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Alien Vs. Predator proved to be a worldwide success, and Fox immediately approved a sequel; whereas Amalgamated Dynamics returned for the creature effects, Paul W.S. Anderson was instead replaced by Brothers Colin and Greg Strause, who took on their first role as directors. In the story, the Alien bursted from the corpse of Scar (recreated as a featureless dummy) sneaks onto a scout Predator ship, wreaking havoc and causing it to crash on Earth. Its first victims are three Predators, whose designs largely recycle models built for the precedent film. The ‘Predalien’ also ‘skins’ them, leaving their corpses hanging from the ceiling of the ship (a decision — supposedly — brought by the studio executives); those were recolored and hidden in post-production. Before dying at the hands of the ‘Predalien’, one of the Predators sends a distress signal; another Hunter receives said signal and decides to investigate on it. The new Predator was labeled by the directors as Wolf — after the homonim character in Pulp Fiction, due to his function of ‘cleaner’. Played again by Ian Whyte, it is supposed to be an elite, extremely experienced Hunter, who has underwent many missions before the events of the film.
Wolf head maquette by Steve Wang, showing the burn.
Following the directors’ specific instructions, ADI once again redesigned the Predator. As opposed to the muscular, comic-inspired Predators of the first film, Wolf returned to a slimmer configuration — more akin to the original Winston design. “We were adamant about creating a new, unique Predator,” the Strause brothers said. “With a physique and features that reflected the original films — and the Wolf achieved that in spades.” The directors found the Predators from the previous film too disproportioned, and tried to use Whyte as a performer as much as possible; with only one main Predator, its proportions were based strictly on the performer’s. The Predator’s head features, however, a new configuration: a flatter face, proportionally bigger mouth and mandibles, as well as two single upper canines. “We wanted to re-proportion the face,” said Woodruff in the Inside the Monster Shop book, “giving the brov a more cunning, sweptback angle, like a predatory cat.” To add a visual clue of the Predator’s past fights with Aliens, the left side of its face is plagued by a considerable acid burn, which has almost completely consumed the creature’s upper left mandible, and blinded its left eye (which was re-colored in post-production). This aspect was inspired by ‘Broken Tusk,’ the Predator character from the original AvP comic book story, Prey. Colin Strause explained the connection: “One of the cool things was — we wanted, y’know — to give a little throwback to the comic book fans, so that’s why we kind of did the Broken-Tusk type of idea, with the melted off mandible.”
The concept art piece with the whip, which inspired its inclusion in the film.
The Predator’s mask was heavily inspired by the City Hunter from Predator 2‘s. Added to that basic outline were a grey, stone-like color scheme and texture, as well as thorns and marks on its forehead plate; it is unknown whether those marks have any ritual or religious meaning akin to the Alien symbol drawn by the Predators of the first film. As Wolf is an experienced hunter — to the point where it tries to shoot Aliens at point blank — the directors wanted his wrist blades to be shorter, and his body to be less covered in armor. In addition to dual shoulder cannons, the spear, the collapsible buzz saws and said wrist blades, the Predator comes with a new paraphernalia: a ‘power-gauntlet’ — housed in the left forearm — that allows enhanced strength packed in a single punch, claymore mines, a dissolving liquid (all designed by Chris Howe), and a razor whip. The last was in particular the key weapon of Wolf — who wraps it around enemies to slice parts of them off. It was not originally scripted; Colin Strause said: “the whip was actually… that was one of the really cool surprises that ADI brought to the table. In one of the first meetings, all of us started looking at this one design at the same time, which was a Predator whip. All of us, the light bulb went on, ‘We gotta have that. This has to be in our movie’; and we wrote it into the film after just seeing it on that design.”
ADI built a hero suit and a stunt suit, composed of the body and all the armor parts, which could be put on and taken off. As per the precedent film, this Predator is never shown with the original mandible closure. In a manner similar to the insert ‘talking’ Predator bust from Predator 2, the Wolf Predator’s eyes are not contact lenses, but rather fully animatronic elements, in order to give the character a more beast-like, and less humanoid vibe. This mechanical design choice was also dictated by the outline of the Predator’s head. Alec Gillis, in his commentary for the film, stated that the intention was also to make them more visible in the darkness — like a predatory cat’s.
For more images of the Predator, visit the Monster Gallery.
Next: Part V: Predators [COMING SOON]
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Over 18 years after Predator 2, after the two crossover films, a new Predator film was made — produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimrod Antal; the project saw the light after a long pre-production hell, which had lasted since the completion of the first script draft in 1994. As it was once passed to them, Amalgamated Dynamics passed the creature effects torch to Gregory Nicotero’s KNB Efx. Unclear in its position in the series, Predators introduces a whole new kind of Predators, labeled at one point during production as ‘Black Super Predators’. In the film, the difference between the new kind and the ‘Winston’ Predators is compared to that “between wolves and dogs.”
The implication is that the new Predators are more feral, imposing and most of all stronger than the others. “Robert Rodriguez, when we first started the project, used a really great analogy”, explained Nicotero, “He said the classic Predator is a cassette tape, and the new Predators are the iPod version; so, that kind of triggered a lot of visual things in my head, in terms of making them taller, making them sleek and keeping the armor really close to the body. So that they are not bulky — because we wanted to get the idea that they are fast — and that they are elegant, and that they are efficient. Even in terms of stuff like the dreadlocks and the classic Predator come out and give them that kind of Rasta look, but we swept all the dreadlocks back. We made the face a lot longer. We just wanted everything about him to look more elegant, like a black widow. We wanted it to just be really deadly looking.” At one point in production, it was suggested to show female Predators in the film; various concept art pieces by Michael Broom testify this. The idea was ultimately discarded.
‘Falconer’.
The new species, or subspecies, of Predators — whose final designs were conceived by John Wheaton — retains the basic design outline, but otherwise applies some significant changes. There is a new, seemingly less complex and more adherent armor style; metallic, 3-toed boots are attached to their legs. All the Predators have a single, extendable scimitar-like blade on their right forearm gauntlet — similar to that of the Chopper Predator from Alien Vs. Predator, but attached differently. Interestingly enough, none of the new creatures wear the netting typical of the other designs. The Predators also display new textures and color schemes, inspired by various reptiles. Similarly to Alien Vs. Predator, three of these creatures appear in the film as antagonists — each with their own, distinct visual characteristics that aid in differentiating them as characters.
From left to right: ‘Berserker’, ‘Falconer’, and ‘Tracker’.
Of the three Predators, only ‘Berserker’ unveals its face, to roar in victory in front of the defeated enemy. It is here that the differences between the two Predator kinds becomes most evident. The ‘Berserker”s head is generally more elongated, with the dreadlocks moved further back, and devoid of the ‘thorned crown’ that adorned the edges of the forehead in the ‘Winston’ designs. Interesting to note is the ‘bas-relief’-esque quality of the skin, with what seem to be multiple, overlapping layers. Yet again, the Predator is not shown with the proper mandible closure. The animatronic head was enhanced with digital imagery in post-production.
‘Tracker’.
In early script drafts, the new Predators’ blood was black, as opposed to the original glowing green. This was due to the intention to show that they genetically experimented on themselves to ‘evolve’ into better Hunters. Both ideas would ultimately be discarded in the final film: the blood was a slightly different shade of green, and the ‘evolutions’ were limited to the Hunters’ weaponry and armor — as exposed through dialogue in the film.
The ‘Berserker’ and ‘Baltimore’ Predators were played by 6’8″ tall veteran creature performer Brian Steele, whereas the ‘Tracker’ Predator was played by 6′ 7″ tall Carey Jones. When two or more Predators were to appear together in the film, stunt performers were used and made as tall as Steele — again — via camera tricks.
Among the numerous homages to the original film, Predators also features a design recreation of the original Hunter. KNB Efx was aided in the objective by Stan Winston Studios member Shannon John Shea. Labeled by the crew as the ‘Classic’ predator, it is undoubtely a very faithful attempt at reproducing the first ‘Winston’ Predator; it is not, however, an exact copy of that design: among other cosmetic differences, the skin displays lighter color schemes; yet again, it is unable to close the mandibles as the original creature (and seems to be unable to close its own mouth).
Interestingly enough, his –damaged — mask features a more angular outline. Performer Derek Mears, who plays the ‘Classic’ Predator (and the ‘Tracker’, as a stuntman in certain scenes) and whose body the mould was based, is 6’3″ tall — but, in contrast with the work done for the mentioned character, was not filmed with camera tricks making it appear taller. This omission resulted in the ‘Classic’ Predator appearing just slightly taller than 6′ tall Adrien Brody — far shorter than the towering 7’2,50″ original performer Kevin Peter Hall.
