The computer images were then painstakingly rendered hair by hair to convey individuality, as Thum describes. “The tricky part was that many CG shots had to cut with shots of the real animals and we found that our close-up squirrels needed five million hairs to look authentic.” Fur was groomed to match the tiniest details of length, color and direction of growth. Nuances of movement such as breathing and twitching were added to complete the effect.
Additionally, Scanlan produced 12 animatronic models, plus some partials attached to hand-held poles. “In most of the shots there will be a live squirrel in the foreground performing an action and several animatronics in the background repeating it,” he says. The advantage of animatronics is that they don’t mind doing things endlessly and they don’t complain; but they’re never going to appear as real, so mixing and matching is the way to go.”
Scanlan’s puppet crew were driven by internal motor packs that enabled a wide range of motion including moving their heads, holding a nut and shaking it or listening to it, and flicking their tails around. “We could program and control them to do whatever Tim needed.”
When Veruca tries to kidnap a squirrel and is summarily knocked down by the incensed rodents en masse, a number of animatronic animals join their warm-blooded brethren in the fray, designed by Scanlan “with little hand and mouth springs to grasp onto the fabric of her dress.”
Great care was taken to avoid injuring squirrels that might dart underneath her or her stunt double as Veruca hits the ground. In fact, she lands on an unseen platform just above the ground, with ample clearance below. Supplementing the animal actors with animatronics and CGI in this scene created the striking effect of Veruca being completely covered in squirrels.
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