“The advances we made [on Dawn] are less about explosions and spectacle and more about what we’ve done to allow the characters to connect with the audience. What makes these films unique is how much acting our digital characters do and how well they integrate into the rest of the movie” Dan Lemmon, VFX supervisor, Weta Digital,
10 DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Weta Digital (2014) Building on the success of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, this tale of humans and super-intelligent apes battling for survival in a post-apocalyptic near-future is a technological masterpiece. Weta Digital’s CG creatures are very much the stars of the show, and have minutes of screen time with no human interaction. It feels unfair to single out individual scenes, as the effects are incredible throughout. But it’s the intimate moments that really stand out. Those shots in which human actors react to computer-generated apes carry genuine emotional depth. For once, CG characters are not simply there to advance the action but to perform: to carry a narrative arc. The digital apes – 12 hero characters, plus around 20 ‘extras’ – were created using a mixture of hand animation and motion-capture footage of Andy Serkis and the other actors portraying the creatures. Much of the mocap was shot on location, which meant an overhaul of the technology. This kit needed to be hauled up mountains, rained on, and generally abused, as Weta Digital sought to capture the most authentic performances possible. When the gloves did come off and the apes fought, it created new problems – artistically, the actors had to discover how intelligent apes would fight (no biting!), while director Matt Reeves had to get a grip on new workflows, filming the actors in a virtual space and setting beats and camera angles afterward, using virtual cameras. The hard work resulted in three VES Awards, plus an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects. Maybe by the time of the third movie in the series, Hollywood will have accepted motion-captured performances enough to nominate Andy Serkis for Best Actor. 3D WORLD November 2015
Weta’s CG apes were created using a mixture of hand animation and on-set mocap footage of the live actors
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