The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Making of King Kong

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Saturday, Mar 29, 2008
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Making of King Kong

Staff Reporter

A treat for animation fans

Photo: K.V.Srinivasan

Lecture: Visual effects art director Christian Rivers in Chennai on Friday. —

CHENNAI: Animation fans were taken on a fascinating journey of behind the scenes of some of Hollywood’s most memorable animated characters as Academy Award-winning visual effects art director and filmmaker Christian Rivers brought to life the process of their creation.

Mr. Rivers was in town on Friday to deliver a lecture organised by the Image College of Arts and Technology.

Though the subject matter became more and more technical, the precision and detail that went into creating his characters unfolded right in front of the audience’s eyes.

Speaking about ‘Gollum’ from the ‘Lord of the Rings,’ he said: “We did not look at Gollum as an effect, for us he was a character.” Gollum’s facial movements and mannerism were based not just on some fancy technology and precision digital art work, but also on the behind the scene acting of real life actors. Moving on to the character that won him his Oscar: King Kong, Mr. Rivers made jaws drop. The level of detailed work that went into the creation apart, the commitment to detail was clearly apparent as he showed audience how they “took the light out of the character’s eyes when he dies. You have to go down to that level of detailed observation in this profession. Animators are also actors, they have to analyse behaviour patterns and relate it to their characters,” he said.

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