For more images of the Predators, visit the Monster Gallery.
For more information on the Predators’ hounds, read the article [COMING SOON].
For more information on the ‘River Ghost’, read the article [COMING SOON].
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Jako’s Hellhound concept.
Monster Legacy had the pleasure to interview a freelance, overlooked creature designer — Mate Jako!
Monster Legacy: A more personal question first. What inspired you to become a concept artist?
Mate Jako: Well, for a lot of artists you read, their main inspirations are usually comic books, fine art, or cartoons, and they are great, but the main trigger in my life that launched me towards art was monsters. As a child I loved “scary movies”. I still remember myself watching Arnold Scwharzenegger’s Conan slaying that horrendous-faced wizard — created by Carlo Rambaldi if I’m right — from behind my dad’s armchair for protection. Or no matter how scary the transformations in The Thing were, you could not look away. Monsters are extremely commanding and expressive.
As a result, I always wanted to know how they were made. In Hungary though — where I’m from — it was very hard to access this kind of information. People didn’t even know what special effects were. Then, while I was still in this age, something happened: I read an article about Stan Winston about his work on Jurassic Park in a magazine called Cinema. Within the magazine there was a double page of him standing in his display room. As a lot of your readers already know the Predator was there, Terminator on the other side, one of the Alien from Aliens, and as I kept reading I realized that this one man was responsible for all the creation of those creatures I loved so much in all those movies. Then I saw the title under his name: creature designer. And I was like: I wanna be that!
That desire is very much present within my work to this day. And even though I’m not a special effects artist, horror and beauty, as two lovers, define what I do.
Jako’s own interpretation of Cthulhu.
Monster Legacy: Who are, in your opinion, the most inspirational creature designers and artists in the industry?
Mate Jako: What a tough question. There are so many. Well, if I have to mention a couple of names whose work I really like and influence me, they have to be Neville Page, Steve Wang, Greg Broadmore, Mark “Crash” Mcreery, Miles Teves, Carlos Huante, David Meng, and Simon Lee. And the list goes on and on!
The reason why I love these artists and craftsman more than any others is because even if they work digitally their primary approach is — almost every time — traditional. These people understand art and they use that knowledge and experience to push forms, and shapes in the most creative and unusual ways possible. I want to be like that, but I have to learn a lot more.
With Carlos Huante, who is a lovely, incredibly generous guy, we had an art hot line a couple of years ago, and he went even that far that he told me that he liked my work and gave me tips to improve it, and pointed out the mistakes I have made. I was speechless. That is one of the blessings of the internet: you can talk to your heroes.
Monster Legacy: What do you think are the most effective Monster designs you have seen in films?
Mate Jako: Human like ones. I’m sure that a lot of people would disagree with me on this — but in order to create good design you need to understand how the human mind works. You can create a huge alien with tentacles, and a big massive red mouth, like a flesh eating plant, and make it completely surreal, it will be creative I’m sure! But scary? I don’t think so.
The human body is not only a beautiful design, but by adding human elements to a creature your mind recognizes parts of the design, while disassociates with others (human head, flesh eating flower mouth, for instance). And that clash in your mind creates the fright! Just check the list out: Godzilla, Alien, Predator, The Thing, Wolfman… You take the human element away and they become much less emotionally involving.
Jako’s interpretation of Nyarlathothep — the messenger of gods in Lovecraft’s mythos.
Monster Legacy: How do you approach a creature design?
Mate Jako: First thing to set down when you create any kind of artwork as commission — not only creature designs — is figuring out what is that the client wants. Then you start to pour in your own ideas. It’s great to go up there on the internet and look for animal reference photos. Do your research! A year or two ago I had to create orcs for a fantasy video game called Fantasy Dynasty. The French based game developer was lovely, because they were opened for a lot of ideas, but they were very hard to reach so I had to figure things out myself. I knew I wanted to leave the huge bulky orc designs behind from other games, and create something more original. In the end they loved my designs so much that they created this other species of orcs called “swamp orcs”.
It was a great experience, and a proof that sometimes you just have to go with your gut instincts. I also have seen designers just being so good that they start to doodle and something fantastic happens on the paper. I’m not like that. But I’m also quite lucky because when a client gives me the brief and tells me what is the creature about, I usually have an image in my head of what is going to happen.
Monster Legacy: What is your preferred technique for your illustrations?
Mate Jako: Traditional techniques. Don’t get me wrong, I love digital tools, and digital art makes the process so much faster in several cases, but in 98% of my work I start with the traditional approach. That means pencil, and paints on paper. You can create anything if you have a solid knowledge of traditional materials. What I usually do, depending on the deadline, is — I create a pencil sketch, or a full render, scan it in and either finish the design with digital platforms using Photoshop or Painter, or in some cases fix the designs using the same tools.
If you were wondering that if I ever worked or want to work with 3D softwares my answer is, I love it. Those are amazing toys (for example look at what Aaron Sims and his team create with them), and I’m not saying that that’s never going to happen, but for now I’m more interested to create creature designs and images with a more “fine art”-ish approach.
Monster Legacy: Could you talk about your involvement with the independent film project titled P.O.V.?
Mate Jako: P.O.V. is the second project I worked on with award winning short filmmaker and published author Richard Anthony Dunford. It is a horror feature looking to complete filming and post production in mid 2014. The film itself is very crazy and unique in that every second is seen directly through the eyes of the lead character.
It is a very interesting and intense way of approaching fear as a subject matter. I was responsible for providing concept art/creature and make-up design for the feature. A little something that establishes atmosphere and a look for the movie. Considering that the creatures are the stars in the movie, that is not a small undertaking.
“I decided early on that the demon would have no eyes, because in ancient cultures evil entities don’t have any to symbolise a lack of soul.”
Monster Legacy: Could you talk about your Kruhaxitan designs?
Mate Jako: The Kruhaxitan designs were created for a previous project I have been involved with Richard and his team, called Sex Tape. Unfortunately, we don’t really know if that film still going to happen or not, so I guess I can talk about it a little.
When Richard first contacted me, they told me that they wanted a vicious demon coming back from hell for taking revenge. Since I did not have any further guidelines, but I knew that they wanted to use a practical approach to bring the creature to life, my first design was very human-like. I tried to keep it simple, considering the limited budget, and it could have been easily achieved with body suits and make-up.
They liked the design but they wanted something more hound-like, so that was the direction I was going to. I decided early on that the demon would have no eyes, because in ancient cultures evil entities don’t have any to symbolise a lack of soul. I created all the designs during two afternoons. Due to the lack of time, they are far from perfect, but it was for more of a first direction — and they loved them. Especially the second one, which would have been further developed if the movie got the greenlight.
Monster Legacy: Do you have other projects you are currently working on?
Mate Jako: One film related project that I recently created was movie poster for a short movie called Incognito, directed by Jeremiah Quinn. Nothing creature-related at the moment, apart from my personal dream project, a macabre fairy tale book for grown-ups that I am writing and illustrating. The process is not fast, since I’m doing a lot of other things as well, but that is how I work I guess.
Monster Legacy: What kind of creature you would love to design for a film?
Mate Jako: There is not really a creature I would like to design really, but I’d love working with Guillermo del Toro! He understands creature design, he knows what he wants yet very opened for new ideas. But as it is, I’m still very much at the beginning of my journey as an artist. Who knows what the future might bring?
In Predators, the group of stranded characters, lost in the alien jungle, stumbles upon a cage with molt skin and insectoids crawling on it. Later in the film, they discover an agile creature running through the woods, and decide to take it down using Edwin as a bait for it. The creature is killed, but not by the sniper shot — rather, by Noland, a survivor of previous hunting sessions. The corpse of the creature is seen crawling with the same insectoids seen in the cage earlier in the film.
The creature was originally conceived to display the unused Hunter, designed and built for Predator by Boss Film Studios — but ultimately discarded. Eventually, however, it was decided, at one point in production, to make the creature a completely original design. The alien was labeled by the crew as ‘River Ghost’, due to the scripted scene that featured it in one of the early drafts for Predators; in contrast with the final film, the creature is discovered near a river shore — and is so agile to appear to the characters like a ghost, or an apparition.
The creature’s role was shrunk in the final film, compared to earlier drafts: it was originally supposed to play a more substantial part, stalking the characters for a good portion of the film — to the point where they begin to believe it was responsible for taking them to the alien reserve; not in case, the creature is also known as ‘red herring’. Another label was ‘Ram Runner’, due to how the performer in the suit ran on set.
Concept art by John Wheaton.
