Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Serkis Briefly Talks Hobbit Motion Capture

In an article about how Hollywood ignores the real acting that occurs with motion-capture, Andy Serkis commented briefly on how motion capture was used on the set of The Hobbit when he reprised the role of Gollum for the film. As for the image, it was first posted by Collider. It shows Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) with Sting. Based on the webbing on Bilbo and in the background, this is a scene involving a fight with the giant spiders of Mirkwood.
What’s changed as a result of Weta's new active-LED system used for "Apes" is that there are no longer any breaks in the capture sequences: "Every reaction, every emotion, every acting choice and beat happens there and then," Serkis emphasized.

Indeed, that's what happened when Serkis revisited Gollum after a 12-year absence for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (December 14). Shooting live on set provided a more dynamic sense of play in his scene with the young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman). "The way we approached the scene was very much to treat it like a chamber-theater piece, where we could experiment and try different things out," Serkis explained. "Of course, the other significant change now is that we're using facial capture, so my facial muscles are driving the facial muscles of the digital puppet."

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