With Guardians of the Galaxy arriving on DVD & Blu-Ray today in the UK, Trevor Hogg chats with Kyle McCulloch about the visual effects work contributed by Framestore…
“We have worked with Marvel in the past and word was out there that they were looking to do these hero animated characters,” states Framestore Visual Effects Supervisor Kyle McCulloch who was keen to contribute to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). “We offer the full range of visual effects services but creatures are something we have had a special focus on throughout our history and so from the beginning we were committed to try to win the work.” A bounty hunter raccoon with serious attitude problems had to be produced for the first instalment of a science fiction adventure franchise directed by James Gunn (Slither). “A huge part of Guardians for us was discovering who is Rocket? What does he look like? How does he move? How much of animal is he? How big is he? What are his ticks and mannerisms? It wasn’t just Rocket. We did big environments and one of which was Knowhere which was a centrepiece of the Guardians’ comic world. Knowhere was easily the biggest environment we’ve ever tackled and that almost had as much development, research and thought put into it. I found that process enjoyable.” Overseeing the visual effects for Guardians of the Galaxy was Stephane Ceretti (Cloud Atlas). “Stef had a knack for making the connection between the creative voices above him, distilling the right feedback and passing it onto the vendors. Quite often he worked hard to facilitate us speaking directly to James or the executives, and putting us all in the room together to make sure that we never got lost in the circles of feedback.”
Working alongside Kyle McCulloch was Framestore Visual Effects Supervisor Jonathan Fawkner. “I went ahead to do the shoot with Stef because Jonathan was finishing another project. When it came time to do the actual show Jonathan has a real passion and focus on animation; he ended up supervising a lot of the character focused sequences and I took the lead on the environments and effects.” Previs was an indispensable tool. “James spent more than a year with the previs team before principle photography started; that was so valuable, especially with a big project with a lot of moving parts because it helps you figure out what questions need to be answered before you get on-set.” The on-set experience was enjoyable. “A Marvel set is sympathetic to the needs of the visual effects and Stef worked brilliantly with the other department heads. There was a commitment in every setup, and not only shooting stand-in references but lighting references. The on-set performer for Rocket was Sean Gunn who is the director’s brother. I can’t help but think in writing the character of Rocket that James used Sean for inspiration because he was able to provide a fantastic reference for attitude and characterization.” McCulloch notes, “Framestore picks up the film where our heroes are sent to the Kyln Prison. Then they fly to Knowhere and that continues to be primarily our work right up to till they leave.”
“Because MPC was the other major vendor Marvel made it clear that we were going to have to share a lot of assets so we took the lead or building and developing Rocket and they took the lead on building and developing Groot,” explains Kyle McCulloch. “We were able to put Groot in our shots and they were able to put Rocket into theirs.” Filmmaker James Gunn wanted to Rocket to be like a real raccoon which was not entirely possible because of the anatomy and proportions of the animal. “There was a lot of back and forth to ultimately come down to the creature that he was meant to be.” There was a lot shader development for the fur. “Rocket was tricky because raccoons have two coats of fur. We had to build two complete grooms, one for the down layer and one for the guard hairs. The other tricky thing about raccoon fur is that individual hairs are not only one colour; they can have three to four different bands of colour in them. The number and colour of the hairs changes over the body of the creature so for us our development was to build a system to control all of those parameters to get a perfect match to the pelt of a raccoon.” McCulloch observes, “It was surprising how much the colour and scattering on the skin could affect the look of the fur. It was harder to get images of a bald raccoon but we were able to find some! Raccoons have pink skin in some places and black skin in others.”
“We spent a lot of time looking at the different shapes that Rocket’s eyes and eyelids make,” states Kyle McCulloch. “There is a tremendous amount of subtlety that happens because the eyeball isn’t a uniform sphere. How much fluid was on the surface of the eye? How much does the eye refract in towards the iris? There were months of work put in to refine that. An animator did apply a delicate and subtle performance so that you could see and believe it.” The need for lip syncing dialogue complicated the ability to animate the mouth. “Once Bradley Cooper [Silver Linings Playbook] was cast we got lots of reference footage of him speaking, and did a lot of back and forth development of the shapes of the lip system. How much do the lips pull forward, down and around the teeth? How active is the tongue? How much does the bottom jaw move backwards and forwards? For us, we needed to convince Marvel and James that his lip sync was perfect. You couldn’t take Bradley and roto animate the lip sync onto Rocket. There’s a huge amount of interpretations because the mouths are shaped differently.” Nuances and imperfections were incorporated into the teeth and claws. “When you get close to them they’re not smooth. There are lots of little grooves, bumps and breakup on them; that combined with how much they scatter light and the wetness on them gave them a nice sharp feeling. Rocket’s claws are sharp. When you look at the model they’re incredibly pointed in places but are also chipped, cracked and broken up and those tiny details more than anything else make you believe it’s the real thing.” Maintaining a level of consistency was a major concern as various animators and visual effects vendors would be creating the same character for different scenes. “Our biggest challenge was to develop Rocket so as we put him in all of these big and little moments you’d believe that he was the same guy throughout.”
