INTERVIEW WITH PHIL TIPPETT, VFX SUPERVISOR 'MY FAVORITE MARTIAN'

Elif Cercel

Founder and president of Tippett Studio, Phil Tippett was the visual effects supervisor for Disney's "My Favorite Martian." Visual effects supervisor John Van Vliet's Available Light also supplied computer graphic effects for the film.

Tippett's company was responsible for the CG character, Zoot, a living spacesuit with a playful and prominent presence in the film. His team of 60 CG artists also designed and animated the lesser alien creature, the Lizzie Monster.

Best known for his work on animated sci-fi characters, Tippett is a two-time Academy Award winner ("Return of the Jedi" and "Jurassic Park"). His filmmaking pedigree dates back to the early days of George Lucas'ILM where he was part of the "Star Wars" team in 1976 and headed the animation work for its sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back" with Jon Berg. He earned an Oscar nomination as one of the innovators of the technique called "Go-Motion" for "Dragonslayer" before heading the Lucasfilm "creature shop" in the early 80's.

Tippett Studio, formed in 1984, is currently in production on DreamWorks' "The Haunting of Hill House" and Buena Vista's "Komodo," both slated for release in the summer of '99.

What specific areas did you work on in the film?
Our mission on the show was, number one, to create a character called Zoot, who was the alter ego of the Uncle Martin (Christopher Lloyd) character. This character was a kind of trickster, a cartoonish character who appeared in the form of his space suit. It gets Christopher Lloyd and everyone else in and out of trouble at various points in the picture. As the character was conceived, it couldn't have been pulled off by putting a person in an outfit and doing several blue screen or green screen compositing techniques.

Our Zoot is a computer-graphic model of a suit. Right from the beginning, Donald Petrie conceived him as an animated cartoon character. The only way we felt we could pull this off was to create a computer generated character.

What other visual effects shots did you create?
Our primary task is to create artificially-generated characters that cannot be created any other way, like Zoot. They cannot be created through animatronics or makeup.

We also worked on the scene towards the end of the picture where Daryl Hannah eats some Martian chewing gum given to her by Zoot to help save the day. She turns into the Lizzie Monster, which is a fanciful alien creature wearing the dress of Daryl Hannah's character.

The Zoot character is different from the types of creatures your company has been associated with in the past, is it not?
We are better known for chopping people's heads off or melting them. In the science fiction genre, we have usually worked on projects that tend to be more violence-oriented. We created images of monsters and other horrible creatures that project fear and anxiety. On the other hand, there are these strange, fun creatures -- the tricksters.

Did you have to develop any new technology or software to deal with this project?
No, primarily it was just the skills and performance design that characterizes the shop. We are not particularly interested in technology for technology's sake. My partner, Craig Hayes, is very involved in applying computer-graphic processes to the needs of the show, and thereby comes up with very interesting applications. It is more an aspect of knowing how to use the tools you have rather than delighting in using new tools for the sake of using them.

What tools do you use and did you write any proprietary software for the project?
Mostly Softimage for the animation package and Dynamation for different kinds of effects.

The programming department is constantly writing software to help us integrate different applications. We did not write any new code for the film that was significant enough to be considered a product worth selling. Our applications are geared more towards the specific needs that we have, on a shot-for-shot or per-character basis. Every shop is doing their specific version of effects like water or hair. We are certainly working on innovations along those lines, but it's really no different from anyone else.

How many shots in all did your facility create and how many people were involved?
We have a company of about 120, so there were about 60 people working on 'Martian' and about another 60 simultaneously working on "Virus," a picture we did for Universal. There were over 80 shots for 'Martian.' The whole project took between eight to ten months.

What was it like working with Donald Petrie as a director?
I didn't work that closely with Donald on the set. Trey Stokes was our performance supervisor and worked with Donald. They used a mime on set to block a number of scenes in the Zoot outfit to get the basic timing and choreography.

My interaction with Donald came more in the post-production stage when we actually started putting shots together. I would work with him refining the animation. I think Donald's interest and background came more from acting and performance, and he looked at Zoot in those terms. It was our job to make sure that whatever course we were on was a clear one so we could move forward.

Visual effects is very much an architectonic craft, and it doesn't open up to a great deal of improvisation as you would normally do on the set. You have to chart a course that you are quite committed to in the beginning, and then you start building on top of that. It is very much like surveying the land, putting in the plumbing and the rebar, pouring the foundation, and then framing the building. If you get up on the third story and you decide you don't like the whole thing, you have a huge problem because you then have to take it down to the foundation. You are not allowed to do that in motion pictures, either.

The project involved a learning curve for everyone, in terms of figuring out how all these processes would work, because, not only are you using very cumbersome equipment -- as I would characterize computer technology -- but you are trying to create a character, as well, that has life, a sense of being and personality. There is an inherent conflict when you are using these very cumbersome, counter-intuitive tools to do that.

How much of Zoot's personality emerged in the animation process?
Zoot was in 20 to 30 shots initially. His role grew significantly as we got into developing the story.

There is one amazing scene where Zoot is wrestling with Jeff Daniel's character. What were the challenges of integrating the live action with the CG?
There were on-set physical effects that needed to take place and the actors needed to be coached when Jeff Daniels and Zoot were doing a tug of war with a golf club. It was very important that Jeff be directed with the right kind of holds and movements that will ultimately allow us to put in the Zoot character. That is where Trey Stokes' expertise came in on the set, working with Donald in blocking the action to make sure that we got all the material that was needed to put Zoot in later.

How does this project fit into the overall direction your company is taking?
The main thing is that we finally got an opportunity to show people that we could do something other than skewer people or rip their heads off. We were able to open up a little bit and do a broad pantomime character that had to express himself almost like in a silent movie. It was an unusual challenge. Most characters speak. Even computer-graphics characters today have a great deal of articulation. There was a discussion at one point of giving Zoot more of a speaking role which we backed away from, fortunately. I think that was a good call.

How did the collaboration with Disney work for you? How do you see that relationship evolving in the future?
It worked out well. I found them to be a supportive studio. I've known Art Repola, the vice president in charge of Visual Effects at Disney, since our old days together at Lucas Films, when he was in the editorial department. He has a good sense of humor which is really important, and was very supportive throughout the making of the film. The Lizzy Monster scene was added at the last minute and the character of Zoot grew from 30 shots to 60 or 70. Figuring out things as you are going along is always a little bit troubling, but in the long run it worked out quite well.


Feb 23 1999