Would be nice to know what they're running on. Some pics do have that too-good-to-be-true lighting to them.
Alien Isolation
- Thread starter DieH@rd
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Are there any good shots of the alien so far? I really hope they will go for the reptile look (that was more prominent in Aliens) rather than the "man in a costume-look" that the '79 movie had. But yeah, this is shaping up to be quite something so far, although I have my doubts about the singular alien.
I am all for survivial horror. I actually think something along the lines of the original Resident Evil was quite masterfully done and had it in the right quantity.
I am all for survivial horror. I actually think something along the lines of the original Resident Evil was quite masterfully done and had it in the right quantity.
The hallway shot is probably the best full body look at the thing. It has digitigrade legs, so definitely not a man in there.
That to me looks more like the costume look - probably due to the upright stature of the alien. I might be wrong, but I thought that in the film Aliens, they were usually more crouched and moved like a Raptor. I always thought that the more upright stature in the original film was pretty much because all scenes with a full view of the Alien were shot using a costume, so that would have influenced the overal design of the Alien somewhat.
Here's a shot of the queen in Aliens that shows the difference a bit:
Here's a shot of the queen in Aliens that shows the difference a bit:
RenegadeRocks
Legend
The Alien born out of a human womb was a biped, the one born out of a Dog's womb was a quadruped. They were all different.
....and the queen? Technically, most of them should have been biped in the movie Aliens, but AFAIR, they all had movements remiscent of Raptors, probably due to the use of CGI and not having to rely on costume-Aliens anymore. Technically, the design of the Alien and its tail would allude to its by function of holding the balance when walking like a raptor (to offset the weight of the upper body) just like a Dinosaur/Raptor.
Was an Alien born out of a dog's womb even shown in the first two movies? I recall that only being in Alien3... and to be honest, I don't remember it looking THAT much different. It was perhaps more of an evolution on the direction they had already taken in 1986... just IMO of course.
Was an Alien born out of a dog's womb even shown in the first two movies? I recall that only being in Alien3... and to be honest, I don't remember it looking THAT much different. It was perhaps more of an evolution on the direction they had already taken in 1986... just IMO of course.
? The second movie was all people in suits (6 total). They just went on all 4 legs + tighter camera angles to try to hide that though they could still stand up/be hunched here and there.. The main change in the 2nd movie was the more ridged banana head, and moving away from that 6-digit hand.
The alien in this game has a similar (digitigrade) leg design as the Queen, just different lengths of course. 3 & 4 went back to smooth head for the drones, tails kept changing. 3 also was mostly on all fours. 4 was a mix of postures.
The alien in this game has a similar (digitigrade) leg design as the Queen, just different lengths of course. 3 & 4 went back to smooth head for the drones, tails kept changing. 3 also was mostly on all fours. 4 was a mix of postures.
You should really watch Aliens again, your memories seem to be confused a bit. Or maybe you just didn't look into the movies that deeply; I had to, back when were making a trailer for Colonial Marines (but it's never been completed or released). In fact you should re-watch all the movies, the first two are still quite good and the third isn't so bad either
So, the first alien was designed to look as much different from a "man in suit" as possible. The guy playing the creature was 7 feet tall and extremely thin so he could usually look strange enough on his own. Sometimes they also had him squat and crouch, but the most important trick was to hide most of the body in shadow or outside the camera's view.
The "Aliens" creatures are all just humans in very primitive suits, they were dancers and acrobats. But there are many clever tricks to sell the illusion that they're inhuman - hanging from wires, flipping the camera upside down and so on. Also, the tubes on the back of the creature and the tail itself really help to confuse the silhouette, especially with the quick editing, fast movement, and clever lighting. They're also flopping around a lot because of the costume's simplicity And of course Cameron was clever enough to keep hiding most of the creature in shadow and smoke the same way Scott did.
The suits were this simple:
By the way, the dome was ridged because all the action scenes would have broken a smooth dome in minutes. The ridges reinforced the costume enough to withstand a little beating. Some of the surface or skin details were also a bit more organic compared to Giger's "biomech" design.
