Andy Serkis continues to prove Hulk can be done

[JeetKuneDo]

Just saw Planet of the Apes and Andy Serkis once again made me believe a CGI character.

No more excuses for the Hulk. Just do it right. Maybe...hire Andy Serkis?

 

[docdoc]

...and I was wondering what Andy Serkis has to do with HULK lol

 

[psylockolussus]

The CGI of Rise of the Planet of the Apes looked really good!!!

 

[November Rain]

they've been doing that since the first transformers film. although if you are referrring to organic cgi, you may have a point. still though, the cgi from 2003's hulk, still holds it's own. the cgi from tih.....hmmmmm....well, the less we say about that, the better.

 

[Silvermoth]

I wonder if Andy ever gets sick of wearing that green suit. I mean he is an actual actor and yet every time someone needs a mo cap actor it's "Get me Andy Serkis"

Anyway, maybe he could provide some tips for Ruffalo if he wants them.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

still though, the cgi from 2003's hulk, still holds it's own. the cgi from tih.....hmmmmm....well, the less we say about that, the better.

Agreed. I do like the CGI from the first Hulk better.

Yet audiences complained about it.

I maintain it was all about the performance and how the character was presented. Serkis knows how to bring life to a CGI character....and most importantly the characters he plays are not written as one-dimensional side-bars to "the main character" (Banner).

As great as the CGI in the first Hulk was....there was nothing there character-wise. The audience had nothing better to do except notice there was a CGI character onscreen.

Contrast that with Caesar in Planet of the Apes. He's obviously CGI...but you don't mind because the character is great. He has an actual personality! The audience cares about him as a character so they ignore how "fake" he looks.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

I wonder if Andy ever gets sick of wearing that green suit. I mean he is an actual actor and yet every time someone needs a mo cap actor it's "Get me Andy Serkis"

Anyway, maybe he could provide some tips for Ruffalo if he wants them.

Not a terrible idea.

 

[bubbadoom]

I think Andy did not have nearly as much to do with it as the WETA folks did - any "monkey" could have been in that mo-cap suit...

 

[Man in the Suit]

I think Andy did not have nearly as much to do with it as the WETA folks did - any "monkey" could have been in that mo-cap suit...

No. Every movement he makes and facial expression is his... It's his performance. He's just covered in CG.

 

[Dark Raven]

Hulk from the first movie looked rubbery and inflatable, as if he were holding a mass of water inside him and not made up of solid muscle. The transformation in that tank looked like someone just pumped Eric Bana up with air.

 

[Red Mask]

The Hulk's physical transformation is always tricky because people have no reference to compare it with. Does he grow all around, or is it part by part, and do his veins pop up?

In terms of motion capture the approach has been the same since Ang Lee's Hulk. It's just motion capture. The artistic design of the CGI is problematic, but I liked Ang Lee's Hulk because it made sense Hulk's face would retain some of Banner's features. Also it had subtle emotions.

The Incredible Hulk was awful because it just looked like your typical video game rendering.

 

[bubbadoom]

No. Every movement he makes and facial expression is his... It's his performance. He's just covered in CG.

Sure the animation is based upon his movements and such, but it is the WETA artists who transform this information into the creatures we see on screen. They can alter it as much as they or the director feel is necessary to get the performance they desire. And if the character is not modeled to the levels that WETA has done on KONG, APES, etc. then all of Andy's acting will be for nought. Anyone can be wearing that mo-cap suit.

 

[JeetKuneDo]

Anyone can be wearing that mo-cap suit.

If that's true I'm wondering why they keep paying Serkis to do it. Couldn't they get someone else cheaper?

 

[bubbadoom]

Didn't all the alien actors in AVATAR wear these types of suits for their performances in that movie? It was not just one guy doing it for all of them - hence anyone can wear it.

Certain fx companies get a comfortable working relationship with a specific performer and tend to go back to them for these sorts of things because they already know him, know what his limitations are, etc. Rick Baker has used John Alexander for years for his apes and aliens [Gorillas in the Mist, MIB, Mighty Joe Young, etc.]; WETA has uses Andy for all their stuff [LoR, Kong, Apes, etc.]; this is how Doug Jones got the part for Abe in Hellboy - the effects shop suggested him.

 

[Raiden]

I think WETA has been the leading special F/X company that can make CGI creatures believable, from Gollum in LOTR, to King Kong and now POTA. If Marvel had hired them to do TIH, maybe it would've looked amazing instead of fake (like the Hulk at the campus). Hopefully ILM will do an unbelievable job with Hulk in the Avengers.

 

[DrCosmic]

I think Andy did not have nearly as much to do with it as the WETA folks did - any "monkey" could have been in that mo-cap suit...

Didn't all the alien actors in AVATAR wear these types of suits for their performances in that movie? It was not just one guy doing it for all of them - hence anyone can wear it.

Certain fx companies get a comfortable working relationship with a specific performer and tend to go back to them for these sorts of things because they already know him, know what his limitations are, etc. Rick Baker has used John Alexander for years for his apes and aliens [Gorillas in the Mist, MIB, Mighty Joe Young, etc.]; WETA has uses Andy for all their stuff [LoR, Kong, Apes, etc.]; this is how Doug Jones got the part for Abe in Hellboy - the effects shop suggested him.

Yeah, I'm sorry, I don't buy it. I saw the mocap of LotR, he's authentically acting, and he has real talent, that really comes through. WETA does their job, but a lesser actor = lesser CGI performance, WETA aren't good at adding in emotions (see their actorless CGI characters), because they're not actors, they're just good at making it look good.

Don't confuse a comfortable working relationship with lack of other incentives to use Serkis. In addition to the acting, that WETA seems to go out of their way to capture (thus they put millions of dollars of value on it) You also save money because he doesn't need a movement coach to come up with the movement for the character - he's his own coach.