As per the other practical creature effects of the film, the River Ghost was brought to life by Greg Nicotero’s KNB Efx. Due to a short production schedule, concept artist John Wheaton could only complete two concept designs (seen above): the scenes with the River Ghost were the first special effects sequences to be shot during production. The first design imperative for the River Ghost was that it had to be as distant from the Predator design as possible — so that the audience would not confuse the two in any way. Generally, Wheaton wanted the creature to be tall and insectoid, with an external, segmented carapace on its surface. Two other Monster designs also served as an inspiration: the erosive Guvyer from the Guvyer films, and the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth. “I loved the exoskeleton look,” Nicotero told AvPGalaxy, “and the bone protrusions on the shoulder so we mimicked that along with some Metaluna Mutant colour schemes.” Due to its influences, the creature was also sometimes referred to as the Guvyer alien.
The head. Notice the lack of eyes, and the sensory organ housed in the forehead.
Due to time issues, the design process went directly from concept art to final, full-sized suit sculpture. The River Ghost was sculpted by Mike O’Brien, Garrett Immel and Gino Crognale, and took over 10 days to complete. Many different textures were detailed onto the sculpture — which O’Brien wanted to appear as “very organic in appearence.” The team used crustacean carapaces, as well as rocks, portions of bark and animal bones as reference for the texture on the creature’s surface. The schedule was not detailed, and O’Brien put a lot of effort into detailing the suit, making it “ready for anything.”
Much of the final design was actually estabilished during the full-size sculpture stage. The final head design features no eyes, and suggested cheekbones and eyeholes. The forehead houses a sensory organ, protected by a movable bone. It is unclear what actual purpose it serves. Due to the fact the sculpture was based on a life cast of the performer (Carey Jones, who also played the ‘Tracker’ Predator in the film, and was recommended by Nicotero) the proportions were also altered: the creature’s limbs and body were made thicker and more muscular, as opposed to the thin, insectoid anatomy of the concept designs. In particular, the arms and finger joints were shortened of about half their original length.
The final arms feature elongated, bony, clawed fingers. Nicotero’s intention was for the creature to hold its hands against its chest, making the fingers appear as false ribs. When the creature is about to attack, it unfolds and stretches its arms — in a somehow alien manner, something not quite shown in the film — to strike at its prey. The long, “vicious” claws would be revealed “almost like switch blades,” Wheaton said.
Moulded in foam latex, the creature was finally painted by Casey Love. Again, due to time and budget reasons, only one hero suit was built, along with a stunt head (whose mouth was moved by the performer) and fully mechanical hands, as well as stunt hands. The creature’s plantigrade legs were replaced in post-production with more insectoid, digitigrade legs with a particularly elongated metatarsal section. A digital model was sculpted in zBrush by Magdalena Dadela.
About half an hour was needed for Jones to fit inside the suit. At the same time thicker and tighter on the performer compared to the ‘Tracker’ Predator, it proved to be a more challenging performance for Jones. The hands, due to the finger extensions, were complex to maneuver — and the mask design fundamentally made Jones perform completely blind. Whilst acting inside the suit, he kept the mindset of a creature hijacked from its own world and taken to an environment completely unrecognizable to it; the River Ghost had to move like a savage beast — when chasing Edwin, Jones acted like there was no obstacle between the creature and its target — its only objective was to capture him. To its dismay, it never did.
For more images of the River Ghost, visit the Monster Gallery.
‘Skitter’ is the name used colloquially to label the eight-limbed extraterrestrial creatures in Falling Skies. Thought by many to be those responsible for the invasion of Earth, they are actually the enslaved subordinates of another sentient race — the ‘Overlords’ — whom hijacked them from their home world, and used biotechnological ‘harnesses’ to control them. It is unknown whether the harnesses structurally alter the creatures — in a similar manner to the effects they display on the harnessed human children — or not. The Skitters are nocturnal, and communicate through specific radio waves; their weakness is the absence of a palate bone, making a direct strike at the brain relatively easy. When inactive, they lay hanging from ceilings.
Court Chu’s almost final rendering of the Skitter. It was from here that MasterSFX elaborated the final, practical design.
The original concept art for the Skitters is credited to designer Ryan Church; sent to Todd Masters’ MasterSFX, it was then used as a starting point for more elaborated and refined concept art studies, by Court Chu. The basic concept of a multi-legged reptilian creature remains, with the final design combining humanoid traits with elements from arthropods and reptiles. What the artist did was “a reworking of the original concept supplied by the production,” Masters said. “We couldn’t tweak it too much, but Court rocked out several amazing versions to dial in this species’ overall look.”
The head of a Skitter features multiple insect-like mandibles, as well as two feeler-like appendages — something suggested by series producer Steven Spielberg. This configuration was conceived to convey the creatures’ emotive range, as well as have an innovative element to it. “We were going through how the skitter’s mouth could be different and emotive,” said DreamWorks Television co-president Justin Falvey, to the New York Post. “and Steven picked the way the mouth opens and retracts. It has an element of a vertical opening and closing which is [coherent with his] constant note of ‘make it feel like a creature we haven’t seen before’.” In general, the Skitters were to be grotesque and threatening, but at the same time emotive and relatable with. “If you design something to look mean, it’s hard for it to ever look un-mean,” Masters told Entertainment Weekly. “If you design something to look happy, it’s hard to make that transition to be full-on mean. We wanted a design that could go to both ranges.” Other changes to the final design, applied to convey this idea, were the eyes — enlarged and darker in comparison with the original design — and the facial structure, made less “skeletal” than before.
One of the Skitter suits, filmed in front of a blue screen.
The multiple legs were originally more crustacean-esque in their appearence — but were eventually changed with pad-like feet, which end in three, prehensile fingers. “At the end of their long spider legs, we had these pointy crab-leg tips,” said Masters. “We changed those to three-fingered hands, so they could grab stuff.” They were also modified in order for the creature to maneuver them more organically and with more dexterity. “The original skitters didn’t move that well,” Masters said. “The legs kind of crashed into each other.” This was due to the design being originally used in a digital environment, as opposed to a physical one. Masters continues: “Sometimes when you build something in a digital environment where you don’t have to deal with physics, you don’t realize that this arm is gonna crash into that arm.” Andrew Orloff, co-founder of Zoic Studios (the company behind the series’ Visual Effects), as well as visual effects supervisor, also said that “we worked a lot on [the leg design] to make sure it looks very smooth and purposeful and creepy in its motion.”
The Skitters’ color scheme was inspired by several species of, again, reptiles and arthropods. Early iterations of the color design featured lighter tones, compared to the final design, which uses more mimetic hues.
The digital Skitter model.
The Skitters were brought to life both via digitally generated imagery, as well as practical effects. The digital models were obtained by scanning MasterSFX’s sculpture. Originally, the visual effects part was to be predominant, but due to budget reasons, the practical effects were given more space. Greg Beeman, executive producer, said: “as we started to do the series, we realized that, especially for close-ups and medium shots, to build the puppet would be cheaper [than the CGI].” Generally, the digital Skitters were used only for the more visually complex sequences, with the practical versions occupying most of the screentime.
MasterSFX built several Skitter suits over the course of the series’ production, spanning — so far — three seasons. The skins were moulded in foam latex, painted with several color layers, and finalized with a coat of translucent plastic. The Studios created hero heads, with full facial motion — controlled by two puppeteers — as well as stunt heads. The main creature performer, Keith Arbuthnot, and the other stuntmen, could see through a camera hidden within the Skitter’s mouth.
The suit covers down to the actor’s waist; the lower part of his body wears a green screen suit, for the shots where it needs to be erased in post-production. A tight mould core ensured that the actor’s breathing could be seen from the exterior of the suit, creating the impression of the Skitter actually breathing. The creature’s elongated fingers feature metallic extensions, puppeteered by the performer’s own finger movements. The multiple legs were practically designed to be easily detachable from the suit, according to what specific shots requested. In many cases, Zoic Studios combined digital legs with the practical Skitters filmed on set. When the practical legs were attached, they were moved by puppeteers with rods, erased in post-production. They could also be simply posed or locked still, with hinges normally used on drums.
Certain scenes also required violent deaths, with Skitter heads exploding. Practical heads filled with thermal gel were detonated in front of blue screens and then composited onto the suits, or insert puppets of dead Skitters.
Red Eye on set.
Certain Skitter characters were given unique visual traits to distinguish them from others of their kind. Season 2 sees the introduction of Red Eye, a disfigured Skitter with the right side of its face burned, and its right eye blind and turned red — hence the label. A specific face was built, based on a modified mould of the original sculpture. The character is killed at the end of the very season it was introduced in, with another Skitter taking its place as the head of the Skitter rebels. To honor its death, Red Eye’s heir painted its own face to mimic its predecessor’s wound — to carry on its legacy.
