'If the sequence was 300 frames, we would make 1600 frames of animation so that we had a way to squash and stretch how long certain shots were taking.' 'We created an animation that was longer than the sequence was,' DesJardin explains. Each animation was handled on a sequence-by-sequence basis. 'Hopefully, fans will go, 'Hey! I remember that from when he's walking down the tunnel on the subway!''Īnimators customized plug-ins in the 3D animation program Maya that allowed them to create the blots in 2D, then move the shapes around on a textured surface-in this case, the shape of Healy's face as denoted by the tracking markers embedded in the mask. 'We were hitting those Dave Gibbons targets first and foremost,' DesJardin says. When the dialogue in the script matched the dialogue in the graphic novel, DesJardin made sure Rorschach's mask matched the novel, too.

The VFX supervisor and his team also created a reference book of Dave Gibbons's blot art from the graphic novel. He commissioned Alex McDowell in the film's art department to come up with 15 fake Rorschach blots. When it came to creating the blots themselves, animators couldn't use real Rorschach blots because they're copyrighted. 'Those were good references for how the blots should look on the mask when we finally made them.'

'We'd have Jackie or the stunt performer wear them if they were in the distance or in shadow,' DesJardin explains. In addition, several 'hero blot masks' with static patterns were generated, which were used for medium- to-long distance shots. 'That gave us the texture so we could put the blots on ,' DesJardin says. Embedded in the mask were 30 tracking dots 2 centimeters in diameter, which animators used to determine the orientation of Haley's head in the shot. Jackie Earle Haley, who played Rorschach, couldn't shoot the film while blinded by a mask, so Wilkinson created a mask with large eyeholes so that Haley could see the set and animators could see how he was emoting in each scene. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play They printed the blots on the material using a special process developed specifically for the latex. DesJardin and costume designer Michael Wilkinson finally settled on a stretchy, four-way latex material, which-in addition to having the fibrous look Snyder wanted-helped create Rorschach's smooth eggshell silhouette. Getting the right look and saturation was a long process of experimentation with different types of fabric and ink. Snyder also wanted to have shades of gray in his blots rather than the stark, hard-edged black spots found in the graphic novel. 'We wanted to keep the essence of that movement, but Zack thought it would be interesting and more detailed for the film if we could keep it as a cloth medium, and the stain moved through the cloth.' 'In the graphic novel the explanation is that there are two plastic membranes with fluid between them, and the fluid moves like a lava lamp,' DesJardin says. Although Manhattan's artistic creation was by the book-DesJardin estimates he used the graphic novel as a reference at least 'a million times'-Snyder had something different in mind for Rorschach. So director Zack Snyder and visual-effects supervisor John 'DJ' DesJardin made sure to nail the look of the last masked vigilante standing. Manhattan might be the only true superhero among them, but Rorschach is the real face of Watchmen-or at least his ever-shifting mask is.

Watchmen ink blot test