NEAL SCANLAN AND I started creating the
Indoraptor (above) in August 2016, with the
creature concept artist, Jama Jurabaev, and
the director, J.A. Bayona. J.A. knew what
size he wanted the Indo to be. He wanted it
to be black, with oily snakeskin, so that it felt
like a deadly shadow. Early on in production,
he showed us a picture of a shell-shocked
soldier during World War I, this haunting
image of a man with the craziest eyes you’d
ever seen. J.A. wanted those eyes on the Indo.
We got concepts from Jama that J.A.
would tweak. We used those to create a
detailed study of the head. That’s when we
had Steven Spielberg come in and approve it.
From there, Neal and his team added
details and created a full-scale arm, leg, and
head/shoulders. We used those for up-close
shots with the performers. We also created a
large foam-sculpted version. Pieces of paper
were laid over a 3D-printed scaled version,
then peeled of and used like a dressmaker’s
pattern. The pattern pieces were transposedto a piece of lexible high-density foam, and
were then cut out and assembled.
At Industrial Light & Magic, we also
started animation testing. We used a 3D
model to render the dinosaur’s skeleton and
musculature and see how it would actually
move. We wanted it to walk like a raptor, on
its hind legs, but also to get down on all fours
like a big cat. But when we made him walk like
that in the renderings, we noticed that his
legs would collide with his elbows. We had to
elongate the proportion of his body from hip
to shoulders and shorten the arms slightly.
When it came time to shoot, we wanted
to use as much practical animatronics as we
could. The Indo gets so close to people. We
really wanted that reaction from the actors.
Once we got into post, however, we ended up
replacing the Indo scenes with CGI. It let us
get those special details, like the texture and
color of his irises. The cheeks blowing in and
out or the throat creasing as he swallows. He
has a lot of damage and scarring on his body,
as if he’s been mistreated. Very rang y. Very
muscly. J.A. thought of him as a malnour-
ished street dog. We even gave the Indo crazy
synaptic twitches, so his muscles and skin
would twitch like a horse’s.ground and kicking up dirt.
We wanted it to look like
the dirt was being thrown
out to the sides as if some-
one were stomping in a mud
puddle. So we put sand on
top in the middle, then cov-
ered that with a layer of
mulch, thicker around the
edges. When the charge
blows, since the sand par-
ticles are small and light in
color, you don’t really see
them, and they hold down
the explosive energy in the
middle, forcing the mulch
out the sides.
To create the ire lines
that the burning blobs of
lava left behind, we used
propane. The gas runs
through a hose that goes to
a pipe that has slots cut into
it, just like a burner on a
stove. Probably 3,000 feet of
slotted pipe for the burners,
3,000 feet of pipe to get the
gas to the burners, and then
1,000 feet of two-inch hose
connecting the propane to
the burner system. We cut
it, threaded it, and slotted it.
It took us weeks and weeks
and weeks. And the logis-
tics of getting some of it up
into those jungle roads is
quite a challenge. We usu-
ally used cans of Sterno as
pilot lights, but we also had
a mixture of biofuel and
sawdust that doesn’t con-
taminate the soil and burns
away clean.
Then there’s the matter
of safety. We put additional
pilot lights on the downhill
side of the whole system.
Propane is heavier than
air, and the crew is all at
the bottom of the hill. So if
we had a leak, and the leak
didn’t get ignited and just
started rushing down the
hill, you could have a giant
cloud of gas enveloping the
crew and then inding a
source of ignition. And that
would be a disaster.
BY
DAVID VICKERY, VFX supervisorHOW TO
MAKE A
A photo of a shell-
shocked World
War I soldier was
inspiration for the
Indoraptor’s eyes.64 JULY/AUGUST _ 201 POPULARMECHANICS.COM