'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s' VFX Team Talks About Creating ‘Rocket Runt,’ And The Tool From 'Guardians 1' They Used For Inspiration

Interview with Alexis Wajsbrot.

Transcript

00:00It's not an easy task to design all these different Rocket Raccoon at different age.

00:07It definitely, there were a bit of trial and error of finding what is the right look.

00:13And so we definitely had some concepts, some great concepts, sketches from the art department

00:19at Marvel that always provide some great starting points. So we know roughly what age we need to

00:25eat, basically, but they are just sketches. They are not yet photoreal. James Gunn and

00:31Steph also had this chart where you see all the different sizes they want Rocket Raccoon to be

00:36during the movie. So we had some information to start with. And then we started with modeling

00:43the Rocket Runt. So the one that is supposed to be photoreal, it's supposed to exist in real life.

00:50That's where we started because we add the adults. And so we said, OK, let's build the Runt.

00:56So we casted a little Raccoon that actually, Steph, it's a real Raccoon that Steph and James

01:03had on set of Guardians 1. They already knew that it was going to be needed for Guardians 3.

01:10So they add pictures. And so we started that as a starting point because it was really,

01:14really cute. And we were very conscious of that as we're, you know, doing the opening credits.

01:19Because it's a much, much more sad and, you know, opening than the previous films. But also,

01:25it just tells you what the story is going to be like. We're plunging into it straight away.

01:30It's a darker movie, but it's also, you know, a very hopeful ending, you know, in the end.

01:38But just to come back on what Alexi is saying, I think, you know, not only we can talk about

01:43Rocket, but in the flashbacks, there was all these companions, right, that were with him and

01:48that have a huge part in the story. And it's interesting for me because, you know, we were

01:54really, because it's the core of the movie, we're really thinking, how do we get the emotion for

01:59these scenes? And talking with James and, you know, trying to figure out what the best way to

02:05acquire this was, OK, we're going to do just the first two days of the film and we're going to

02:11shoot that the first two days. And we're going to get all the actors in, you know, Sean playing

02:17Rocket, obviously, as he always does. We don't have Bradley, but all the other actors were the

02:21voice actors, the real actors for the role. And we shot the 15, 20 minutes of flashback,

02:27the first two days of principal photography. And it was really important that we would do that.

02:32And we captured the camera moves that James wanted to capture. We did a reference shoot,

02:39like film theatre, pretty much. And, you know, all that acting, all that thing got edited by

02:46our editors, by Fred Raskin, our editor, and then got turned over to Framestore. And really,

02:52what I want to emphasize on is that it's really a work that goes from the actors that do their,

03:00you know, the best acting they can. And they're really good. And watching that edit the first

03:05time, I mean, you know, showing it to the guys at Framestore, they were all very emotional,

03:09just looking at people in gray suits, you know, not even animals.