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https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2024-02-06/creative-vfx-sees-godzilla-get-even-scarier-in-minus-one

How VFX updates take Godzilla back to its nuclear roots

By Bob Strauss
Feb. 6, 2024 4:30 AM PT


rCLGodzilla: Minus OnerCOsrCY Takashi Yamazaki is the first feature director to be nominated for a visual effects Academy Award since Stanley Kubrick
in 1969. That was for the medium-changing rCL2001: A Space Odyssey,rCY something the 59-year-old Japanese filmmaker is abashedly aware of.

rCLThank you so much for even mentioning it,rCY a blushing Yamazaki says through an interpreter on a Zoom interview from his single-floor Tokyo
CG studio, where a 35-person crew made JapanrCOs 70-year-old king of kaiju monsters look better than ever. rCLI donrCOt think I can really process that right now. I definitely canrCOt get carried away!rCY

Yamazaki definitely has a knack for self-control. rCLMinus OnerCOsrCY rich, gorgeous visual effects, seen in two-thirds of the unusually emotional,
38th Godzilla movie, cost between a quarter and a third of the filmrCOs bargain-basement budget (less than $15 million). There were no limits to
his formal ambitions, though. Set primarily two years after World War II
in devastated Tokyo and the nearby Pacific, rCLMinus OnerCY indulges lavish recreations of 1940s cityscapes in various stages of repair (which are
again, of course, soon demolished), spectacles at and under the sea of
the giant, radioactive lizard battling flotillas of warships, and the
most persuasively beastial Godzilla ever filmed.

rCLWe wanted to make Godzilla very, very cool for this film,rCY says
Yamazaki, who after much trial and error utilized aesthetics his team
employed for the rCLGodzilla: The RiderCY attraction at JapanrCOs Seibuen Amusement Park. rCLThe head is on the smaller side, the legs are very
thick. When the feet are stomping on the ground, you can almost see the
toes being raised, like a wild animalrCOs. And we wanted impact for the audience, so thererCOs an intense level of getting up close, personal and detailed, that you canrCOt really do with a man in a suit.rCY

Yamazaki refers to Toho StudiosrCO original method of filming Godzilla rampages in 1954. But his movierCOs creaturific particulars surpass those
of Legendary EntertainmentrCOs nine-figure Monsterverse adaptations as well.

rCLIn terms of polygon counts, werCOre talking millions that went into creating Godzilla this time,rCY says Yamazaki, who did initial drawings
and sculpture software models that were then refined by artist Kosuke
Taguchi with optimized computer graphics data. rCLIn terms of the skin texture, there was a dinosaur origin, but when itrCOs wounded, a
regeneration happens and thererCOs a different texture, like you would see
on any wound. We wanted a mix, brought in new layers that would make the
look very unique.rCY

Also distinctive is how the monsterrCOs super-spikey dorsal fins realign
and emit blue radiation light as he fires up his devastating heat ray.

rCLWe wanted to go back to the original reason for GodzillarCOs existence,rCY Yamazaki explains. rCLThe creature is a metaphor for nuclear weapons, so
we mimicked the way a weapon would work inside of his body. Each element
would come together and create an implosion, and thatrCOs when the blue
rays would come out.rCY

Since Godzilla grew out of JapanrCOs atomic bombing trauma, his
destruction of TokyorCOs Ginza district and assorted ships culminate in terrible rCo but gorgeous rCo mushroom clouds. Trouble was, the look
Yamazaki craved was too big to simulate in CG. An old-fashioned
technique saved the day for the otherwise computer-generated spectacle.

rCLWe had a matte artist who did 2-D that had a little bit of movement,rCY
the director says. rCLOnce we found that that switch was actually working,
we were like, rCyOh, my gosh, we spent so much time with CG that couldnrCOt get it, but now we have this really cool trick to get the mushroom
clouds in there!rCOrCY
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