The folks at ILM invited Matt to go and talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with them.

They didn’t have to ask twice… We also learned things.

24 things, to be specific.

These are the 24 things we learned.

The sandwiches at ILM are delicious.

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3.

We learned how ILM breaks down a shot.

Animation Director Tim Harrington said, We send it into body tracking.

We have three cameras around the set that triangulate the performance of the actor.

We track that movement with a digital version of the actor.

Once we have that, we take that motion data and we apply it to the Turtle.

The first version of the animation is kind of simple and blocky at this stage.

Its missing a lot of the detailed simulation.

Its missing the face, the fingers arent moving.

Its just the raw mo-cap thrown on the Turtle.

Then, it goes through final animation, final sim, muscle simulation, final lighting and comp.

Tim Harrington also gave us the following stats.

The highly detailed CG stuff is referred to as being hero.

The way we learned this was by becoming confused.

Shredder is a villain, guys!

we thankfully chose not to shout at them.

Den of Geek publishes a lot of Sherlock content and weve apparently absorbed some his sleuthing skills.

The martial arts scenes feature the use of CG to exaggerate the physical performance of the stunt guys.

I like to think of it as using CG to rewrite the word punch with the caps lock on.

The Shredder costume and blade system are mechanically accurate.

Hes like a Swiss Army Shredder.

Pre-CG Shredder looked like an old version of Shredder by coincidence.

Raphaels clothing is based on a gladiator costume.

Because basically he is a gladiator.

The Turtles designs were practical as well as artistic.

Tim Harrington said, The challenge was making them (the Turtles) talk.

Its actually really hard to make them talk with a turtle beak.

They have to have mouths.

Unfinished animation looks a bit rubbish.

We have no idea how they can tell if its going well or not.

But this, alongside the absence of any relevant skills, might be why we dont work at ILM.

On the same note, we were shown at one point how theyd made a blocky mess.

Then, it became a digital version of the physical lair set.

To our eyes, it was indistinguishable from the real thing.

We found what ILM do to be absolutely awe-inspiring.

A lot of the backgrounds featured in the movie were created digitally.

It was kind of a big deal.

They were able to show us frames from the snow chase sequence that was entirely CG.

Robert Weaver told us.

High tech still leans on low tech.

Associate Animation Director Kevin Martel keeps a mirror on his desk so he can refer to his own face.

CG eyes can look very, very real now.

Just a lot of work goes into it to lend itself to that photo realism quality.

ILM worked onTerminator 2and now theyre kicking out serious SkyNet vibes?

The data they capture from the MUSE system looks kind of wriggly.

To elaborate on that, they showed us what the data they capture looks like in a raw form.

The jagged line sits in the middle of the screen, which sets of sliders either side.

The sliders control a muscle system within the CG face.

ILM have a team who deal with gravity.

So, hes (Mikey) got all his chains and his glasses hanging down.

Weve got another department who just use this amazing simulation technology that gets gravity and weight just right.

The way it collides with their bodies.

The coffee shop at ILM is called Javva the Hutt.