VFX Team on Predator: Planets of Death Reveal How They Turned the Monster Into a Hero

Dan Trachtenberg’s “Predator: Planet of Death” is the first entry in the franchise to place an interstellar hunter — not a human — at its emotional centre, and Weta FX undertook a major effort to make that creature’s feelings readable.

For nearly four decades audiences have known Predators as objects of fear, but director Dan Trachtenberg and the team at Weta FX set out to reveal a different facet of these beings — one rooted in emotion.

The lead role, Dek, is portrayed by New Zealand actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi. Dek is an exile and considered weak within his own clan; he ventures to an alien world to prove his worth and to avenge his brother. For Weta FX the challenge went beyond technical execution and bordered on the philosophical: they had to make viewers empathize with a nonhuman creature while allowing its feelings to be intuitively understood.

The studio says Schuster-Koloamatangi’s performance provided a solid foundation for the animation, yet translating distinctly human emotions onto a face without lips and with four mandibles introduced a host of complications. Although the production employed practical effects and animatronics for Dek, it quickly became clear that those techniques alone couldn’t deliver the full emotional range required. The team had to devise numerous new approaches — including how to articulate consonants for the fictional Yautja tongue.

Ultimately, widening the character’s emotional vocabulary was achieved through a CG face replacement, with animators carefully calibrating expressions to avoid tipping into caricature.

By most accounts the work paid off: Planet of Death earned 86% approval from critics and an unprecedented 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Our review of the film is available via the link below.

Source: iXBT.games