Prison garb had to be worn by the digital creation during the time spent in the Kyln. “Rocket had a different costume on which was a new challenge. We had to build a completely different rigging and simulation system than his primary costume. The biggest surprise and most challenging bit was when they’re shooting at Rocket and Groot during the prison battle. After they shot the film the decision was made that Groot needed to be able to grow armour and be destroyed. We didn’t build Groot and that left us in the state where we had to take this character which had been built at another facility and augment him with a whole new set of rigging and animation abilities so we could put armour on him. We could grow extra branches and destroy him in different ways.” The Kyln was a full in the round three story structure which had to appear 30 stories high. “We had to rely on our effects team quite a bit for that stuff because it all needed to line up with the bullets from the hoverbots. We also made a decision to have the hoverbots have lights on them which added to the excitement and energy in the sequence but it also meant we needed to have flashing lights through the dust and debris.” The original plan was to use practical wire stunts to simulate the feeling of weightlessness; however, it was accomplished digitally. “Once we had freed ourselves of the constraints of using the stunt elements we were able to make those shots a lot more dynamic and our animation team had a fair bit of experience animating bodies in zero gravity.” The detached flying watchtower bangs its way through a corridor. “We ended up repurposing a lot of the technology we had been building for the Knowhere environment for the hallway. We had developed a new set of shaders that allowed us to put an extraordinary number of lights within an enclosed set and still render efficiently.”
“It was pretty psychedelic,” laughs Kyle McCulloch when discussing bringing Knowhere to the big screen. “When you read it in the script it’s this rotting half-mechanical half-biological head of an alien circling a black hole. What is that? It took a long time in development with James narrowing down the look he wanted. It was an enclosed space that had to be massive and James wanted the flexibility to fly his ships everywhere inside this place.” 250 building blocks were transformed into 84,000 different models of towers, buildings and fixtures that fit with the aesthetic of Knowhere. “When they first arrive the street that they’re on was a practical set which we extended in different directions. But once they’re in the ships and flying around that was all built digitally with tens of thousands of individually dressed lights.” Located on Knowhere is a rowdy bar. “The Boot of Jemiah was a practical set and we added Groot and Rocket but that was where we to play with our two favourite characters the F’saki and the Oroni. The F’saki is a cross between a toad and a puppy. We didn’t want him to be too gamely on land. We wanted him to be a bit awkward and funny so that’s why we did a lot of the way he walks based on a toad. The Oroni was based on a creature called the Jerboa which is like a kangaroo mouse which hops around. They’re adorable and James responded well to that early reference so that’s the direction we took in designing those characters.”
Another place visited on Knowhere was The Collector’s Lab. “We had to put tens of thousands of glass cases in the background and fill them with things,” remarks Kyle McCulloch. “One part of that process was going out and making a long list of objects and things that the Collector would have found. There are a few Easter Eggs in there which were fun to include.” The display cases added to the complexity of the scene. “The biggest thing for us was being able to render and shade that much glass reflecting and refracting. Beyond that the black fire destruction was one of the first things that we started on and was one of the last things we finished.” McCulloch explains, “When you read the script it’s a couple of lines of Carina is engulfed in black fire and the lab is destroyed. We started out with the question: What is black fire? Fire is an animation of light; that’s all it is. Since its black is it darker where it’s hotter or darker where it’s cooler? Is it glowing or is it the absence of light? We did quite a few different tests exploring that idea with James and Marvel to try to find what they were looking for.” Method Studios and MPC also had to create black fire for their sequences. “We all had to create the same thing but had different things which it needed to do and different story points it had to hit. All of our development had to happen in parallel and that’s part of why it took so long.”
A practical space pod was built which was placed upon a gimbal rig for the chase sequence. “When you have that concrete element to use in the chase it adds to it,” states Kyle McCulloch. “You’re not just looking at digital double or an actor sitting on a chair. They’re getting tossed around. Dale Newton was our animation lead on the pod chase and he worked with James in figuring out the language of the ships. The space pods were meant to be jalopies. They’re workhorses but not very manoeuvrable, whereas the Necrocraft are sleek fighting machines.” The Kyln Escape was a pleasant surprise. “As it was originally previs it was fun and exciting but by the end we added so much to it with the flying hoverbots, zero gravity guards, and Groot’s armour and destruction. I love that sequence.” Reflecting upon Guardians of the Galaxy, McCulloch notes, “It was work that required the best of all our departments. It wasn’t only creatures or effects or environments. It was all of them and all of them working together. It is certainly one of the biggest and complex shows we’ve ever done. Having done Gravity [2013] and getting through that we learned a lot of lessons that we were able to apply here. Everybody is proud of the work.”
Guardians of the Galaxy images © 2014 Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Pictures. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, and Framestore.
Many thanks to Kyle McCulloch for taking the time for this interview.
To learn more visit the official websites for Guardians of the Galaxy, Framestore and MPC plus read the insights of Charles Wood at the CGSociety and Territory Studio at 3DTotal.
Concept Art from Guardians of the Galaxy
Shared Universe: Stephane Ceretti talks about Guardians of the Galaxy
Engineering Danger: Sony Pictures Imageworks & Guardians of the Galaxy
Cosmic Landscape: Method Studios & Guardians of the Galaxy
Branching Out: MPC & Guardians of the Galaxy
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.
