﻿Hey guys, I’m Mike and I’m here at Aaron Sims Creative in LA, where they’re using cutting edge techniques and real life science to bring the monsters of ‘Rampage’ to life.
Today, we’re gonna talk to some of the artists, sculptors, and designers behind George, Lizzie, and Ralph,
to see how they used 3D printing,
gene splicing,
and a whole lot of creativity to take these creatures out of the arcades and into theaters.
'Rampage' was an opportunity to create monsters, and I love to create monsters, especially big monsters fighting in Chicago.
Who doesn't want that?
Monsters are ASC’s bread and butter, but Rampage director Brad Peyton had a unique, scientific vision for his rampaging beasts.
What was great about working with Brad on Rampage was his clarity.
He's one of those directors that really wants to know the what where and why before we build it.
And for 'Rampage,' it was very specific because they were using this technology called CRISPR for the film.
CRISPR is a newly discovered system for targeting and editing the genetic code,
giving scientists the potential to cure disease, change your eye color,
or, in ‘Rampage’ at least,
transform cuddly critters into colossal chimeras.
We were directed to take attributes from other animal groups.
What makes it faster or what makes it stronger or what makes it scarier?
I think I'm partial to the Lizzie design.
It won't be one where someone sees a trailer and goes 'oh, that's another King Kong movie.'
with all this existing in a digital landscape
Part of this design is taken from the aspects of a cheetah.
Longer legs are slender, more aerodynamic.
That was just a super unique process,
being able to kind of weigh the attributes of different predators and animals together
to create a giant believable creature.
So we looked at elements like, OK what's going to make this wolf different than any other wolf?
For the wing here we were looking for like, a winged squirrel,
right, you know with the webbing beneath and between the appendages.
Why does he need little wings?
And so we started coming up with the membrane between the arms,
like maybe he flies like a squirrel, maybe it flies just full out like a bat.
But that was an advantage that it had over the other creatures.
Every little part of the design of all three of these creatures.
They all have a play off of each other and how they interact.
There are elements of elephant tusks on Lizzie,
so just integrating mammalian, mammal like qualities into the reptiles,
reptile like qualities into the mammals like you know with Ralph the wolf.
You know with the crocodile,
he has this gigantic weapon for a tail that he can just smash things and rip apart.
And also spikes on its back that would actually open up.
And if you were attacking this back it would basically be like a porcupine,
just like, rip you to shreds.
So it became all these interesting weapons that they were growing with,
and that was part of the design process.
It wasn't just for the cool factor but it was for its function.
She's just this over-the-top crocodile dinosaur. Unbelievable.
I love them all, they're all our children.
But, yeah, I think that Lizzie takes my win.
Ralph and Lizzie might be the flashier freaks, but the silverback George is the heart and soul of Rampage.
Giant apes are a cinema staple, and ASC had to think outside the box to make their oversized simian special.
The challenge was really the fact that a lot of these creatures and characters we've seen aspects of them in film.
We've seen big gorillas, you know, King Kong, Mighty Joe Young.
There was something early on that in the design process where I threw out making George an albino gorilla,
and everyone seemed to resonate with it.
It was a really solid design in that it was like,
that's unique, that's going to stand out.
There's a terrifying aspect of a gorilla,
because when he roars and he's got all those teeth and pounds his chest at you,
it's intimidating. And that's part of the fear.
But there's also a side of it that's warm, and, you know, caring.
And in this film, George was Dwayne's friend and then became infected,
which was affecting his mind.
So he was going a little bit insane.
So we had to bring him back to reality before it's too late.
So you see these two sides of this character, and it's an exciting journey.
Speaking of exciting journeys,
ASC has fully embraced an emerging technology that’s changing the way movies are designed.
3D printing, you know, it's been around for a while and I've always been fascinated by it.
It's only recently that many different companies have been able to create it
to where it's affordable and easy enough to actually create your print.
The 3-D printing is an incredible addition to this workflow,
we have that ability now to bring it into the real world,
and with Rampage, we get to print these guys and hold them and spin them around and see the way the light hit the surfaces,
the way it would read in a real world scenario.
There's nothing like seeing seeing your work 3D printed. It's incredible.
When we got everything ready for the pitch package for this movie,
we 3D printed Ralph, George, and Lizzie, and we had them sent off and painted.
They came back and they were just beautiful.
I was like, oh man, this is so cool, like,
seeing our monsters in physical form you can really see the scale of them.
And at the end of the day, it helps with the pitch.
The directors, backers, they're all able to see it and they're like that's rad.
This is not just a print out or on a computer or a screen.
It's a physical thing there, and it's made such a big difference on a lot of characters.
Especially execs when they look at and they go, oh wow this can be a toy.
And they just started opening up ideas that they never would have thought of when it was just a print out.
3D printing is pretty impressive tech,
but if you really want to make a designers day, show them a toy based on their creation.
This is my boy right here, Ralph, as you can see.
Being 30 years old, I never knew that I'd be able to walk into a store and see something I designed, especially a monster, on the shelf.
It's truly a bucket list item times ten.
Like, I mean, just mark it off, dude.
It feels incredible and it's the same sculpt that we did for production.
They just came and cut it up and put a paint job on and now you can buy it for twenty bucks at Walmart.
You know, it's absolutely incredible. It feels great.
Behind-the-scenes, finding a real-world basis for the beasts goes a long way towards making them feel like living breathing creatures on a rampage.
It took a talented director, a team of artists and just a tiny bit of genetic engineering to bring George, Lizzie, and Ralph to the big screen,
but when you’re coming up with opponents for the Rock,
you gotta bring out the big guns.