation of the books through his movies, and that still holds true for the Hobbit. It is a little goofier than the original Lord of the Rings were, but that was expected, as the Hobbit is a more kid-friendly story to begin with. The effects are stunning as well. There is more magic this time around and fantastical elements that Jackson seems to rely more on green screen and digital animation. The video above shows how they work in the green screen technology as well as the new RED 3D camera systems. It's really interesting to see how goofy everything looks in real life, but is translated to look gritty and realistic in the film. This is in no way a bad thing either.  The story is now framed as a tale being told to Frodo by Bilbo; which I feel justifies a lot of the more ridiculous and animated moments as exaggerations to the story. An Unexpected Journey is to be followed by two more movies, The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again.

Here's a link to the official Blog for the movies:

http://www.thehobbitblog.com/

Please, do yourself a favor and go see this movie,

And good luck everyone with finals and have an awesome break!

The work to make Gollum

So I love Lord of the Rings and Matt's post a while ago reminded me how much cool stuff is in those movies. I'm going to talk about Gollum.

So first of all, Andy Serkis is a pretty fantastic actor. Second of all, the amount of planning and foresight on Peter Jackson's part to put all of the Gollum scenes together is crazy. They at least shoot every scene three times: Once with everyone in the scene, once with just Sam and Frodo (or whoever is in the scene with Gollum), and then once with Andy Serkis alone on a blue screen using motion capture. The motion capture process is also really cool.

So many steps go into the process of making a character like Gollum. They use the real footage as a guide for the animators but they make decisions regarding the shaping of Gollum's character and his mannerisms and such. Ultimately they did a fantastic job integrating Gollum into the film. He is such a vital character, one that couldn't have been realistically portrayed through just makeup and costume, and the animation was spot on.

The Adventures of TinTin

I was watching football this morning and I saw a preview for “The Adventures of TinTin” and thought the animation looked amazing. I did some research and read a lot of many people were looking forward to seeing the film because of the hype from said animation. I found this video about the behind the scenes making of the film, and it goes into some detail bout the technology used to create such amazing visuals. I thought the video was especially interesting because it gives a short background about how many people involved in the film were fans of the original animations of TinTin, and now with groundbreaking technology they are able to bring to live their childhood memory or TinTin.