Paint-Face preparing for filming.
For more images of the Skitters, visit the Monster Gallery.
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Abraham Sapien (holotype of the species Icthyo sapien) was named after Abraham Lincoln, as he was found in a basement in Washington DC, inside a water capsule with a note reporting the very date of the president’s death. The character first appeared in the Seed of Destruction arc of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics, and was featured in Guillermo del Toro’s film adaptations — also due to being the director’s favourite character from the series. As per the other creature effects of the film, he was brought to life by Spectral Motion.
Mike Mignola’s original Abe design, as it appears in Seed of Destruction.
The film version of Abe was designed by Wayne Barlowe and Steve Wang (“you can’t say fish-man without saying Steve Wang,” Elizalde said). It keeps the backstory largely intact, although with changes to the character itself and some design traits. Compared to the original appearence, the film design displays a slightly different color scheme — tending towards blue more than green — and is generally less humanoid: the webbed hands are different, and display suckers scattered on the palm; in addition, there is no evident nose, and the eyes — with a nictitating membrane — bulge from the head more evidently. Many of these aspects would be inherited by later versions of the comic book Abe. Mike Elizalde, head of Spectral Motion, commented on the design process: “in designing Abe, we didn’t want to stray too far from Mike Mignola’s original concept — although Guillermo had some very specific ideas about he wanted to see in the character. For example, he didn’t want Abe’s eyes to look like human eyes surrounded by makeup; he wanted something more interesting, a three-lidded nictitating eye [sic]. The character’s eyes were also bigger and spread farther than a human’s eyes would be.”
The 18″ Abe maquette, sculpted by José Fernandez and painted by Steve Wang. “José’s maquette was the first 3D version of Abe,” Mike Elizalde said. “And he really nailed it. It was a beautiful maquette; and when we presented it to Guillermo, he almost cried. He just marveled at it. That gave us a very good start with Abe.”
Abraham was played by Doug Jones, and voiced by David Hyde Pierce. Another performer (“a shorter asian guy,” according to José Fernandez) was hired first, but Del Toro quickly decided against it. A body cast of the former served as the basis of the full-scale sculpture, sculpted by Steve Wang and Jeff Buccacio (for the body and fins) and Don Lanning (for the hands). A cowl piece for the head, a face mask, and body appliances (which included torso, arms and legs) were moulded in foam latex; Abe’s gills were moulded in urethane, whereas the webbing in various parts of his body was casted in thermagel. The creature was finally painted by Tim Gore and Steve Wang, who also designed how the make-up would be specifically sectioned.
The make-up application on Jones would last 4 to 6 hours a day (depending on whether Abe’s torso would be exposed or not) with Thom Floutz, Nigel Booth and Simon Webber applying it. The actor would first have to wear an undersuit made of spandex and industrial latex; a form-fitting, vacuform face plate that compressed his nose and flattened his face was also applied; the cowl piece and face mask were then applied, with the left and right neck pieces following.
Applying the make-up.
Growing from the sides of Abe’s head are the creature’s gills, animated sequentially with servomotors designed by Mark Setrakian (the same mechanism adopted for Sammael‘s tentacles). Elizalde explained to Cinefex: “the gills had a series of three servos, and each servo moved one gill flap. Mark Setrakian designed a little circuit board that allowed him to puppeteer the gill flaps via radio control in an undulating fashion, so they wouldn’t all move at once. That really gave the gills a nice, organic feel.” Setrakian added in an interview with Make-Up Artist magazine: “each gill has its own servo, so they’re able to make a nice undulating, aquatic motion. The wire goes down to a receiver pack, and the servos are actually in the gills themselves, extremely small and compact.”
The effect of Abe’s eyes closing with multiple lids and a nictitating membrane was a digital addition to the make-up — in 170 shots of the film — by Eden FX. Elizalde explained: “because the makeup was very form-fitting to Doug’s face, we couldn’t fit mechanisms in there to make the eyelids blink. So it was decided early on that the eye blinks would be CG.” Ed Irastorza, digital effects technician, also added that “Eden was untried in film prior to Hellboy, but I thought their work was good, so I gave them the assignment of doing 40 to 50 shots of Abe, in addition to doing the CG eye blinks, they added minor facial expression to help bring him to life.”
Abe’s eye.
The rest of the make-up consisted in a torso-and-shoulders appliance — ending in the elbow joint — and hand and feet prosthetics. The hands featured finger extensions; for the scenes where Abe had to show the peculiar, sideways extensions of his hand, an animatronic insert hand was used in combination with the suit. Many sections of Jones’ body were actually left exposed, and were airbrushed to blend in with the make-up appliances.
The suit itself was finished with teeth prosthetics, as well as thermagel webbing pieces. “Therma-gel is a great material,” said Elizalde, “because it has tremendous memory. You can stretch it ten times its normal size, and it will still return to its original shape, without much distortion. And it will do that time after time, because it is very durable.” As a final touch, clear fins casted in urethane were attached to the shoulders, back, and calves. To save time, the head and body parts were designed as reusable pieces, whereas the neck and shoulders had to be replaced every day of Jones’ 30 day shooting schedule.
Most shots of Abe underwater were realized with digital imagery provided by Tippett Studios. Caustic lighting effects were applied on the digital model (which was obtained by scanning the full-size sculpture) to make it appear it was effectively swimming in water. A new muscle rig and skin solver were written for the model by Paul Thuriot and Todd Stinson. Shop supervisor Blair Clark commented: “Abe is basically a naked man, with nothing that allowed us to cheat or hide anything. And he is raising his arms up and over his head to do these swimming strokes underwater. So, we needed something that would make the geometry behave like real musculature would.” The muscle rig was attached to the animation puppet and drove the skin realistically. A number of underwater shots featured the practical Abe, specially treated to enhance the illusion of the ‘dry-for-wet’ shots. Elizalde said: “one of the things that makes something look like it’s underwater is that it has a perfectly matte, dull surface. Even a shiny object, like a coin, will appear matte underwater. When Abe was out of water, we gave him a slightly slimy appearence. But when we shot him in the dry-for-wet sequences, we didn’t do any of that reflective stuff — and that really sold it.” The actor was tethered to flying wires and shot in a smoky stage; the wires were erased in post production, and Eden FX added practical water elements to the footage.
Abraham Sapien returned in the second film of the series, The Golden Army. Jones reprised the role, and the creature design was largely kept the same, although lighter color tones and different schemes were used for certain areas of the skin. In the film, Abe wears his ‘suit’ and artificial breathing apparatus for much less time, leading to the choice of modifying the make-up design. The plan was to cover more of Jones’ body, so that less of his skin would have to be airbrushed on — also due to the request from Del Toro to make Abe “more muscular this time around.” The longer shooting schedule also dictated that the make-up should be applied in less time than before: covering the actor in pre-painted make-up appliances saved time, compared to painting his skin. The core of the sculpture was also shaved down, creating a tighter fit and avoiding foam wrinkles. Jones’ skin was kept uncovered (and thus painted) in articulation areas (such as the wrists) where the foam would fold unrealistically.
The artists of Spectral Motion were inspired by their work on the second Fantastic Four film. In an interview with Joe Nazzaro, Elizalde said: “what I had introduced very early on in the process, having just come off of the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, we found that the one-piece pull-on suit was pretty handy to get Doug in and out quickly, with some effort of course; it’s never easy to put a rubber glove on somebody’s body, but based on that experience, I asked my crew to make the suit so that it would be more akin to the Silver Surfer and not to the glue-on pieces that we used on the first film. Part of the reason for that was because Abe spends so much time not wearing a shirt in the second film. In the first film, we had a number of days, maybe 10 to 15 days where Abe was seen without his shirt. In this movie, it was at least twice that much, so there were a lot more shooting days where Abe was seen shirtless, so we wanted to reduce the application time.”
Jones as Abe on the set of The Golden Army.
The special effects team eventually built a ‘pull-on’ suit, which eased certain aspects of filming — but generated other issues. Elizalde continues: “it was one of those things where a lot of time was spent coming up with the perfect sculpture, and then the engineering part of it sort of got pushed back a little bit, so it wasn’t completely 100% seamless in the end, so Thom [Floutz] had to do a lot of on-set chasing with little blenders and patches and a lot of cab-o-sil and pros-aide mix. Ideally, it would have been better to have something that was intended originally, which was something that would make our lives a little bit easier. As far as the look is concerned, it was fabulous to look at, and it looked beautiful on film — but I know Thom will have some things to say about that.”
