Looking back at the visual effects work on the Abyss I was struck by how the miniatures shot both in a real underwater environment and motion controlled in smoke filled studio are still as effective and compelling today as they were back in 1989. At the time it was the computer generated Pseudopod which captured all the attention, which ironically, looking at it today , rather shows its age.
This film was at the very start of the digital revolution which has transformed the field of visual effects irrevocably. There are visual effects supervisors today who have never been on a miniatures shoot, they have no experience of it, the technique is slowly being lost. My aim with this website is try to keep the knowledge alive in any small way I can. There has never been a CGI film that has in any way been close to capturing the deep felt enthusiasm I have for miniatures. The tragedy is that in this day and age where the constraints of the photochemical film process and optical printing have been totally overcome by digital compositing, where it is a relatively simple task to remove wires and control rods from a scene and where radio control is now reliable, flexible and interference free, miniatures could now more than ever be a practical and economical visual effects solution. It's not gonna happen but I can dream...
Source for parts 1 through 4; Cinefex magazine number 39, August 1989
Two miniature sets were constructed and shot to provide rear projection plates for the live action portion of the Montana sinking. One set was of the engine room built by Wonderworks and filmed at Gaffney. it was about 4 feet wide, 12 feet long and 18 inches tall. Installed with miniature lighting and hoses emitting spray it was lowered rapidly by a crane into the tank at a 45 degree angle with the camera attached so it looked like a wall of water was rushing forward. This plate was then combined with actors in a full size set and co-ordinated dump tanks to complete the illusion of catastrophic flooding.
Miniature Montana engine room set.
The other set was of the torpedo room which was rigged with a radial nozzle that sprayed water out as if coming from a blown hatch seal on the torpedo tubes, followed by a large dump of water under pressure which blows the hatches off. Unusually for a miniature shoot, this shot was filmed at 16 frames per second to really sell the power and speed of the water. Once again this was rear projected in a live action set with actors and sychronised action.
Sea King Helicopters
It looks like these were shot motion control with a separate UV light pass for the rotor blades however I cant be certain as I can not find any information about them whatsoever. They may not even have been used in the final cut. they look to be about 1/12 scale.
UPDATE: Read the comments section below where John Bruno explains the purpose of these helicopter miniatures.
Bud Puppets
A couple of different scales of Bud puppets were made for motion control shots of Bud falling down into the abyss in the Fluorocarbon emulsion breathing suit.
NTI Scout and Manta
These models were made by Dave Goldberg and his crew . the outer hulls were made of a vacuum formed UVEX plastic which in one pass glowed under UV light. Inside was a series of acrylic frames and nested glass shapes. One evacuated glass vessel was filled with a gas mixture which would glow when subjected to a specific radio frequency. Other lighting was included with miniature neon tubes and sequenced fiber optics making a spinning turbine effect. Around 9 separate exposures were built up over the same piece of film to complete the look, shot using motion Control at Dreamquest.
NTI creatures
The NTI puppets were made by Steve Johnson's XFX mostly from a flexible translucent cast urethane and vacuum formed rigid acrylic shells. They had a number of fiber optic light sourced embedded in the castings. They were shot in water tanks both at the San Pedro facility and later in the 8 foot (1.5m) square cloud tank at Dreamquest. For shots where the puppet,s wings are undulating for propulsion purposes, the puppet main support and the camera were attached to a rigid beam that went up and down. The resistance due to the water made the wings flap as the body travels up and down with the camera linked to the same motion outside the tank. The body of the creature to the camera appears to stay still with just the wings motion evident. There is a very illuminating series of videos about the filming of these puppets on youtube.
Part 5 will complete this series with screen grabs from the movie.
