The Maze Runner Exclusive: Building the Mechanical Grievers & Complex Maze Set
Released on 09/19/2014
(peppy music)
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[Thomas] Who put us here?
(dramatic music)
We don't know.
(dramatic music)
[Thomas] What's out there?
The Maze.
I'm Mike Seymour from fxGuide.com for WIRED
looking at the complex creature work in Maze Runner.
In the new film, based on the book of the same name,
director Wes Ball worked with Method Studioses Vancouver
to create the maze that Thomas
and the other Glader's find themselves in,
along with the relentless Grievers that chase them.
The film was shot on locations,
and much of the exterior running action
was done with careful attention given
to make sure that the shadows
of where the giant maze would be
cast correctly over the actors.
On set there was actually only a tiny amount
of the real maze built,
given that the locations was very remote
and the team had to carry in most
of their extra gear by hand.
As complex as the moving parts of the maze were
for Method Studioses to realize,
the maze Grievers actually were
so complicated they required an entirely new
creature pipeline to be developed.
Highly detailed bone and mechanical limb logic had
to be developed for exactly how these creatures
might have evolved.
The structure detailed and worked out
to allow the weight distribution to move correctly
and the range of movement to be believable.
This allowed for simulations to be done
to work out physical weight distribution
and flesh sims.
Method's VFX Supervisor Sue Rowe recruited
James Jacob fresh from doing the Goblin King
in the original Hobbit film at (mumbles)
to Canada to make the Grievers look believable
and organic while still being half mechanical.
The Grievers can be a little hard
to study while they're attacking,
but thankfully Method Studioses produced for us
this exclusive video showing
how the creatures are internally formed.
James's big thing was he would build
the character and the skeleton to be correct.
It has to be ergonomically correct,
based in sort of natural physics,
so we built the skeleton, we built the muscles,
and that's how the character was gonna move.
Facing the Grievers in a shot required
not only tracking and contact lighting,
but also complex fire simulations
and detailed interaction with the actors.
The director is himself actually
a highly accomplished VFX artist in his own right,
having won the role of directing on this film
on the basis of the work he did
on his own short film Ruin.
Which he made by himself.
He came from the background where he would know
that his hand rotor something would be really tricky.
So he would always be aware of that kind of thing.
Sometimes I just laugh and go don't worry about
that over there there's a whole 3D city behind us
that's moving.
Not to spoil the film or anything
but this is only the first of four books in the series,
so hopefully we'll see beyond the maze.
For now don't forget to subscribe
for more behind the scenes action.
I'm Mike Seymour for WIRED.
(dramatic music) (walls grinding)
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Starring: Mike Seymour
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