"Based on this we found key frame animation to be a much better approach, compared to having an actor try to perform in slow motion or trying to slow down mocap data, which would very easily lead to weird and artificial results. Ghost VFX has a background in key frame-based character animation so this was also a comfortable choice. We created walk cycles that we showed to the director to agree on overall speed and weight of Dovre. We also used these to test the physics of the muscle system that was added to the rig. The walk cycles were also shared with the other vendors to insure consistency between sequences. Another challenge was his facial animation. Dovre is not just a cold-hearted beast. He has feelings and it was extremely important that the audience have sympathy for him at certain points throughout the movie. To achieve the required range of emotion in his performance, we used a FACS based setup that takes into account the natural movement and flow of the facial muscles. This allowed us to create whatever expression the human face is capable of. On top of that we used a facial capture system to drive the performance in some shots, giving us these subtle details and even eye darts that can otherwise take a long time to get right using key frame animation alone. We would of course still be able to animate on top of this to get the desired result. Once the character animation and muscle simulation were in place, we still needed to add the huge amount of vegetation including rocks, roots, grass, and bushes that covered most of his body. All of this added up to thousands of individual pieces that all had to follow his movement in a natural way, and it had to react correctly in relation to gravity and wind. This was all set up by our asset and FX teams and simulated in Houdini.” – VFX Supervisor Claus Kogsboell

IT'S ALL IN THE DETAILS

Ghost VFX artists were thrilled to create a main character in a film that contains so much complexity in its surface details and simulated dynamics. The asset also had to be shared with other vendors that didn’t necessarily use the same pipeline tools making the task even more challenging. Ghost VFX benefited hugely from being able to communicate directly with the director to achieve his vision for the film. “It was a pleasure working directly with Roar (Uthaug), and it made the process very efficient. He had a clear idea about what he wanted to achieve. But he also gave us the freedom to explore ideas - both when it came to the design of the troll as well as in how to tackle different creative challenges during shot production. We are very proud of the result of this collaboration, and we are looking forward to seeing how the movie will be received by audiences.” – VFX Supervisor Claus Kogsboell