Jordan really wanted an entity of the wind, so after the initial cosmetic design we thought, ‘We should talk to real scientists, people who know aerodynamics and biology and fluid dynamics and all these things.’ We connected with the guys at JPL.
We just went more and more simplistic, up to the point where it was like, ‘Well, the only way to give it some details is through cloth simulations.’ Its function is just to flow in the wind. Suddenly, we started to abandon any sort of literal appendage and features. In one of our meetings, we said, ‘Well, what if it’s a skirt, like Marilyn Monroe’s skirt? Just something that really flows.’ Jordan loved the idea, because of the theme of the movie, too. Anytime we tried to put some textures on it, it was, ‘Yeah, it looks a little too creature-like, in a way.’ So it always went back to this idea of minimalism with blank features.Īt first, we designed it with almost tentacles at the bottom that were flat, but flowing in the wind.
GIANT CHIMPANZEE SKIN
It’s funny because we’ve spent many, many years developing all sorts of beautiful muscle systems and skin deformation and things like this and then suddenly it’s like, ‘Well, it’s an entity that literally will be made entirely of cloth sims.’ And it is literally just a whole cloth sim. Usually we like to just scatter a ton of details on CG objects, because it helps your eye and your brain–you understand the scale. The skin of it was very much just minimalistic, which we usually don’t like in visual effects very much! When someone tells you, ‘Hey, I want something with no features,’ you’re just like, ‘Okay, that’s great, but how do you make this feel real somehow?’ Plate. We looked at sand dollars, for example, that have that round silhouette, but not perfectly round. We then knew we wanted these very simplistic shapes, very little textures, very little features, very much ‘not much.’įor the saucer shape itself, we always wanted to take inspiration from nature.
So we said, ‘This is the language,’ and then we started to design the saucer. So we started a few rounds of designs on this and then very quickly we came in with a very Evangelion-esque alien entity that looked like he was an origami, at the same time, a very simple design. When you look at the Angels, it’s like they have a purpose or a function or a way to operate and a design strictly tailored to just do that. It’s the minimalism of Evangelion that we really admired. Jordan happens to be a big fan and I happen to be one, too. We then very quickly started to geek out quite a lot on Neon Genesis Evangelion. In our first brainstorming about it, we actually talked about Michael Myers and the mask from Halloween, in terms of how you perceive this thing in the clouds and not really having a face. Jordan was really trying to capture that iconography, and then say, ‘Okay, but what does it look like when we unfold? Is there anything we need to learn from its unfolded shape that needs to inform how we’re going to design the saucer?’ Final shot of Jean Jacket in ‘unfolded’ form.įor its closed shape, we looked at a lot of the classic movies, like The Day The Earth Stood Still and Mars Attacks!, just to find the most classic saucers, but not necessarily with more sophisticated designs. It’s one thing to write, ‘It’s a wind entity that can do a lot of stuff,’ but also you have to ground it in some realism. If we’re talking about a wind-like entity and has all these characteristics, how do you visualize that? It was a very abstract thing for him even to write in the script. When Jordan was writing the script, he was toying with all these ideas and then we started to work on the design. That is, we started with the final “transformed” form instead of starting from its initial shape. Jean Jacket, the alien entity, transforms, which meant that we actually designed it the other way around. Guillaume Rocheron: It was a really interesting design process. The design of Jean Jacket started with its final form first
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