Bedtime Stories
A disgusting alien monster made of Booger and a space amphitheatre filled with crazy looking aliens were just some of the madcap CG work created by Cinesite for the Disney production Bedtime Stories, starring Adam Sandler and released at Christmas 2008.
Bedtime Stories is a family comedy about hotel handyman Skeeter (Adam Sandler), whose life changes when the lavish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to magically come to life.
In the last of the stories, Skeeter is engaged in a slapstick battle in a zero gravity amphitheatre in outer space with his nemesis Kendall (Guy Pearce). A “booger monster” is released to liven up the battle for the watching crowd; the creature attacks Kendall with an over-effusive show of affection!
Actors were filmed against blue screen and the Space Station, a 360 degree digital environment, was created by Cinesite. A crowd of alien spectators was generated using Massive software. Procedural animation was added to an limited library of motion capture to add more variety in actions and poses. A single master ‘brain’ was created to drive the entire crowd with simple controls used by the td on each shot. This allowed for interactive, intelligent and varied behaviour while still remaining entirely directable.
The monster, initially conceptualised from a maquette supplied by the production, went through several iterations and looks, which were all developed by Cinesite. Originally, the look was fairly benign, although he subsequently developed into a comic character.
The monster is a strange looking creature. His physiognomy is a combination of whale, shark and spider; he has a large, fleshy body, small, underdeveloped limbs and a fish-like tail. He was hand animated and several control rigs were developed to facilitate animation of the eight-legged, twelve-tentacled creature!
The surface slime on the monster was created by studying a variety of textures, from chicken legs in jelly to KY jelly filmed in a live action shoot element shoot at Shepperton Studios. The final disgusting result was a hit with young viewers of the film!
