Fantastic Beasts: The VFX of The Crimes of Grindelwald

fxguide visited Framestore in London and spoke to Andy Kind, VFX Supervisor and 

Ben Loch, CG Supervisor. They also spoke to Nicolas Chevallier, VFX Supervisor 

and Kevin Sears, CG Supervisor in the Montreal office. - Read the full article here

In the Zouwu suitcase sequence, even with the dummy head on set, it was difficult
for the animators to actually block out and have the Zouwu move correctly in the
space. "There's a lot of closeup action between Newt and him releasing the Zouwu
from its shackles." explained Loch. The production team did have a rig on set, with
crew holding this giant head we had, trying to sort of fill the space so Eddie Redmayne
could act and grab the 'shackle' from the Zouwu's mane. "But when the animators
took over the shot, the dimensions were not quite the same and just the physicality
of getting everything in shot, was extremely tricky and some of it had to be cheated".

While there was always a partial set, for some shots, the team removed everything but
Eddie Redmayne and had a fully CG environment. This was especially the case when
animating the Zouwu's tail. "It is something like 10 meters long, it's enormous and it's
always swishing around" comments Loch. The animation team provided the exact effect
that the director David Yates was after. "They really nailed it. It was always moving.
And always, unfortunately, dangling right in front of camera, which obviously slowed
down the renders" Kind jokingly adds. "The team really brought it to life".

Photos via @HpInfoJapan and @UHP  on Twitter

Read more in the full article here
ukscreenalliance.co.uk  article

source: @capa_invisible

"The sequence with Newt and the toy on the bridge came out of ideas we threw around in
previs, which David (Yates) loved because it was so “Newt like” and bizarre. The scene
when Newt removes the chains from her in the suitcase was an important bonding moment
Eddie Redmayne wanted to do, to show how he could get her trust and form a bond and
relationship with her. This was done as a last minute addition to the end of principle
photography. The problem of having three riders was solved by Newt keeping Tina and
Leta in his suitcase when he escapes from the ministry, so we only had to film Eddie
riding on our mantronic green screen buck, which was puppeteered and operated by the
stunt team. For half of the shots where Newt is riding the Zouwu he is a digital double
and the environment is digital at all times. The idea for the escape from the ministry was
inspired by the mythology of her ability to travel great distances, we thought “what if this
could happen in a few seconds”, where she can meld and warp the environments around
her to transition from one to the other." - Interview with Tim Burke and Christian Manz