The biggest challenge facing Weta on this Fantastic Four sequel was time. All images ™ & © 2007 Twentieth Centry Fox. Photo credit: WETA. 

Comicbook movies are unique for the opportunity to bring to life iconic characters that have often existed only on the page for decades. Such was the case with the Silver Surfer, a beloved fixture of Marvel Comics since 1966, who has at long last come to the big screen in Fox's Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, courtesy of New Zealand-based Weta Digital.

The biggest challenge facing Weta was time. Vfx supervisor Eric Saindon says the shop landed the job in late 2006, but didn't have plates until the end of January. With a deadline of April 20 to complete around 300 shots, the schedule was especially tight given the diversity of effects the 110-member crew had to complete.

"In this movie, it seemed like every sequence had completely different effects, so it was a lot of R&D time for such a short turnaround," Saindon says.

The crew researched the Silver Surfer story thoroughly and after selecting the best poses for the film, they decided the character, played on set by actor Doug Jones, would need to be completely CG.

The crew began by visiting a Wellington comicbook store and snapping up every Silver Surfer story they could get their hands on. After selecting the best poses and figure out what would work for film, they decided the character, played on set by actor Doug Jones, would need to be completely CG.

"When we first came on in December, the thought at the time was they were going to use Doug as the on-set Surfer using a suit and possibly doing an effect to it, something like they'd done on the first film with The Thing," Saindon offers. "But I think pretty early on they figured out that this wasn't going to work to really get this dynamic character, to really bring him to life and work well for the film."

Keeping it Real
Even though Jones was to be completely replaced with a digital performance, Weta requested that the actor be on the set to work with director Tim Story and the other actors.

"We've learned on other movies that it's much easier to paint out a character who is on set and put something over the top of them than to try to make bad acting from another actor work with a clean plate," Saindon continues.