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Taking to Wing
Later in the film, the creature is trapped! Heavily armed police officers are closing in and its only hope of escape is to use its wings! These shots were the most challenging visual effects shots in the film. Listed below is the order of events in which the shots came together:

1 — The art director provides E=mc2 with illustrations of the creature with its wings extended.

2 — A 3D modeler creates a wire frame model of the wings. (Software: 3D Studio Max)

3 — The Background plates are shot on stage.

4 — The wing design is signed off on by the director.

5 — The wire frame model is then animated to give the wings life and the director an idea of the movement of the wings in each scene. (Software: 3D Studio Max)

6 — At the same time, texture and lighting is added to the wings. (Software: Adobe After Effects)

7 - The wings are now ready to be tracked on the back off the creature. (Software: Scene Genie)

8 — Once the director has signed off on the movement, texture, lighting and tracking of the wings it is now ready to composite in to the scene.

9 — Comping is the final stage of the VFX shot. At this stage the wings are added to the creature and made to blend into the shot seamlessly. Shadows and final fixes are also added to the shot. (Software: Adobe After Effects)

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Take Off Through The Window
The only escape for the creature is to blast through the window behind him and out in to the night sky. Once again for this shot to work plates needed to be shot.

1 — A background plate of the police station with the window being blown out was shot. To create the look of the window exploding a green bag was fired by an air cannon through the window. The bag needed to be green so it could be keyed out during the comping stage.

2 — A foreground plate of the creature holding Darry was shot in front of a green screen.

Once the two plates were shot Buddy animated the wings flapping. Once the animation was signed off on by the director, Buddy then tracked the wings on to the back of the creature, and after adding shadows and removing the green from the shot, it was finished!