With Prey now available to watch on Hulu, we’re now entering that juicy post-release period where the people behind the making of the film are starting to share behind-the-scenes imagery and commentary on what went into making Prey!
Michael Vincent, the concept artist responsible for Feral Predator’s creature and mask design, has taken to Twitter to share a really interesting thread on why Feral looks the way he does!
Genetic isolation with different environmental pressures yields a variant of yautja… adapted to a drier climate… thinner, waxier dreads, thicker oral tissue, & scalier skin for moisture retention, favors crushing bite for different diet… pic.twitter.com/I3Sm7YZxxR
— Michael Vincent Art (@MV_Creatures) August 9, 2022
Genetic isolation with different environmental pressures yields a variant of yautja… adapted to a drier climate… thinner, waxier dreads, thicker oral tissue, & scalier skin for moisture retention, favors crushing bite for different diet…
Breathes primarily through spiracles in the casque (not those 2 big cavities, those are heat sensitive “pits”!), an adaptation for a less jungly, less oxygenated atmosphere…
Thicker brow houses heat sensitive organs, which the mask is designed to interface with… thinner casque loses less water…
Bone has a special cultural significance to the Feral subspecies… not only their armor but as a diet staple… a careful look at the mouth reveals molars outfitted for osteophagy…
Naturally Michael also fielded various questions on the design process that went into Feral! When a fan commented that he took Feral as being a more primitive version of the Predator, Michael stated that while the design process included that kind of exploration, it wasn’t intended as being present in the finished design.
I was asked to do a pass on an evolutionary predecessor to Yautja… the final design isn’t that, but it was a fun exploration though I don’t think it worked… we spoke of time dilation playing a factor… 300 years distance could be any number of millennia to spacefaring creatures
— Michael Vincent Art (@MV_Creatures) August 9, 2022
Something else that Michael was asked about was the often seen complaint post-Predator 2 of why the mandibles don’t seem to fully close.
Interesting question given I had the same pet peeve… I spent a lot of time making sure that the various mouth parts puzzled together tightly… and it so happens that we just never got a shot with the mouth closed… the mandibles are meant to fit into the jawline like canines
— Michael Vincent Art (@MV_Creatures) August 10, 2022
Michael was also asked about how the Predator is able to see with the bone obscuring where we would usually find the visor on the Predator mask.
Entirely through interface – I believe @Jfields_217 has a design of the inside of the mask if I am not mistaken
— Michael Vincent Art (@MV_Creatures) August 9, 2022
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I think the face reveal is one of the best parts of any Predator movie. It's something I'm always looking forward to.
Feels like they didn't want to get stuck should the law suit go against Disney so changed enough to get away with it.
I'd rather Feral kept his mask on the entire movie.
https://www.predator4-movie.com/news/prey-fan-art-combines-feral-predator-original-jungle-hunter-predator-designs
https://media.tenor.com/Vr5oMNMnNJIAAAAC/vince-vince-mcmahon.gif
Again, I stand by the masked design as one of my favourite of the franchise. But yeah, I really wish this would have been the look once the mask came off. It's so recognizably the Predator without looking too far removed.
Huh not bad
This is awesome. Really interesting to see what could have been. Proof that there's a way of doing different looking predators from other parts of their world/other worlds whilst retaining that iconography.
Have to say that, although I didn't like Feral's face at first, I'm quite indifferent to it now (though, as a huge fan, indifference is a disappointing reaction to have I suppose
Where is this from?
Replace the usual JH color pallet with Feral's current color scheme and then we have something going on.
Edit: In movie form I say 👉👈
If this had been the original design, people would have been crying about how different it is from the original Jungle Hunter.
Fans are never happy.
If only we were lucky
From the Stan Winston Studio article:
Some clarification: When I said, "To me, the practical latex version doesn't look more realistic than the CG one," I wasn't talking about the Predator's depiction throughout the entire movie, I was just referring to the two before and after photos shown in the earlier post.
TC
Swings back to:
I'll need to listen to all the interviews.
They simply did not have the time to get the digital up to par in terms of believability and consistency, something Dan Trachtenberg outright admitted in the AVPG interview that the face needed more work but they had no more time for further refinement.
Wolf used silicone skin and it 100% did not help him look more realistic unfortunately.
Normally, yes -- but they had a fully functioning animatronic on-set that they digitally repainted. That's just double-handling and fairly wasteful spending. And from the looks of it that was planned, not a "oh woops, it looks bad, better fix it" revelation.
EDIT
Actually, no, it's not really true. You usually allocate the funds to the post-production at the outset. At the beginning of production you break down the script, establish your effects shots, and even prioritise them according to your budget. If you're getting to post production and saying "OK, how much do we have left to spend on putting the monster in our monster movie?", you've done something horribly wrong.
But really, the main reason for choosing the CG option is budgetary. It means you can push the art and craft effort into post. Doing it practically means committing budget and resources up-front. Leaving it to post means you get to review what's been shot and only allocate resources according to what remains in your schedule and funds. And you get start with the 'Must Do' shots and work your way to the 'Would Be Nice To Improve If We Still Have Money And Time' shots.
TC
Like sure, the CGI model has more "realistic" shading and refraction and etc. etc. for skin than latex does. And yeah, we get to see all the little motions and muscle twitches that a rubber animatronic just can't quite nail. But does any of that add anything meaningful to the final image? No.
Discuss
Looking at that now, I believe that's just the orange glow of the hex-grid cloak on the fritz. You can see the pattern, and it doesn't match the placement of the red LEDs in the behind the scenes pics. The light trails are over Feral's body under the blood as well.
Well, damn, I guess I need to watch that scene again
Exactly
Depends on how it's photographed!
Eh, I think it would be a little too much
Getting back on thread, I know they've been posted before but I wish they'd used the LEDs in the mask at least once in the movie, it's a nice touch.
http://www.instagram.com/p/Ci5m7xlvyu5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=