Alien Resurrection: Creating the CGI beast

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Alien Resurrection: Alien beast CGI

a)  Alien cyberscanned

ADI provided Blue Sky with small scale sculpture of the alien creature suit design sculpted by Steve Wang for them to scan

This version of the creature had thinned down arms, legs and waist.

They basically gave it proportions that a human being would never have.

Along with that, they gave them a full scale head, tail and other parts of the alien beast to be cyberscanned and used as reference as well.

ADI who made the suit for Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection sent them a life size alien sculptures of body parts of the alien which was then cyberscanned and used as reference.

1. Mitch Kopelman: Giger's inspirational art is incredibly detailed and rich, Just modeling the alien took several months. Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. [ADI], which made the suit for both Alien³ and Alien Resurrection, sent us a 1:1 scale alien sculpture, which we cyberscanned. (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)
2. Christoper Scollard: Jean-Pierre , Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis sent us a small maquette of the creature which we cyberscanned for scale. We wanted to ensure that our proportions were correct and that the Alien's hands, fingers and arms were in proper scale. (Total Film #?, 1997, p64)
3. Gillis: What we provided for blue sky was erm, a er, small scale sculpture of the alien, er, so that it would be exact to what we were doing, we scaled it precisely. There's a beautiful sculpture that Steve Wang did, an interpretation of the full scale suit and then we just sent them a head, full scale head for them to scan, ah, and a full scale tail for them to scan, and they could just combine the pieces (Alien Legacy: Virtual Aliens documentary)
4. ADI provided Blue Sky with full scale sculptures of body parts of the alien, which were cyberscanned and used as reference. (http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/alien4-how7.html)
5. Tom Woodruff: We sent the guys at Blue Sky a small-scale sculpture of the aliens, a maquette, and Jan videotaped me in the suit, going through some of the moves. They were intent that the CG alien  would be able to match all the nuances we have brought to the aliens over the past two films (The Making of Alien Resurrection)

Steve Wang working on an alien maquette

b) The Alien enters the cyberverse

They then brought that 3D scan into the Softimage program and quickly cleaned it up so that they could work with it.

This gave them the rough dimensions and proportions of the alien pieces. 

They wanted to ensure that their proportions were correct and the Alien's hands fingers and arms were in proper scale.

Alex Levenson and Mike DeFeo "blew away" the cyberscan and modeled all the details in a program called Alias duplicating the the 3D geometry completely in NURB geometry.

1. Mitch Kopelman:We brought that 3-D reference into Softimage and did a quickie cleanup so we could work with it; that gave us the rough dimensions and proportions of the alien pieces. (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)
2.  Mitch Kopelman: Then Alex Levenson and Mike DeFeo blew away the cyberscan and modeled all of the details in Alias. We brought those individual pieces into Softimage, where we actually put the alien together attaching the arms to the torso and so on using what we call Animate Connections."  (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm) 
3. Woodruff: So , Blue Sky takes our model, and they digitize it,  they reproduce it as a pattern in the computer world, and end up with a three-dimensional computer model based on our sculpture. On the model we gave them, we thinned down the arms and legs, we thinned down the waist, we basically gave it proportions a human being would never have, If you look at a picture of me in the suit next to a picture of the scale model, the differences are pretty apparent. (TCI, January 1998, p18) 

Alien Maquette reflected in the mirror

c) Individual pieces move assembled in Animate Connections
 
Then they brought those individual pieces back into the Softimage program, where they would put the alien together attaching the arms to the torso and so on using what they called Animate Connections taking four months.

They had written a lot of plug-ins to help make the socking of the joints and connections seamless, so that when an animator move the legs or arms, it had a nice realistic feel to it.

1. Christoper Scollard: Then we digitally built the model piece by piece, which took three model animators four months to complete using Alias and Softimage software. (Total Film #?, 1997, p64) 
2. Mitch Kopelman:We've written a lot of plug-ins to help make the socking of the joints and connections seamless, so when the animator moves the arms or legs, it's got a nice, realistic feel to it."  (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm) 

Alien head being sculpted

d) Geometry of the Alien

d.i) Realising the way forwards


Scollard and Kopelman both agreed that it was the most detailed and complex creature that their company had ever built.

