Alien Resurrection: Swimming aliens with the help of National Geographic

leading from

Alien Resurrection: Alien beast CGI

Image of a Galápagos Marine Iguana

 

a)  How the creature should swim  

 

There was a challenge to figure out how the aliens should swim

Even though the beast was supposed to be only a couple of hours old, it seemed comfortable underwater.

Pitof had the idea that they should look at the animal kingdom for the swimming alien.

Jeunet mentioned the idea of a lizard and so they started to look in the direction

 

b)  The National Geographic videotape Revelations 

Gillis took note of the fact that Jeunet found some nature footage for Blue Sky to use as a source of reference.

Then Erik Henry noticed that Jan Carlée of Blue Sky had the video tape of a sea iguana swimming from a National Geographic video.

With that Jan was seen as the man with a lot of great ideas as to how the aliens should move underwater, and so gave the production a lot of options.

He put together a reference tape of different animals walking or swimming, and presented it to Jean-Pierre, Pitof and Erik, and they discussed the pros and cons of each. 

 

c) Looking at sea iguanas

 

For example in underwater scenes the aliens' movements are kind of composite between a sea iguana and a shark with the shark element adding menace and a predator like behaviour.

Erik Henry noted that the way the iguana moved through the water was oddly elegant in the way that it would swim by undulating its body, while its hands and feet seemed to not be used at all.

So this was precisely what Jean-Pierre Jeunet was looking for.

 

d) Looking at alligators

 

With the need to make the swimming alien look dangerous and menacing, Erik meanwhile had the idea that when it was aggressive and attacked, since it had a tail, they would have the tail kick in the same way that an alligator did, (or was that a crocodile?).  

 

 

e)  Combining the two

Since Jean-Pierre liked both ideas , they decided to combine the two.

However important the the shark element might have been seemed Jan Carlée , it appeared to drift away from everyone's memories 

1. No alien had previously been seen swimming underwater, so the effects artists had to come up with a design for the alien's animation.  (http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/alien4-how7.html)
2. Alec Gillis: There was er er er some great, dum, nature footage, that er, that Jean-Pierre found that he was using with er, with Blue Sky, who is doing the CGI versions of the Alien and some of it was crocodile and some of it was marine iguana, uh, because of the way they wriggle their entire body and not just their tale. We built a , erm , er, a version that could be er, towed that had a er, a tail that would er, that would swim like that which was used I think may be in one place, but most of it you know was completely submerged under water, so most of it when you see the film is the CGI versions swimming under water. (Alien Legacy: "Virtual Aliens- Computer generated imagery" documentary)
3. Erik Henry: Jan at Blue Sky had a lot of great ideas as to how the aliens should move underwater, and gave the production a lot of options. He showed up one day with a videotape of a sea iguana swimming, from a National Geographic video. The way that it moved through the water was oddly elegant, which is precisely what the director was looking for." The alien swim was made to look dangerous and menacing; even though it is only a couple of hours old, it seems comfortable underwater. (http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/alien4-how7.html)
4. Erik Henry: We came up with the idea that when the alien committed to attacking someone that its tail would violently thrash, just like an alligator would when it's attacking its prey.(http://www.vfxhq.com/1997/alien4-how7.html)
5. Erik Henry: Pitof had the idea that we should look at the animal kingdom for the swimming alien. Jean-Pierre mentioned a lizard and we started looking in that direction. Actually it was Jan from blue sky who found a sea iguana that would swim by undulating its body, its hands and feet seem not to be used at all. I had the idea that when it was aggressive and when it attacked, since it had a tail we should kick that tail the same way as an alligator does. Jean-Pierre liked both ideas so we try to combine the two. (The making of Alien Resurrection) 
6. Jan Carlée : I put together a reference tape of different animals walking or swimming, and presented it to Jean-Pierre, Pitof and Erik, and we discussed the pros and cons of each. For example in underwater scenes the aliens' movements are kind of composite between a sea iguana and a shark with the shark element adding menace and a predator like behaviour in addition Pitof put together an animatic that combine the storyboard and the live-action plate so that everyone knew how large the creature should be in the scenes (Cinefex 73)