This ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2’ Featurette Shows Off the Movie's Motion-Capture Tech
How four dudes in grey spandex became Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael on-screen.
The latest big-screen adventures for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is absurd, ridiculous, and a whole lot of fun. Adults might be left exhausted at the movie’s relentless action, while kids will undoubtedly love the latest from the heroes in a half shell.
If you’re still one of those skeptical adults, you at least can’t deny the level of cutting edge technology that brought the newest iterations of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael to life. Though Jim Henson’s practical turtle puppets from the 1990 original and its sequels were technological marvels unto themselves, it’s 2016. The best way to make a Turtles film is to go full motion capture CGI. A new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows featurette shows how the impressive visual effects were done.
Check out the video below:
Pete Ploszek (Leo), Alan Ritchson (Raph), Noel Fisher (Mikey), and Jeremy Howard (Donnie) all had to wear grey spandex motion capture suits covered in points of articulation, so visual effects artists could meticulously map out their performance and graft them on to the bulky turtles.
Spandex-wearing humans into Ninja Turtles
The new designs of the four turtles may be a big too bulky and monstrous, but the peek inside the tech makes the performances seem a bit more natural.
To get them into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mood, they even had to wear big fake shells:
Shooting on location in New York.
No detail seemed to be left out, and each actor’s face was even dotted with points so that their facial expressions could be mapped on to the CG turtles as well. It’s the technology that allowed director Dave Green and the visual effects crew to see rough versions of the turtle designs as they shot on location in New York (bonus points for those eagle-eyed fans that can spot the film slate with the sequel’s original title: “Half Shell”).
Take a look at some of individual CG performances below:
Howard as Donatello andPloszek as Leonardo.
Ritchson as Raphael and Fisher as Michelangelo.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is in theaters now, and while it isn’t the greatest thing you’ll ever see in your life, fans of the 1990s cartoon will find a lot to love.