Originally they planned to build a lower-resolution version of the entity, but soon they realised that the "render time" on their computers for the high-resolution model was very reasonable and so they stuck to that.

Although it would be very different from the sight of a man in a suit in the camera shot, they intended to make sure that the CGI alien would never be jarring.

Their digital model had to be seen as large as a closeup as the man in the suit version, so they built it with that intention.



d.ii) Expectations upon Blue-Sky's alien beast

The expectation surrounding the film and Blue Sky's work under high profile scrutiny as legions of fans waited with baited breath for the appearance of a fully computer generated Giger-esque alien beast.

There was some hope since Kopelman was someone who found Giger's art inspirational, as well as incredibly detailed and rich.

Scollard understood that the in every Alien film, the creature had changed subtly, but it was still based on Giger's original design, but here in this new film, there would be another delicate difference to the creature.

1. The expectation surrounding the film and Blue Sky's work under high profile scrutiny as legions of fans waited with baited breath for the appearance of a fully computer generated Giger-esque alien. (Starburst#234, p44)
2. As with all the Alien films, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's picture will introduce a slightly altered version of the Alien Warrior. Designed originally by Swiss artist HR Giger, the creature has been redesigned by Tom Woodruff Jr and Alec Gillis of Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI). " In every Alien film the creature has changed subtly, "says Scollard. "It's still based on Giger's original design but for Alien Resurrection there is another delicate difference to the creature" (Starburst#234, p44)

d.iv) Reasonable render time

Originally they planned to build low-resolution versions for shots further away but then they realised that they were getting reasonable render times with the high-resolution model, so they stuck to that.

Then they painted the texture maps using a combination of Photoshop, Amazon, and some of their own projection tools.



d.v) Alien Geometry

Meanwhile Scollard witnessed that although its head was mostly a big piece of geometry on top, the rigging and modelling of the lips which had to pull back in stages like separate shades from the teeth, was tricky,

But the most challenging thing about modeling the head was creating the sinewy geometry on the sides that connected the upper and lower jaws. 

Kopelman noticed that re-creating the material properties of the alien's skin was also difficult.

Their CGI creation had man many layers of highly complex colour and bump maps that gave the alien its gruesome feel and organic quality.

The actual suit was coated with goo, and that greasy quality was difficult to simulate in computer graphics, A nice clean plastic highlight was what they could do most easily but this was anything but.

1. Mitchel Kopelman: Re-creating the material properties of the alien's skin was also difficult. The suit was coated with goo, and that greasy quality was difficult to simulate in computer graphics. A nice, clean plastic highlight is what we can do most easily, and this was anything but. "  (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)

d.vi) Size of texture map file

There was a lot of organic complexity to the beast so there was a lot of texture maps on it upwards of 150-200 megabytes to help it along, (which could mean 250-300 megabytes for a full body shot which at the time that the production was considered a large size file)

1. Mitchel Kopelman: There's a lot of organic complexity to the alien, so there are a lot of texture maps on that baby upwards of 150-200 megabytes to help it along."  (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)

e) Motion study references involving Woodruff

ADI did all they could to make sure that the man in the suit alien and the CGI alien matched up.

A couple of times, Tom Woodruff would put on a suit and do movement tests, he would run by the camera, run by in front of the camera, and so on as motion study reference, because there was also a CGI version of it stepping over the camera, walking down the hallway, stopping and turning back

Woodruff was becoming the star of the show here as Jan directed him and Scollard filmed him.