The Alien 3 "runner" or "dog alien" is inconsistent in the movie - some shots are played by a man in suit and there it's constrained to human anatomy. They try to hide it as much as possible, but the limbs are shorter and the entire creature is much thicker in these shots.
Full body shots are created with a stop motion puppet which runs on all fours, has digitrade back legs, and the four tubes are gone from the back. It is actually very different from the creatures in any of the other movies.
So, the first alien was designed to look as much different from a "man in suit" as possible. The guy playing the creature was 7 feet tall and extremely thin so he could usually look strange enough on his own. Sometimes they also had him squat and crouch, but the most important trick was to hide most of the body in shadow or outside the camera's view.
The "Aliens" creatures are all just humans in very primitive suits, they were dancers and acrobats. But there are many clever tricks to sell the illusion that they're inhuman - hanging from wires, flipping the camera upside down and so on. Also, the tubes on the back of the creature and the tail itself really help to confuse the silhouette, especially with the quick editing, fast movement, and clever lighting. They're also flopping around a lot because of the costume's simplicity
And of course Cameron was clever enough to keep hiding most of the creature in shadow and smoke the same way Scott did.The suits were this simple:
By the way, the dome was ridged because all the action scenes would have broken a smooth dome in minutes. The ridges reinforced the costume enough to withstand a little beating. Some of the surface or skin details were also a bit more organic compared to Giger's "biomech" design.
The Alien 3 "runner" or "dog alien" is inconsistent in the movie - some shots are played by a man in suit and there it's constrained to human anatomy. They try to hide it as much as possible, but the limbs are shorter and the entire creature is much thicker in these shots.
Full body shots are created with a stop motion puppet which runs on all fours, has digitrade back legs, and the four tubes are gone from the back. It is actually very different from the creatures in any of the other movies.
Alien 4 and AvP show the creatures a lot and they're also using CG in many shots.
I don't really consider them to be a part of the universe though. The common changes to the design are that the front of the head could no longer accommodate a human skull, and most of Giger's mechanical details are changed into organic shapes instead. For example, the Alien creature had parts of a rolls royce engine built into its head:
...and of course it's basically a giant penis anyway.
Aliens kept the shape and the mechanical tubes and other details.
A4 and AvP however replaced most of these with stuff looking like muscles and tendons and such:
Although I think this has already started in Alien 3 with Fincher... They also kept the digitrade back legs from the dog alien.
The Queen's non-human anatomy was a result of how the stunt guys were hidden inside, back to back in the main torso, operating one large and one small arm on each side. The entire puppet was hanging from wires so it was never really balanced. It should actually fall on its face in the image you've posted
Besides, the egg sack and a few extra, huge legs were also supposed to be a part of the creature, making it look far more like an ant queen. Most people seem to forget that the creature tore off about half of its body to give chase to Ripley; partially because AvP has slavishly copied this move from Aliens.
As for the tail of the creature, I think it's far too thin and light in every incarnation to be used for balancing in a theropod stance. Its main role is to serve as a weapon, like the tail of a scorpion, instead.
Isolation seems to mix together the general design and aesthetics of the original creature with the proportions ad anatomy of the A4/AvP creature. I suppose the idea is that Scott would have used digitrade legs as well if there was any simple way to do it with a man in suit approach (they had some quite crazy ideas originally, like having the actor's back as the creature's front to make the legs look strange). This is pretty much what we've decided to do for the CM movie as well, although we had to keep the ridged skulls.
I don't really consider them to be a part of the universe though. The common changes to the design are that the front of the head could no longer accommodate a human skull, and most of Giger's mechanical details are changed into organic shapes instead. For example, the Alien creature had parts of a rolls royce engine built into its head:
...and of course it's basically a giant penis anyway.
Aliens kept the shape and the mechanical tubes and other details.
A4 and AvP however replaced most of these with stuff looking like muscles and tendons and such:
Although I think this has already started in Alien 3 with Fincher... They also kept the digitrade back legs from the dog alien.