Elizalde concluded on the experience, saying that “it’s like building a space suit: you only have a certain amount of time to come up with this thing that has to look brilliant, but when you start running out of time, you have to start figuring out ways to meet the deadline. If we had a year to develop it, it would be flawless, but that’s not how the film business works, so you do end up having to figure out things on set that we didn’t have time to figure out in the pre-production stage, but that’s the way it goes.”
Special Thanks to Joe Nazzaro, who provided all the information on the Golden Army version of the Abe make-up.
For more images of Abraham Sapien, visit the film-specific Monster Galleries:
Creating the demons for I, Frankenstein was a task assigned to the special effects artists of the Make-Up Effects Group. Monster Legacy had the chance — and the honour — to interview Nick Nicolaou, co-founder of the company, again — following our last exclusive — discussing the make-up effects of the film. Read on!
Dekar, played by Kevin Grevioux — the author of the original graphic novel.
Monster Legacy: Were you familiar with Grevioux’s graphic novel prior to your work on the film?
Nick Nicolaou: I was familiar with the graphic novel, but I was never able to get a copy to read. I knew of the premise and saw quite a bit of the artwork. When the production approached us, the first thing they pointed out was that the graphic novel was the inspiration, but it was just a stepping stone and the film was being developed in a slightly different direction.
Monster Legacy: What was the approach to the Frankenstein’s creature character in the film?
Nick Nicolaou: In previous incarnations of the Frankenstein creature, he is always the antagonist, a monster. In this film, the creature is the protagonist, the hero even, and we wanted a design for the creature that, while consistent with him being stitched together using various body parts from different corpses, while also maintaining Aaron Eckhart’s strong aesthetics, helps allow the audience to identify with him, and accept him as the hero.
There is also a progression with his make-up. In the opening of the film he is heavily scarred and monstrous, but over the course of the next 220 years, his scarring slowly becomes less disfiguring. This is not about making the Frankenstein character look frightening and using his physical appearance to scare people and drive the story (as in other stories) – his physical disfigurement in this story is there to identify him as the Frankenstein character – it is his branding. But the purpose of the Frankenstein creature goes deeper than the “face value” of the character in this retelling, it is his “humanity” that is important and the center of the film’s journey. The film studio and production were very hands-on in this development and wanted to make sure the look fitted into the aesthetic of the story they wanted to tell.
It did take a few iterations to get the Adam/Frankenstein scarring aesthetically pleasing. We did it all sculpturally on a life-cast of Aaron Eckhart. Because it was such a fine line to work out the level of scarring, we all had to see it 3-dimensionally and do several camera make-up tests at varying degrees to make sure the director and studio were happy.
For the first stage scarring, which was more intense, there were 4 major silicone appliances on the face. For the latter stage of the scarring (220 years later), all the scars were individual transfers that we patterned over his face. There were around 9 on Aaron’s face. When we had to add scars to the body it went up to about 30 transfers.
Monster Legacy: What was the director’s general input for the Demon characters?
Nick Nicolaou: Visions of Hell – “Human souls now in Demon form”; our designs were trying to maintain a humanity behind all the Demons – they were not crazy, illogical creations totally removed from the Human form, but the Human form guiding how far we could take the Demon aesthetic. Director Stuart Beattie wanted that reality in the designs, he wanted to feel the soul of the human being come through in the performance. I agreed, it gives a character a stronger presence and allows the audience to relate to them.
Monster Legacy: Who designed the demons and gargoyles, and what were the designs inspired by?
Nick Nicolaou: I, Frankenstein was an amazing project to work on. We had a great opportunity to create a horde of prosthetic Demon characters, an opportunity that you do not often have in this CGI heavy environment. The gargoyles were all CGI, and we had nothing to do with them; we designed and created all of the Demon characters. The focus was to try and evolve a large variety of memorable “Demon looks” but to also make sure they felt that they were all visually balanced in concept and design.
Only a few illustrations were supplied to us by the production, so we had to develop the looks using Zbrush concept drawings and 3 dimensional sculpture maquettes. We had to develop a solid design grounding relatively quickly, so director Stuart Beattie could give us his input on what he liked. We were sculpting madly to try and get as many ideas on the table as possible. There were over 30 different designs in the end.
The initial 3 dimensional sculpture roughs were a blessing and saved us a lot of time as the production build up was slow, and we did not have any actors to work with. Once we finally did get the actors, it was a matter of transferring the looks onto the new actor’s forms – the 3 dimensional sculpture roughs gave our team a solid direction to move from.
The prosthetics were fabricated with a combination of Foam Latex and Silicone appliances. When you start breaking down sculptures into various prosthetic pieces, your workload doubles: sculpture, mould-making and fabrication techniques become more intricate and costly – but you end up with some seamless make-up applications. Also, contact lenses and Demon teeth were designed, with some frightening looks being developed.
Monster Legacy: How did you differentiate and ‘customize’ the single designs in order to make them distinguishable?
Nick Nicolaou: The script was the first source of inspiration. The role of each of the key Demons was clearly laid out, so we really got a sense of who they were and this set the our foundations. Once we established the look of these characters we tried to balance out all the other Demons with as many varied looks as possible – one of the main factors helping us to do this was the design of the horns.
Elaborate horn designs helped us create a sense of hierarchy within the Demon realm – with the larger horns given to Demons of more authority and rank.
Monster Legacy: Were there any particularly complex scenes to film?
Nick Nicolaou: I can’t recall anything being too difficult or over the top. From a production standpoint, very early on our prosthetic team was split off into 2 filming units, so there were times where we were doing 12-15 prosthetic Demon make-ups at the same time. The make-ups were very intensive and it really stretched our crew and resources.
Monster Legacy: How much of your work did actually end up in the final cut of the film?
Nick Nicolaou: We are yet to see the film but I’m sure the characters and make-ups we created will be highly featured. I know the trailers and aesthetic of the film looks heavily slanted in the CGI arena but our Demons were key characters in the story and were integral to major scenes with the Frankenstein character. We created the Frankenstein look for the main character, an animatronic character for a key scene and dozens of make-ups effects for flashback sequences and the genesis of the Frankenstein monster, so we must get a serious look in on the final story. Again, the CGI world may overwhelm the balance of the film aesthetic but our characters should make their mark.
Monster Legacy: Do you feel the film did justice to your practical work?
Nick Nicolaou: Again, we are yet to see the film but I did see plenty of rushes and an early rough cut with some of our key Demon characters in major scenes – they looked great and played a strong role in the scene and telling of the story. The audience may be overwhelmed by the CGI component of the film, and may lose perspective on what we physically created, but that is true with most big budget blockbusters these days. However, I feel our physical creations should still find their place in the story.
Monster Legacy: Have you seen the film — and if so, what is your opinion on the project, overall?
Nick Nicolaou: We have not seen the film yet. It does not open in Australia till late March. I know the critical reviews have not been too kind to the film, but I feel it’s going to be a fun popcorn film. This is a retelling of the Frankenstein story, a world apart from the Mary Shelley story – people need to let go of their pre-conceptions before they see the film.
The overall experience for Make-up Effects Group was a truly amazing one. We got to create some very cool make-ups and we worked with an amazing crew and wonderful production. Our company is really proud with what we created and I think we delivered some very cool and memorable characters and effects.
Monster Legacy: Do you have any future Monster films in MEG’s schedule?
Nick Nicolaou: We are still working on our own film projects that we have had under development for a few years. Great stories and heavily practical effects orientated projects with lots of monsters. Our film projects are still one of the main creative focuses of our company and we continue to drive the stories forward and inject a lot of time and effort to get them made.
For more images of the Demons, visit the Monster Gallery.
Enormous thanks to Nick Nicolaou and Paul Katte, founders of the Make-Up Effects Group of Australia. Be sure to visit their website to discover more of their special effects work!
Magazine Journalist Joe Nazzaro had composed an article regarding the design and realization of the homunculi from the 2010 remake of Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Written for Monsterpalooza Magazine — which eventually went no further than its first issue — it was left unused. As an Exclusive to Monster Legacy, Joe Nazzaro was kind enough to pass it over and make it available here. Read on!
Art of Darkness
Troy Nixey and Guillermo del Toro
lead a team of artists on Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
By Joe Nazzaro
Concept art by Troy Nixey.
Creating the proper tone and atmosphere is important for any big-screen project, but it is vital for the success of a gothic horror film. Even the tiniest detail has to be perfect, in order to persuade movie-goers that the world they’re looking at is real. The importance of a convincing design aesthetic was certainly true for the 2010 fantasy-horror film Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, in which Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison), her father Alex (Guy Pearce), and his girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes) are menaced by an ancient race of creatures living in the labyrinthine Blackwood Manor.
