Deadpool was so good for so many reasons. But perhaps the biggest reason—literally—was the metal man with a heart of solid gold, Colossus. And now, thanks to a Wired behind-the-scenes look at the film, we get to see how exactly the VFX team brought Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin to Angel Dust-bustin’, Russian-accented life.
In the above video, Mike Seymour of fxguide.com walks us through the process of creating Colossus, which included five actors, as well as a seriously impressive overall collaborative effort between VFX houses and live-action performers.
Along with a performer who did the standard motion-capture work, Colossus was created using a 6’9″ actor who wore giant platform shoes (making him well over 7 feet tall) and worked on set with the other actors during filming.
But because the actor who played Colossus on set didn’t have the right mug, Colossus’ face was modeled on yet another performer “with a much more chiseled jawline.”
Then, on top of these three performers (one for motion capture, one for live filming, one for facial modeling), a fourth was used to deliver Colossus’ dialog in that USSR-erific accent. But, as none of these four actors had the facial expressions director Tim Miller was looking for, a fifth actor was used to animate Colossus’ face. These expressions were captured using a MOVA rig, which, according to Seymour, “works using ultraviolet light to pick up special spattered paint, which produces incredibly accurate facial models.”
Seymour also notes that several new VFX techniques had to be invented to make Colossus look as good as he does in the film, including “live texturing,” which allowed for those iconic “metal ridges and lines” all over Colossus’ body to stay straight and evenly spaced during action sequences; something that would’ve otherwise been impossible without innovation.
Needless to say, the VFX for Colossus ultimately looked freakin’ amazing, and it’s no surprise it took so much work to bring him to life. Hopefully he’ll have an even bigger role—not literally—in the Deadpool sequel, which is already being written.
What do you think of this VFX breakdown of Colossus? Construct your comment using the state-of-the-art comments section below!
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Images: Marvel via Wired
