The creators of the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy look to break the same box office records as their Avengers predecessor, by featuring many A list Hollywood actors to round out the eclectic lineup of heroes. Vin Diesel’s portrayal of alien Groot from Planet X is nothing short of “astonishing,” according to writer James Gunn.
With a character like Groot (who essentially looks like a mini-tree Ent from Lord of the Rings ), CG is naturally going to be utilized to bring him to life. However, pixels and polygons can only go so far, as the voice acting is the secret ingredient that really puts it over the top. Gunn reveals how difficult it was to find just the right sound to make the character work on screen, with Vin Diesel eventually nailing it. “…earlier voices didn’t sound very good at all… It just didn’t really work. Then Vin came in and in one day, laid down all these ‘I am Groot’ tracks…he would do it and he would it again and again and again, and his voice is so rich and so beautiful and he really opened up and was this character. It was amazing when we first put that voice in there how much the character changed and how much he influenced the character.” Gunn states.
While CG exists 100% in the computer world, today’s technology has allowed the actor’s performances to translate into the animation via motion capture. While Diesel didn’t actually strap on the spandex suit with the little ping pong balls you’ve often see in behind the scenes videos, they did the next best thing. Gunn says their version of mo-cap for Guardians consist of, “…filming everything that they do so we can use it as a reference. So while they’re recording in front of a microphone we’ll have Vin acting out everything and doing all the acting and we’ll record that.”
Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters this summer on August 1 st .