Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/110653
n n n n CG Characters [Serkis] had," Capogreco says. "The LED camera mounted on the front captured his face, and the remotely synced cameras tracked all his physical movements, his fingers, hands, feet. Literally every nuance. The animators then pushed Gollum's face into contortions no human could quite do. They also worked on his eyes, to give them movement of some sort even when nothing else was moving. And, especially because of the stereo, they made sure Gollum's toes were on the ground and his hands wrapped around the right things." Data captured from Serkis's performance on set moved into Weta Digital's motion-edit department. There, technical animators translated the clouds of data points into animation curves that move the digital puppet. "When all the individual controls on the puppet are mapped to corresponding bits of motion data, the puppet comes to life," Capogreco says. For the modelers, the challenge was creating a familiar face and body for fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, even though Gollum was 60 years younger and the artists could take advantage of improved technology and tools. "It's been a painstaking process," Revelant says. "Ten years ago, we created Gollum using geometry and painted displacement maps. We reworked him completely, using real geometry rather than displacement. To do that, we looked at how he was then, rebuilt on top of that model, subdivided the geometry, and applied In The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Gollum's face had 5,000 polygons and displacement maps. The Hobbit's the displacement as geometry. For his face, we Gollum, pictured at top and bottom, has 48,000 polygonal faces, which gave the animators more control. went from 5,000 polygons and displacement to Inside the CG creature is a deformation system that produces high-resolution muscle and skin simulations. 48,000 polygonal faces to give the animators Supporting and extending this software Before the ring, Gollum was Smeagol, a hob- more control. We wanted to bring him up to are proprietary tools and techniques for cre- bit. Under the ring's influence, he has become speed with our new, improved facial tools." ating faces, muscles and skin, fur, feathers, an emaciated, slimy creature who lives on caveCapogreco and Animation Director Dave and hair, and for quickly producing a variety fish and small goblins. His two personalities, Clayton started working on a test shot with of creatures from one framework. Weta Digi- past and present, are in constant conflict as we Gollum in September 2011, and continued tal's researchers and technical team developed see in the sequence: Gollum threatens Bilbo— for another two or three months. software specifically for this film and updated he would probably like to eat him. But, Bilbo "When the first renders came out, we knew tools and techniques used for previous films. intrigues the Smeagol side of the creature by we needed to do some work on his facial rig suggesting a game of riddles. If Bilbo wins, Gol- and muscles," Capogreco says. "Gollum set a Gollum Anew lum will show him the way out of the cave. If huge benchmark 10 years ago, but we needThe character Gollum provides a good road Gollum wins, "We eats him," the creature hisses ed to bring him up to today's standards and map for describing how character creation and at Bilbo. perhaps push past [that]. I also spent a good animation has evolved at Weta Digital. He apWeta Digital created, and Serkis first per- month or two with Joe [Letteri] looking at pears in one sequence in the film, a sequence formed, Gollum for the second and third films shots. We tried making him sweaty. We made that many critics have called the best moment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. At that time, his teeth grosser. Then we circled back, but not in the movie. Some lament that Andy Serkis, Serkis performed the creature during film- completely. In The Lord of the Rings, he had who plays the CG character, did not receive a ing on location, and then later, on a motion- been tortured and beaten, and we didn't want capture stage, had to duplicate that perfor- to make him that messed up. But, we poured best supporting actor nomination. In the sequence, while trying to escape mance. Now, for this film, the studio captured in subtle details like age spots." from the goblins, Bilbo [Martin Freeman] Serkis's performance during filming using the To tweak the motion-captured data and add has stumbled and fallen into a cave. There, he same tools and techniques with which they to Serkis's performance, animators manipulate finds Gollum's "precious" ring, the powerful had captured Serkis's performance as Caesar in a simple puppet that has rigid pieces of geom"One Ring" in The Lord of the Rings, although Rise of the Planet of the Apes. etry parented to the bones. "The animators get "We wanted to capture every nuance Andy what most people think of as a previs puppet," Bilbo doesn't know this yet. 16 January/February 2013 CGW0113-Hobbit2pfin.indd 16 1/31/13 5:03 PM