Behind the FX of Zathura: a Space Adventure
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- Jon Favreau’s Vision for Zathura and Love for In-Camera Effects
- Making Zorgons, an Advanced Race of Reptiles
- Using a Hybrid Approach to Practical FX for Zorgons
- Experiencing the Beginning of the Digital Backlash
- Bringing Back Practical Effects to Sets
Zathura: A Space Adventure directed by Jon Favreau was originally released in 2005. Based on a popular children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, the movie is about two boys who, one boring afternoon, begin to play an old board game found in the basement. Suddenly, the children find themselves — and their house — launched into outer space, suffering attacks from menacing aliens. Stan Winston Studio was contracted to create those aliens, which — due to Favreau’s love of in-camera, old-style filmmaking techniques — would be realized primarily as full-scale puppets and performers in suits.
Jon Favreau’s Vision for Zathura and Love for In-Camera Effects
“Favreau came to us,” recalled Shane Mahan, “and said: ‘Look, I’m a fan of effects movies; but I don’t like the way digital stuff looks. It always looks artificial to me, and it takes me out of the film, no matter how good it is. So I want to make this film as much in-camera and real as I can.’ That was such a refreshing thing to hear. We’ve gone through a cycle where there are a lot of producers and directors who just don’t want to deal with anything during production. It is so much easier to shoot a clean plate and move on, and have some poor slob work in a dark room for six months in postproduction to make something of it. But Jon Favreau had the energy and the aptitude for dealing with on-set creatures. We knew there was a lot of great stuff that we could do live for that show.”
(SWS designed concept art for the Zorgons.)
Making Zorgons, an Advanced Race of Reptiles
The aliens, called Zorgons, would actually be a hybrid of live and digital effects, an approach the studio was just beginning to explore in a serious way. “We wound up doing some interesting combinations of live-action and computer-generated imagery [CGI] for this show,” said Mahan. “In the past, we’ve always tried to find ways to make a guy in a suit not look like a guy in a suit — a little person on top of a big guy, or whatever. We’ve tried a lot of crazy ideas. The great thing about digital is that we can do that seamlessly now. We can design something that gives us all the convenience and interaction of actually having a character on the set; but we can alter it with CGI so that it doesn’t look like a man in a suit. We can remove things such as human legs and heads and add other non-human things that are digital.
(SWS artist Christopher Swift sculpts a Zorgon head.)
(Christopher Swift again, painting a Zorgon head.)
(SWS artist Joey Orosco regards the full Zorgon body sculpt.)
Using a Hybrid Approach to Practical FX for Zorgons
Winston’s crew designed and built the Zorgons as three suits. To accommodate the lizard-like proportions of the creature, the performer’s head and neck, in a blue hood, protruded from between the Zorgon’s shoulder blades, and was later painted out by digital artists. A mechanical Zorgon head extended out from the performer’s chest, and was externally puppeteered through electronic controllers to create snarling and blinking actions. “It gave the actors a real character to interact with, and it gave Favreau something real to direct; but the final character wouldn’t look like a guy in a suit,” said Mahan.
(SWS artist Trevor Hensley in a Zorgon suit fitting as fabricator Dawn Dininger holds his tail.)
(SWS took a hybrid approach to Zathura’s Zorgons, which had a performer wearing a suit, his head extending from between the creature’s shoulder blades.)
(SWS animatronic supervisor J. Alan Scott with an animatronic Zorgon head.)
(A completed Zorgon head hangs on a dummy form ready for action.)
Experiencing the Beginning of the Digital Backlash
After a decade of dealing with directors besotted with computer technology, Winston and his crew saw Zathura as the beginning of a backlash against all-digital characters — and the trend has continued, as new, young filmmakers seek the advantages of having real and tangible characters on their sets.
(Suit performer Douglas Tait as a Zorgon.)
Bringing Back Practical Effects to Sets
“The younger directors have grown up in the digital era,” Christopher Swift remarked, “and they aren’t that familiar with the more traditional, practical way of doing things. So, when they come to the shop and see it in person, they get very excited about it. They say, ‘You mean, I could have that on my set?’ These new directors really want to use practical creature effects. To them, it is retro and cool — like bell bottoms. Who’d have thought those would come back in fashion? But they did. We’re like the bell bottoms of effects. We’re cool again.”
(The final on-screen Zorgon effect.)
- Jody Duncan
Excerpted from "The Winston Effect: The Art & History of Stan Winston Studio"
Courses with the Creators of Zathura: A Space Adventure
- Special Effects Sequence Design with Shane Mahan
- Hybrid Character Design: Practical To Digital with Christopher Swift
- Maquette Painting Techniques with Trevor L. Hensley
- Creature Costume Basics with Dawn Dininger & Amy Whetsel
- Lab Work For Animatronic Characters Part 1: Making A Mechanical Core with Cory Czekaj
- Character Makeup - How To Run Foam Prosthetic Appliances with Cory Czekaj
- Character Makeup - How To Run Silicone Prosthetic Appliances with Cory Czekaj
- How To Make A Stone Mold with Gary Yee