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July 5, 2007
lsgl: a three-legged dog with training wheels
by sven at 11:59 pm
I'm working on the most difficult shot of the film right now. We see the Shoggoth blocking the cave's only exit and dozens of just-woken-up Elder Things stampeding away.
I've finally got the Elders' legs doing a satisfactory gallop. How does a five-legged Thing run? Imagine a three-legged dog with training wheels being ridden by a watermelon jockey... That's what worked for me.
There are quibbles to be had with this gallop... The feet hit ground with their delicate tips, rather than with a more load-bearing part of the "foot." The mid-leg doesn't have as much of a "shock absorber" reaction as I'd like. And there's a moment where the rear three legs are all off the ground at the same time, which doesn't seem plausible. ...But it looks OK to me at this speed -- and that's good enough.
The arms are still giving me grief, though. I still haven't quite wrapped my mind around how they should move.
Here's your first glimpse of the Shoggoth. There'll be some minor tweaking, but I'm pretty happy with it as-is. (Unfortunately compression for the web has made this clip muddy.)
The silhouette for the Shoggoth was created by throwing some india ink into a wet sink.
The texture of the Shoggoth is boiling sugar... Which is then layered upon itself and hyper-saturated. Hot spots get color-keyed out.
I originally thought that the shoggoth would be translucent in this shot. Turns out that it looks better if it's opaque. Maybe we'll be able to see a bit of the protoplasm's translucence in later shots when the pseudopods are smacking down Elder Things .
A little less than two months left until the deadline! EEEEEEE!
posted by sven | July 5, 2007 11:59 PM | comments (4) | categories: let sleeping gods lie
Comments
Its beautiful! I love it. Very cool effect, I was thinking of trying out some india ink fx for Jenny, for underwater blood-spillage, the scene where Nola hits her with the hook...
Nicely done, cant wait to see more :)
Posted by: ubatuber at July 6, 2007 7:56 AM
GREAT colors, too!
Posted by: ubatuber at July 6, 2007 7:57 AM
What a great way to create that character, Sven! way to go!
Posted by: shelley Noble at July 6, 2007 3:07 PM
man .... your expanding my compositing mind!
great stuff!! I like your monster movement too.
jriggityPosted by: justin rasch at July 7, 2007 2:06 AM