Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542296
SEEING THINGS HOW GLENN COTE AND THE 'ALIEN: EARTH' TEAM GOT THOSE SPECIAL EFFECTS P H OT O : G R E T T E L C O R T E S Glenn Cote. 52 C I N E M O N T A G E T E C H By Jennifer Walden F X's "Alien: Earth" series captures all the vintage charm of the origi- nal 1979 "Alien" film while adding f u n , n ew f l avo rs to t h e f ra n c h i s e : t h e "O c e l l u s " e y e b a l l a l i e n c r e a t u r e , t h e carnivorous plant-like alien called the "Or- chid," the USCSS Maginot spaceship, cool new tech like Morrow's Swiss Army-style cyborg arm, and lab equipment for trans- planting consciousness — all requiring visual effects. "Alien: Earth" lead visual effects editor Glenn Cote and his team certainly had their hands full, liaising with eight differ- ent visual effects vendors and supplying them with everything needed to efficiently generate animated creatures or complete post-viz shots, while also providing picture editor Regis Kimble with elements he need- ed, as quickly as possible, to keep the show on schedule. "This was my first time working with Regis and his team, and it was unlike any other show I've been on. Regis, who was also a producer, would be on all of our vendor calls, so everybody was hearing it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. The editor and the visual effects supervisor, Jonathan Rothbart, together were guiding the ven- dors," said Cote. Another new aspect of the process for Cote was that Kimble preferred to do his own animation temp mockups. So instead of Cote doing the majority of the mockups, as he recently did on director Gareth Ed- wards's "The Creator," he'd supply some of the elements to Kimble. "For example, I was getting the creatures in basic animated cycles against a green screen or blue screen background from the pre-viz team. I'd give those to Regis, who would manipulate them and move them around in the Avid, choos- ing the right frame from the walking cycles to put the creatures in the shot. He and series creator/showrunner Noah Hawley decided exactly where they wanted them to be," Cote explained. These initial effects were rudimentary, blocky, unrefined illustrations meant to show how the final visuals would move around the frame. Cote noted, "We still had to work out all the subtleties of the fine animation. Jonathan spent many hours re- fining the visuals so these creatures moved the way you see them move in the finished