Andy Serkis is a pioneer in the art of motion capture. No other artist has done as much for the technology as Andy Serkis has. He has constantly pushed the technology to its absolute limits and delivered us some of the best larger than life performances that we have seen on screen. Well if you don’t know what motion capture exactly is, then just know that it’s a way of capturing one’s performance for a character that will be completely CGI. Actors put on a motion capture suit and act the part out while the magic is done on the computers as well. Venom - Let There Be Carnage: Director Andy Serkis Opens Up About His Take on the Character of Venom, Says ‘There Is Nothing Black and White About It at All’.

Serkis has long worked with this particular technology and done wonders with it. Playing the roles of characters like Caesar and Gollum, he amazingly brought those characters to screen and acted them out wonderfully. While these characters still maintain many aspects of CGI to them, it still has that human element intact to them. The only other good thing aside from seeing Serkis in these roles, are seeing him BTS act them out and talk about them. So to celebrate Andy Serkis’ 58th birthday, let’s take a look at five of his best BTS videos that showcase his amazing talents with motion capture. Andy Serkis Birthday Special: From Gollum to King Kong, 5 Best Characters Played by the Hollywood Star That Are Geek-Favourites (LatestLY Exclusive)

Explaining Christian Bale’s Performance in Mowgli

In this video from Vanity Fair, Serkis breaks down Christian Bale’s role from Mowgli and how motion capture was used here. He explains it wonderfully as he breaks down each and every detail of a particular scene and just how well it works with the film.

Snoke Throne Room Scene BTS

While you may have your opinions on Snoke as character from the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, you can’t deny that Serkis’ performance was a highlight of the character. Serkis really acted out the scene quite well and this video in particular does a great job at splicing the scene with the pre-rendered version of it.

Creating Gollum

Gollum has been one of The Lord of the Rings’ most iconic characters. It’s Andy Serkis’ wonderful performance that adds so much depth to this character. This video about how the character was made showcases the extensive work Serkis put in and how his physicality helped bring the character to life.

How Andy Serkis Plays a Talking Chimp

The fact that Andy Serkis was able to make a talking chimp one of the best cinematic characters of the last decade, speaks a lot about his acting. In this video from The New York Times, Serkis explains how he played the role and the challenges that arose with it.

Andy Serkis Breaks Down His Motion Capture Performances

In this video from the Wired, Serkis again breaks down some of his motion capture performances and goes through many of his iconic roles. The way he talks about the technicalities of the characters just speaks volumes about his passion for the technology.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 20, 2022 09:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).