For the film’s tiny ‘homunculi’, producer Guillermo del Toro enlisted a top-notch group of artists to create different design concepts. As del Toro explains, “I was involved in most aspects of the movie, but the design of the creatures was very much guided by Troy Nixey, the director, who came together with the two other designers, Chet Zar and Keith Thompson, so ultimately the guy who came up with the final look of the creature was Troy. He was brilliant at creating the final look. We had agreed on the parameters and said, ‘Let’s honor the original design,’ which had a hairy body and a wrinkled little face, which is a very creepy idea, and somewhat reminiscent of one of Lovecraft’s most famous stories, Dreams in the Witch House, but other than that, all the credit should go to Troy for the design of the creatures.”
The homunculus maquette, created by Spectral Motion.
Because of the size and number of the homunculi, del Toro and Nixey (who came up with a number of designs himself) had agreed early on that the creatures would be created digitally, but the final designs were passed on to the team at Spectral Motion, who created detailed sculptures, or maquettes, as well as scale-model versions of the creatures called ‘stuffies’, which were manipulated on set for lighting reference and shot framing, as well as giving the actors an idea what they were looking at.
In terms of guiding the creature design, Nixey found inspiration in a number of different places, from real-life animals to a 1967 documentary about the inhabitants of a facility for the criminally insane. “I draw a lot from nature and from what is real,” he elaborates. “Guillermo made a joke at a recent press screening about how I presented him with the ugliest looking Chihuahua ever to be captured on film. I would draw images of hairless rats, which were another big influence, and insects; I knew there had to be a quality that you could actually see in nature and reality, and I knew I wanted them to be really quick on all fours; not as nimble when they were on two legs, but more than capable of walking on their hind legs, and then it was just using my imagination. As soon as I read the script, I started sketching shapes more than anything and sending them off to Guillermo and having a back and forth discussion about them.”
Illustration of a running homunculus, by Chet Zar.
Nixey and del Toro also enlisted the services of Chet Zar and Keith Thompson; two artists with very different styles who were able to come up with a wide range of different ideas. As Zar recalls, “Guillermo had one of his guys get in touch with me, and I love working with him, so I was up for it before I even knew what project it was. When I found out it was one of the movies that I really loved as a kid, it was icing on the cake! Guillermo and Troy both had specific ideas about what they wanted, but they were really cool about it, allowing us to just sketch out various ideas for the first couple of days. While Guillermo definitely has a strong vision — which is one of the things that also makes him a great director — he has always been open to ideas. Troy was the same way, a super cool guy who was a whole lot of fun to work with. They let us know if we were going off in a direction that didn’t suit them but they were very cool about considering new ideas we had. I think it’s because they are both true artists.”
“Troy and I had already chatted a year or two before the movie was underway,” says Thompson. “We were big fans of each other’s artwork, and did a bit of an art trade. Once the film started up, I flew down to LA to meet him in person for the first time.” Nixey continues: “and then Keith, myself and Chet went off to Guillermo’s man cave to work. At that point, we already had a shape in mind, and I let Chet and Keith go off on their own devices for a day and a half or so, without showing them any of my stuff at all and letting them use their imaginations and coming back and throwing everything in the middle and saying, ‘No, no, yes, yes, no’ and fine-tuning things and picking parts and ideas that worked, and ideas that didn’t work and ‘maybe we can try this…’. It just came so quickly that we had them dialed in. If you look at them, you can definitely see aspects of something horrible and tortured and mutilated that could exist at some level.”
Setting up shop in del Toro’s Bleak House home office provided an additional shot of creativity for everyone involved. “I had a desk loomed over by one of the Butcher Guards from Hellboy 2!” claims Thompson. “Going to Guillermo’s is always inspiring,” agrees Zar, “as is working on anything he is involved with. You know with a Guillermo movie your efforts won’t be wasted. That’s one of my biggest complaints with a lot of films I’ve worked on: you know that no matter how much you pour your heart and soul into something that it won’t change the fact that the script is bad or the film will be bad. It really hurts! With Guillermo I never have to worry about that, so I can give it my all and feel good about it, like I am contributing to something worthwhile. That is inspiring in itself. Being in the ‘man cave’ only adds to that. I had a great time working on this project.”
Illustration by Keith Thompson.
Having established the basic parameters for Dark‘s creatures, the design team was able to come up with a series of workable designs in less than four days. “Both Guillermo and Troy had a clear idea of a direction for things,” notes Thompson, “but also knew exactly how to work with other artists. It was a very creatively free process with deft tweaks and steering along the way. I started completely from my own end with a series of creatures that were very fanciful and fairy-like — though with an extremely demented bent. They had wings — some wilted, some fully functional — and wore bits of clothing and accessories. Guillermo’s big concerns with anything in that approach was that he didn’t think the viewer should imagine them having some type of ‘Smurf Village’ down below where they all hang out. After that, my approaches started to home in on the look a bit more with varying types being a bit too ‘alien’ or ‘demented’. We came up with differing character versions once we established the standard look. A scarred one — with a specific back-story — one with a damaged eye, one with a wilted arm, and so on.”
“I didn’t work on the film beyond that initial design stage,” adds Zar, “so I’m not sure how they handled the different characters. If my memory serves me correctly — it’s been a while — we really just focused on one overall look. I’d also like to add that working with Keith was great. He’s a super-talented artist and a breath of fresh air to work with. He’s a young guy, with a great, enthusiastic attitude.” In addition to his designs for the creatures, Thompson also created much of the artwork in the film that provided a visual back-story for them.
Illustration of the Homunculi attacking Sally, by Keith Thompson.
For those who may have detected a hint of Arthur Rackham in those illustrations, they would be correct. “Rackham’s art has been a huge influence on me my whole life,” confirms Thompson. “All of the golden age of illustration artists have been Edmund Dulac, John Bauer, Harry Clarke, Kay Nielson, and more. My inherent way of working in an Edwardian style was part, I think, of being involved on this movie. The artist in the movie, Blackwood’s artwork is all my own. We actually went through a week of trying to get the artwork physically produced in Melbourne before shooting started, but no print house could properly manage it. In the end, I had to fly back from Australia to create the prints of the artwork in my own studio, and courier them straight back when they were done and dry. They were basically made in the same way I do all my print making. But it was an invigorating test of my work, since Guillermo owns some Rackham originals.”
For del Toro, one of the priorities in remaking Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark was to make his creatures just as frightening as the original monsters were to him in 1973. “They now seem quite silly,” he acknowledges, looking back, “more like teddy bears with masks and claws, but for some reason it all made sense when I was a kid. In our film, it was important to design them with the concept of what they do in mind, so they are cave dwellers but also really resilient and nasty. When you see them for the first time, you will have no doubt that they are very fierce little creatures!”
Special, great thanks to Joe Nazzaro, who provided his original article to be published here.
For more images of the Homunculi, visit the Monster Gallery.
Finnegan turns as the DANCE FLOOR and the D.J. BOOTH EXPLODE as SOMETHING RISES UP from below them. His eyes widen. And there it is — The huge, horrible, mutated, mucus-covered, sucker-faced HEAD OF THE CREATURE.
A giant mutated protoplasm. Jutting up from a breach in the floor. The trunk of the Creature, the part where all the Tentacles come from, is below the next deck. A slimy, translucent MEMBRANE slowly RISES, REVEALING what appears to be some sort of ORGANIC LIQUID EYE.
This is how the massive deep sea Beast is finally revealed in Stephen Sommers and Robert Mark Kamen’s script for Deep Rising. In the climax of the film, it is revealed that the multiple worm-like entities infesting the Argonautica are actually the tentacles of a single, gargantuan Monster. Bringing the abomination to the screen was a task assigned to Dream Quest Images, the visual effects division of Walt Disney Company, and Industrial Light & Magic, for a limited number of shots. Dream Quest Shop supervisor Mike Shea had first to ‘cut down’ the original script, which conceived an unreachable — for the time — effects complexity. “When we first came on board in October 1995,” he told Cinefex, “there was a draft that called for some 500 effects shots. We were able to devise Steve in terms of what could and couldn’t be done, and assist with some of the early script rewrites.”
Rob Bottin was hired as the film’s main creature designer. “Rob Bottin was great to work with,” said Mark Alfrey, one of the sculptors. “because he never held my hand. He usually likes to give you inspiration — he would sit and talk for an hour about what needed to be sculpted. Then he let you go where you could go.” Bottin created a 8′ tall maquette of the Monster, which was used to present the project to the Disney Studio chairman, along with some animation tests, “to show him what we thought this creature would look like, how it would move and why he should spend a lot of money on an octopus tentacle that basically chases a bunch of people down a hall.”
