Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/398245
24 cgw s e p t e m b e r . o c t o b e r 2 0 1 4 V I S U A L E F F E C T S same breed but with a slightly different body," Rowe says. "The thing about the Griever is the cussed nature of it. Dash- ner describes it having metal legs and spikes, and blowholes down its back that make a wheezing noise when it ex- pands its slimy, fatty tissue. We knew we had to freak people out a bit; it comes at the kids and nothing stops it. I had to go to dark places about the things I disliked [with the creature]." Towering over the kids in the film, the creature is 12 feet tall and 22 feet long. The produc- tion team supplied concept art from Creature Designer Ken Barthelmey, and The Third Floor provided previs. "When Rhythm & Hues went funny aer Life of Pi, I looked around and realized that aer 17 years at one company, it might be fun to change," De Boer says. "Method said they had a project for Fox and showed me the concept art. The sketches were stunning. The creatures were predatory, mysterious, scary, ready to pounce. It looked really fun and exciting. They said they were shooting in two weeks. I jumped on it." The Method designers made a few changes to the concept art to add detail, but kept the broad strokes. "It has an organic body without eyes," De Boer says. "It's a slug-like creature with a bulbous head, several rows of shark-like teeth, and two organic arms at the front like a T. Rex that we used to emote with, to give a feeling that it was sensing its environment. It has a scorpion tail and centipede-like knives with pincers. The body is mounted on a metal chassis with six legs. Its lungs drive the legs' pneumatic hydraulic actuators; its heart pumps oil through all the hoses connect- ing the metal parts to the legs." The front legs have four joints, and the middle and back legs have three joints, and each leg can change size. "We realized that these guys had to perform in the open field, the glade in the middle of the maze, but they also are guard- ians of the maze itself," De Boer says. "The maze has narrow alleys, so we gave the creatures telescoping legs. They can re- duce their leg size and length to move within the maze walls." M O V I N G T H E B E A S T A team of 11 animators led by De Boer performed the creature. "We looked at ants because, with a macro camera, they strike cunning, cocky, even predatory poses," De Boer says. "We also looked at cockroaches and grasshoppers. I like keying off nature to find cool poses I might not get from scratch. But, we ended up with a creature that was too insectoid. We had a huge machine in a narrow maze with a clunky drivetrain. We needed a more robotic feel. It also had to be agile and fast enough to be 'throw the popcorn out aer you scream' scary. Finding that balance was great fun. We really wanted to go for a raw, dirty, ferocious, threatening performance." Eventually, the crew found the right blend of spider-like and robotic movement, and developed several motion styles for the creature depending on its speed and location. "For me, it was especially important to justify the way the creature locomoted within the maze," De Boer says. "Since it was designed to be in there, it would make use of the walls and be able to corner really fast. Yet, at the same time, we had to make sure it couldn't catch the kids too quickly. We needed the threat and the buildup." Also important was finding the balance between the firm parts of the body around the metal parts and the upper, slug- like body. "We gave the organic part a rib cage and skeleton, muscled it up, and then ran complica- tion simulations to get the skin to behave properly," De Boer explains. "In the area where there are blowholes, we wanted the mass to be loose and wiggle and jiggle. We loosened up the shape and had fun with it in silhouettes." Director Ball, an animator and visual effects artist, worked with the animation team to get the performances he wanted for the Grievers. "He really understands what we do and how we work," De Boer says. "It was funny. We'd be in a room and he'd go from this calm, respectful guy to act- ing like a huge monster running around. He'd say, 'Something like that,' and then calmly sit down again. It was awesome. Intimidating, but inspiring. He inspired us to go big and bold with these creatures. We could really key off the aggression and energy." Rather than animating pose to pose, De Boer prefers blocking out scenes. "When you do animation that's all about hitting the true physicality and realism in the weight, if you go pose to pose or use stepped poses, you get a distorted feel of energy when it's interpolat- ed," he says. "I like to block out scenes with simple choreogra- phy, with the main central mass fully interpolated, so you get the idea of mass through the scene and the momentum." Sometimes, though, poses made sense. "With the legs, we focused on appealing poses and cool silhouettes because we wanted the creature to be aggressive and predatory," De Boer says. "We looked for oppor- tunities to get a strong negative space, strong poses. That's what we showed to Wes [Ball] as our first pass at animation." To give animators a leg up with the centipede-like zipper knives, Rigger Victor Barbosa created optional procedural tools the animators could use to control when the knives opened and closed and how active they were. Barbosa also created a powerful rig to control the tricky telescoping legs. With those tools, animators created the threatening performance for the character, and even some emotional moments. "We had a shot where some- one throws a lit oil torch at a Griever," De Boer says. "We had to express that he was in pain before he recovered and started chasing again." For that shot, Rowe filmed fire elements but found they didn't work as well as she had " WE REALLY WANTED TO GO FOR A RAW, DIRTY, FEROCIOUS, THREATENING PERFORMANCE."