leading from
a) Development of the Neomorph by way of Australia
The
design work for the Neomorph was taken to Australia.
There was a cartoonish illustration of the Neomorph that Ridley liked but as far as Conor was concerned, it wasn't clearly evident what exactly Ridley wanted from it. Conor wasn't quite sure who had created it but he thought it might have been Carlos Huantes, but Stephane Levallois had also done some significant work . So Conor couldn't use it directly. (NB Without seeing it we can not know)
Conor had taken Colin Shulver out to Australia with him, and he was buys doing digital models while Conor himself was busy using Photoship and taking bits of pieces off the internet. He saw that Adam Johansen was very closer to the final design with Ridley
With that, following his process, Conor had decided that they had solved and fixed it, getting the design that Ridley wanted
- Interviewer: How about the design for the brand new, the engineers of the, neomorph for instance
Conor: The
neomorph was a kind of design process, erm, you know, that and there
was a fun drawing, you know there was a few similar things, but you
know, they, I think it did work in the end, I think it sort of worked,
it's a bit of a, I personally wanted to go for something a bit more
deformed human. Erm, this kind of sort of much more of a creature was
not something too sure about, whether I kind of, you know, I think it
worked as a thing, it was good, you know, it had lots of nice qualities
about it. It was trying to sort of get a more natural thing, looked
like, you know, you know, has the sort of goblin shark quality about it
Interviewer:Yeah
Conor:
Er, that was kind of based on some designs that were floating around,
ah, but there was a Carlos Huantes, ern had a designed, had done a
drawing which Ridley had particularly liked, but it was a very cartoony
drawing, so we couldn't really, when I asked, it wasn't really sort of
clearly evident what it was you know, that er, he wanted, so initially
between three of us I think and Adam Johanson, er was doing stuff in
Australia, he was getting pretty closer and then, along with him and
then erm, Colin Shulver who was a designer that I took out to Australia
and me doing a bit of Photoshop and stealing things off the internet, we
solved it and fixed it and got the design that he liked. And that was
er, and that was you know, an interesting process
Interviewer:Yeah
Conor: As well. Getting the mouth mechanism was interesting, kind of fun, but we
Interviewer: With that, did you look at what was done before, did you think I wanted to work it out for myself
Conor: Well, he had, he kept referring to this one, this kind of cartoon image, which we've got here, which was this one (which one?)
Interviewer: Wow
Conor: So
that was a Carlos, Carlos Huantes, I hope it, and then I kind of
amalgamated with some other images that we got off the internet and
stuff that, we came up with this drawing which he then approved that was
a bit more real than that er we're getting it moving forwards and then
it goes on and on from there, you know, sort of refining it, doing lots
more details
Interviewer: So is the next step from that maybe the maquette as a physical 3d form of it
Conor:Yeah
Interviewer: So is it
Conor:But Adam was doing that, he was making a model Colin
Shulver was doing a digital model, so we had a digital artist there,
Dominic Hailstone and Colin Shulver, anderm we, so ,we ended up with a
physical model, a guy in a suit, and a digital model, and we supplied
the digital models to the visual effects department,
Interviewer: yeah (Reel Feedback podcast https://shows.acast.com/reel-feedback/episodes/605f3602db73271e7558bbd9)
b) Dane Hallet and
Matt Hatton's decided that they certainly didn't want to create anything
like the Deacon from Prometheus
- Dane Hallet: it's,
yeah, 'cause, it's really funny, I think that Matt and I both have an
idea about what we want to see in an Alien film as well, so we, like for
example we just, we didn't draw any Deacon drawings from Prometheus (The Podcast strikes back: The Art of Alien Covenant)
 |
Alien: Covenant. The Neomorph.
This concept was realized by Colin Shulver, combining designs of the
adult Neomorph head, sculpted/designed by Adam Johansen and photoshop
designs by Conor O'Sullivan.
Creature effects by Odd Creatures- Odd Studio & Creatures inc.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/oddstudiopl/ June 9, 2017 ·
|
 |
Alien: Covenant. The Neomorph. Our practical proof of concept and reference head.
