“The first time animatronics were used was in the Disney ride,” the director continues. “Seeing the barking dog and the talking skeletons made you question whether or not it was real. But today’s audiences are savvier because of effects. We are using computer-generated animation to achieve that same reality for today’s audience.”
John Knoll and a team of experts at Industrial Light & Magic were entrusted with the job of bringing the skeletal pirates to life. Under an unheard of deadline, Knoll and animation supervisor Hal Hickel started with sketches and an animatronic sample. Knoll, Bruckheimer, Verbinski and Bruce Hendricks spent countless hours discussing just how to go about illustrating the pirates to find the perfect balance between being alive yet decomposing.
Visual effects are used not only when the actors are seen transforming into skeletons, but also when each character becomes a completely animated skeleton. The filmmakers did not want to use stopmotion or other similar effects used so frequently in mythical stories.
“John Knoll and his team came up with some unique images that really impressed us,” says Bruckheimer. “The time constraints ILM had to work under were unspeakable. It’s amazing the detail and care that’s been taken.”
For Knoll and his crew, the visual effects on the picture fell into three categories: the matte paintings that are for establishing environments, the ships at sea (since there weren’t complete ships for the Black Pearl and the Dauntless), and the skeletal pirates.
Creating the skeletal pirates was the most exciting aspect of the job for Knoll. “It’s such a bold image. You only see them as skeletons in the moonlight, so it’s always very spooky circumstances to begin with. These are cool shots.”
The process of designing the skeleton pirate characters began with taking photographs of the actors in wardrobe and makeup. “Then VFX Art Director Aaron McBride spent time painting a version of each of them in skeletal form,” says Knoll. “We went through a couple of revisions until we got approval from Gore on what these characters should look like.”
From there, the team got 3-D scans of all the actors. “So for each of the actors we've got a full body scan and we have a more detailed head scan,” continues Knoll. “We built one very detailed skeleton that has all the right bones in it. Since everyone’s skeleton is a little bit different from everyone else’s, the first step is to take the skeleton and kind of fit it properly inside the particular person’s envelope, or 3-D scan. There’s a lot of scaling and smushing to get it to fit.”
A few layers of skin are then built; designers scanned turkey jerky to help them replicate what McBride calls “the dried and desiccated meat look” of the skin of the skeleton pirates. The skin is then painted with different textures and transparencies for a complex look.
Of course, all of the characters have hair, clothing and props. “The wardrobe is multi-layered, and so we need to simulate that so it all folds properly and interacts with all their props. A lot of them have sashes and muskets and swords and necklaces and all sorts of things that the cloth has to properly behave around,” says Knoll.
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