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| The Werewolves |
| To create a character like the Wolf Man, the artists began by looking at nature. Even though the character was a creature of fantasy, it had to be grounded in reality. So the team analyzed the cast of a real wolf skull, studying such anatomical elements as the teeth and jaw structure. "It's a fine line between getting too real and creating a new, cool, kind of fresh animal," says ILM art director Christian Alzmann. The character was computer-generated (CG) so sketches made by the Van Helsing artists were sent to ILM to create the monster. "A single shot for any of the synthetic characters such as the werewolves will take months and months of work by 50 or 60 people to produce," says visual effects associate producer Joe Grossberg. "No matter how good the animators are or how specific the direction, it's a slow, slow process. The movie wrapped in July and we worked on the synthetic characters right up until the time the movie released in May of the following year." |
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| Table of Contents for book: Forward by Stephen Sommers Part 1: The Legend Lives Return to Transylvania Van Helsing: Monster Hunt Casting Creatures Part 2: Monsters on Film Castles & Candlelight: Production Design Creature Creation Monster Makeup Dressed to Kill: Costumes Crossbows & Crucifixes: Weaponry Flying Fiends: Stunts Terrifying Transformations: Visual Effects Mixing Genres: Post Production Part 3: The Monster Lives The Screenplay Credits Acknowledgements Photographs copyright Universal Studios 2004 Book published by New Market Press Cover design by Timothy Shaner |
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