Ridley referenced
the goblin shark for the bases of this creature and it's jaw mechanisms.
It was also based on elements of a Carlos Huante design.
The adult
head was sculpted/co-designed by Adam Johansen &
colour design and
paint job by Damian Martin.
Creature effects by Odd Creatures, Odd
Studio and Creatures Inc.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/oddstudiopl/ June 15, 2017 · |
c) Adam Johansen tackles the Neomorph
Adam found the design the adult Neomorph, in particular the head, was a great challenge.
He
knew there were many many artists working on the designs for this beast
but nobody was quite getting there. Ridley continuously referenced a
goblin shark for the mouth-jaw articulation and a sketch by Carlos
Huante.
Adam sculpted many maquettes and full scaled
heads, while Colin Shulver worked on the body in Zbrush, with Conor
O'Sullivan compositing both elements together in Photoshop until Ridley
was happy.
Damian Martin meanwhile did a paint job that
Adam thought was gorgeously disgusting paint job and colour scheme to
finish it off.
They then presented the finished full
scale Neomorph head to Ridley on location in New Zealand, and he was
thrilled. It was a satisfying moment for Adam.
Generally
the design of the creatures was challenging because they were trying to
give Ridley exactly what he wanted and also try to retain a Giger
aesthetic
d) Finishing the work
Perhaps by March of 2017, Adam had totally finished his work on Covenant, still going through Fox storage for some pick ups.
- Adam Johansen: Personally, the design of the adult Neomorph, in
particular the head, was most challenging. There were many, many artists
working on the designs for this but nobody was quite getting there.
Ridley continually referenced a goblin shark for the mouth/jaw
articulation and a sketch form Carlos Haunte. I sculpted many maquettes
and full scale heads while Colin Shulver worked on the body in Zbrush
with Conor compositing both elements together in photoshop until Ridley
was happy. Damian did a gorgeously disgusting paint job and colour
scheme to finish it off. When we presented the finished full scale
Neomorph head to Ridley on location in NZ he was thrilled. It was a
satisfying moment. Generally, the design of most creatures was
challenging because again, we were trying to give Ridley exactly what he wanted and also trying to retain a Giger aesthetic. (https://www.alien-covenant.com/news/exclusive-interview-with-alien-covenant-practical-effects-company-odd-studio--creatures-inc)
- Adam Johansen: I enjoyed working with Conor and his crew too.
Both our crews worked very well together and it resulted in one big
creature crew family, with old friendships re ignited and many new
friendships made among our 45 strong crew. Having such a dedicated and
talented crew made it all possible and made the experience most
enjoyable for me.
This was the first time I’d worked with Ridley and it was a career
highlight for me to work so closely with him, especially on set. Be it
puppeteering or dressing blood, KY and food onto our
puppets/suits/effects with him was an unbelievable experience for me. He
really loves to get things in front of the camera and shoot
effects/creatures practically and that was an honour to see him in action with our creations. (https://www.alien-covenant.com/news/exclusive-interview-with-alien-covenant-practical-effects-company-odd-studio--creatures-inc)
e)
Smoother elegant neomorph
The asset team focused on the inside
out anatomy build to play up the translucency, as this was a big part
and the skin shader detail. Ridley wanted a smoother
and elegant look to the Neomorph, a contrast against the busy and dark
shapes of the Xenomorph
- A new creature is introduced in this movie, the Neomorph. Can you explain in detail about his design and his creation?
Ferran Domenech: The Neomorph is the final stage of the engineers’ Pathogen, an eerie
faceless creature. The design was based on concepts created by the
production art team and MPC’s art department. From early stages the
Neomorph details referenced the Goblin shark, a beast with an extendible
jaw and a translucent and gelatinous skin quality. The assets team
focused on the inside out anatomy build to play up the translucency, as
this was a big part and the skin shader detail. Ridley wanted a smoother
and elegant look to the Neomorph, a contrast against the busy and dark
shapes of the Xenomorph.(http://www.artofvfx.com/) - The Neomorph is seen in different size. How did you handle this aspect and his rigging??
