Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1453602
14 cgw j a n u a r y • f e b r u a r y • m a r c h 2 0 2 2 at some point the machines began to turn on one another when power became lim- ited, and some of them, called Synthients, formed an alliance with the humans, and co-existing in the city of IO. To create the Synthients — namely Cybe- be, Octacles, and Lumin8 (crew members of the Mnemosyne, captained by Bugs), and Kujaku (a machine double agent who works with Sati and helps rescue Trinity) — DNeg started with some production concept sketches, but had to delve deep into their details and mechanics, since the creatures would be interacting with the human actors and would appear in close-ups. In particular, Cybebe needed to pick up and carry Neo, leading the DNeg team to test out such ac- tions using ropes and pulleys to determine where to place support. "We shot footage of this and then took that back into Maya to block some animation around it," says Evans. "This was useful both for understanding how best to shoot it with the actors, but primarily to help us design the creature in a way that would physically work with Neo's body and mechanically make sense." Texturing and look-dev started in Adobe's Substance Designer for fast turnaround in setting base looks, and then additional details were painted in Foundry's Mari. Facial features were minimal, leaving the artists to rely on larger body gestures while animating the Synthients — "to sell the interesting blend of feeling weighty, but also having an anti-gravity ability," Evans notes. "We tried to bring as much character as possible through things like the articulated eye sockets, which could flic between actors in conversation and also have a camera lens style of 'blinks.'" Key to making this work well, according to Evans, was the secondary animation. To make Lumin8 a little more expressive, the artists gave the creature characteristics similar to a meerkat or a grasshopper, but twinned with a slight mechanical feeling. Also, Kujaku initially was fl shy and trans- parent, resembling deep-sea creatures with glowing internals and cuttlefish-li e skin. During production, however, a decision was made to bring Kujaku's design closer to the other Synthients, which were much more metallic and hard-surface based. "We retained an organic core with internal lights to help integrate with the on-set lighting that had already been shot. This was generally a set of ribbon lights on a stand that could be carried around while pulsat- ing, which gave interesting rolling specular details on the actors' skin," says Evans. "This was particularly helpful with a goo-covered Trinity, whereas without some practical lighting, we would have struggled to get that same kind of realistic lighting detail." Introducing Exo-Morpheus Indeed, Resurrections features a range of creatures and characters. And then there are the Exomorphs — the digital form of a video game character created by Neo in his modal (and not created by machines). In the so-called real world, technology called exomorphic-particle codex enables programs like Morpheus to access the real world outside the Matrix, thus becoming the physical manifestation of their digital code. The bottom line: Exo-Morpheus presented DNeg with technical and conceptual challenges. For the character's design, Wachowski gravitated toward the abstract and the ele- gant, but Exo-Morpheus eventually evolved into a more humanoid form. Exo-Morpheus is, in fact, a leading character with heavy dialog, making it vital that the audience relate to and understand him visually. He needed to have the ability to fl w and move fluidl , but then snap together into a solid form when he needed to use his muscles or speak. No easy challenge. "The work was highly bespoke and subtly nuanced," says Evans. The actor (Abdul-Mateen) was captured The Exomorphs, such as Exo-Morpheus, are complex characters.