Animatronic Hulk footage from 1998

[Marvel Spider]

Around the 1:30 mark.[YT]aRRMMmWnevo&feature=player_embedded[/YT]

 

[Son of Coul]

That's awesome, I wonder how it would have looked. Fluid motion. The texture of the mold or whatever you'd call it doesn't look that convincing though. This guy reminds me of a wannabe Robert Downey Jr.

 

[bubbadoom]

Well the skin was not painted, so it's hard to judge it's final appearance, but I am sure it would have looked muck more tangible then what we did get.

 

[Spider-Vader]

Damn, that would of been sweet to see.

 

[Gamma Goliath]

interestng....

 

[cerealkiller182]

Wow. The title promised something stupid. But I was impressed

 

[dcHulk]

Well the skin was not painted, so it's hard to judge it's final appearance, but I am sure it would have looked muck more tangible then what we did get.

Are you crazy? You want to see the "ninja turtle" method applied to the incredible hulk? Again, LL and others tried this way and it didn't work. They didn't go the cgi route for financial reasons, but rather practical and realistic ones.

 

[Lex Luthor]

In 1998, the best way to have acheived the Incredible Hulk in a actual live action film would have been with with a animatronic Hulk. As the CGI at that time just wasn't there to say the very least. Would have been interesting to have seen the Hulk done that way. Thanks for providing the link for that!

 

[KenK]

There's still an issue of how much action you can achieve with just the animatronic Hulk, but for the time, the work they did do was pretty impressive.

I forget Steve Johnson's been around for a while now, but I've always been impressed with his work in the movies I have seen that he's worked on. His workshop video diary on the Blade II DVD was just amazing, seeing all the work he did for that film.

 

[bubbadoom]

"Are you crazy? You want to see the "ninja turtle" method applied to the incredible hulk? Again, LL and others tried this way and it didn't work. They didn't go the cgi route for financial reasons, but rather practical and realistic ones."


I do not believe any real tests were done for TIH with practical make-ups/animatronics. I know they say they did, but I think that mostly involved visiting a few shops and seeing what they could do. I have not heard of a single fx shop that did any r&d for this, have you? I know they did a "make-up" test for Ang Lee's HULK which was just a set up to show that digital was the way to go. They quickly had someone's face painted green, with not prep or prosthetics, and then said that method would not work. I doubt they did much more for TIH. 99% of the creatures in both Hellboy movies are done with make-up effects, and they look fine. It could have worked for Hulk, too.

 

[Rick Random]

"Are you crazy? You want to see the "ninja turtle" method applied to the incredible hulk? Again, LL and others tried this way and it didn't work. They didn't go the cgi route for financial reasons, but rather practical and realistic ones."


I do not believe any real tests were done for TIH with practical make-ups/animatronics. I know they say they did, but I think that mostly involved visiting a few shops and seeing what they could do. I have not heard of a single fx shop that did any r&d for this, have you? I know they did a "make-up" test for Ang Lee's HULK which was just a set up to show that digital was the way to go. They quickly had someone's face painted green, with not prep or prosthetics, and then said that method would not work. I doubt they did much more for TIH. 99% of the creatures in both Hellboy movies are done with make-up effects, and they look fine. It could have worked for Hulk, too.

I agree, and further, I'll add that the essential problem of the Hulk movies is that Eric Bana and Edward Norton spend all their screentime trying to create a believable character, only to be replaced by unavoidably unrelatable CGI for the exciting scenes.

I'd take an anamatronic Hulk, or a man in a costume, or a combo of both with some CGI, over what was used in the movies in an instant. I'd take Lou Ferrigno (if he was still in his prime) with state-of-the-art make-up and enhanced by CGI to make him look bigger.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

While its impressive I think they definately went the right way in both movies by making the Hulk CGI, there is no we would have gotten the awesome fight and movement scene's we got in both movies with animatronics.

 

[dcHulk]

While its impressive I think they definately went the right way in both movies by making the Hulk CGI, there is no we would have gotten the awesome fight and movement scene's we got in both movies with animatronics.

Totally agree. In the '90's, animatronics would be the only way to make a believable hulk. But we are not in the '90's any more. I'm sorry guys, but I don't want a hulk that looks anything like Ben Grimm from the recent F4 movies. Besides this, I refuse to believe that a fledgling movie studio like Marvel would invest tons of money into believable cgi without first considering the cheaper alternative. After all, nobody new if Marvel could produce quality movies and they had no guarantee that either IM or TIH would be commerically successful.

