Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538452
Working on adapting the film's design from animation to live action created unique challenges to extrapolate the intention and feel of the original while building on it to add realism and avoid direct copies. We had to reinvent. Generally, I made three concepts. One was an exact copy of the animation, but real, losing the cute side of the animation. Then the second pushed the idea further to see how much Dean would allow. Sometimes he agreed and other times he said we should stick closer to the original as fans will want it to be the same but cooler. Similarly, with Toothless' fin, early on we realised that the animation shape wouldn't articulate naturally as the rods weren't evenly spaced. So, we created the leather shape everyone would remember and prosthesis much, but when he came out in costume, and we fitted his battle axe arm, his face lit up, and he roared like a Viking. At the end, just for fun, we ended up making small versions of them for everyone who took part in the film as a memento. From the personal to the technical with the Mangler, we knew from the animation it needed to run around the village square and up a hillside and open and articulate then fire. With animation, weight is never an issue, and size can be cheated depending on the scene. However, in real life, you have to stick to the rules and have the viewer believe it all, so Toothless at 28 feet long or Mason's height, all had to be factored in when making everything. With the animation, it doesn't need to make sense, only look good. However, we had to create it in the real world for the audience to believe. We had weight issues and had to deal with the speed of opening, which also had issues. We could apply large actuators that were strong, but then added the rods after. We had a real blacksmith create the steel, and we copied it in lightweight material so Mason could handle it properly since the real one was incredibly heavy. With Toothless' saddle, we made about six different versions as Hiccup slowly adapted the design. Then we had to make them all again for the gimbal unit as it became clear that it needed to bend and shift around the gimbal due to its amazing articulation. The thing I remember the most due to the personal nature of it were designing and making the prosthetics. To get started, we had an open call for anyone who wanted to be part of the film to come in and over several meetings and fittings, we created many different Viking prosthesis. In doing so, we met Steven Robinson, a prosthetist engineer, and Lynne Mckinley, a clinical lead prosthetist specialist from the Musgrave Clinic Belfast who guided us at every step. By the end, we all were able to get over our sensitivity to what we were trying to do and became this gang that ended up having so much fun. I will never forget the look on a guy's face who didn't really wear his own arm At 28 feet, the Mangler was a fully-functional technical marvel.