Hollywood's Best-Kept Secrets: Behind the Green Screen Magic

11. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

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The innovative way Rise of the Planet of the Apes presents Caesar shows the development of performance capture technology. Like the method applied for Thanos, but with more complexity as the aim is to portray both facial expressions and full-body motions of an ape character. Sophisticated motion capture technology tracked Andy Serkis's every movement and expression, so capturing his amazing performance. The technological method consisted in several cameras recording his performance from several angles while he wore a specially tailored suit coated in tracking markers. CGI artists then turned this material into something fit for Caesar's ape physiology while preserving Serkis's emotive core performance. The outcome is a persona who blends the physical traits of a monkey with the soul of a human performance to provide a credible and emotionally powerful leader for the ape revolution.