Timbers Shivered

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Terrific article over at EW.com about the special effects used to make Davy Jones.

This part shocked me:

"Frankly, says Knoll, it all came out much better than director Verbinski expected — especially Davy Jones' eyes. ''There was a lot of concern at the beginning that since we had to do tight close-ups with Davy, the CG eyes would never hold up. Gore was really concerned about that. He felt nobody had done CG eyes that had the kind of life you get from an actual film performance by an actor.''

Knoll and crew made elaborate preparations to blend Nighy's actual eyes into an otherwise CG figure, just as they'd done for certain moments in the first Pirates movie. Remember the shot when Captain Barbosa, played by Geoffrey Rush, steps into a shaft of moonlight for the first time and becomes a living skeleton? ''I did a trick there,'' says Knoll. ''I hung on to Geoffrey Rush's live-action eyes for about two or three seconds after that transition. So for a few moments after he becomes a skeleton, it's all CG except his eyes. They're Geoffrey's eyes right up until the first time Barbosa blinks, and then they become CG. That really helped sell the transition.''

Verbinski initially wanted the same sleight-of-eye trick for Davy Jones, Knoll recalls. ''He felt like, when we're in tight, if the CGI doesn't turn out to work well, I want to be able to use Bill's real eyes.'' But ILM's crack team did so well at creating watery, sparkly orbs in CG form, simply using Nighy's darting eyes as reference, that Verbinski never demanded the real thing. As convincing as the eyes look in those close-ups, according to Knoll they are not the actor's actual eyes."

I mean, wow. I had no idea that Jones was an entirely CG creation. That's... fucking astounding. I thought they'd used, at the very least, Nighy's eyes and some of his body even, but turns out even the clothes Jones was wearing were digital.

Give them the Oscar for Visual Effects right now.
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