67 / 116
067
of performance capture, which broke the
methodology of how this is done.The problem
is that when you are getting performance
capture, the actors are bound by gravity, by the
real energy of being in a real space, the real
topography.Yet if you start key-frame animating
at that transition, they suddenly start looking a
bit more likeThe Amazing Spider-Man.They just
have that little bit more elasticity because it is
very hard to perfectly recreate those things. So
in this movie we decided to use stunt people to
do all of those tricky stunts, and we hired parkour
guys. Now, the guys who can do parkour can
do amazing things.They defy gravity; they are
incredible. But if we had them just do it exactly
the way they do it in real life, it would seem as
though the apes knew human parkour, which
would look really weird! SoTerry had this training
camp where he trained these guys to do parkour
as apes. So we had like ape parkour, which was
bizarre! But all of these things add to the reality
of the film because there is real performance
capture for virtually all of what you are seeing.
Apparently theApes films were something
of an obsession for you growing up?
Yes, I was obsessed with
Planet of the Apes
and
I was introduced to it by the television show,
which somebody recently told me had only
been on air for three months.That surprised me,
because my memory of it was that it lasted most
of my childhood – it was that important to me!
And because of that, a series of dolls came out
and I had all the dolls and the tree house and
the records. I had all of that merchandise.
That became my entry into all of the movies.
I saw
Planet of the Apes
, which is my favourite,
but
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
also really
terrified me – when the guys take off their faces
and they are praying to the bomb. I thought, ‘this
is pretty terrifying stuff’. So I am a huge fan of
the franchise. When I saw
Rise of the Planet
of the Apes
, I was really excited by it because
I thought, ‘Well, they have found a way to
re-enter this universe but in a way that is more
emotional, from a different point
of view.’ Without remaking any
of the films, it was a way into
that world again, and I thought
that was really exciting.
Bringing the physical
out of the digital
The CaesarWarrior Collection bust byWetaWorkshop
Dawn of the
Planet of the
Apes
is out on
November 19
Photo credit: Steve Unwin. Weta Workshop
On 19 November this year, a very special Blu-ray box set is
being released by 20th Century Fox.
The Planet of the Apes -
Caesar’s Warrior Collection
contains all eight films made in
the ‘Apes’ universe since the original
Planet of the Apes
in
1968. All presented in stunning High Definition and packaged
inside the base of a limited edition bust of Caesar – leader of
the apes and the central character of the new movies.
The exclusive bust was created in New Zealand as a
collaboration between the Academy Award-winning teams
at Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, famous for their design,
manufacturing and digital visual effects work on
The
Lord of the Rings
,
King Kong
,
Avatar
and many other
international blockbusters.
Weta Digital have received great acclaim for bringing
the apes to life in this year’s
Dawn of the Planet of the
Apes,
and received an Oscar nomination for their work
on
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
in 2012.
Since 2001, Weta Workshop has created several
hundred pieces of high end limited edition collectible
sculpture, treasured by many thousands of movie fans
and collectors across the world. To ensure absolute
authenticity and to safeguard the artistic values of the film,
at Weta, it’s always the artists working on the movie who
subsequently create the collectibles.
The challenge of bringing the bust of Caesar from the
digital realm to the physical was therefore presented to
current Weta Digital (and formerly Weta Workshop) veteran
Gino Acevedo, who started at Weta Workshop to work on
make-up and prosthetics for
The Lord of the Rings,
and has
gradually made the transition from physical textures to digital.
Gino was hand-picked to bring his extensive knowledge of
anatomy and physical make-up effects to Weta Digital.
As the digital model of Caesar was already created for
the movie, the first step was to transfer this into a physical
medium. Gino explains the process: “When a digital 3D model
is created, it’s done without any hair, so before the bust was
handed over to Weta Workshop, the incredibly talented Weta
Digital modeller Florian Fernandez added the hair to the model
as well as some of the subtle character of Caesar.” A slightly
raised eyebrow, a squint, a twitch in the corner of his mouth.
What would be done by the animators for the movie
is the same process used to bring an accurate and
neutral digital model to life.
“Once we’d sent the files over to Weta Workshop,
digital sculptor Lindsey Crummett kept refining the hair
in ZBrush,” Gino continues. “It was then printed out by
Weta Workshop’s 3D modelling and manufacturing
department. Too big to be printed in one piece,
several pieces were printed, joined together and cleaned up.
“A mould was made and a plasticine copy was cast,
ready for sculptor Brigitte Wuest to further add subtle
detail to the hairline and make sure Caesar’s hair looked
natural and believable. Hair is one of the hardest elements
to perfect in any project,” Gino explains.
While the sculpture was being refined, Weta Workshop
model maker Dave Tremont started work on the base of the
bust that contains the drawer where the discs are stored.
When all elements had been married up and the concept
approved by the studio and filmmakers, the colourless
sculpt was entrusted to painting room supervisor Sourisak
Chanpaseut to apply colour and war paint.
“Weta Digital provided detailed paint schemes and
textures of the crackles in the war paint on Caesar’s face
to ensure absolute authenticity,” Gino says. The final
result is nothing short of stunning.
There is no way you can walk past this bust without
doing a double-take. It is just about full scale – during our
interview we compared a prototype of the bust to an adult
male chimpanzee skull in Gino Acevedo’s extensive collection
of bone references. Coincidentally, one of the same skulls
that were originally used to create the digital model.
Movie creatures have come a long way since 1968
and it’s satisfying to the artists of both Weta Workshop and
Weta Digital when a collaboration bridges the gap between
the digital and the physical, and it can be shared with movie
fans and collectors.
Gino and the rest of the team hope that these
busts will make it into many movie collections, and that
the uncannily realistic face of Caesar will scowl at fans of
Planet of the Apes from the shelves at JB Hi-Fi.