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In this special effects character creation tutorial, Stan Winston protégé and co-owner of Legacy Effects, John Rosengrant, reveals the history behind the Practical/Digital Hybrid Approach to character creation, and how it has evolved into a staple, cutting-edge method for how to make a monster, alien, or robot truly come to life. From the simplicity of painting out rods to the complex wizardry of combining live-action animatronics and special effects makeup with CGI components, the Hybrid approach enhances the freedom to create when designing creatures and characters, making what was impossible before, possible.

 

 

 

FILMS REFERENCED

  • The Terminator

  • Terminator 2 – Judgment Day

  • Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines

  • Terminator Salvation

  • Skinwalkers

  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

  • Farscape – The Complete Series

  • Who Framed Roger Rabbit

  • Tron

  • Avatar

  • Aliens

  • Predator

  • Jurassic Park

  • Jurassic Park 3

  • Iron Man

  • Iron Man 2

  • A.I. – Artificial Intelligence

  • Galaxy Quest

  • Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter 4)

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5)

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6)

  • The Phantom of the Opera

  • Hellboy

  • Zathura

  • Pan’s Labyrinth

  • Men in Black

  • Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest

  • Big Fish

  • Real Steel

  • Bjork Music Video

  • Robot Commercial

 

 

 

 

Hybrid Characters

The DVD struck me the most by the title "Hybrid Characters", I initially wanted to watch it because the synopsis of the dvd explained how it went into great detail of monster creation, behind the practical. I thought this would be a great way to gain some knowledge and backgound information into an Artist that has a clear understanding of how to create newly designed monsters. 

The main interest to my career is animatronics, and the creativeness behind these creatures. I love design work, and I get truely inspired watching others design and make creatures for films.  It also gives me more knowledge to my project when I am tackling obstacles that may be a struggle. Knowing background information , gives me a bit of an insight to experimenting with various methods, techniques and materials. 

A clip from the DVD, where John Rosengrant talks about how creativity is completely unlimited in the world today. Maybe something that can relate to my SI project, where we get useful and interesting information that is relevant to today's society and today's technology. 

One of my all time favourite films, Before I was given any knowledge to the practical and digital effects in today's industry, It was incredibly inspiring to know how the effects and makeup was demonstrated and applied in Harry Potter. It was amazing to see how technology of today can almost do anything. It has been mentioned on various accounts, that Voldemort ( who featured as the dark lord ) in Harry Potter, had his nose digitally flattened, as practical effects were impossible to use to removed the nose. 

Here are a few print screen images from the DVD of the process of creating the characters from Avatar. 

 

Avatar Concept Designer Reveals the Secrets of the Na'Vi

 

Sculptor and concept artist Jordu Schell breathed life into the Na'Vi, Avatar's blue aliens. He talks about working with James Cameron, the actresses who inspired the lovely Neytiri's look, and why design isn't the most interesting part of Avatar.

We spoke to Jordu Schell of the Schell Sculpture Studio. Schell has done sculpture and conceptual creature designs for numerous films, including Galaxy Quest, Dawn of the Dead, Hellboy, and The Mist, and he brought the Na'Vi to three-dimensional life.

 

 

And how long was the process? How many iterations did you go through?

At first, I started off doing busts of Neytiri, the main female character. And then Jim said, "I want to see a full body of her; I want to see her full physicality." So, I did a full maquette of her, which is roughly about 15 inches tall of her, which will probably be on the DVD and in a book of the making of and all this stuff. But that maquette is what I think really really established me with Jim as somebody important on the team, because I remember very clearly he came into the office I was in and went, "That's her! That's her! That's it! Don't change a thing. That's it." Which, to hear from Jim, is kind of incredible.

Were they at all influenced by any animal in nature, or any other alien in fiction?

I wouldn't say so. I certainly got no reference to go from, other than a whole stack of photos of actresses that he [James Cameron] really liked, not necessarily that he was going to cast in the role, the vocal role or...the motion capture. Not necessarily for the motion capture, but for inspiration in terms of the beauty of a kind of ethnic face. I remember he very much liked the face of a girl named Q'Orianka Kilcher, who starred in The New World, which was a Pocahontas movie with Colin Farrell. But, you know, I had pictures of Mary J. Blige and all these different people on the walls of really beautiful ethnic women.

 

 

Spielberg and Cameron say that making a movie in performance capture is, for the actors, very similar to performing a play. "Motion capture brings the director back to a kind of intimacy that actors and directors only know when they're working in live theater," Spielberg said.

Filming takes place on a spare motion-capture stage called "the volume." Actors wear skin-tight bodysuits with reflective markers; every movement is tracked by an array of more than 100 fixed cameras. There's another specialized head-rig camera to record the actor's face and eyes.

 

 

"The virtual camera is always active," explained "Avatar" producer Jon Landau. Gone is the need for camera and lighting set-ups, makeup retouches and costume fittings. Scenes do not need to be shot repeatedly from different camera angles. Instead, the camera data are fed into a computer that creates a 3-D replica of the actor's every movement, and the director can just add his camera moves -- from any perspective -- digitally.

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