A team of digital effects artists, led by Dan DeLeeuw and creature supervisor Rob Dressel, conducted months of research, and created an initial ‘proof-of-concept’ test. DeLeeuw recalled: “we were expanding our studio at the time, and we had a room that wasn’t done yet, with a bunch of exposed pipes that proved ideal for simulating the ocean liner’s engine room. We went in and gooped it up and shot that as a background plate.” With an early iteration of the creature design, the team animated a short sequence in which a digital tentacle, coiled around one of the pipes, drops down and reaches violently for the camera. Shea commented: “it took quite a long time to get that test done, but I think it was a turning point for Steve. It was like: ‘well, okay. Now I know what I’m getting into.’”
The initial approach towards the effects intended by Sommers was to use a majority of practical effects, with an animatronic tentacle scheduled to be built. The digital counterparts were to be implemented only for the more visually complex sequences. After the first Computer Generated test, however, the director eventually decided to use digital effects for most of the film. DeLeeuw said: “when we started, we were looking at producing a digital version just for distant views, and shots involving a lot of movement. The idea was that our work would be complemented by some kind of practical rig — an actual twenty-foot-long tentacle that they would have on set — for all the closeup stuff, and for any scenes involving interaction with the actors. But as we progressed, and the production began weighing the costs of building and shooting a full-size beast on set, everything started to go digital and we ended up taking on the preponderance of the creature work.”
Eventually, the only practical creature effect was represented by a single insert stunt tentacle, used in a total of two shots in the entire film. The lack of practical effects also allowed the animators to have more freedom, without having to match the digital creature’s movements to the animatronics.
Concept art by Rob Bottin.
The script for the film provided vague portraits of the creature — who was nicknamed ‘Crusty’, after crustacean, by the effects team — with the tentacles described as “black and veiny,” thick, and leech-esque. “The TENTACLE slowly SQUIRMS across the wall like a big leech,” the script reads. “Trying to find its prey. Finnegan is frozen in place. Watching. Trillian sits up, eyes widening in fear as she sees — Hideous little worm-like FEELERS and SUCKERS protrude up and down the Tentacle. WRIGGLING and WRITHING and feeling their way across the wall.”
The text was not detailed with its descriptions, and wide creative liberty was allowed for the design team. DeLeeuw commented on the process, saying that “we were really inventing a new organism, so we needed a history for it.” The creature went through numerous design iterations, including arachnid-like and crustacean-like incarnations. Rob Bottin and the crew finally envisioned a monstruosity that would bear the traits of both snakes and an octopuses, with the striking attitude of the formers and gelatinous consistency of the latters. Reptiles and marine animals were the the main natural references used for the design.
The vampire squid, with its defensive mechanism in action.
In particular, the vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) served as the main source of inspiration for the tentacled beast. The crew saw footage of the animal in a National Geographic documentary, titled Incredible Suckers. DeLeeuw said: “it had webbed tentacles, and, for self-protection, could actually turn itself inside out by opening up its web and wrapping it around its head. Instead of suckers, it had little teeth; so when it opened up, it turned into a giant ball of fangs.” The main head, as well as the ‘tentacle-end’ heads bear many traits of the vampire squid.
Bottin’s team sculpted the ‘tentacle-end’ head design, creating three maquettes with distinct phases of the head splitting open: in the first, ‘idle’ pose, the tentacle is closed, showing the interlocking teeth; in the second, the tentacle begins to split open, revealing the internal structure; in the third, the head is fully open, and shows the internal jaw. The maquettes were scanned and used as bases for the digital model of the tentacle. Shea explained: “we found a scanning tool that would get us down to one millimeter scanning credit, which allowed us to capture all the intricacies of the original clay models. One of the things we had done during preproduction — while still under the impression that we would be matching our creature to an animatronic counterpart — was develop a way to use all the scanning data so we wouldn’t have to regenerate everything Rob was doing.”
One of the maquettes in progress, sculpted by Rob Bottin, James Kagel, Damon Bard, and Moto Hata.
Photographs of the sculptures were also used as reference for the creature’s complex texture and color scheme (“they wanted a squid-like surface,” Dressel said) devised by John Murrah. In order to obtain the slimy and organic quality of the fully-rendered Monster, Alias wavefront shaders were used to organize several hand-painted textures into layers. Dressel commented on the process: “with CG, anytime you want something shiny, you have to beware of the curse of the plastic look. So we utilized a base layer to define the color and contours of the creature, and then a second layer to define the specular light that shined off of it and to add additional texture.” Warp lights were used to distort the geometry, moving the skin slightly to enhance the impression of a slime-covered surface.
Before the creature design reached its final appearence, the animators had already began experimenting with its movement. With Alias Wavefront Power Animator as the main tool, they devised a digital serpentine skeleton, structured like a chain or a spline, moving in a fluid manner. Dressel explained the features of the model: “with a spline, the control points serve as animation handles. As we move the handles around, the spline changes shapeand can be put into very exacting poses. But with a spline, there is no fixed length. As soon as you move a control point, the length of it changes –it’s an infinitely stretchable entity — whereas our creature was not. Although there was some stretching and compression, it had to feel solid and heavy and grounded. So our animators had to be very aware of that and keep the volume and mass and length of the creature the same as they worked through it.”
One of the tentacle heads in the film.
Another element that made the animation process more complex was Sommers’ concept of a creature that, despite its size, could fit within very small passages (much like an octopus), such as corridors and vents. Shea recalled: “we spent a lot of time developing a way to do that. One of the biggest issues we fought all the time was the speed at which the creature was moving. We needed to give it weight and and muscle; but we also needed to make it fast — a factor dictated at times by the sequence of practical effects that was happening on set.” Chris Bailey was hired as a creature consultant, in order to help determine weight, speed, and coherence of motion.
The last element of the creature to be brought on film was its actual head, sculpted with its mouth opened, by Rob Bottin. Dressel recalled the animation process: “no one knew how the mouth closed or what it did. So Eugene Jeong — who pretty much masterminded the big head model — added bone structure inside that worked like a human jaw, but with interlocking layers of teeth that made it look like a giant mouth from hell closing in from every corner.
The creature’s eyes were changed from the script, which portrayed them on the end of specific sensory tentacles. Designed again after the vampire squid’s eyes, they are of a semi-transparent, blue tone. The circular eyelids’ movements were inspired by the iris of a camera. When it is shot, the explosion was obtained with a practical explosion of a latex membrane filled with methocel, and stretched across an eye-shaped opening in a piece of plywood. The element was filmed in slow-motion, and then composited over the digital eye. Another trait inspired by octopuses is the system of valves on the sides of the Monster’s head — achieved with 3D warping techniques.
The creature was finalized with digital saliva dripping from its mouth and other parts. “We used geometry to make strings of goo stretched between the teeth,” Dressel said. “Getting a piece of goo to stretch out is one thing, but to get it to break and look natural in CG is not always an easy task.”
As a piece of trivia, the effects crew actually ‘cheated’ when it came to showing how the tentacles were attached to the head portion of the body. “We did kind of cheat,” Dressel said. “There’s a bunch of debris wrapped around the hole in the ship’s hull that the head emerges through, and the tentacles just curl up over the top of that.” Shots of Finnegan grabbed by the creature were achieved with the actor lifted by a crane — which was erased and replaced with the tentacle.
Test audiences were confused as to whether the creature was killed by the explosion or not. To erase all doubts, the Monster meets a fiery and gruesome demise in the last digital sequence created for the film — where its head is seen blown apart by the blast. A blistering texture was created by Jeong for the shot where the beast is engulfed in flames. When the creature explodes, its insides were achieved with a mixture of digital and practical effects.
Shea ultimately commented on the experience, saying that “I am proud of Deep Rising and what we accomplished. I believe we created something that was truly unique and that holds its own with most of what’s been done. Those were my goals, and we met them.”
For more images of the Monster, visit the Monster Gallery.
Main Article: The Zorgons [COMING SOON]
Main Article: Sleestaks [COMING SOON]
Monster Legacy had the chance — and honour — to interview veteran creature actor Douglas Tait about his work on film. Read on!
Monster Legacy: A more personal question first. What Monster films inspired you to become a creature performer, and what are your favorite ‘men in suit’ Monsters?
