In February of 2005 I received a call from Production Designer Doug Chiang, asking me to join his design group at Ice Blink Studios to work on Beowulf, a motion-captured CG animated retelling of the 8th century epic poem.

Ice Blink Studios had undertaken production design duties for director Bob Zemeckis' previous two features, Polar Express and Monster House, and Beowulf was intended to be the next step in refining the motion-capture process.

I was hired to contribute ideas for the lead character, his opponent Grendel and his final antagonist, the Dragon.

Over a period of almost nine months I produced about twenty versions of Grendel, both as figure studies and busts, about eight versions of the Dragon and various renditions of the Sea Serpent and Grendel's mother, in her reptilian form.

Grendel proved to be a difficult assignment; Zemeckis wanted him to look both monstrous and pitiful, essentially a huge, horribly deformed, hypersensitive child.

The final 24" tall painted version was shipped to Sony ImageWorks, where the scanned data was used (with the usual, inevitable changes) as the basis for the movie character.

All photos courtesy of Shangri-La Entertainment, Warner Bros., and Paramount Pictures

Final Version. Actor Crispin Glover's performance was used as the engine for Grendel's movements. I was asked to incorporate some of Glover's facial features to help emphasize his character.