CGI creatures

Leading film creatives pick the VFX animals that have inspired them

Let’s face it, there's an ageold Hollywood adage that animals and children are the hardest to direct. And for a medium where every nuance counts in suspending the disbelief of the audience members, then why not use a computer where every pixel can be precisely controlled?

That being said, nothing is achieved for free as everything has to be created from scratch, and fur and feathers remain tough simulations to achieve, especially when extra interactive environmental elements like light, dirt and water have to be added – no matter how good Houdini gets.

The cost of achieving such excellence can be a double-edged sword. That was experienced by VFX company Rhythm & Hues, which won an Oscar for Life of Pi just after filing for bankruptcy, and resulted in an infamous Academy Awards moment when the acceptance speech was brought to an abrupt and unceremonious end.

We asked leading VFX supervisors, producers and artists working in the film industry today about the CGI animals and creature designs they found inspirational.

DINOSAURS – JURASSIC PARK (1993) ILM

Considered the forerunner of what has become more standard fare nowadays with the release of docuseries Prehistoric Planet and Life on Our Planet, Jurassic Park relied on a mixture of practical and digital effects that left a lasting impression on digital animator and compositor Sheena Duggal, who went on to partner with Ridley Scott on Matchstick Men and Bodies of Lies as a visual effects supervisor.

“I was blown away by the groundbreaking CGI and animatronic dinosaurs from Jurassic Park,” recalls Duggal, who has also worked on Venom and Ghostbusters among other films. “While we were working on Super Mario Bros. [1993], the lab accidentally sent us dailies from Jurassic Park. We were all crowded around the KEM viewer in awe, having never seen anything like it before.”

RICHARD PARKER – LIFE OF PI (2012) RHYTHM & HUES