Douglas Tait: I have to say Frankenstein is my ultimate favorite monster. When I was a kid I bought a Don Post Frankenstein mask, and I wore that thing on several occasions for Halloween. Then when I was 14 I went to Universal Studios with some friends, and I saw Frankenstein performing in a show, and it inspired me. I told myself when I am old enough I am going to get a job at Universal Studios and play Frankenstein, and I did. It was the beginning of me getting paid to entertain behind makeup and masks. Funny thing is, while I was working at Universal I was pursuing my acting career, and my first Guest-Starring role on a television show was as Frankenstein on Sabrina The Teenage Witch. I think I was so comfortable with the character that it came natural when I auditioned for the role. Frankenstein sure holds special memories for me.
Tait as the Yeren on the set of China Bigfoot: Legend of the Yeren.
Monster Legacy: In your opinion, what qualities must a creature actor generally have?
Douglas Tait: Well there are several qualities that I have that I think help me as a creature actor. Number 1 is my height, I am 6’5″. There are roles for little people, but the scary, intimidating characters are always tall. Number 2 is my build, I have a lean athletic build that is proportionate. Fx artists that are building a suit never like to build it on a bodybuilder, it just doesn’t work. First off bodybuilders are generally stiff, so they can’t move well and the people making the suit can add muscle to make it appear that I am huge without sacrificing the flexibility and agility of the performance. Number 3 I am an actor, not a stuntman. When I am cast in a creature role I am thinking like an actor, developing my character. How does he move, how does he speak, how does he stand, etc. etc. I offer a good blend of both, being able to sell the character and handle the action and stunt elements with my athletic background. Number 4 is Physical Training. I maintain an intense training regimen that consists of calisthenics, yoga, and animal movements, and I train with a weight vest, which works on all aspects of fitness and gives me functional muscle that I can use in the characters I play. When I am cast in a creature role I then alter my training and work on the muscles and things that are going to help give me the best performance possible. Sometimes it is extremely exhausting and the training is what gets me through the day.
Monster Legacy: How do you prepare yourself for a specific creature role?
Douglas Tait: It all depends on the character. Acting behind prosthetic makeup would be different than be in an animatronic head, so I would prepare differently. I would prefer prosthetic Fx makeup any day over Animatronics. I would work on body movements, the character’s speech (if there is dialogue), and I take notes on how the character is described in the script. The script and character design usually gives me a good idea. Then once I start the fittings I get a better idea of what it looks like and the limitations I have, and then I start to train and practice on the things that will help me give the best performance.
Tait in the Zorgon suit.
Monster Legacy: Zathura featured one of your first works as a creature performer, and you collaborated with Stan Winston Studio. Can you tell us about your experience playing the Zorgon? Were the animatronic extensions for the head and tail problematic to work with?
Douglas Tait: Getting the chance to work with Stan Winston Studios was a dream come true. They were having trouble finding tall actors that could handle the weight of the 120 pound suit. They wanted us to walk in a squatted position, and with the heavy weight it was very difficult. The design was brilliant, the weight was spread out, the head weighed 60 pounds and was mounted onto my chest, and the tail weighed 60 pounds, and was attached to my lower back. My head was exposed and was covered with a blue nylon stocking then removed in post.
The head and tail were full of animatronics and the build looked so neat when in motion. After about 5 minutes in a squatted position my legs would start shaking and I could not wait until Jon Favreau yelled cut. Also the tail would whip back and forth so it would take you off balance when you weren’t prepared for it. In the scene where we are chasing the kid, they had us rigged on a wire to take some of the weight off while we were running, and in the scene where I get knocked down the stairs by the piano, THANKFULLY a dummy Zorgon was put it my place. All in all it was a great experience, and getting the opportunity to work with Stan Winston before he passed was equally thrilling.
Monster Legacy: Your role as the Long-Face Bar Alien in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek ultimately meant long make-up sessions for what was — in the end — only a very short sequence of the film. How do you feel about that?
Douglas Tait: Well the character was actually a smaller part in the script than what was in the film. When I was doing my closeup and moving the prosthetic around, J.J. would come up to me and tell me how funny it was and to keep playing with my reactions. He is a really kind man, and he loved the character. I did not mind the long makeup sessions knowing I was working with J.J. and being a part of an established franchise like Star Trek. He ended up using more takes of me than what was written in the script so all around it was a great experience. When Joel Harlow and Barney Burman won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, it made it even better to be a part of.
Tait as the ‘Long Face’ alien.
Monster Legacy: You played one of the Sleestaks in Land of the Lost — which, compared to other creature suits you have performed in, seems very simple in structure. Was it effectively easier to play as a character? Can you tell us about your experience on the film?
Douglas Tait: The Sleestak suit was fairly simple, it wasn’t heavy nor was it full of animatronics. The head had a chin strap attached on the inside which made the mouth move when I opened my mouth. Sleestaks move slowly, so that made it easier to perform the character. What made it difficult was the fact that the suit was super tight and we would stay in it over 15 hours a day. We had to rub KY jelly on our bodies in order to get the suit on. The tightness of the suit cut off our circulation and our hands and feet would swell up.
Also, the Sleestak bug eyes would fog up after a couple minutes and we couldn’t see where we were going. Another funny thing was that the stairs inside our Sleestak Temple were 12 inches wide, and our feet with nails were 24 inches long. We had to walk with our feet sideways and the nails would be flipping off during the takes and you would see Sleestak’s fall all over the stairs. It was a real fun experience, and Will Ferrel thanked me several times for being in the suit. My friend Mike Elizalde’s Spectral Motion designed the Sleestaks and he was able to keep the old design, while making it look much better. Spectral Motion does amazing work. I also played The Zarn character that was voiced by Leonard Nimoy.
Tait tests the Sleestak suit.
Monster Legacy: What is the most complex or difficult stunt you ever had to perform?
Douglas Tait: I try to stay away from difficult stunts, as I focus more on the acting, but there has been times when I am cast as a character which requires a stunt that makes me uncomfortable. The most difficult was a creature I played that required me to be on a wire 20 feet in the air while on a moving rig going 30 miles per hour. The wire rig moved me forwards, backwards and up and down while I was engaged in an intense fight with another stuntman. It was extremely complex, and it was difficult to perform with all the limitations and the extra weight of the suit.
Monster Legacy: What do you consider to be your best (or most satisfying) work to date, and why?
Douglas Tait: The most satisfying is a new ABC show that aires on June 19th called The Quest. I can’t talk about it at this time, but it was by far the most rewarding experience to date as an actor. The Executive Producer of the show is the Executive Producer of Lord Of The Rings, Mark Ordesky, and once again I teamed up with Spectral Motion and Mike Elizalde. Stay tuned for something truly special.
Tait as the Abominog on the set of Knights of Badassdom.
Monster Legacy: You also got to play Godzilla in the recent Snickers commercial promoting the Legendary Pictures reboot. What can you tell about the making of the commercial and the Godzilla suit?
Douglas Tait: The suit was custom built to fit me, and stood 9 feet tall. Most all of the weight is on a backpack rig attached to my shoulders, which weighed over 120 pounds. Legacy Fx designed the character and they are the same guys that ran Stan Winston Studios. In the scene we shot in Downtown Los Angeles where I am angry and I flip the Taxi, they shot me against a green screen to make me look the size of the tall buildings. In the scene where I am waterskiing, they had me on a moving gimbal against a green screen to match the movement of being on water. The suit was built to resemble the 1954 Toho Godzilla, so they used similar techniques to build it, like adding Corn Flakes to the latex to give it texture. Thank goodness my suit only weighed 120 pounds, Haruo Nakajima’s 1954 Godzilla suit weighed over 250 pounds!
Monster Legacy: You recently completed shooting Outpost 37, in collaboration with Steve Wang. What can you tease about the film and creature?
Douglas Tait: Outpost 37 is a real cool Sci-Fi/War film based off the Academy Award documentary film Restrepo, and it will be out later this year. I shot it in South Africa, and the amazing Steve Wang designed my character. Steve is a legend in the Fx world and it was great to finally work with him. I play “The Heavy”, a huge Alien character with a laser gun that goes around blowing things up. There are several Heavies in the film and I got to play all of them. I recently watched the final cut and it is an intense film.
Monster Legacy: Is there a kind of creature you would like to play, but never had the chance to? If so, which one and why?
Douglas Tait: Well, I have played Frankenstein on television, but I would really love to play him in a Feature Film directed by someone like Guillermo Del Toro. I think that would be the ultimate dream job for me, because Frankenstein is so important to my career in makeup. I would also like to work with J.J. Abrams again and play a creature in Star Wars. Chewbacca would sure be a fun one to play! I love practical fx and I am glad there are still directors out there that want to see practical creatures on film. There are too many CGI monsters now a days, and I think people are getting tired of it.
Enormous thanks to Douglas Tait for answering our questions! Be sure to visit:
