My initial task was not easy: to create a huge monster, chasing the main character through the corridors of the laboratory at a depth of 12 km.
According to the concept art, the monster was six meters long, two meters wide and high and made of bodies and body parts.
This task was divided into two parts: creating the mechanics of the monster itself, and making one of the bodies, "Sergeant", move its limbs.
According to the concept art, the monster was six meters long, two meters wide and high and made of bodies and body parts.
This task was divided into two parts: creating the mechanics of the monster itself, and making one of the bodies, "Sergeant", move its limbs.
We could use rods for both tasks, however, the puppeteers in blue suits in front of the monster would block all the view in maze of corridors.
To solve this, I built a dolly with an electric drive, equipped with a crane for the monster's body. I operated the dolly, while two puppeteers in the chairs controlled the monster's right and left “paws”.
To solve this, I built a dolly with an electric drive, equipped with a crane for the monster's body. I operated the dolly, while two puppeteers in the chairs controlled the monster's right and left “paws”.
The crane was operated by two puppeteers: the first one raised, lowered and moved the crane to the right and left. The second one tilted the massive body in different directions using a pneumatic amplifier.
For the "Sergeant" I created a full-fledged animatronic with a cable system that repeated the actor's movements, as well as a backpack with levers to imitate a person's shoulder belt. The Sergeant's puppeteer also rode on the dolly due to the length restrictions of the cables. For close-ups, a real actor was embedded in a stationary monster part.
