How did they animate Gollum?

^^^ Andy Serkis performing Gollum split personality scene.

In a lecture the other day we touched on motion capture for animation in films. And as a Lord of the Rings Fan ( i just finished the first film before writing this) I thought looking into the history and "how it works" of motion capturing was appropriate.

"  The use of motion capture for computer character animation is relatively new, having begun in the late 1970's, and only becoming widespread over the last decade.

Motion capture is the recording of human body movement (or other movement) for immediate or delayed analysis and playback. The information captured can be as general as the simple position of the body in space or as complex as the deformations of the face and muscle masses. Motion capture for computer character animation involves the mapping of human motion onto the motion of a computer character."

 This isnt a new idea however, for years animators ( 2d) have had people act out their scenes so they can draw their characters to the utmost believability making movements more realistic.

Gollum was created in various steps -

1- Designing and creating the characters look ( including making models etc..)

2 - Building the character on the computer

3-  Adding levels to the character- bones, muscles- all elements that can be controlled

4-  Creating the controls, especially facially every little move can add to emotions etc..

5- Animating the model after Andy had acted out the scenes wearing the motion sensing equipment ("For some of Gollum's scenes, an  Andy Serkis (who provided Gollum's voice throughout the trilogy) put on a motion-capture suit and played the part. Andy's motion drove the movement of Gollum's body in the movie. In other scenes, the animators used key-frame animation to control Gollum's body. In all of the scenes, they used key-frame animation to move Gollum's face")

I think we can all agree that Gollum is a very successful "character" in both terms of how Serkis characterized him and how well animated he is, there are so many subtle movements that give the character realistic emotions and the scene above ( his split personality talk) is captivating. It creates a sense of a real ( although "bad" character) and so in this way has completely achieved the aim of the animators. The character brings emotions out of the audience, even though they know he is clearly not real.

http://www.awn.com/articles/technology/two-towers-face-face-gollum

^^^ And a bit more insight into the process.

 - A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation. 2012. A Brief History of Motion Capture for Computer Character Animation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/motion_capture/history1.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2012].

- Generating Gollum: Anatomy of a CG Creature. 2012. Generating Gollum: Anatomy of a CG Creature. [ONLINE] Available at: http://express.howstuffworks.com/gollum1.htm. [Accessed 15 February 2012].