Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Transforming Human Motion-Capture Performances Into Realistic-Looking Apes
Released on 07/21/2014
(gentle chiming music)
[Caesar] Caesar love humans,
more than apes. (snarls)
[Soldier] Don't you move!
[Man With Jacket] Should we shoot him?
[Soldier] Maybe.
Woah, woah.
Hey, hey.
Hi, I'm Mike Seymour from FXGuide.com for Wired,
looking at the tech of making apes act
in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
In this new Apes film, Weta Digital has provided
director Matt Reeves with a action blockbuster
with real heart, incredibly coming from the
fully digital lead ape actors.
Andy Serkis delivers a near-Shakespearean performance
as Caesar, as does fellow motion capture artist
Toby Kebbell as Koba.
On screen, precisely-rendered ape characters show
stunning acting performances, nuanced and layered
in ways not seen before.
There's no better example of this than the Koba scene
where he discovers the survivors' armory.
In a comically tragic moment, Koba plays the fool
to disarm the humans and make his escape.
So, what does it take to have an acting performance
like this make its way to the screen?
As with everything, of course, it starts with a script
which created this subtle onscreen moment.
The script was then thoughtfully interpreted
by Toby's acting choices on set, while being filmed
by both the main unit in stereo and motion capture
with simultaneous various reference cameras around the set.
These cameras included a single high-speed camera on a
helmet mount, for the exact facial timing and tracking
of the lead actors.
The Weta team pioneered this use of on-locations
motion capture volumes, rather than just
filming motion capture as second unit
on a sound stage.
The difficulty of a next step is translating
Toby's acting choices to the exact anatomy of an ape.
For some shots, this is most evident in the differences
of, say, arm or limb length, compensated for
in this pickup shot with Toby wearing an arm extension.
But when it comes to the facial performances,
the job becomes painstakingly complex.
Humans and apes just have different muscles.
On the neck for example, do the animators match
Toby's tightening of his neck muscles with
incorrectly-placed muscles on Koba, or do they
remain faithful to the primate's actual muscle anatomy
and then tense different muscles that maybe don't read
with exactly the same expression as Toby's
original performance?
Nowhere is this more evident than in the mouths
of the humans and apes, which is particularly complicated
if the key to the entire scene is Koba
blowing a raspberry.
The team studied Toby's performance and then did
special high-speed tests to understand the exact anatomy
of someone blowing a raspberry.
They then did flesh simulations to explore this
on a digital Koba, but with the lip and snout changes
between apes and humans, mapping the performance exactly
was nearly impossible.
At this point in the story, the raspberry
needs to be funny, but not silly.
More importantly, the audience needs to know that
the digital Koba is acting as a fool,
not being a fool.
The audience can't be confused, or this poignant
character moment will be completely lost.
This layered performance of having Koba be foolish
is all the more tragic given the horrendous cruelty
that Koba had to suffer at the hands of humans
when he was growing up.
But Koba needs to denigrate himself to survive
and that the audience can see that in a single closeup shot
makes this powerful writing, interpreted by a great actor,
and then realized by a brilliant team of digital artists,
and all the more remarkable.
Well, don't forget to subscribe for more behind-the-scenes
action, I'm Mike Seymour for Wired.
[Man With Jacket] It's good, huh?
(both laughing)
[Both Men] Oh, hey, hey!
Hey, okay, all right, easy.
(gunfire)
(chime, whoosh)
Starring: Mike Seymour
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