 

[Lex Luthor]

There's still an issue of how much action you can achieve with just the animatronic Hulk,

I remember reading a particular issue of CBG where Peter David wrote in his "But I digress" column about his script for the proposed Hulk movie back in the late 1990's where he states that it would have had alot of action, and also mentioned that he wrote the script being very mindful of special effects/CGI of the day as well.

 

[dcHulk]

I remember reading a particular issue of CBG where Peter David wrote in his "But I digress" column about his script for the proposed Hulk movie back in the late 1990's where he states that it would have had alot of action, and also mentioned that he wrote the script being very mindful of special effects/CGI of the day as well.

Well every time I think of cgi for the '90s, I think of that "award-winning" cgi from Spawn. That stuff is the quality of today's SyFy movies. Wouldn't be acceptable for today's modern media.

 

[Kirmit]

I remember reading a particular issue of CBG where Peter David wrote in his "But I digress" column about his script for the proposed Hulk movie back in the late 1990's where he states that it would have had alot of action, and also mentioned that he wrote the script being very mindful of special effects/CGI of the day as well.

What works on paper doesn't always work onscreen, IMO an animatronic hulk would restrict the type of action and feats performed alot.

 

[KenK]

Well every time I think of cgi for the '90s, I think of that "award-winning" cgi from Spawn. That stuff is the quality of today's SyFy movies. Wouldn't be acceptable for today's modern media.

Of course. And I feel that the CG has come a long way, even if it still has a ways to go.

 

[dcHulk]

Of course. And I feel that the CG has come a long way, even if it still has a ways to go.

Agreed.

 

[Rick Random]

While its impressive I think they definately went the right way in both movies by making the Hulk CGI, there is no we would have gotten the awesome fight and movement scene's we got in both movies with animatronics.

Keep the action in CGI, sure, but the emotiong scenes, stuff with Betty, use the animatronics. It gives COnnelly/Tyler something real to perform with.

 

[GhostPoet]

It's kind of impressive, but I think they chose right when they did CGI. I've never been a fan of animatronic...no matter how advanced the tech gets, it always looks cheap and fake to me.

 

[Lex Luthor]

Well every time I think of cgi for the '90s, I think of that "award-winning" cgi from Spawn. That stuff is the quality of today's SyFy movies. Wouldn't be acceptable for today's modern media.

Really? Spawn? I typically think of Terminator 2, or Jurassic Park when I think of CGI in the 1990's. And though it's been awhile since I've seen it, I would even say Anaconda had better CGI than Spawn if we're talking about that kind of "award winning" material.

What works on paper doesn't always work onscreen, IMO an animatronic hulk would restrict the type of action and feats performed alot.

A script is a blueprint. It's not the bible. I would have fully expected Peter David's treatment to have gone thru atleast some changes if it were actually given the green light. That's just apart of movie making. But as far as the animatronic Hulk is concerned, I could see it being used for a good portion of the 1998 film with maybe a CGI version used for only specific shots and angles for the sakes of illustrating action scenes that the animatronic Hulk simply could not achieve.

 

[Wolfman]

They should make Hulk using stop motion animation! Like the original King Kong! That would be lovely.

 

[dcHulk]

Really? Spawn? I typically think of Terminator 2, or Jurassic Park when I think of CGI in the 1990's. And though it's been awhile since I've seen it, I would even say Anaconda had better CGI than Spawn if we're talking about that kind of "award winning" material.

The Spawn comment arose from my memory of a Spawn DVD that claimed some sort of special effects award. Looking this up, it won best special effects at the catalonian international film festival in '97. But I agree there are better effects movies out there. I was being sarcastic.

Nevertheless, I'll give you T2. Those effects were ground breaking, but the were not used to the extent that a proper Hulk treatment would require. Most of the terminator/terminator fight scenes were still actor vs actor. And the animation industry is better than that now.

 

[KenK]

Keep the action in CGI, sure, but the emotiong scenes, stuff with Betty, use the animatronics. It gives COnnelly/Tyler something real to perform with.

I actually thought the scene with Liv in Incredible Hulk when they're in that quarry while it's raining was one of the scenes where the CGI was at its best. Well lit, good texturing for the wet skin, the way the water flowed on the body was good, better than a few recent films.

 

[dcHulk]

I actually thought the scene with Liv in Incredible Hulk when they're in that quarry while it's raining was one of the scenes where the CGI was at its best. Well lit, good texturing for the wet skin, the way the water flowed on the body was good, better than a few recent films.

I totally agree. Even after Betty and the Hulk sit down and the camera gives them close-ups, you can see the Hulk shiver. It was an amazing scene. As for having an animatronics hulk during human interaction scenes, I haven't yet seen evidence that the absence of a real Hulk prevents actors/actress from doing their job well.