The
Kothoga
When director Peter Hyams and creature creator Stan
Winston sat down to bring this aberration to life they
decided it should be a combination of several different
species. "I wanted it to look less like a beast and
more like a creature," says Hyams. "I wanted it
to look like DNA run amok, to have mammalian and
reptilian qualities." As a brilliant afterthought,
Hyams decided to add insects to the mix. "Stan
showed me the mouth parts of a spider," explains
Hyams. "We enlarged them to enormous proportions and
used them on the Kothoga. My point was that a beast is
ferocious, and dangerous, but it can be quite beautiful.
I wanted this creature to be something you couldn't bear
to touch you, something so horrific and disgusting that
you'd just want to get it over with."
Once the creature had reached the final design stage Winston began construction on three full-size suits -and full-size meant full-size; the creature measured 15 feet from nose to tail, stood some 5 feet tall and weighed over 150 pounds. The first suit was called the proto-hero suit which was used for the initial tests, they also produced a stunt suit, and what was called a super-hero suit. The super-hero suit had full animatronic capabilities including extensive facial expressions, such as eye movement, blink, cheek movement, nostrils, sneer, and with jaw and teeth extensions.
One of the greatest problems with a suit of this size is maneuverability - in order to manipulate the arms and legs it was necessary for an actor to be strapped inside the suit.
Kothoga Choreographer John Alexander spent months working with actors Brian Steele and Vincent Hammond developing not only a range of movements, but also the strength required.
"They went through an intense physical training program before we went on to work on choreographing the movements," says Alexander. "Although most of the weight of the suit is supported by rigging, they still have to manipulate the arm and leg extensions which are unbelievably heavy."
Once the actors were able to cope with the intense conditions of not only working with the extensions, but also being inside the suit for long periods of time, Alexander went on with his work.
"I based the movement of Kothoga on a big cat. Although the creature looked more reptilian, at that size the reptilian walk would have been inappropriate. The script required him to move powerfully and rapidly. What I wanted to pick up on was the stalking and speed of a cat," says Alexander.
Support and movement rigging for the creature was designed by Special Effects supervisor Garry Elmendorf. "We basically built a monorail that is all computer controlled and we can make it move from section to section," explains Elmendorf. "It helped us manipulate the creature by raising and lowering it, and giving it forward, reverse and rotating movement."
In one or two shots it was not possible to use the rigging, so Stan Winston designed a pogo stick, which was basically a chest support fixed to a tripod. It worked very well, although it was particularly uncomfortable for the actor inside because it placed the entire weight of the suit on the chest area.
Because of the size and weight of the suit, it was totally impossible to physically create the speed and range of movement required by the story. VIFX, a facility specializing in digital and physical effects, was responsible for bringing the creature to life in those cases. Gregory L. McMurry, explains their task. "We were asked to create a computer-generated version of Kothoga that could be used for full body walking, running and jumping shots," says McMurry. "This involved not only months of painstaking documentation of the exterior of the creature, but also the construction of a digital skeleton with over 200 bones. In order for the creature to look real, we had to define every aspect of its shape and movement," he explains. "The final stage was the creation of the muscle structure and then each muscle group had to be given its own definition."
John (D.J.) DesJardin, VIFX Digital Effects Supervisor, led a team of computer artists and animators in the process of bringing the digital creature to life. To create a single frame of the fully animated creature takes an enormous amount of time. In working with director Peter Hyams during the creation of each Kothoga scene, DesJardin and his crew created a scaled down version which could be used for blocking and rehearsing movement. "This enabled us to quickly go through all the possibilities with Peter; once we picked a particular motion, we could then apply the full digital model," says DesJardin.
One of the most complicated shots for VIFX was the creature tearing the head off a victim. "As the guy is running down the corridor, we have to convert him to a fully digital model of himself so that we can rip his head off," says McMurry. "Kothoga shakes him back and forth like a dog with a rag, rips his head off and throws the body down, followed by the head. All this is done full figure in front of the camera."
Another complicated shot both for McMurry and Elmendorf was a scene where Kothoga pursues Margo through her laboratory crashing through a series of glass partitioned offices. "We built an iron replica of Kothoga and painted it day-glow orange," explains McMurry. "We set black lights in critical positions and then we pulled the iron replica through the offices on a special cable using a computer-controlled rig linked to the camera. Basically, we cut a hole wherever we saw orange and then animated our computer-generated Kothoga in that same location."
In all, VIFX was asked to produce 70 computer-generated images for the film including 25 CGI shots involving Kothoga and another 45 involving wire removal, matte paintings and various composite shots.
© 1996 Paramount Pictures & Five Star Publishing - All Rights Reserved.