The Queen's non-human anatomy was a result of how the stunt guys were hidden inside, back to back in the main torso, operating one large and one small arm on each side. The entire puppet was hanging from wires so it was never really balanced. It should actually fall on its face in the image you've posted
Besides, the egg sack and a few extra, huge legs were also supposed to be a part of the creature, making it look far more like an ant queen. Most people seem to forget that the creature tore off about half of its body to give chase to Ripley; partially because AvP has slavishly copied this move from Aliens.
As for the tail of the creature, I think it's far too thin and light in every incarnation to be used for balancing in a theropod stance. Its main role is to serve as a weapon, like the tail of a scorpion, instead.
Isolation seems to mix together the general design and aesthetics of the original creature with the proportions ad anatomy of the A4/AvP creature. I suppose the idea is that Scott would have used digitrade legs as well if there was any simple way to do it with a man in suit approach (they had some quite crazy ideas originally, like having the actor's back as the creature's front to make the legs look strange). This is pretty much what we've decided to do for the CM movie as well, although we had to keep the ridged skulls.
They did a really good job on the whole but they really shouldn't have gone for the full body shot when the Alien is outside the shuttle Narcissus. At that point it just looks like a man in a rubber suit.
Thanks for taking the time, Laa-Yosh. mm... There's also a wealth of info in the anthology DVD/BD collections. I've only gone through those once though. Might be time to have a marathon of the movies and commentaries again, though that'll probably get me in the mood to re-read all the novels & comics sitting on my shelf.
I've only gone through those once though. Might be time to have a marathon of the movies and commentaries again, though that'll probably get me in the mood to re-read all the novels & comics sitting on my shelf. Heh, I guess you can imagine the time when we were working on the CM trailer. I mean, Aliens! ALIENS!!
We've gathered every bit of info we could, every picture that google could find, it was a lot of fun and all. Still, CA guys got material directly from Fox, including unreleased stuff... I envy them quite a bit
We've gathered every bit of info we could, every picture that google could find, it was a lot of fun and all. Still, CA guys got material directly from Fox, including unreleased stuff... I envy them quite a bit
Billy Idol
Legend
Cool! Thanks Laa-Yosh! Very cool infos.
RenegadeRocks
Legend
Wish we could see some of that unreleased trailer. Must have been awesome in today's high quality CG ! The AC Revelations trailer was super amazing !
Yeah, very cool info indeed, thanks Laa-Yosh.
I have to admit, I was simply going on a few memories that stuck out. I remember one scene from the first Alien (I'm guessing the one Gerry was refering to) that just screemed guy in a rubber suit. Being a big fan of the 2nd movie (well, 1st, 2nd really), my somewhat selective nostalgic memory told me that the part that stuck out as a sore thumb in the first, were practically non-existant to the point, from memory, I attributed it to better CGI and more advanced camera techniques to go for the look that would resemble less a biped (e.g. what to me looked more like guy in rubber suit) to a more Raptor kind of movement and posture.
I think the last time I watched Alien and Aliens was right after Prometheus. They're both still very good, even when going by todays standards IMO. I really should watch them again though.
I have to admit, I was simply going on a few memories that stuck out. I remember one scene from the first Alien (I'm guessing the one Gerry was refering to) that just screemed guy in a rubber suit. Being a big fan of the 2nd movie (well, 1st, 2nd really), my somewhat selective nostalgic memory told me that the part that stuck out as a sore thumb in the first, were practically non-existant to the point, from memory, I attributed it to better CGI and more advanced camera techniques to go for the look that would resemble less a biped (e.g. what to me looked more like guy in rubber suit) to a more Raptor kind of movement and posture.
I think the last time I watched Alien and Aliens was right after Prometheus. They're both still very good, even when going by todays standards IMO. I really should watch them again though.
It was done many many years ago, sometime in 2008 or so. We were much smaller, as was the renderfarm. It's better to keep it unreleased
Aliens' was made in 1986. CGI was virtually non-existent then, and when used was obviously CG. There's nothing CGI could have contributed to Aliens beyond the computer displays themselves. It couldn't handle realistic creatures.