No one had every really seen the creature walk, and in both Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, having a man in a suit seen walking was impractical because it appeared to have tri-segmented legs

There were only a certain amount of ways that bipeds moved and the mandate here was that the CG alien beast didn look like a person

Soon, words was getting around that some strange walks reminiscent of Monty Python were being practices and filmed on set

1. The team also took time to research the movements that their CG model would adopt. With no alien movements being effectively established in the previous films, word got around that some strange walks reminiscent of Monty Python were being practised and filmed on set. "Well, we did that for the walk, and they are some of the funniest reference tapes you'll ever see" Laughs Scollard, referring to the 'Blue Sky bloopers' reel. "Tom [Woodruff] is indeed the star of the show; Jan directed him, I filmed him, and it goes to the highest bidder! In terms of designing the creature's movement and personality we all collaborated on it. Ultimately it was Jean-Pierre's call. No one has ever really seen the creature walk, mainly because it has tri-segmented legs. Now we only knew that there are only so many ways that a biped moves. The mandate given to us was to make sure that when our CG alien walks it doesn't look like a person. 
   (Starburst#234, p44-5)
2. Tom Woodruff: We sent the guys at Blue Sky a small-scale sculpture of the aliens, a maquette, and Jan videotaped me in the suit, going through some of the moves. They were intent that the CG alien  would be able to match all the nuances we have brought to the aliens over the past two films (The Making of Alien Resurrection)

f) One step for the alien and three steps for alienkind

They spent a long time coming up with animation rigs that would simulate the musculature and tendon of the legs.

As the foot landed on the floor in a close-up, the toes spread, the mass settled and the calf muscles tightened.

The animation rig was just a complicated as their initial geometric alien model, and so some of it was partially automated.

Even so, the animation of the big foot landing, followed by the alien taking three more steps down a corridor, took a couple of weeks to complete.

1. That element of musculature was crucial since Blue Sky's CG alien wasn't going to be visible merely in long shots. "Our model had to take as large a close-up as the man-in-the-suit version, so we built it with that intention," Kopelman says. "Originally, we planned to build lower-res versions for shots further away, but when we realized we were getting reasonable render times with the high-res model, we stuck with that. Then we painted the texture maps using a combination of Photoshop, Amazon and some of our own projection tools."   (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)
2. The texture maps, coupled with some complex animation rigging developed by Blue Sky animators Jim Bresnahan and Steve Talkowski, paid off in brutal close-ups of the alien's anatomy. One example is the Jurassic Park-inspired tight shot of the alien's foot landing in frame, followed by a shot in which the alien steps over camera and heads down a hallway, swishing its tail in the lens. "We spent a lot of time coming up with animation rigs that would simulate the musculature and tendons of those legs," Kopelman says. "As the foot lands on the floor in close-up, the toes spread, the mass settles out, and the calf muscle tightens. The animation rig was just as complicated as our initial geometric alien model, so some of that stuff was partially automated. Even so, the animation of the big foot landing, followed by the alien taking three more steps down the corridor, took a couple of weeks."  (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)
3. This was a true boon to the design process, since the alien's facial geometry became ever more complicated as the design evolved throughout preproduction. "Although its head is mostly a big piece of geometry on top, the rigging and modeling of the lips, which had to pull back in stages like separate shades from the teeth, was tricky," admits Christopher Scollard, Blue Sky's visual effects producer. "The most challenging thing about modeling the head was creating the sinewy geometry on the sides that connects the upper and lower jaws."  (http://www.theasc.com/magazine/nov97/reanimate/pg1.htm)
4. Kopelman said, "This was by far the most detailed and complex creature that Blue Sky has ever built." Amazon and Photoshop were used to create the textures of the complicated CG model. "There were many layers of highly complex color and bump maps," Kopelman said, "that gave the alien its gruesome feel and organic quality. A full body shot of the alien has about 250-300MB of texture maps applied."  (http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/alien4-how7.html)
5. Tom Woodruff: But we found the way it's shot, it's never jarring. (TCI, January 1998, p18)
6. Tom Woodruff: Well when Blue-Sky came in, the look of the alien had already been established in terms of the suit, so they were being very respectful of saying, you know, this is the look, we just want to match this and make sure it looks right and tell us about the movement of this thing and there were a couple of times when I would put on the suit and do movement tests you know, run by the camera, run by in front of the camera because there's also a CGI version of it, of it stepping over the camera, walking down the hallway, stopping and turning back, so we did, we did some motion studies like that, it was just used as a reference.(Alien Legacy: "Virtual Aliens- Computer generated imagery" documentary)