The Moving Picture Company, better known as MPC, the visual effects house that has worked on Prometheus, Alien: Covenant. and The Predator, as well as the recently released Prey, have now updated their website with the work they did for Dan Trachtenberg’s recent reinvigoration of the Predator series!
MPC’s global team, led by VFX Supervisor Chris Uyede and VFX Producers Lachlan Christie and Cleo Dessureault delivered a total of 632 shots for the Predator’s return to screens.
MPC provided almost every VFX scene in Prey. This included digital augmentation to the Predator itself, as well as heightened gore, CG arrows, and various environmental enhancements. The team was also tasked with creating a small zoo’s worth of CG North American wildlife, including a grizzly bear, mountain lion, cougars, and a wolf, to name but a few.
The Predator itself was the primary focus of the team. The creature was tackled using a hybrid approach, including practical FX and digital techniques. Working in tandem with Studio ADI, who had fabricated an animatronic suit, MPC created a full CG Predator that was used to augment or replace parts of the suit as well as play as entirely 3D for close-ups on his face or when exaggerated performances were required.
For one of the Predator’s most advanced technological features – its invisibility cloak – the team worked extensively on the look development and technical workflow needed to create a unique look capable of different states supporting storytelling needs. In one such example, the cloak plays as an energy field membrane that surrounds the predator off the surface of its skin. In another, the cloak becomes compromised and starts to glitch following a violent encounter with a Comanche hunting party. To create these looks, the team used procedurally generated geometry along with a multitude of render passes to allow our artists to produce an array of visual looks and transitions.
If you head on over to MPC’s website you can also see earlier versions of the footage and how different they are after MPC did their work. Their website also includes some examples of the CG animals they created for Prey. You can find a breakdown video below as well.
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^The practical still takes the win here. I'm sorry. I mean I'm all for the CGI enhancements/touch-ups to make things more organic, real, or what have you in this case. I can absolutely appreciate taking the time to do that. But sometimes, the focus needs to be better on when that's applied exactly & how subtle those fixes are done, goes a long way. Too much kinda was done with the Feral's face IMO.
Still, an example that I slightly love/hate, is how the Feral predator's hands got the CGI treatment when holding the ashes, which looked great! But not in other parts
But at the end of the day, I gotta say here, with brightening up the "Practical" shot (picture below). I mean...
https://iili.io/tEm0eS.jpg
If this wasn't filmed in Studio I can completely understand why they went this route.
Night time shooting are difficult, you are 30% as efficient as you are in daylight (finding anything in the dark is slow, even with Frontal lamp) dressing in a Predator costume must be hours of prep and choreography/fight scenes are a very slow process of filming, each re-set between takes is about 10 time as long as a normal take with a very efficient team, especially if what you've planned doesn't work and you have to brainstorm out how to surpass that difficulty to have the choreography work.
Since you are tired too, you are far more subject of hurting yourself and this can create huge troubles on set.
From these standpoints, I could completely see why they would go full CGI. For practical the easy route would be to film in a controlled environment / studio like most blockbuster do so everyone is at their best but this is a very expansive rent.
I second that