The innovation behind Better Man
The film Better Man, directed by Michael Gracey, has posed an unprecedented challenge for Weta FX. Turning Robbie Williams into a chimpanzee without the audience noticing anything strange was a challenge that pushed VFX technology and the animation team's creativity to the limit. Under the supervision of Luke Millar and Dave Clayton, the film achieved a perfect balance between realism and expressiveness.
The chimpanzee design: between human and animal
To achieve a natural appearance, the Weta FX team developed a hybrid design where the eyes and eyebrows retained Robbie Williams' identity, while the rest of the face adopted simian features. This decision avoided the dreaded uncanny valley and allowed the character to be believable in every scene.
The role of motion capture
Actor Jonno Davies was in charge of physically performing Robbie Williams using motion capture. Although more primitive movements were tested, the best option was to keep human gestures and postures, which allowed for a more realistic performance.
Modeling, texturing, and wardrobe
The digital character creation process included:
- Detailed modeling: Three versions of the chimpanzee were designed representing different stages of Robbie's life.
- Clothing and hairstyles: More than 250 outfits and 50 hair styles were adapted to his anatomy.
- Advanced texturing: Every detail of skin, wrinkles, and fur was worked on to achieve a hyper-realistic finish.
The fur: a lighting and physics challenge
The visual effects team used a physically based shading model to simulate light transmission through the hair. This allowed the chimpanzee to integrate perfectly into every scene, regardless of the lighting.
Character integration into the real world
One of the biggest challenges was to make the character interact realistically with the actors and sets:
- Physical contact scenes: A digital double was used to improve integration in interactions.
- Rain simulation: In the Angels sequence, the water impacts the character's fur with surprising realism.
- Digital recreation of Regent Street: The area was scanned with lidar and the lighting was adjusted to faithfully represent 90s London.
The magic of the concerts in Better Man
The Weta FX team replicated the concert lighting with millimeter precision, achieving impressive effects in the Relight My Fire sequence. Additionally, for the Knebworth crowd, where 125,000 people were needed, extras were combined with digital extensions based on real motion capture.
A milestone in visual effects
With more than 1968 VFX shots, Better Man has raised the bar for digital animation. Thanks to meticulous work in modeling, lighting, and simulations, Robbie Williams comes to life like never before, proving that cinema continues to push the limits of the possible.