A double feature here, so to speak. First up, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in which we can now see what a pre-CGI Andy Serkis looks like when he was “acting” out the role of Caesar. His co-star, James Franco, has been calling for an Oscar nomination for Serkis’ motion capture performance, which was always going to be a big ask, considering that you can’t actually see Serkis’ features beneath all that marvelous digital paint.
But now HitFix has this amazing behind the scenes video which shows us exactly that:
Is it worthy of an Oscar nod? I don’t know. Serkis is widely considered the King of Mo-Cap and justifiably so, but as can be seen here, there appears to be a but of a disconnect between Serkis and his eventual digital avatar. I think this is primarily due to human features not mapping correctly onto the ape features. In my opinion, if Serkis ever deserved an Oscar nomination, or ever possibly a win, it would had to have been for his performance as the tragic Gollum/Smeagol in Lord of the Rings.
Next up, Steven Spielberg’s latest war time epic, War Horse. Chris Clark, senior animatronics technician on the film has released a video on his Facebook page, showing off some gobsmackingly realistic animatronic horse work. Unfortunately, there is no embedded version of the video, so I’ll have to link you directly to his Facebook page by clicking the pic below.
Go check it out, while I wait for you back here.
Done? Cool. Now, I’m pretty sure that for most of us, had we not been told otherwise, would naturally assume that to be a real horse. Well at least until the camera pans back and you see Chris jammed up the severed end of half a horse. But up until then, they totally had me.
Last Updated: January 17, 2012