Ferran Domenech: Because the Neomorph appears in the film from it’s birth to it’s adult
form, we had to create different stages that would be able to blend
shape into one another. For this, we created four different rigs, a baby
Neomorph, a toddler, a teen and an adult. All capable of transforming
into the next. The baby and toddler particularly had special controls to
animate the length and shape of the joints so the transformation could
be done in non-uniform way, with burst of growth with one limb expanding
before the other. (http://www.artofvfx.com/)
The adult Neomorph was designed to be very flexible and double
jointed so it could get into extremely contorted poses. Ridley Scott was
inspired by the work of Alessandro Bavari’s ‘Metachaos’ film. He was
invited to join the production where he created sketch poses for the
Neo, very dramatic extreme profiles where the knees would raise higher
than the head. This created a challenge where the hips and elbows would
pinch and lose mass. To help with this, Asset Supervisor Dan Zelcs,
introduced a set of very specific corrective blendshapes to help the
problem areas.
The anatomy of the Neomorph’s mouth was designed to match a goblin
shark with a hinging inner jaw full of teeth that could swing forward
while staying connected to the face by flexible gums. The Neomorph had a
softer outer skin than the Xeno, so he would have wrinkles and excess
skin that would ride and slide over the muscles when crouching, but
would smooth out and become tough when standing on it’s hind legs. The
rig had dynamic skin built into the base setup that could be augmented
by the tech animation department using cloth simulation when extra
detail was required. (http://www.artofvfx.com/) - Did you receive specific indications and references for his animation??
Ferran Domenech: Aside from the inner jaw matching the goblin shark, the Neomorph was
inspired by motion studies by actor and contortionist, Javier Botet, as
well as animal references of bats and birds. The Neomorph had a nervous
personality, always rhythmically breathing and barely containing it’s
rage. Led by Animation Supervisors Philip Morris and Alexandre Ronco,
the team did tests to develop the look and key poses. Running like a
greyhound, slower cantering like a baboon, later creating character test
keyframe animation clips of the Neo attacking, climbing, changing from
run to walk. Through this exploratory animation process and review with
the director, the character and motion language of the Neomorph took
shape. (http://www.artofvfx.com/) - How does his skin’s look affects the lighting work??
Ferran Domenech: Due to the multiple layers of subsurface on the skin and the fact that
the Neomorph was not hollow but had bones inside, we had to adjust the
lighting and lookdev depending on the strength of the HDRI dome,
relative light distance to the character and specially strength of
backlighting and rim lights.
To find a particular look that Ridley was after, CG supervisor
Manuel Mantero, had to to build alternative lookdev for some shots where
the Neomorph was standing very close to camera. In some other cases we
had explosions and bright sparks close to the Neomorph. When projecting
the plate into the environment’s geometry for lighting purposes, these
bright lights would affect the subsurface in a way that we didn’t like.
To overcome this, we adjusted the skin shader to maintain the visibility
of the intricate layering of the skin. (http://www.artofvfx.com/) - How was simulated his presence on-set especially in its small size??
Ferran Domenech: On set, the SFX department had different models and latex puppets for
the three smaller stages of the Neomorph, they became a great reference
for our CG Neomorph, particularly for size, shadows, light and
reflection of the set. As Ridley wanted to adjust the Medbay scene to
make the Neomorph more speedy and reactive to the actress, the practical
photography shots of the Neomorph puppet became the go-to reference to
QC the realism on our final comps. (http://www.artofvfx.com/)(http://www.artofvfx.com/)
- MPC’s artists also used real world references to bring the Neomorph to
life, such as the goblin shark, praying mantis and the contorted and
extreme motion studies given by actor Javier Botet, which were used to
inspire the movement of the Neomorph’s hands and stomach. On top of
this already difficult build, this new creature had to go through 4
stages of development from baby to toddler to teen to adult and each
stage had to blend seamlessly together. So in essence MPC had to create 5
different aliens: An improved version of the original Xenomorph and 4
versions of the new Neomorph. ( "Exclusive ‘Alien: Covenant’ Concept Art Reveals Ridley Scott’s Second Stab at the Xenomorph" by Adam Chitwood, June 1, 2017)
