Page 25 - 3D World - October 2017

Feature
Journey’s end

human versus ape

adapting to the differences to capture the
essence of the human actors

A signature aspect of the Planet of the Apes
franchise is the ability of primates to ride horses.
“That is one of the hardest things to do because
when humans ride a horse they’re in a different
pose,” remarks Weta Digital Senior Visual Effects
Supervisor, Joe Letteri.
A great deal of effort was put into improving the
base puppet for the apes. “We had some challenges
with the way our hip joints worked that made it quite
difficult to animate an ape riding a horse because
they have much shorter legs and longer arms,”
remarks Weta Digital Visual Effects Supervisor
Dan Lemmon. “One of the big difficulties for us in
animation is how can we make a facial expression
on Caesar that matches the emotional beats that
Andy Serkis hits.. The facial anatomy on an ape is
quite different. There’s a line that goes down from
your nose to the corner of your mouth called the
nasolabial line. It’s a key signature wrinkle that comes
and goes when you make certain facial expressions.
That line on apes is a lot less pronounced. When
Andy smiles or makes an expression which brings
that line in, we had to figure out a different way to
convey it.”

BuilDing ChArACTer the animators at Weta Digital were
But however incredible the able to carry across onto the digital
environments, the apes are the vital characters,” remarks Dan. “It’s a
component. “This is a character- real testament to their craft and
driven story,” observes Joe. “It artistry that those scenes work as
always comes down to those small well as they do.” Joe concludes, “It
moments where you understand has been fantastic to be able to take
the fate of the apes and where the Caesar from this innocent little
story is going can change based on baby chimp all the way through
what a character is thinking. We’re to this leader with such a burden
always trying to look for the ability on his shoulders, and having to
to read that thought process in the understand and face up to the
character so you can be right there responsibility of what is happening
with them as the story happens.” in the world.”
“There is some fantastic acting Learn more about Weta
that the performers did on-set and fYi Digital: wetafx.co.nz

inflatable green screens measuring 50 feet high by 100 Fur simulations were pushed further as for the first time
feet wide were deployed during the principal photography the apes needed to interact realistically with snow

3D WorlD October 2017 25 www.youtube.com/3dworld